Austin rock band The Bright Light Social Hour (TBLSH) drop their third full-length album, Jude Vol I, tomorrow on local imprint Modern Outsider. The record was recorded at Sunset Studios in Los Angeles and produced by Chris Coady (Slowdive, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Beach House) over two multi-week sessions at the end of 2017 and the start of last year. If you haven’t heard of TBLSH, trust us, they’re legit, having toured over 400 dates in four years. The band has opened for groups like Aerosmith and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, played huge arena shows and large-format festivals all over the world. On local non-commercial and college radio around the country, the band has enjoyed wide exposure, leading to a devout, broad audience of music fans.
It doesn’t hurt that the members, Curtis Roush (guitar/vocals) Jack O’Brien (bass/vocals), Joseph Mirasole (drums) and Edward Brailiff (keys/effects/vocals) are genuinely kind humans who make music that matters. We’d wager that their positive energy, political advocacy (they once wrote a song for Texas gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis) and music all had a hand in building the kind of organization that made this record possible.
Today Glide is excited to offer a sneak-peak of the ground-breaking record that incorporates elements of Kraut-rock, Afrobeat, electronica, rock, blues, and even a little funk, creating a gorgeous sonic tapestry that highlights the group’s considerable musical talent.
The first single released, “Lie To Me (Große Luge)” is a microcosm of what’s to come on the rest the record. Lush sonic textures weave together amid a catchy chorus that gets stuck in the listener’s head long after absorbing the material. The slow, keyboard-led intro blossoms into a steady beat and bass rhythm as the band joins in with beautifully harmonized vocals that sound both otherworldly and insistently intentional simultaneously.
Subsequent songs on the new record affect the listener similarly. Track three, “She Wanna Love You” has a deep, hypnotic bass line and beat that carries through to the outro which fades out into a syncopated electronic rhythm. Other tracks such as “Darling You” push Roush’s heartfelt vocal performance into the spotlight amid yet another hypnotic drumbeat Mirasole produces as if he were a machine, crafting just the right amount of energy to match the tone of the song. Precision drum technique is often under appreciated, but it’s hard to ignore Mirasole’s talent on this album. The man is a percussion beast.
Brailiff’s eerie keyboard intro leading into “Open Borders” sets a somber tone that is later countered by loud guitars and an accelerating drumbeat that rises into a cacophony of cymbal blasts and drum fills. The Bright Light Social Hour fans may have had to delay their third full-length album a bit longer than they wanted, but the band has clearly proved the wait worth it, promising even more material following this record, as indicated by the volume one designation in the record’s title.
Track six, “My Boy”, has some decidedly Pink Floyd influences highlighted by some exceptional guitar work by Roush. His ability to squeeze out solos dripping with resonance has always impressed. The guitarist has now become a master at manipulating his trusty mint-green Fender with the type of work that precisely matches the clockwork intensity with which his bandmates work. The aggregate effect of the song is profound and segues nicely into final track, “Swimming Out” a tune that feels like a stretching out of the concepts presented on Vol I, a bridge, perhaps to the next record that ends with what the boys hope will be some crowd participatory clapping along during live performances.
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Jude Vol. 1 is out on February 1st. For tour dates and more visit thebrightlightsocialhour.com.
