Listen closely to The Handsome Family and it’s as if you have stepped into a strange, shimmering plane. With “Joseph” from the forthcoming album Hollow, husband-and-wife duo Brett and Rennie Sparks contrast a foreboding, supernatural scene with the sweet simplicity of their piano-driven, waltz-like melody, complete with a straightforward yet emotive guitar solo.
Convincing vocals layered in a late-career black-coffee Eric Andersen manner, with dashes of Tom Paxton. Lots of sincerity in many tunes & some are exceptional (“None of ‘Em Dead,” & “I Wanna Go Out”). Mr. Smith is sure-footed. Much seems to be more about not what’s to be done — but what’s in your conscience.
Brett writes the music, and Rennie writes the words. Their work has been covered by many artists, including Jeff Tweedy, Andrew Bird and most recently, Phoebe Bridgers. Their song “Far From Any Road” was the opening theme for HBO’s True Detective season one and still receives thousands of Shazams every week from all over the world.
They have just announced the release of their eleventh studio album, Hollow (out Sep. 8, 2023), an album that began with a scream in the night (more on below)…it delves into the natural world at the edges of the man-made. It is a record lush with leaves and shadows and echoing with occult mystery.
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Beekeeper Spaceman – Beekeeper Spaceman
Like its sprawling hometown of Dallas, Texas, cinematic indie rock band Beekeeper Spaceman’s self-titled debut album evokes a never-ending collision between bucolic bygones and the urban present.
Born out of an online multimedia project called Fire Bones, the duo—primary songwriter/ singer/guitarist Greg Brownderville and producer/multi-instrumentalist Spencer Kenney—have shared bills with artists like Erykah Badu, Leon Bridges, Shakey Graves and Black Pumas, and have been lauded in both local music outlets (Dallas Observer, Central Track) and national literary publications (Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Virginia Quarterly Review, LITHUB). Brownderville is editor-in-chief of the literary magazine Southwest Review and author of three books of poetry, while Kenney fronts a solo electro-pop project under his own name and is involved with a variety of acts on the Dallas-based Dolfin Records label.
To fully appreciate Beekeeper Spaceman and its music, it’s helpful to understand Fire Bones, a self-described “go-show”—released in 2021 and optimized for mobile devices—that uses poetry, video, podcasts and visual art to tell an epic story about a fictional town in the Arkansas Delta. The band’s name is taken from a key character in the tale, but Brownderville and Kenney didn’t initially set out to make an album, or even to form a musical project together.
“We connected through a mutual friend and I started working on music for Fire Bones,” says Kenney, who is originally from New England but moved to Texas as a kid. “I don’t know how we decided to make an album. I don’t know that we really did. It just kind of started happening.”
When it did, it generally went like this: Brownderville would write a folk song, more or less, and share it with Kenney, who would then sculpt the sound of the song by adding synths and other layers to the arrangement, relying on ideas of his own and input from Brownderville.
Kenney came along at a critical moment in the making of Fire Bones, Brownderville says, and he proved to be an easy communicator, an intuitive collaborator and a breath of fresh air.
“We have an unusual affinity, and you can hear it in our songs. He would play parts that were never the same things I would’ve done, but I always loved what he did,” says Brownderville. “We have different sensibilities, but they work really well together. I could see early on that he was making everything better.”
Specifically, “Kenney gave the songs a higher sky,” says Brownderville. When asked to elaborate, Brownderville’s voice noticeably intensifies as he digs into the sonic effects of their shared efforts: “After he’d work on (a song) for a while, I always had this feeling that it was much more spacious,” says Brownderville. “He would open up air inside the song’s space, and it would go from being two-dimensional to feeling three-dimensional. And I loved that.”
You can hear that lush and limitless vibe throughout Beekeeper Spaceman. Lead single “Icicles” is, says Brownderville, “a demented Christmas song” that ambles like a bummed-out, beat-driven Beach Boys tune as the song’s main character explores the tug-of-war between the freedom of youth and the domesticity of adult relationships: “You wanna stay much longer than the night,” Brownderville sings. “Walk away. I’m lonely by design.”
Later, “In the Custody of Stars” is a beautiful, sparkling ballad that takes inspiration from a character in Fire Bones and is framed in photographic imagery: Brownderville invokes out-of-focus lenses and blurry backgrounds to paint a picture of heartache and solitude as Kenney dresses up a simple acoustic guitar arpeggio with programmed drums, ethereal background vocals and twinkling synths.
“There’s an idea in ‘Icicles’ that if you want to keep the adventure alive, you have to be all by yourself,” says Brownderville. “In ‘Custody of Stars,’ there’s a sense that that’s not really true, and that the magic and the adventure can be in the togetherness.”
Elsewhere, the slinky lounge-pop tune “All and Only” finds Brownderville reflecting on our near-universal experience with unrequited love against a juxtaposition of strummed acoustic guitar and shimmering electric piano sounds, while “Locusts and Honey” uses an assertive bass line, unconventional rhythmic shifts, spectral vocal harmonies and abstract lyrics to create an irresistibly odd tune that sounds like Father John Misty singing in a hall of mirrors built on unstable ground. “Beebe”—a modern interpretation of an English nursery rhyme—is Beekeeper Spaceman at their most Beatles-esque, and album opener “Ninety Five” sports a crunchy post-punk feel and a steadfast sense of sadness about the fact that most of us grow out of childlike wonder.
Creative wonder, however, abounds on Beekeeper Spaceman’s debut, where handcrafted folk tunes blossom over and over again into strange and engaging electro-pop songs stuffed with synthesized sounds, exposed roots of acoustic guitar, surreal stories and intriguing arrangements that feel like vibrant little worlds unto themselves.
“I wanted to incorporate the idea of a ‘wonder soldier’—someone who builds their life around it,” says Brownderville. “This feeling of endless adventure, if you can manage to keep it alive. When people have given up on the idea of adventure and joy, I find that to be truly heartbreaking.”
Generous support provided by SMU English.
“A lush ballad… mesmerizing… Brownderville’s blurry soundscapes create a feeling of heartache and loneliness.” – FAME Magazine
“Consistently mellow pairing of indie rocket science and soundtrack-apt cinematic flourishes.” – KUTX / Song of the Day
“There is a lush and limitless vibe throughout Beekeeper Spaceman, where handcrafted folk tunes blossom over and over again into strange and engaging electro-pop songs stuffed with synthesized sounds, exposed roots of acoustic guitar, surreal stories and intriguing arrangements that feel like vibrant little worlds unto themselves. – The Big Takeover
“A daring, genre-defying work of fiction designed specifically for your smartphone. If all this sounds overly conceptual, the story itself is anything but. Imagine a formally inventive take on Twin Peaks or True Detective, and you start to get the picture.” – Vol. 1 Brooklyn on Fire Bones“
Lumbering synths in Brownderville’s song “Beebe” rollick beneath… a collection of poems and a fresh takeon narrative and lyrical expression.” – The Hopkins Review on Fire Bones
“A whimsical Southern Gothic story that follows a poet and a filmmaker as they unravel the mystery of a missing pilot and Pentecostal preacher who vanished on a transatlantic flight.” – MovieMaker Magazine on Fire Bones
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“Tackles the themes of addiction, recovery, and wanting to be a better person with grace and poise. On this journey of self-reflection that is drenched in great guitar sounds and soothing vocals, Coma Girls showcase his staying power in the music scene.” – Chorus.FM
Coma Girls – Crystal Pistol LP (out Oct. 13 via Baby Robot Records)
Since he was a teenager, Chris Spino has played in bands: Punk bands. Jangle-pop bands. Bands influenced by the girl groups of the 1950s and ‘60s. Metal bands. Jazz-rock bands. Weird bands with songs built around weird time signatures.
But all along, he’s maintained a solo project – called Coma Girls for more than a decade – that mined his personal interest in pushing lyrically focused singer-songwriter fare through a filter of spacious shoegaze and psychedelic vibes.
“I’ve played just about every role in every kind of band you can think of, but Coma Girls is me doing what I’ve always secretly wanted to do,” he said, “which is just writing pop songs on an acoustic guitar.”
Spino’s new Coma Girls album – Crystal Pistol (out Oct. 13 via Baby Robot Records) – finds him gently settled into a sweet spot between two of his major influences: Emotionally raw folk songs (think Elliott Smith and Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst) and spindly, fuzzed out garage rock (à la Deerhunter and Jay Reatard). After recording a handful of releases straight to analog tape with Thee Oh Sees keyboardist Tomas Dolas, Spino met his current collaborator, Christian Paul Philippi, who produced 2022’s No Umbrella For Star Flower and returned to the same role for Crystal Pistol.
“No Umbrella was a COVID record that I made with some friends. I got sober last year and wanted to do this new one by myself, but with Christian’s help because we work really quickly and efficiently together,” Spino said. “I wanted to do something that felt a little more clear-headed but still felt ambitious and experimental.”
You can hear that balance on “Candles,” a slow-burning song about the guilt and shame that often comes with addiction. After two minutes of a loping pace, the tune opens up into a sheet of distorted guitars, as Spino repeats an aching mantra over and over: “Leave your candles lit / My pain keeps burning on and on and on.”
Spino is quite open about his past addiction issues: “A lot of the lyrics on Crystal Pistol are about coming out of that and cleaning up my life and really examining the ways I acted when I was an addict, and the ways those actions affected other people in my life.”
That sounds heavy – and it is – but the sentiments are leavened by “Back to the Source,” a bouncy earworm that boasts a nursery rhyme hook and a whole bunch of clever couplets.
“That song is kind of a dagger in that I’m making fun of somebody, but ultimately, whenever I’m making fun of somebody, I’m making fun of myself,” Spino said. “Or I’m trying to teach someone a lesson, but really, I’m learning about myself and areas in which I need to grow.”
And then there’s “33,” a gorgeously somber song Spino wrote early in his sobriety journey that features a painfully repeated refrain – “I can’t take it back” – as a string section and noisy crescendo consume the arrangement.
“Jesus Christ was 33 when he was crucified and I was 33 when I got sober, and I felt like a martyr. I felt like I was being hung on a cross for my sins,” Spino said. “I was like, ‘I’ve been doing all this crazy shit my whole life, and now it’s over.’ But little did I know that my life was just beginning, you know?”
Now 34 years old, healthier than ever and moving ever closer to artistic fulfillment, Spino speaks with a spark in his voice when he talks about where he has been and where he’s going. After years at or near the bottom – partying every night, struggling with drugs, sleeping outside – he’s excited not only about his new album, but about its follow-up, which is already in progress.
“Crystal Pistol feels like one last big trauma dump,” says Spino, “because the writing was done before I got into therapy, and I’ve gained a lot of tools for understanding things about myself and my own trauma.”
Crystal Pistol is a deeply affecting confession through indie rock songs that tend to begin as intimate folk-rock stories and frequently conclude in fuzzy shoegaze chaos. Spino takes us on a self-reflective journey that few would have the courage to explore, and some never come back from.
“I used to think music was a healthy outlet for me to get everything out, but now that I’ve started writing for my next record, I can see that it’s very different,” Spino continued. “There’s a lot of stuff about forgiveness and acceptance and focusing on the good in my life instead of all the bitterness. Because I’ve changed so much in the past year, there’s a lot of good in my life right now, and that’s exciting.”
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“A magnetic combination of shoegaze and folk stylings, retaining folk’s confessional edge amidst the maximalist shoegaze aesthetics.” – Under the Radar Mag
“A diverse, powerful piece of art that anyone can listen to or relate to. The urgency and vitality are palpable.” – Northern Transmissions
“Coma Girls channel the best parts of synth-heavy rock.” – ChorusFM
“Freak-folkish…conjures an MGMT accessible space rock vibe while reelin’ in the weightlessness indie of The Flaming Lips.” – Glide Magazine
“Cutting lyrics and gauzy layers of sound … at once wound and bandage. Spino’s vocal delivery walks the razor’s edge between genuine devastation and sardonic self-deprecation.” – Spill Magazine
“A genre-bending collection that seamlessly blends psych-rock, shoegaze, folk, and country into a cohesive and unique take on modern rock shot through with classic, pop sensibility.” – New Noise
“A shimmering slice of pop-Americana, riding gentle waves of guitar and draped in weepy pedal steel….Hits a sweet spot.” – Buzzbands LA
“Impressive…very intricate electronic jangle pop…like Pavement meets Ariel Pink.” – QRO Magazine
“The bar rock album for the person who doesn’t like bar rock, the pop album for the person who doesn’t like pop.” – Immersive