Over the next 11 weeks I’ll dig deep into the 2014 Coachella Music Festival lineup, featuring one band per day. The purpose of this piece is to assist in difficult decisions that inevitably you’ll need to make, as well as, serve as a fun countdown to Coachella Week. Note: All bands appear in a completely random order… Enjoy, and let the countdown continue!
Day 56 = CHVRCHES
Performing = Saturday
CHVRCHES are a synthpop band that formed in 2011 and hail from Glasgow, Scotland. By now, if you are a regular to this blog, you already know my affection and nonstop praise for this Scottish trio. The band was born on the internet when they dropped the tunes “Lies” and “The Mother We Share” into the indie music blogosphere back in 2012. Their misspelled name in all caps have made them simple to find, even for the Google-challenged user.
The trio consists of the lovely Lauren Mayberrry (lead vocals), Iain Cook (guitar and bass), and Martin Doherty (samples), all of which put their hands on the synthesizer. Prior to CHVRCHES, Lauren was with Boyfriend/Girlfriend and Blue Sky Archives, while Ian was a member of Aerogramme and Unwinding Hours, and finally Martin used to tour with The Twilight Sad. Iain met Lauren when he produced an EP for Blue Sky Archives, at that time he asked her to check out some demos he was working on with his college bud Martin.
In addition to the two catchy singles mentioned above, the group released two more even catchier singles, “Recover” and “Gun” in 2013, prior to FINALLY releasing their debut full-length last September. Now, I’ve never proclaimed to be a connoisseur of electro-pop, but I’ve mentioned on countless occasions… this is electro-pop at its absolute finest. I named their debut album The Bones Of What You Believe as the #1 Album Of 2013.
While were handing out awards; I also ranked the tune “Recover” as my #5 Track Of The Year for 2013, and contributing writer Present-Tense ranked the track “We Sink” as his #8. Bottom line, this band received awards galore in 2013 throughout the music industry.
Since the album dropped, the infectious tune “We Sink” was released as a single, and lately XMU has the track “Lungs” in heavy rotation. Maybe all twelve tunes will be released as singles, I wonder if that would be some kind of record or something? There’s not a bad tune on the album, hell, there’s no just-average tunes on it. I swear since it was released, I’ve had a different fave every month, right now I’m digging “Night Sky.”
The band cites Prince, Kate Bush, Cyndi Lauper, Cocteau Twins, Depeche Mode and Whitney Houston as influences, to name a few. I think that’s the first Cyndi Lauper reference on this blog,
I’ll have to inquire with the peeps that keep track of those sort of things for me.
Can’t wait to check out CHRVCHES, maybe I’ll even pick up some merch. Check out the Travelogue version of “Recover” below, it will definitely get you pumped. If there’s a conflict with this show, I’ll be so pissed.
Visit the CHVRCHES website here:
http://chvrch.es/
Recommended listening:
“The Mother We Share”
“Lies”
“Recover” (Travelogue)
GoINDEEpMusic