Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever

^ Something like that! Very much 1983-84 model GBs anyway.

This album's major flaw is ending with the two least good songs.

Not really. The Hammer (last song) is great.

+1

It's good, yeah.

Also, Fran Keaney is the best songwriter out of the three

which is which?

they don't use credits, right?

Yeah they don't use credits. Just based on youtube videos

..assuming the singer is also the songwriter

To the best of my knowledge:

Fran Keany sings Wither Where You, and sort of sounds like Robert Forster. On new one he sings Time in Common and Air Conditioned Man

Joe Russo sings my alltime favorite, Heard You’re Moving. On new one he sings Mainland and Sisters Jeans.

Joe White sings Wide Eyes. On new one he sings Talking Straight and Bellarine.

This is the first band since The White Stripes where I’ve even bothered learning the band members names

band's publicist sent me this:

An Air Conditioned Man – Fran
Talking Straight - Joe W
Mainland – Tom
Time in Common – Fran
Sister’s Jeans – Fran
Bellarine – Joe W
Cappuccino City - Tom
Exclusive Grave – Tom
How Long? – Joe W
The Hammer – Tom

that's lead vocals, not songwriters

Damn, they tricked me on the Sister's Jeans. And I confused the Russo brothers. White Stripes is easier to remember.

I think i read somewhere The Hammer is a Fran tune?!

there is a lot of consistency in style, i wonder if that's just the group dynamic homogenizing or whether one of them does the bulk of the composition and maybe gives tunes to the others for lyrics/vocals

No-one told me they dig Orange Juice! Bless.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBFhBK3vzBQ

hey that's sweet

Took me a few listens to finally click with the album which is unusual as I've always took an instant shine to their songs. The album feels a tad overproduced imo

New single (In The Capital) is great

It's a grower. 'Watery' was certainly my impression way before reading this:

“I first had the idea for the melody and some of the lyrics when I was swimming. It’s taken a while to finish the song, to make it feel like the initial feeling. I can’t neatly describe it, but something like connection despite distance. I was thinking about transience and water and death and big cities and fishing towns and moon river.” - Fran Keaney

The other side of the single, just released, maintains a similar mood.

I sense that ILM has cooled a little on RBCF post-LP, but there's a new song! With trumpet (?) and choreography. Not sure what to make of it, but it took me months to decide I really liked both sides of that last single, so...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G93J8FKmrn0

Not bad

..at all

new album announced and another track
https://rollingblackoutscoastalfever.bandcamp.com/album/sideways-to-new-italy

It's about time for a Joe W song.

I like how they make 'strayah look ever more like a parched wasteland with each new video.

The first single was great. The 2nd and 3rd... :(

first song one the album is great. the 2nd one not so bad so far . . .

4-5 good songs, the rest didn't really click yet.
i like them when they are less mellow/mid tempo

Had no idea the album was out

They seem to get more tidy and 'pop' without necessarily bringing many actual hooks. Though all four of the previewed tracks (plus that opener) suddenly sound pretty good bundled together like this, so there's certainly hope for the remainder.

New album is a grower. They did better stuff before, yes, but this one is pretty good too

Yeah, I've been enjoying it.

Not sure why everyone is so down on it

I like it too. There's no song as singular as "French Press", but I think it's really strong.

I think because it is more mellow and mid tempo. And rhey are known for the opposite

Xpost

I resisted listening to this because it sounded like they were going in a direction I wouldn't like, but I checked out today and really liked it. It maybe has fewer hooks than the last one, but all the cool guitar layers and band interaction is absolutely there, and sounds great.

I tend to think of these guys as jangle shoegaze.

It's a disappointment. To my ears they've peaked already.

"She's There" has been running through my head most of the summer, such a great song.

New vid! Today! LP in May! etc, etc.

Not sure what I think of the second and third preview tracks

Tidal River
My Echo

If ILM has lost interest in this band then I sense, three listens in, that Endless Rooms will not be the LP to win folks back.

The second half remains an undifferentiated cloud of reverberating guitars and mostly moderate tempos. It's not unpleasant, at least. Admittedly their records rarely make much of an impression on me till 4 months later anyway. I mean, they'd largely unveiled the first half already and I've only just come around to "The Way it Shatters". Though having typed that, "Caught Low" and "Blue Eye Lake" are suddenly feeling like pretty immediate earworms, if hazy ones. I guess I'll try to decipher the lyrics in the fullness of time. Lucky they've virtually the only current guitar band I'm this persistent with lol!

This is quite illuminating:

https://www.stereogum.com/2185502/rolling-blackouts-coastal-fever-endless-rooms/interviews/footnotes-interview/

It's becoming one of my favourite sorts of the records. Ones where I have no idea whether I actually like it, but feel compelled to keep listening repeatedly in order definitively settle it. Maybe I'll arrive at an answer and then won't need to listen any more, either way lol. The haziness of the second half is kinda sorta appealing now, at least.

The Spotify algorithm keeps choosing "Julie's Place" and then the Twerps, when the album concludes, as if to illustrate that they don't actually sound especially like that song these days, nor terribly much like old-school Melb dole-wave etc.

I'm digging this one quite a bit. I can see what you are saying about the second half, but the first half sucks me in so thoroughly that I'm enjoying the ride.

Thanks for the link, I really want to hear the 8-minute version of "Open Up Your Window" though, that's one of my favorites.

these guys should really take up the art of the 10 minute jam

they have a number of songs that remind me of shoegaze with less volume and more jangle, they could totally lean into that