Jam of the Day | Lilac Shadows - Blue Nile

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What you see is not there
What you feel is not fair
What you’re hearing is wrong
What you have is not gone 

Speakers has been fans of Chapel Hill's Lilac Shadows since their beginnings, and their latest record, Brutalism, is no exception. It's moody and atmospheric, there's punctuation in one of the song titles (okay, so I'm the only one of us who looks for that in a record, so sue me, I like parentheses and semicolons), and the band's sound just keeps getting bigger and more layered. Today we're jamming to "Blue Nile", my favorite track on the record -- it's a fizzy, fuzzed out, minor key ode to either a break up or possibly some creepy stalker behavior or maybe both. I can get behind both.

Stream "Blue Nile" below and Brutalism as a whole on Bandcamp; you can also buy one of the nine remaining copies of the limited edition vinyl from Lilac Shadows' Bandcamp, as well.
 

Video Premiere | Lilac Shadows - No Dark / No Light

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Photo by Reed Benjamin

Here at Speakers in Code, we're pretty big fans of atmospheric Triangle rockers Lilac Shadows, who are getting ready to release a new full-length LP this week. We're thrilled to premiere their equally atmospheric video for lead single "No Dark / No Light", which you can stream below. The black and white shots of the band in an empty room, coupled with the long shots of shadows, give life to a song that already swells and overflows. This is a video that looks how the song it's for sounds.

Lilac Shadows release No Dark / No Light at the Carrack Gallery in Durham, NC, on February 8. The show won't be in black and white, but it will be as moving and atmospheric as this video.



NO DARK / NO LIGHT from Jacki Huntington on Vimeo.

Jam of the Day | Lilac Shadows - Turn It Off

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One of the truly best things about living in North Carolina is that there's never a lack - nay, never nothing less than a wealth - of new songs from new bands or old favorites. "Turn It Off" is from an old friend of SiC, Lilac Shadows, and it's one side of a cassingle - yes, a cassingle - that Lilac Shadows made with their Greensboro tourmates Jenny Besetzt.

Lilac Shadows has always made fuzzy, dreamy psych-pop, but before this, as frontman Sam Logan said to me in an email, it's tended towards the 6 minute drifting jam. This is the same kind of layered, thoughtful psych-pop, but it's condensed into 4 minutes, and the band is better for it. Logan croons, you better turn it on so you can turn it off over keyboards and distorted guitars, and if that doesn't hook into your brain, you're a stronger person than I.

It's a fuzzy hazy summer full moon kind of song, bright light late at night, the kind of light that falls through windows open to catch a breeze, when it's too hot to sleep and bright enough to feel like day. "Turn It Off" is the kind of song that gets you up out of your bed to have an adventure, and don't let anybody tell you nothing good ever happens after midnight.

Take this song as your guide, and plenty of good things will happen.

Jam of the Day | Lilac Shadows - Shallow Madness

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Photo by Agatha Donkar

Lilac Shadows lists just four words on their Bandcamp page in regards to their Shallow Madness EP.

Bright. Dark. Quiet. Loud.

And from what we've heard, the description is fitting. It's this ability to mix opposites that sets our Jam of the Day apart from other shoegaze wannabes attempting to make something just half as enjoyable.

Check it out below and make sure to check them out at Hopscotch this year if you're in the Raleigh area in early September. You'll be glad you did.