Interview : Sweet Lights

Sometimes, it's just a real pleasure to do this sort of thing. The amount of great music I get to listen to, and the great people I get to speak to is really fantastic. To that list I can now add Philadelphia's Sweet Lights.


Formed by Shai Halperin, formerly of The Capitol Years who was also a band member with Kurt Vile in an early lineup of Adam Granduciel's The War On Drugs, this band trade in sweet and melodic soft pop, influenced by The Beatles and Daniel Johnston, and their self-titled new record is a thing of quiet beauty.

I interviewed Shai recently for The Line of Best Fit, and you can read the fruits of that by following this link.

A bunch of stuff I've enjoyed in March.

That there picture is of Josh T Pearson, troubled troubadour, former singer with Texan psych-rockers Lift To Experience, and now country solo singer extraordinaire. He falls into the first of today's categories of....

Gigs I've loved this month: Josh T Pearson at Stereo - a hushed crowd (generally) gathered to hear Pearson play morbid songs of heartbreak and bad times, and he did so beautifully, puncturing the sombre mood with a stand-up routine that had the crowd laughing and entirely at his mercy. Check a wonderful solo performance here. New album Last of the Country Gentlemen might just be one of the albums of the decade.

I also took in the folk-rocking delights of The Decemberists, and the guitar majesty of Deerhunter who had the audacity to open their set at Oran Mor with a brand new song. This bunch are what guitar music should be about: inventive and listenable.

Records I've loved this month: Aside from Josh T Pearson, there's been Jessica Lea Mayfield's Tell Me, wonderful drone rock/jazz metal from Earth with Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light 1, The Dodos back on fine form with No Color, and finally, Kurt Vile with Smoke Ring for My Halo.

Tune in tomorrow for the first review of April....who will it be?