Sun Atoms announces debut LP & shares the colorfully animated video for “Don’t Take Me To Your Leader” via MXDWN
Let There Be Light is due 10/1 via Little Cloud Records (US) + The Acid Test Recordings (EU)
[click here to pre-order the LP]
WATCH: “Don’t Take Me To Your Leader” –
YouTube / MXDWN / Spotify / Apple
Today the Portland band Sun Atoms are announcing their debut LP and sharing the lead single/video, “Don’t Take Me To Your Leader,” which is a wildly colorful animated video that focuses on the main character’s ever-changing evolution. MXDWN has the premiere. Let There Be Light is due out on October 1st, 2021 via Little Cloud Records (US) + The Acid Test Recordings (EU).
Band leader, Jsun Atoms, gave some words on the new video/single:
“The vision for the video was that we begin with a single-celled creature that evolves into various stages as the music changes. The classic evolution posters of monkeys, Neanderthals, and humans were discussed as a model, but we didn’t think any of this evolution would be particularly linear or traditional. All sorts of alien forms happen along the way, and individual limbs or features evolve before others do. The idea was that the backdrop would be one long continuous path, ever-changing just like the creature itself. Foreground art would pass, also. The song has such a flow to it, and it’s steady enough rhythmically, that Casey thought something meditative and slow but also constantly changing would be a good fit. Perhaps halfway through our beast evolves into something sorta humanoid, or a few variations on a humanoid, but then it would become something else entirely. Musically, we love the masterful way Stephen Street mixed the flute with baritone sax, soprano sax, and sopranino sax as the song concludes.”
Bio:
The Boston Globe called Jsun’s music “Dreamy and decadent in all the right places.” Sun Atoms is the debut solo effort from Portland, Oregon’s Jsun Atoms. Produced by The Dandy Warhols’ guitar pedal maestro Peter Holmström and mixed by London’s legendary Stephen Street (Blur, The Smiths, The Cranberries). The rich pedigree is evident in this 8 song LP, Let There Be Light, coming out October 1st on Little Cloud Records in the USA and The Acid Test Recordings in Europe. The album opener is a kaleidoscopic collaboration with The Black Angels’ Alex Maas on vocals and Mellotron. At the center of the Sun, atoms under intense pressure from gravity undergo a process. This album is an incredible combination of psychedelic dark wave and postmodern pop due in part to some first-rate guest performances including the leader of Brooklyn’s The Vandelles, Jasno Swarez, producer Peter Holmström (Pete International Airport, The Dandy Warhols), Gregg Williams (Sheryl Crow, Blitzen Trapper), St. Louis beat boss drummer Bob Mild, and Sacramento punks Pets, to name a few. The genres bend and blend song to song through such luminary influences as Love and Rockets, Moon Duo, The Cure, Nick Cave, Spiritualized, and Leonard Cohen.
Sun Atoms’ bands (The Upsidedown, Daydream Machine) have been tour support for The Jesus and Mary Chain, Black Rebel Motorcylce Club, Allah-Las, and Luna. My Bloody Valentine’s Colm Ó Ciosóig and Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval picked Atoms’ music for their Brooklyn Vegan playlist and had his band open for them on tour. The Dandy Warhols’ have had Sun Atoms’ bands as main support in Australia, Canada, and several tours of the States. He has also performed several times at The Black Angels’ Levitation Festival, SXSW, and Joshua Tree’s Desert Stars Festival. Sun Atoms spent the pandemic year in the studio with long time collaborator Peter Holmström, crafting the songs and sending files back and forth from London, Brooklyn, Austin, and Sacramento. The vision comes from the sun being at what is thought of as the center of our solar system, but the sun, like other stars, is a ball of gas. Atoms’ music has been featured in more than 40 television shows and movies including Sons of Anarchy on FX, Ray Donovan on Showtime, Animal Kingdom on TNT, and True Blood on HBO. Magnet Magazine said of Atoms earlier works, “the shoegazing vortex that sucks you in never lets go.” Sun Atoms curated the most recent Portland PyschFest, bringing together acts from as far away as Sao Paolo, Brazil to support Los Angeles headliners The Warlocks and Dead Meadow. Atoms’ music is currently featured in the award winning arthouse movie “Neolovismo” recently nominated for Best Film and Best Screenplay at the Milan International Film Festival. Sun Atoms will be performing Friday, October 22nd at the Star Theater in Portland and Saturday Oct. 23rd at the Lo-Fi Performance Gallery in Seattle.
press photo credit: Heather Boyd
Tour Dates
9/22 – 9/26 @ Treefort Music Fest – Boise, ID
Sun Atoms
Let There Be Light
Little Cloud Records (US) + The Acid Test Recordings (EU)
[click here to pre-order]
Street Date: October 1, 2021
Track List:
1. The Cat’s Eye
2. Half Robot Half Butterfly
3. Captain Tunnel Vision
4. Don’t Take Me to Your Leader
5. Super Switch Kid
6. Fell for You
7. Two Wolves and a Lamb Voted on What’s for Dinner
8. Praying Mantis
SUN ATOMS LINKS: