Psych pop trio The New Lines love a good concept album. According to the label’s description, the band’s latest record, Fall In Line (out now on Moon Glyph), tells the story of “a glowing and awe-inspiring alien Princess Kaguya, exiled from the Moon, and discovered in an East Asian bamboo thicket circa World War II.” I would imagine that Dennis Deyoung, lead singer of Styx, is very jealous right about now. But this isn’t some bloated prog rock nonsense (no offense Styx). The New Lines infuse their oddly involving narrative with enough shimmering fretwork and swirling Moog oscillations to fill an entire Nuggets compilation.
On their most recent singles, “The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter” and “The Frog Whisperer,” we get a sliver of the picture of Princess Kaguya and her misadventures on Earth. Trailing twin eddies of psychedelic guitar and 60’s synth lines behind them, these two tracks speak to the band’s abilities to filter their own influences through a modern interpretation of the classics – the classics in this case being bands like The Count Five and The Incredible String Band. But don’t call it revisionist history; there’s far too much reverence here to dismiss these tracks as simple mimicry. The New Lines may work within familiar sounds but they never feel anchored to any one genre or artist. Listen to both tracks below.
