inspiration |

We’re on the cusp of the weekend! Today I have the pleasure of bringing to you my first artist submission in a while, having fleetingly stopped asking bands for their suggestions due to a lack of time and whimsy. I realised last week that it’s the best thing about being a blogger, gathering other people’s stories, et voilà we’re back on track.

I discovered Toronto’s Decades this week via an email from their label, the teeny White Girl Records. Music which is easy to listen to it’s difficult to plug the four piece in to a genre, strands of punk and garage rock emerge in their older tracks while a preview from their debut beams with well crafted chillwave.

After I heard and liked their music bassist Greg Peters sent through a story about a long time loved band, Blonde Redhead.

Decades Play…Blonde Redhead

My favorite band of all time would have to be Blonde Redhead. They kind of float in and out of my life at random but when I start listening to them they always take me back to that place I was when I discovered them and I end up playing one song over and over which is Misery Is a Butterfly.

The band formed in the early 90’s, I think they have always been way ahead of their time. They are one of those bands who are hard to pin down, “Nu gaze”, “electronica”, “indie rock”, “experimental”, “psychedelic”, but really I think they are just writing whatever music comes naturally to them. The music they create between the three of them is incredible, everything they do is perfect and absolutely beautiful.

I discovered them in the early 2000’s through a friend of mine who basically built my musical foundation, before this I only listened to Nirvana. Basically my friend and I would skip school everyday and go to his house and smoke weed and listen to these really cool “obscure bands” he found via internet or some older group of kids he knew. I remember my grandparents really disliked him, he literally lived across the tracks from me, but he was my best friend.

I’m pretty sure it was just on a playlist or something but when I heard “Misery is a Butterfly” for the first time it changed my life. The beginning is so beautiful, those ominous sounding strings, then the piano line, it’s so sad but comforting, then the guitars and vocals come in and it grabs you and you’re floating away in all that beautiful misery. It actually takes me back to that place every time I listen to it. We were in high school, stuck in that small town and nothing was certain but we could listen to this song and drift away. I’m pretty sure the band is still active. They definitely deserve more attention then they get but I don’t really think they care for it. I just hope they continue to create records.