Today on the show we are featuring the Seattle-based group Black Nite Crash. Learn more about them and listen to their track “Sugarwave.”
Warning some lyrics are not suitable for all audiences. Discretion is advised
Show Notes and Full Show Transcript
Hey everyone welcome to the Eat Sleep Breathe Music podcast. I am your host Jeanette Kimszal. For those of you just joining us, this is the podcast where I talk about different musicians and how their music affects me and then play a track for you to listen to.
So you can check it out and form your own opinion as well. And if you are so interested in sharing your thoughts on this track and the artist I’ll have details at the end of the show where you can leave your comments.
Today I am talking about the Seattle indie rockers Black Nite Crash. I have been working through my inbox of emails and came across this band and was digging their sound so I decided to feature them this week on the podcast.
So a little bit about Black Nite Crash they are made up of the following members vocal and guitarist Jim Biggs, bassist John Parker, guitarist James Stone, drummer Tony Zuniga, and vocalist and guitarist Claire Tucker.
Please forgive me I hope I have pronounced all those names correctly.
The band formed about twenty years ago and has had a rotating lineup with more than about 30 members ever since its inception.
This was such an interesting fact to me. There’s been one member who has been kind of remaining as the original member since the band’s inception.
Despite all the various lineup changes and that is Jim Biggs. He is the vocalist and the guitarist.
And despite all of this the band has maintained its original sound and vision.
And I wasn’t too sure of what because I was unaware of this band before I started listening to them so I went back to see a little bit of their music.
And it definitely does have a similar theme throughout the music even though some of the stuff is sung by Jim whereas this track, the song I’ll be going to be playing later is sung by Clarie.
And I really think that having Claire sing this song was a good choice. I thought it was interesting. This band’s been around for a long time and they are still true to the sound that they had.
And they have this consistency over time which is pretty neat.
The band did go on to say this song was a bit of a departure from what they have done in a while. As I said, I kind of wanted to get a sense of what they were doing before.
So I went on to Spotify and checked out some of their music. And even though there was some…I think this song definitely has a little slightly different feel to it.
It’s a little bit more upbeat. It’s a little bit more like uh, surf rock or like very effervescent, like happy upbeat.
Whereas their other music kind of has a little bit of a harder rock feel to it.
I listened to a couple of tracks. I just kind of pulled up the popular tracks on Spotify. And I was really interested in their other music.
They had another song that came out earlier this month that was called “The Take.”
And that was getting some good reviews on some of the blogs out in the blogosphere. I’m gonna go through it later and give you a list of where they have been featured if you want to check out some of the other stuff that people have written about them.
But yeah, this band has been pretty cool and the interesting thing is that some of the songs are sung by Biggs.
I think it also has to do with the fact that they have such a rotating lineup and things have changed. So maybe they didn’t always have Claire as a vocalist. So then Biggs was singing.
But yeah, the songs, the songs they had on Spotify were really cool. And I did like them. You know, they have this, even though the sound is different they have this…have an intriguing craft that just kind of features a lot of rock with elements of psychedelic.
And it’s also like, this song, in particular, has this 90s fast-paced guitar, very distorted, fuzzy guitar sounds that are pretty cool.
And as I said before it kind of invokes this kind of surf rock. At least in my mind, I found that the song was pretty interesting in that respect because it does kind of depart from what they’re playing.
Cause even if you listen to the song “The Take” that’s a very different sounding song that actually gave me some Tom Petty vibes.
So it’s kind of interesting to see this band like how their new album will become about.
And “Sugarwaves” is the follow-up to their lead track “The Take” which I was talking about before. That came out earlier this month.
Both of these songs can be found in their upcoming LP entitled ‘Washed in the Sound with Black Nite Crash.” It is due out October 14th via the American boutique label Neon Sigh.
According to Jim Biggs, this is their fifth full length in nearly 20 years of existence. It also looks to be the start of a period of more frequent releases as they work through all the backlog of material they have on hand. Along with some new material they are working on now.
So if you do like their music you can look forward to listening to new stuff in the future.
If you’re interested in listening to some of Black Nite Crash’s other music you can find it on streaming platforms such as Apple Music, Spotify, and their Bandcamp page. Black Nite Crash and that is spelled N-I-T-E.
I can also leave links to those in the show notes for your convenience.
I don’t want to get too repetitive with my thoughts on the song, but just kind of going back to the melodies of the song it’s got this upbeat feel and these very excitable guitar riffs.
And very beautiful and very upbeat and happy vocals. And the vocals are complemented by an interesting lyricism. The lyrics for the song, according to Claire Tucker, started out from a dream where her husband had pulled a bunch of out-of-character capers.
It got her thinking about dreams he’s told her about, where she did strange or terrible things, and what that might mean about our perception of each other…the perception of what they think of each other.
And if there was some hidden truth to the dreams. If it’s kind of how we see someone in reality and it’s like a true sense of what we think of people.
She was saying it was kind of an attempt to bridge the gap even as impossible as it may be. The kind of to be odds at like…kind of just understanding the allure of likes and compliments of things.
Like how we get this kind of dopamine hit or like you know, a “Sugarwave” from the way people think about us.
And…at least that is what I took from the lyrics. I don’t know…I could be wrong. Music is subjective. This is what I think but I think that this lyricism definitely complements the melodies.
Because you know, there are these upbeat lyrics and it could be kind of negative. And that creates another layer to it too. You know, if the song was just a happy-go-lucky lyric or just kind of very one level, one layer.
Not very intense and kind of thoughtful or contemplative or you know varied in the way that the lyrics are talking about it.
So it’s interesting to see this thought process, this kind of diving into the dreams and the way we perceive people and the way we perceive ourselves versus how other people see us and the things that kind of get us this Sugarwave.
I thought was a kind of..cool compliment to the music itself.
And again I do really like the female vocals. The fact that they used Claire as the singer in this song. But uh, yeah, that’s what I thought about the lyrics as well. I thought they were pretty cool.
But uh yeah, if you are kind of wondering what this band kind of sounds like. They have been compared to the likes of Lightning Seeds, Eels, The Beta Band, and The Wonder Stuff.
And they said this “Sugarwave” song, in particular, is for fans of The Go-Go’s, Blondie, Throwing Muses, Kim Wilde, Le Tigre, Dentist, The Heart Throbs, Blessed Ethel, and A.C. Marias.
And this song may open up a whole wider audience for the band because they are doing something new, something different.
You know, this song…the energy from the song basically just kind of came to them. And they said even though it was kind of different from things they have done before. They didn’t want to force anything. They wanted the sound to just come through.
Whatever was an inspiration to them. They didn’t want to have a preconceived notion of what they should sound like.
And that’s kind of cool too because it also opens up to new listeners. And you know, you can have one song that sounds like something and have another song that sounds like something else and it can have this varied feel to it.
Uhm, so I thought that was pretty neat about the song.
And just kind of going into some of the places they have been featured, the band has been praised by the blogosphere and they have been getting a lot of features.
They have had write-ups in outlets including Amplify Music Mag, The Big Takeover, Ringmaster Review, Dancing About the Architecture, Thoughts Words Actions, KEXP, Sound Read Six, and Post-Punk.com.
If you want to check these out I can um leave links to them in the show notes so you can see what other people are saying about the band.
This fall as they are going to be playing a handful of live shows this fall.
They include an album release party on October 8th at Seattle’s The Central Saloon. This will be followed by the Portland release show at The Six on November 5.
Finally, they will be playing the Tremolo Festival at Sunset Tavern in Seattle on December 16 and 17th.
And with that being said I think now I will play the track for you. So without further ado here is “Sugarwave” by Black Nite Crash.
We would love to know what you think about Black Nite Crash and their track “Sugarwave.” You can tell us in a comment on the podcast webpage. You can also leave an audio comment at the link in the episode summary.
If you’re looking for more information on Black Nite Crash like and follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
On Facebook and Instagram, they are at the handle Black Nite Crash. That is B-L-A-C-K-N-I-T-E-C-R-A-S-H
On Twitter, they are at the handle Black Nite Crash 1. That is B-L-A-C-K-N-I-T-E-C-R-A-S-H no spaces the number 1.
If you’re looking for more new music be sure to subscribe to our podcast so you will get the latest updates on our artist features.
You can also find more music features on our website at www.EatSleepBreatheMusic.com. That is E-a-t-S-l-e-e-p-B-r-e-a-t-h-e-M-u-s-i-c dot com.
Thanks for listening and see you in the next episode!
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