SLEEPY SUN ARE house hunting. The six members of the Bay Area band are looking for a place outside the city, somewhere to fulfill the rock cliché of “getting it together in the country”—a concept pioneered by Traffic in the ’60s and repeated by innumerable bands since. Granted, the young band, formed during college in Santa Cruz, don’t quite have the price range for a rambling English manor like Stargroves or Headley Grange, but a small rental on a bit of land in the foothills of the Sierras, maybe, would be the ideal scenario to get their new musical ideas together.
There is something elemental about Sleepy Sun’s music that just wouldn’t flourish in the city, something tied to the earth and wind and stars. Their diverse repertoire skirts the edge of metal with throbbing, heavy jams, but the hushed comedowns—folksy and pastoral—are just as important. The twin vocals of Bret Constantino and Rachael Williams—who are often bedecked in face paint at the band’s hallucinatory live shows—evoke the ghostly whispers of Brightblack Morning Light at times, and the guitars of Evan Reiss and Matt Holliman traverse from lightning squall to sonorous hum. “Psychedelic” is the obvious word, if not an entirely adequate one.
“That word is definitely getting thrown around a lot these days, isn’t it?” says Constantino. “That’s what I love about the word to begin with. It’s such an ambiguous term. People tend to call things psychedelic if they can’t quite put a finger on it, or if it brings them to some place that hasn’t been explored yet within themselves.”
Sleepy Sun’s excellent debut, Embrace, is only a few months old, but they’ve already got a follow-up, Fever, ready for release in June. Still, after an incredibly busy year that saw three trips to Europe, the band is most excited about working on new material.
“I feel like I can’t even recall the shit that’s happened to us this year,” says Constantino, “and I think it’s because I haven’t had an opportunity to really just sit down and relax and breathe it all in…. Now, with the position that we’re in, we’re currently trying to find a place so we can get back into one room again.”
Rainbow Bridge is opening this show. They are PHENOMENAL! Here’s a little blurb from Pitchfork regarding their very well received “Big Wave Rider” single:
“Big Wave Rider”, from Olympia, Wa.-based duo Rainbow Bridge, echoes the shimmery sounds of ’09’s chillest coastal pop, imbuing the lassiez-faire jangle of Real Estate with the preternatural melodic aptitude and boyish innocence of a Daniel Johnston tune. Yet, for its similarities to other seaside summer hits, “Big Wave Rider” is instantly infectious, charismatic, and effortlessly endearing. From its slow motion rise to its drifting, grinning peak to its inevitable splashdown, it’s utterly confident and contented in its crisp melody, natural execution, and simple, evocative lyrics: “Big wave rider/ Try and ride a little higher/ You’re a glider/ Smile wider.” Set for release as a 7″ later this year on the seemingly unstoppable True Panther imprint (presently home to Girls, Lemonade, and Glasser), the song is likely to miss its window to summer, but in some ways, that could be just as well: Come fall, it’ll transform into a bittersweet remembrance of long late-July days spent in oceanic bliss. – PITCHFORK