Midwesterners often feel obligated to apologize for/complain about their landscape. Chicago’s Light Pollution does not. The contrasting feelings of wonderment and isolation evoked by the frozen Midwestern plains deeply pervade their sound.
23-year-old songwriter James Michael Cicero grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, the son of Italian and Spanish Catholics. His grandfather was a first-generation Spanish immigrant trumpet player who moved to Chicago to lead a Big Band; aspirations that did not ensure financial stability. As a result, when Cicero bought his first guitar at the age of seventeen, his father took to locking it in the attic.
Cicero left for college in Dekalb, IL, met drummer Matt Evert, obsessively wrote songs in class, and soon dropped out. Over the following years, the two honed their skills and sensibilities, eventually acquiring Nick Sherman and Jed Robertson; evolving into what is now Light Pollution.
Swirling analog synths, shimmering arpeggios, and washed out tape noise are embedded into combinations of 90’s shoegaze, chillwave, and vocal psych-pop. Thanks to a unique blend of hi-fi and lo-fi tracking and their Midwestern demeanor, they are able to create hazy, psychedelic, layered sounds that set them apart from recent waves of lo-fi pop bands.
Light Pollution is finishing up their full length debut, due out on Carpark this summer. Cicero wrote the album over the course of a long, stoned, agoraphobic winter spent isolated in a heatless warehouse west of Chicago.
LIGHT POLLUTION
03/09 – Iowa City, IA The Mill
03/10 – Des Moines, IA Vaudeville Mews (early)
03/10 – Ames, IA Ames Progressive (late)
03/11 – Lawrence, KS Replay Lounge
03/12 – Lincoln, NE Knickerbocker’s
03/13 – Kansas City, MO The Brick
03/14 – Tulsa, OK Sound Pony
03/15 – Houston, TX Super Happy Fun Land
03/16 – Denton, TX JnJ’s
03/17 – SXSW No Words / Day Bow Bow @ Ghost Room
03/18 – SXSW Hype Machine’s Lose Control @ Vice
03/18 – SXSW Two Syllable Acoustic Show @ Hideout Cafe
03/18 – SXSW Carpark / Paw Tracks @ Wave
03/19 – SXSW @ Justine’s
03/19 – SXSW Consequence of Sound @ Republic Live
03/20 – SXSW In-store @ End of an Ear Records
03/20 – SXSW Fast Folks @ The Gas Pipe Smoke Shop
03/21 – Wichita, KS Rock Island Live
03/22 – Springfield, MO The Outland Ballroom
03/23 – Columbia, MO Mojo’s
03/24 – St. Louis, MO Off Broadway
03/25 – Indianapolis, IN Local’s Only (MOKB & Scion event, free show!)
03/26 – Chicago, IL Mopery Loft
03/31 – Columbus, Ohio Wexner Center &
04/01 – Chicago, IL Bottom Lounge *
04/08 – Minneapolis, MN Hexagon Bar
04/09 – Northfield, MN The Cave @ Carlton College
04/17 – Bloomington, IN WIUX Culture Shock #
04/26 – Philadelphia, PA Johnny Brenda’s
04/28 – Washington, DC Black Cat Backstage !
04/30 – Brooklyn, NY Glasslands $
# = w/ Best Coast
% = w/ Casiotone for the Painfully Alone
& = w/ Deerhunter
* = w/ Woodhands
! = w/ Willowz
$ = w/ Memoryhouse
Light Pollution
Apparitions
(Carpark)
Street Date: June 8, 2010
1. Good Feelings
2. Oh, Ivory!
3. Drunk Kids
4. Fever Dreams
5. Deyci, Right On
6. Bad Vibes
7. All Night Outside
8. Witchcraft
9. Ssslowdreamsss
LIGHT POLLUTION LINKS:
MySpace: myspace.com/lightpollution
Press Materials: carparkrecords.com/pollutionpresspage