Crafting commuter friendly Shoegaze for the metropolis outcasts and adolescent-adventurers of New Jersey and beyond, High., originally formed of guitarist / vocalist Christian Castan and bassist / vocalist Bridget Bakie, are cutting diamonds from the grey-scale slabs of suburbia.

“I gain a lot of inspiration from commuting all over New Jersey…” notes Castan. “Riding on the highways ‘cause it literally takes anywhere from forty-five minutes to an hour to get anywhere cool.”

Adamant not to follow in the big-city clichés of many before them, Bakie and Castan, both staple members of the East Coast music scene in their own right, firmly rooted their seeds of inspiration in the grounding nature of their hometown of Boonton, NJ; a decision which inspired the trajectory of their creative outlook during the solitary cliff-hanger of the global pandemic.

Feeling “super fatigued and unmotivated”, the duo sprung straight into action as soon as restrictions were lifted. Debuting in September of 2021 with a live set-up formed of Barkie, Caston, and the addition of a second guitarist and drum-machine, High. wasted no time at all finetuning their (what would come to be) trademark splurge of Shoegaze-come-postcard-punk; a viscerally pictorial showcase of instrumental-indulgence and vocal anarchy, destined to live and breathe beyond the 8000 populated safety-blanket, of Boonton.

Picking up instant acclaim on the infamous DIY circuits of New Jersey, New York, and Philadelphia, the duo soon realised that in order to achieve full mind, body, and soulful sonic-expansion, they may require the support of a few additional players; ditching the drum-machine in favour of their neighbour Jack Miller, with guitarist Danny Zavala joining the group that following spring.

Now with an army of musicians and fans at their beck and call, 2022 saw High. settling down into the rhythms of their own creation; and thus their debut single ‘Dead’, a structural barricade of discordant beauty, was born. A “heavy collaboration between the band and our producer Matthew Molnar”, ‘Dead’, along with its subsequent predecessors ‘Painbox’ and ‘Lifetimes’, was recorded at Cloud Factory in Woodland Park, NJ, with close friend and collaborator Shane Furst.

Where ‘Dead’ and ‘Painbox’ are a lo-fi macabreists day-dream- all bedroom insularity and collaborative-cessation, ‘Lifetimes’ is the inescapable no-man’s-land in which real-world nightmares form the basis of subconscious freedom. Inspired by a hyper-realistic dream in which Caston visits a friend who’s recently passed, ‘Lifetimes’ reaches beyond the parameters of love and loss to clutch the beating heart of bereavement; manifesting itself as an emblematic embodiment of tranquillity and mournful incomprehensibility.

“I could not communicate or speak , but was in my friend’s basement helping them fold laundry. Such a weird scenery but Incredibly peaceful. When I awoke, I was permanently affected and in extreme pain. I wish I could have had a conversation. Our dreams take us to different universes and it makes us feel connected to others.”

A tough year to follow, 2023 see’s High. start as they mean to continue with the release of their fourth single ‘Bomber’. Forming the basis of their debut EP set to swiftly follow suit, ‘Bomber’ is a luscious demonstration of melancholic freak-out; all wrinkled guitars and saturated bursts of lyrical explosiveness. Recorded this time, at Strange Weather Studios in Brooklyn (the iconic haunt of fellow Shoegazers DIIV), with Daniel Fox and Daniel Schlett, ‘Bomber’ is a heightened step-up into a newer, grungier unknown; a definitive mark which sees the group twist and contort the iridescent musicianship we’ve grown to love thus far, with effortless conviction.

Follow High. on Instagram here. Stay tuned for future releases here.

Photo by Luke Ivanovich.

Issue Forty-One of So Young is out now and available to read in print here or as a digital magazine below.

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A thing that’s, most importantly, tangibly their own.

Born out of the woodwork of previous projects, Teeth Machine are quite simply, THE ONES to keep an eye on over the next twelve months. A one-of-a-kind creation from the minds of vocalist / guitarist Gray Rimmer, and saxophonist / lead guitarist Arthur Bently – two of London’s DIY sweethearts (Gray is also a member of the choral group WOOM, while Arthur teaches illustration at Camberwell College of Arts). The group have ceaselessly spent the last few years conjuring up a back-catalogue of what can only be described as: atmospheric genius. Genius of which the wider-world has only just found itself worthy of.

Reuniting through an endless series of bedroom sessions and laptop demos, Bently and Rimmer swiftly began piecing together the various outlets picked up from years’ worth of creative practises in order to discover something new. What was to follow those sessions would be a salvation from the confines of self; a thoroughly explored desire to create a world in which language, conceptual synergy, and creative deconstruction / reconstruction took precedence.

Solidifying the line-up with Jamie Staples (Wunderhorse, Matt Maltese, Broadside Hacks) on drums, bassist Anthony Boatright (Monzanto Sound) and Ciara Reddy (a film director) on vocals / synth, Teeth Machine’s debut single ‘Drive By DK’, was released in February 2022 via close pals Slow Dance Records (Platonica Erotica, Glows); who included the track in the ‘21 edition of their annual ‘Slow Dance’ compilation.

A sensorial demonstration of physical, spiritual, and lyrical decadence- a restlessly riotous cross between the unsettled ambience of Portishead or Cocteau Twins, and the empathetic hauntings of philosopher Jacques Derrida. ‘Drive By DK’ was a sensual introduction to a group of artists with cult-like intrigue and infinite musical ambition.

This is storytelling at its most immediate. In a bid to replace the literal objectivity that songwriting often encourages, Teeth Machine gradually become a mysterious love affair; one in which instrumental improvisation plants a firm kiss on the hollow cheeks of poetic fallacy. A timeless move which would make even the most charismatic artist blush and fall under their harmonious spell.

Having performed in secret, and then publicly (but only to those in the know), Teeth Machine cut their bare-bone-brilliance across London’s ravenous subcultural underbellies. Rapidly crafting their signature blend of harmonious howl, which transports its listener into an ecosystem of genuine unrestrained humanity.

“Playing live is a kind of magic practice” they note. “At its best it can feel like a ritual or group conjuring, where the energy produced in a room and within people’s bodies leaves each person feeling subtly transformed or elevated.”

Success was imminent, but placing their music in the hands of others would prove to be one of Teeth Machine’s biggest leaps of faith to date. Commencing their journey first with WOOM’s label House Anxiety, before eventually signing to indie label Ra Ra Rok (Wu-lu, The Goa Express), the group were able to find confidence in the arms of those closest around them; further cementing Teeth Machine as not just a beguiling collective on the rise, but a 360 circle of trust with inspired friendships.

Teeth Machine in Issue Thirty-Six of So Young. Illustration by Ian Moore.

Where ‘Drive By DK’ swirled with impassioned exhaust- like a tranquil headrush after a heavy bout of tears, in their Ra Ra Rok debut ‘Gumball’, cupid’s arrow is set on fire and shot into the infinite abyss of relationships, euphoria, and murky unknowns.

A beautifully bruisy alchemy of crashing cymbals and weeping guitars, ‘Gumball’ was released on November ‘22, with a 7” (of the same name) and second single ‘Penny’, following suit. Entirely self-produced, and recorded between a shed belonging to Staples, and Bently’s home, ‘Gumball’ (which was mixed by Dilip Harris) is a frenzied mantra for communicative breakdown. Like a spider caught in a web of its own existential creation, ‘Gumball’ seeks to question, resolve, and renew- doing such with meticulous raw-intent.

With a sense of boundary-less nonchalance often reserved for bands far further in “the game”, Teeth Machine play with parallels as though it were a second-language. Whether they’re sound-tracking the madness of adolescence through the medium of collective peace, or mutually documenting the elated high’s and lingering lows of the individual, few can capture the human spirit quite as unconventionally as Teeth Machine.

Which leads us to the present now. With the imminent physical release of ‘Gumball’, which comes as a ten-page concertina (5 panels per song) written to “symbiotically symbolise the project opening from internal spaces, into expanded worlds”; and with artwork by Bently, music videos by Reddy and an endless array of fellow musicians at their beck and call (Both Marco Pini of Slow Dance / Sorry, and Campbell Baum of Ra-Ra Rock / Sorry, who Teeth Machine would eventually go on to tour with, have played key roles in the bands preliminary stages), it’s safe to say that Teeth Machine’s tale, from its very inauguration, has been a collaborative one. And yet, we’re still only just at the very beginning.

“Welcome to an adrenaline rush” – Penny, ’22.

Header photo. by Lara Laeverenz

The new issue of So Young is out now. Order your copy in print here or read the digital edition below.

The post London’s Teeth Machine – Unconventionally Capturing the Human Spirit appeared first on So Young Magazine.

Thriving and surviving in conceptual parallels, Sorry’s world is a taunted playground of self-awareness, excess and breakthrough escapism. Painstakingly direct, the group’s latest single: ‘Let The Lights On’ is a contemporary masterclass in melancholic breakthrough.

Narratively rugged yet rhythmically lucid, ‘Let The Lights On’ is a one-stop-ride towards a yearned state of mind; a metamorphic soundscape where hapless protagonists busy themselves “getting caught in the middle” of a carousel spinning towards disillusion, love, and existential electronica.

With more disjointed high-rise than a metropolis-no-man’s-land, this truly is Sorry at their best. We’re all afraid of the dark, but this is an all-round spectacle in itself, and a really fucking good one at that. If ‘Let The Lights On’ is to be an anthemic safe-space for the reckless, reprobate’d, and lovelorn, then we’re in good hands with Sorry.

‘Let The Lights On’ is released from the upcoming second album ‘Anywhere But Here’. Out via Domino, you can pre order the album now ahead of its October 7th release.

Photo by Iris Luz

The New issue of So Young is out now Ft. Just Mustard, Viagra Boys, Horsegirl, Fat Dog, Opus Kink and more. Grab your print copy here or read the digital edition below.

The post Sorry Announce Second Album and Share ‘Let The Lights On’ appeared first on So Young Magazine.

Stringing up their unique blend of haphazardly-interlocked sequences like an unruly round of cat’s cradles, (played in hell), Porchlight achieve varying shapes of loop, twist, and lyrical tangle in a matter of minutes. 

Make no mistake, this is not a game for the light-hearted or rhythmically challenged. ‘Silver Spoon’ is about as ferraly satisfying as releasing the bats of the genre-warped junkyard, whilst scrambling to pick up the pieces of a blown mind in a fluster of bitten cacophony. Forking out a satiating onslaught of pungent-plunk and wide-eyed disarray, it won’t take much to get hooked. But, once you are, you’re in it for the long-run.

A garishly satisfying entrée from start to blistered finish, ‘Silver Spoon’ is a sonic-shit-show in all the best ways possible; and Porchlight have very quickly demonstrated themselves as some of the best in the league of visceral misrule.

Photo by George Smith

Issue Thirty-Seven is out now Ft. Porridge Radio, Crows, Folly Group, The Dinner Party, Automatic, Gently Tender, headboy and more. Buy in print here. Read the digital edition below.

The post Porchlight Drop New Single ‘Silver Spoon’ appeared first on So Young Magazine.

Without a shadow of a doubt, Been Stellar are a band with an ear for shredded transfix. Crafting from the core of an adolescence trapped in quarantined no-man’s-land, Been Stellar’s truth stems from endlessly accessible articulacy; a trawl through an age where wasted youth is less an image of rock ‘n’ roll romanticism, and rather, a matter of frustrated-fact which goes hand-in-hand with the turn of the decade. 

A breath of fresh-air for the jilted-generation of pandemic induced stagnancy, in this saga, the quintet effortlessly band together like a glass box in a room filled with shattered ideals and mindful uncertainty. Carried by the indispensable elation of Nico Brunstein on bass, ‘My Honesty’ is the hum of an artistically-regenerative spirit matching the sprawled buzz of a timeless city-scope; seeking to confront the trauma of isolation by piecing together mismatched home comforts in a bid to craft something aesthetically tangible- and perhaps most essentially, unified.

Photo by Naz Kawakami

Issue Thirty-Seven is out now Ft. Porridge Radio, Crows, Folly Group, The Dinner Party, Automatic, Gently Tender, headboy and more. Buy in print here. Read the digital edition below.

The post NYC’s Been Stellar Share New Single ‘My Honesty’ appeared first on So Young Magazine.

Returning for the first time in three years, Thursday was a hair-raising, ear-pounding, demonstration of creativity, queue-after-queue-after-queue, and endless avoidance of people we may know; as we all started as we meant to continue.

HighSchool – Photo: Cameron JL West

Their first set of many across the weekend, Aussie melancholic’s HighSchool, kicked off the festival with the rowdiest of ‘buzz’. Packing out a midday set at Komedia – a room as dark as Keith Richard’s under-eyes, siblings Rory and Lili Trobbiani meticulously showcased their rhythmically-narrative style of disjointed adolescence, and enigmatic freedom. Ubiquitously admired, drummer-less, and talented as fuck, if ever there was an opportunity to “get on this before they blow up and get huge”, HighSchool tick all the right boxes.

Whether it was the crooned escapism of Honeyglaze at The Paganini Ballroom, the Scottish power-combo of Medicine Cabinet and VLURE, or, the cowbell-ed anarchy of Fat Dog’s soon to be infamous, 2am set, Thursday was pretty damn eventful, for day one of three.

Medicine Cabinet – Photo: April Arabella

VLURE  – Photo: Cameron JL West

Friday’s highlights included local-legend’s Lime Garden, Working Mens Club’s Syd Minsky crawling, gurning, and wrecking synth-driven havoc, and NYC alt-darling’s Been Stellar.

A rare breed of cool, Been Stellar are the game-changing younger siblings of Brooklyn’s subcultural-elite. Like a cross between Kevin Shield’s inner-drone, and Portamento-era-The Drums, vocalist Sam Slocum is the protagonist spawn of pent up nonchalance, and consciously-placed-angst; the ideal ring-leader for a gang of day-dreamers, underdogs, and high-strung musicianship. Stand-out track ‘Kids 1995’, is an absolute must-watch.

Been Stellar – Photo: April Arabella

Working Mens CLub – Photo: Cameron JL West

Sydney’s The Lazy Eyes were another ‘one-to-watch’ that drew the 6Music lovers in their masses. With their signature blend of fuzzed-up, long-haired, unrestrained-joy, The Lazy Eyes were a mirage of psychedelic divinity, amongst the pebbled reality of Brighton’s beach-front.

Rounding the festival off with a literal bang, the true winner’s of Saturday’s grand-finale, was London based, narrative-noise-newcomers Butch Kassidy. A banded wall of sound so inhumanely scoped, it’s neither familiar, nor unidentifiable, but all-together something sonically-subterranean, Butch Kassidy blew the minds of anyone who dared get in line for their alt-escape’d demonstration, of instrumental-plight. A total game-changer, in the world of lyric-less lawlessness.

The Lazy Eyes – Photo: April Arabella

All in all, The Great Escape 2022 was a showcase of artistic break-through’s, and firm new favourites. If this year’s anything to go by, things are only going to keep getting interesting.

Header Photo: Lime Garden by April Arabella.

Issue Thirty-Seven is out now Ft. Porridge Radio, Crows, Folly Group, The Dinner Party, Automatic, Gently Tender, headboy and more. Buy in print here. Read the digital edition below.

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Having met on a tinder date one summer in Glasgow, Anna Acquroff (“pronounced AK-yuh-roff”)- a tattooist, model, and degree holder in the sociology and psychology of music, and Joshua Chakir- a hairdresser-come-synth-extraordinaire who’s: “the reason [we] have loads of creepy hairdressing heads at our sets and merch desks”, connected over mutual love of all things music. Spilling coffee everywhere and waxing lyrical about being in a band, Chakir, in no time at all, convinced the budding vocalist Acquroff that you can indeed “just start a band and do gigs, no one will stop you”.

Six months down the line and with the addition of Eilidh O’Brien (“pronounced like Hayley without the H”) on synth and guitar, bassist Cal Menzies- the budding gig-photographer who Chakir met in Edinburgh, and Joseph Lowrie on drums, Medicine Cabinet, despite their questionable naming, emerged out of the western Lowlands as the destined to be superstars we meet them as today. “There’s no such thing as a good band name, only good bands.” 

A “creative/busy/interdisciplinary bunch” who seek pleasure and inspiration from all manners of outlets- whether that’s “coding for sound and embroidery”, releasing “loads of secret music” via Soundcloud and under a plethora of pseudonyms, or burning energy as quote-on-quote “gym bros”, Acquroff, Chakir, O’Brien, Menzies and Lowrie, appear to be a five-way-match made in alt-heaven. Be it the iconography of La Roux, Riot Grrrl’s unabashed authenticity, the rhythmic seduction of Working Men’s Club, or “genres where cute meets scary, like metal pop”, Medicine Cabinet soak it all up like a well-dressed sponge of charm, humanity, and pop musicality at its most vignette and pure. 

“I think we’re always chasing that sort of satisfying feeling that songs can give you” notes Anna. “where they let you feel part of something… or imagine another world or life or circumstance; or, make you feel something really strongly.”

Medicine Cabinet in So Young Issue Twenty-Seven

Produced by Pete Robertson of Beabadoobee acclaim, and written in London’s RAK two and a half years ago, Medicine Cabinets debut single ‘The Signs’, is a fearless first glimpse into the creative-minds of a group we’ve been begging to be formally introduced to. A hook, spark, and joy laden hit written “in the room that one of [my] favourite Ladyhawke albums was written in too” (muses Acquroff), ‘The Signs’ gives laid-back confidence and shimmering polyrhythm; a charismatic sign of all that remains to follow.

Whether they’re busying themselves channelling “hope”, desperately looking for “meaning in the signs and symbols and happenings around [you]”, or “finding belonging in other people”, rest assured every detail has been thought out to achieve the maximum levels of narrative-renegade. This may well be the first, but it’s surely not the last time you’ll be hearing from Medicine Cabinet. In their own words: “Your favourite non-existent band officially exist.”

Issue Thirty-Seven is out now Ft. Porridge Radio, Crows, Folly Group, The Dinner Party, Automatic, Gently Tender, headboy and more. Buy in print here. Read the digital edition below.

The post Medicine Cabinet – The Coolest Fast-Rising Band You’ve Only Just Heard Of appeared first on So Young Magazine.

Two years on from their debut record Pain Olympics, and Crack Cloud are creatively-all-the-wiser. In a fucked up world of narrative influence, “Earth is one tough baby”. But, with two fingers held skywards and an army of followers in the fiery depths below, Crack Cloud craft a philharmonic orchestra of freaks, weirdos, and musical-mavericks.

Short, strange, and crucially empowering ‘Please Yourself’ is a masterful re-introduction to a group we daren’t forget. Thematically authoritative, this self-imposed mechanism for artistic healing, will no doubt work wonders on any  mind, body, and collective soul that crosses its path.

Photo by Fahim Kassam

Issue Thirty-Seven is out now Ft. Porridge Radio, Crows, Folly Group, The Dinner Party, Automatic, Gently Tender, headboy and more. Buy in print here. Read the digital edition below.

The post Crack Cloud Announce New Album ‘Tough Baby’ and Share First Taste ‘Please Yourself’ appeared first on So Young Magazine.

“I am the question that cannot be answered, I am the lover that cannot be lost. Yet small are the gifts of my servant, the soldier. For time is my offspring, pray what is my name?” – ‘My Name Is Death’, The Incredible String Band.

We spend our lives waiting for a taste of something better; a pungent morsel of great-expectations, or a nourishing burst of future endeavours. So eager are we to explore the infinite unknown, present focus is quick to be lost in a wash of deep-rooted-dread. Which leads to the question of: Why save the best bite ‘til the end, when we could shift the focus and swallow life as a whole? 

A thoroughly captivating tale of legacy and self-realisation, ‘Dead Is Dead’ is a stunning depiction of Gospel, mantra, and bare-bone-baritone. Whilst the instrumentation soars to the high-heavens above, Sam Fryer’s vocals undulate in tides of emotive storm; like the rocky heart of a wave clinging to its last thread- a naturally crashing prospect destined for a murky, yet spiritually-submissive, eternity. 

Curiously illustrative like an A.H. Weber painting- all cosmic-freedom, and macabre-danceability, in ‘Dead Is Dead’, we run laps around the great rings of Saturn, the unknown, and Gently Tender. Immersive, unhinged, and universally thought-provoking- think Holy Mountain meets Matthew E. White in a battle of tarot and revolutionary-psychedelia- this is everything you’d want from anthemic cosmology, and then some. 

In short, ‘Dead Is Dead’ is as huge as it is intimate. As imperfectly human, as it is flawless. If the ribcage is the gate-keeper to the soul, then Gently Tender are the ones with the keys to it all. This may well be one of the greatest returns this side of the second coming.

Gently Tender head out on tour with The Big Moon in May. Tickets on sale now.

Photo by Jody Evans

The new issue of So Young is out now. Porridge Radio are on the cover and there’s an interview with Gently Tender inside. Buy in print here or read the digital edition below.

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