Helens

Helens
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Helens is a Shoegaze / Dream Pop quartet. After several years and EPs they are releasing a new album in late 2022 of melancholic anthems to soundtrack an escape to anywhere else but here.
The upcoming album, Somewhere In Nowhere, was recorded in 2020 by Corey Coffman (Gleemer) and will release in late 2022 with help from Portland all-star label, Bud Tapes. The upcoming release infuses the band’s unique Shoegaze/Post-Rock/Alternative mixture with lusher melodies and more Dream Pop sensibility than previous releases. The recent expansion of the lineup to a four piece with added guitar textures has also widened the band’s scope which carries the listener from wistful wash to searing sonics. The album’s first single, Mirage Rock, was released on June 17th, 2022.

No Swoon
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Los Angeles-based duo, No Swoon, sketches the ephemeral. Every song that Tasha Abbott & Zack Nestel-Patt write together is a gorgeous vignette portraying some nameless, yet universal feeling. Abbott, who grew up in Los Angeles, was equal parts musical theater kid and daughter of an 80s goth. She grew up performing musicals and listening to Bauhaus and The Cure, before her interest turned to writing folk songs in the spirit of another of her heroes, Joan Baez. Nestel-Patt spent his youth in the Boston area, immersed in jazz and classical music as an aspiring professional upright bass player. These seemingly disparate backgrounds would soon create the core spark of the band-to-be, eventually trading in their acoustic instruments for fuzz-laden electric guitars and woozy synthesizers.
In 2019, No Swoon put out their self-titled debut album which sounds like what Sweet Static calls “a band performing at a DIY venue in the Twilight Zone.”. The expansive dream-pop epic explored literary themes, political protest, and intimate self-reflection.
The band’s forthcoming sophomore album, Take Your Time, is both a self-reflection and an appeal. It’s a record about growing up and growing into yourself, exploring difficult feelings in a way that transforms pain into understanding, regret into joy.

Honeydiu
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A project that has continuously waxed and waned between a solo project and a band since it’s east coast origins, Honeydiu’s atmospheric indie rock draws from a multitude of inspirations. Led by Benson Chong, Honeydiu’s sound seamlessly moves from down-tempo synth-pop to driving guitar rock, but maintains a throughline of wry lyricism and tongue-in-cheek tenderness.