There are just things created out of seemingly nothing that sound so great, I know I could listen to them forever right away. Brilliant Colors is that band that won't fit easily into any reference. Like the Fresh and Onlys I keep forgetting all the singles they've put out, they don't fit easily together...not because the sound isn't there, but it's that great understated sound that's timeless. Dammit that sounds pretentious, maybe it's that I can't believe it's contemporary? It isn't so rooted in no-fi that's it's going to sound dated soon. There's such layers of texture and echo in the vocals it sort of sounds a little sad. But maybe that's me imagining I just tuned into a long lost station I'm not going to be able to find again. I have to sit in the car until it plays out. Struggling to remember it, as it's playing...Say the name of the goddam band, I'm ready to write it down! But the memory already fading and it's killing you. The fact they are playing this now, that I can actually see them, and they weren't like Chin Chin, just an amazing lost artifact from a time when I didn't know any better. I'm grateful. I think Grass Widow and Brilliant Colors would get played back to back over and over....and I still am going to sit there getting caught up in it all over again.
'Should I tell you' from the Make a mess single is such a great song, they have that jangly plain electric, subtle little changes in melody, but it sounds so effortless. The structure is so original and vocally it never gets too hyper...why do I keep talking about what they aren't doing...because what they are doing isn't easy to explain?
'Never Mine' on their myspace, the A-Side on this one has a new huge kick drum sound, and a few more layers of tracked (!) guitar. They're expanding the raw just-learned-this-one sound. They keep the spontaneity and slightly off tune moments that keep this honest. Maybe that's the Ty Segall influence coming through, but it's not oppressive...I just don't want them to change a thing.
I have to pickup their full length. Who's ordering from slumberland again?
Get it from Slumberland who says:
San Francisco’s Brilliant Colors have staked-out a unique spot in the indie music landscape. Inspired in equal parts by post-punk DIY fervor and the spiky pop of C86 and early Flying Nun/Creation label output, they hearken back to a time when the best tunes came out on 7" singles and weekends were spent digging through the stacks at your favorite local record shop. Their 2009 album, Introducing, is one of the finest debuts in recent memory, combining guitar buzz with dreamy melodies and rushing rhythms into some dream combination of The Dils and Shop Assistants.
Now the band is back with their first new recordings since that great album, and boy are they winners. “Never Mine” is simply 1:49 of punk-pop perfection, singer/guitarist Jess Scott’s spare riff underpinned by Diane Anastasio’s steady thump and Michelle Hill’s busy, melodic bassline. It’s Brilliant Colors in a nutshell: crunchy garage punk played with total purposefulness, leavened by an instinctive pop sense. On the flip side the pace picks up for “Kissing’s Easy”: all rolling snares and frantic guitar strum and Jess’ echoey vocal sass. Like all the best classic punk tunes it’s over just a little too soon, leaving you no option but to turn the record over and play it all over again.
Recorded with DIY simplicity by Ty Segall, who knows a bit about garage pop himself, the minimal sound fits the bands tune like a glove. This great single hones Brilliant Colors’ spiky, angular crash-pop and points to a very interesting 2010 for the band.
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