PeeP on PoP

Young Prisms- Friends for Now (Kanine- 2011)

~by Gabe McBride

83_________________

Shoegaze has an image problem. Relegated to its own ghetto, a lot like indie pop (they share much of the same genealogy as well as many current fans), there are a lot of current bands, good ones, mind you, get little to no consideration from the bigger indie blogs and are often signed to boutique labels like Slumberland or Clairecords, whose fans know what they are getting and spend their music dollar accordingly.   

Enter Young Prisms, on overwhelmingly awesome indie label Kanine, home to Eternal Summers, Chairlift, Viernes, and a couple dozen other up-and-comers. Friends for Now aims to rock, first and foremost, and while that might not be the most outrageous thing for a rock band to do, it’ something a whole shit-ton of shoegaze bands have tended lose sight of in a hurry, if they were ever doing it to begin with. I blame My Bloody Valentine. When MBV released  Loveless in 1991, there were song recorded over a 2 year plus period and Kevin Shields’ obsession with beauty and outright gorgeousness could be heard all over the record. Loveless wound up being a record that made a lot of people want to start a bands of their own and put in lesser hands (i.e., not Shields’) shoegaze, dreampop, whatever you want to call it, frequently became gauzy, formless, glossy, and, well, kind of boring. Not only was the sound frequently homogenous in that it was often hard to distinguish between guitars, bass, vocals, and keys, the bands tended to be easily interchangeable as well.

Young Prisms let you hear the bass and drums, and although the vocals are not necessarily meant to be interpreted, I mean, I have no idea what they are saying, they understand how to find a solid hook and allow it to spin into interweaving psychedelic threads. There’s still beauty there, sometimes amazingly so. The guitars have traction and sound like guitars and not synths, and the bass leads the way. The music isn’t glassy or shimmery, it’s solid, heavy, and it frickin’ wails. And it’s beautiful. Friends for Now is a terrific debut album from a group of kids who know what they are doing. 

For Fans of: Weekend, A Place to Bury Strangers