Let’s take a little trip back in the DIY indie music time machine for some flashback tracks from debut releases by bands such as Rainbow Teeth, Of Verona, Magatha Trysty, Up! Way Up! and Daylight Fireworks. The releases are mostly from 2011-2012. Seems like yesterday as the cliche goes.
Rainbow Teeth – “Its’ Irrelevant “
The sandy stretch of land known as Long Island south of NYC is home to the DIY band Rainbow Teeth. In July 2011, they released their self-titled, debut album only three months before Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on their domain.
Based in the upscale town of Hauppauge, the band crafts intricate experimental indie math and jam rock tracks like the highlighted instrumental, “It’s Irrelevant.” We love experimental jam tracks and we can imagine fans of Grateful Dead and Phish will probably appreciate Rainbow Teeth as well.
There are also some moments that remind us of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra (recommended if you like mellowed out modernized/avant garde orchestration), whether it was intentional or not.
Influences: Maps & Atlases, Between the Buried & Me, Grizzly Bear, Fear Before (the March of Flames), The Beatles, The Pixies
Of Verona – “Dark in My Imagination”
The name of the psych/trip-rock L.A. band of Verona takes its name from comes from Shakespeare’s earliest known play, Two Gentlemen of Verona, which has the smallest cast of any of the Shakespeare plays.
Of Verona’s self-produced debut full length, The White Apple, was released in October 2012. It’s a collection of fascinating ‘interpretations’, if you will, of one of Shakes lesser-known (and debut) plays. The highlighted track, “Dark in My Imagination,” is just one of the compelling songs on the LP.
The band puts on an epic live show with amazing visual elements, as they did at Filter Magazine‘s Culture Collide Festival and for performances opening for artists like Moby, Shiny Toy Guns, Nikki and The Dove and the SVII Bells.
Influences: Moby, Shiny Toy Guns, Roger Daltry, Nikki & The Dove, School of Seven Bells Bjork, Muse, Mew, David Bowie, Radiohead, The Beatles.
Magatha Trysty – “Want To Stay”
Formed in 2009, Chicago DIY power-pop/college rock band, Magatha Trysty, is heavily influenced by, and similar to, iconic bands like They Might Be Giants, the B 52’s, Violent Femmes, and other popular college rock bands of the 1980’s.
Magatha Trysty fronted by Christopher David and Catherine Louise, combining classic pop elements such as bright harmonies, shimmering guitars, and driving piano with a hard-rock backbone delivered with precision by John Monaghan (drums) and Billy Blastoff (bass, backing vox).
The band’s debut album Your Clothes Will Wear Themselves dropped in July of 2012.
Daylight Fireworks – “You Know You Know”
While unpolished and quirky, there’s something very appealing in Bristol indie band Daylight Fireworks‘ passion and verve for foot-stomping lo-fi indie pop.
The smoking, unabashed single, “You Know You Know,” is from the band’s debut EP, Secretly, We Hope, which received a fair amount of coverage in the U.K. for the debut from a new and relatively unknown band.
Daylight Fireworks has opened for bands such as Tellison, Hot Club de Paris, The Crookes, and Exlovers, and are influenced mainly by bands like Pavement, Seafood, Death Cab For Cutie, and Halo.
The band hasn’t released new material in years, so only time will tell if there is anything new in the pipeline.
Up! Way Up! – “Brighter Days”
Let’s stick with the upbeat, ‘sunnier’ (or that feel like spring) mood by spinning the beaming title track, “Brighter Days,” from central coast California indie band, Up! Way Up!
Based in the college town of San Luis Obispo, the band started out quite accidentally in early 2017 when the band members – guitarist Will Sutton, bassist Ryan Corvese and drummer Colin Webster – found themselves “recording in a small shrimp shack inside of a large taqueria in Taiwan.”
The songs, they claim, made them “just enough money” to return to California and pick up more shows to help pay for the production of the EP.
What resulted was a thoroughly enjoyable debut full of enjoyable, sun-drenched, forward-driving, life-by-the-sea songs. Other song highlights include “Halcyon,” “The Drinking Song” and “Dreamliner.”
Up! Way Up! has opened for bands like Naked Walrus, Who Can Sleep, and Spoon Canoe. They band members’ top musical influences include Portugal.The Man, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day, and Arctic Monkeys.