Welcome to the latest in a week-long series of spotlights profiling the bands and artists performing at the 2016 Boston & Beyond party at SXSW, a collaborative effort between Berklee College of Music and Vanyaland. Our third annual event — and Berklee’s 11th SXSW party overall — goes down Thursday, March 17 at Austin’s Brush Square Park, located at 409 East 5th St., next to the Convention Center. The party is co-presented by Berklee Alumni, The Red Room @ Cafe 939, and Heavy Rotation Records, and is all ages and open to SXSW badge holders. Get on the list without charge by RSVPing via EventBrite. Additional info and music from each of the performing bands and artists can be found here.
Previous spotlights: Lady Pills, mar | co, Great Grandpa
Plastic Waves, 3:15 p.m. set time
It was totally unintentional, but we used the term “swirl”/“swirling” in both of the headlines of our recent posts about Plastic Waves. But that’s just where the Boston psych-pop band from Andre Bellido takes us mentally; with a sound entrenched in warped, bubbling psych-pop and falling somewhere between the worlds of fuzzy British psychedelia, late-aughts Brooklyn indie rock, and star-gazing ’90s Britpop, Plastic Waves has already found its groove in a short period of time. Though they started as a bedroom project under the watchful eye of Bellido, Plastic Waves have now evolved into a full-on band that possess an uncanny ability to sonically warp their sugary pop compositions.
Wrote Allston Pudding when they hyped Plastic Waves’ “Melancholy Sleep”: [Bellido] pulls his influences from classics like The Beatles’ Revolver and the upbeat sounds of The Beach Boys, along with current greats like Tame Impala… “Melancholy Sleep”… is the comfort food of psych rock, with its warm and engaging guitar riffs blended into dreamy vocals culminating in the catchy chorus that keeps you craving more from the band.”
Last month, we hyped their entire debut EP, which we wrote “follows along Plastic Waves’ hazy brand of 7 a.m. rock and roll. ‘Friendly’ might be the best song Oasis never wrote, while ‘Pushing Me Down’ would make Anton Newcombe of the Brian Jonestown Massacre blush. But the true standout remains ‘You Never Listen’, a rocket-ride of swirling guitar-rock goodness that hits a brilliant bit of cruising altitude.”
Damn, another “swirling”. Oh well — check out some tasty jams from Plastic Waves below…
Follow Plastic Waves on Twitter…
