LMR | Brilliant Beast, YoyoBob, & We Should Be Laughing

Brilliant Beast - "uncontested divorce (with children)" (Future Fictions)

It's always a bit tragic when we here at Ear Coffee find a great new band that is either broken up or on the verge of doing so. Brilliant Beast falls under the latter. At least they're going out with a bang. They have a final EP coming out on August 16, Pageant Fatigue, and this is one of its songs. "uncontested divorce (with children)" is a signifier that the band is never going to leave the maelstrom of noise they've cultivated over their lifetime, especially on 2017 EP Jelly. They won't die, they'll sink into the depths instead. It recalls the obvious predecessor of My Bloody Valentine while adventuring out into the sonic territories of contemporary bands like Nothing and event Alcest. The dual vocals of Hannah and Jordan Porter rattle and hum over the storm, like a tiny fishing boat at the eye of a storm. They survive for as long as they can before rain swallows them.

Brilliant Beast is playing an EP release/farewell show on August 17th.

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YoyoBob - "Better for You" (self-released)

YoyoBob is the synth-pop project of St. Paul musician Sam Pederson. "Better for You," his latest song, is a tiny crystal chandelier of electronic music. It mixes together clear influences like the Postal Service and Discount Postal Service Owl City with techno and chiptune. My clearest point of reference is video game remixes I would download off Newgrounds in 2007, so it's a bit of a trip to hear something inadvertently(?) harkening back to those days. It's good to hear Sam back in his electro element after the minor detour that was 2018's There's A Whole World Out There to See EP. The lyrics are simple, perhaps because the sentiments they express are so pure.

Disclaimer: "Fireflies" slaps and nobody can tell me otherwise.

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We Should Be Laughing - Temporary Swan Songs (Heavy Meadow)

We Should Be Laughing above all sound like they're having fun. The Houghton, MI quartet make 90s-adjacent indie rock with a self-deprecating edge. Technically, they're not local, but hey, the Upper Peninsula is basically Wisconsin (which in turn is just trashy Minnesota) and Twin Cities fave Heavy Meadow Records put out the tape. Plus, how can we not write about such a relentlessly enjoyable and catchy album? There isn't an ounce of pretension in these songs. It's the kind of indie music that relishes the indie-ness of it all, instead of begrudging the fact that they haven't gotten Best New Music yet. It's friendship in song form. Temporary Swan Songs ranges from being the second coming of Wheatus on "Uncool" to a new genre which will henceforth be called "stoner uke" on album closer "Suppermassivebigrip" (Dopesmoker who?). "Uncool" serves up WSBL's artistic statement of purpose in its first line—"I'm state of the art uncool." The fact that they go on for another 22 minutes proves that they don't care. Instead of worrying about status, WSBL is laughing instead.

Lyrical highlights

• "The bouncer stops me at the pearly gates"
• "Just killing time as time kills me"
• "Tried to call me mom back / someone's in the bathroom"
• "I'm still learning how to walk the line"
• "You don't have to be rude / just smoke your vape, dude"