MP3: Light Pollution – “Oh, Ivory”
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 has recently finished up their full length debut, Apparitions 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
05/17 – Cleveland, OH Grog Shop ~
05/18 – Hoboken, NJ Maxwell’s ~
05/19 – New York, NY Bowery Ballroom ~
05/21 – Providence, RI Jerky’s Music Hall ~
05/22 – Clifton Park, NY Northern Lights ~
06/04 – Chicago, IL Lincoln Hall#
06/05 – Toronto, ON Rivoli Cabaret#
06/06 – Montreal, QC Petit Campus#
06/07 – Allston, MA Great Scott#
06/08 – Brooklyn, NY Knitting Factory#
06/09 – New York, NY Mercury Lounge#
06/10 – Washington, D.C. DC9#
06/11 – Philadelphia, PA Kung Fu Necktie#
06/12 – Pittsburgh, PA Brillobox ^ !
06/13 – Lawrence, KS The Jackpot Saloon+
06/15 – Denver, CO Larimer Lounge
06/16 – Salt Lake City, UT Kilby Court
06/18 – Visalia, CA Cellar Door@
06/19 – Fresno, CA Audie’s Olympic@
06/20 – San Francisco, CA Richshaw Stop@
06/21 – Portland, OR Doug Fir@
06/22 – Vancouver, BC 917 Main@
06/23 – Seattle, WA Vera Project@
06/25 – San Jose, CA Blank Club@
06/26 – Los Angeles, CA Spaceland@
06/27 – San Diego, CA Casbah
06/28 – Phoenix, AZ Trunk Space
06/30 – Austin, TX Emo’s Jr.
07/01 – Frisco, TX Lochranns
07/09 – Louisville, KY Forecastle Festival %
07/11 – Chicago, IL West Fest *
# = w/ This Will Destroy You
@ = w/ A Place To Bury Strangers
~ = w/ Phantogram
+ = w/ Holy F***
^ = w/ Neon Indian
! = w/ Wild Nothing
% = w/ Flaming Lips, Massive Attack, Spoon, Devo, Cap’n Jazz and more
* = w/ Small Black
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