Fresh off of their signing with Matador, indie pop chaos agents Water From Your Eyes have announced upcoming LP Everyone’s Crushed, out May 26. First single “Barley” finds Nate Amos (he/him) and Rachel Brown (they/them) freewheeling with pop stylistics akin to a vibrant Rothko painting, splashing around chopped synth stabs, sweeping rhythms and blasé incantations. It sounds like the Sonic Youth/Animal Collective crossover that never happened.
“Barley is a rhythmic sound collage experiment drawing from modern classical, classic rock, and dance music,” the band comment. “The lyrics suggest repeated futile attempts at attaining the unattainable and allude to Sting and Sonic Youth. The video mirrors these concepts in scope, texture, and variety – juxtaposing feelings of entrapment and late stage capitalism against the sense of freedom inherent to the vast American landscape. Despite all this heady bullshit the song is, at its core, fun.”
You can always count on Brown and Amos to treat recording like a nifty science project, jumping triumphantly into pop music’s what ifs with a devil-may-care glee. In the press release they name dropped Japanese synth pop legend Haruomi Hosono and avant-gardist Glenn Branca, which tells you something about the sonic scope Water From Your Eyes wrap their tendrils around. For context, fantastic predecessor Structure contained industrial wave bangers and Burt Bacharach-esque chamber pop, so it’s probably best to allow oneself to be joyously blindsided once again.
Watch the Brown-directed video for “Barley” below, and find the song on streaming outlets.
Follow Water From Your Eyes on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Starting March, Water From Your Eyes will hit the road across the US supporting Snail Mail:
16/3 Brooklyn, NY Residency Night #1 at Secret Location w Sweet Baby Jesus & Kolb
24/3 Brooklyn, NY Residency Night #2 at P.I.T. w Fantasy of a Broken Heart
31/3 Brooklyn, NY – Residency Night #3 at Melody Lanes Bowling Night
7/4 Iowa City, IA at Mission Creek Festival
8/4 Omaha, NE at Slowdown *
10/4 Fort Collins, CO at Aggie Theatre *
11/4 Boulder, CO at Fox Theatre *
12/4 Salt Lake City, UT at Soundwell *
13/4 Las Vegas, NV at AREA15 *
14/4 Bakersfield, CA at Temblor Brew #
15/4 Oakland, CA at Eli’s #
16/4 San Luis Obispo, CA at Fremont Theater *
18/4 Reno, NV at Cargo Concert Hall *
19/4 Roseville, CA at Goldfield Trading Post +
20/4 Santa Cruz, CA at Rio Theatre +
21/4 Los Angeles, CA at Zebulon #
22/4 Phoenix, AZ at Trunk Space #
23/4 Flagstaff, AZ at Yucca North *
24/4 El Paso, TX at Lowbrow Palace *
25/4 Albuquerque, NM at Sister *
27/4 Oklahoma City, OK at Jones Assembly *
28/4 Fayetteville, AR at George’s Majestic Lounge *
29/4 Memphis, TN at Black Lodge *
1/5 Indianapolis, IN at The Vogue *
2/5 Cincinnati, OH at Woodward Theater *
4/5 Morgantown, WV at 123 Pleasant Street *
5/5 Richmond, VA at Friday Cheers *
6/5 Winston-Salem, NC at The Ramkat *
7/5 Atlanta, GA at Shaky Knees
24/6 Calgary, AB at Sled Island
* w/ Snail Mail & Dazy
# w/ Dazy
