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(photo by Jen Dessinger)
Today, Washington, DC trio Flasher announce their debut album, Constant Image, which will be released June 8th via Domino Recording Co. They’ve also shared a new single and video, “Pressure.” Recorded in 2017 at Rare Book Room in Brooklyn, NY, Constant Image was produced by Nicolas Vernhes (Animal Collective, Deerhunter, War On Drugs) and crackles with invention. This isn’t the sound of a band finding their feet, it’s the rare sound of three people – Taylor Mulitz on guitar, bassist Daniel Saperstein and drummer Emma Baker – who know exactly what they want to achieve from the start.
From their hometown of Washington, DC, with its rich history of idiosyncratic underground music, Flasher has emerged at the forefront of a vibrant musical present. The Sister Polygon label (which Mulitz helps run with former bandmates Priests) is a vital element in this moment of local cultivation and political confrontation. With their new LP, Flasher is helping to define a new generation of music in the city set apart from Dischord or any other storied DC past.
First single “Pressure” gives you a perfect example of what to expect. It’s a song that zeroes in on feelings of mania and alienation but is buoyed by a darting B-52s swagger. There’s weight and lightness here. It’s not often a debut album arrives in so complete a form but when it does you know you’ve got something special on your hands.
Says the band on “Pressure” and its’ video:
“Pressure” is a song that treads the line between queer delight and delirium, and crushing isolation and survival. The video for “Pressure”, made in collaboration with Weird Life films and featuring designer and Chicago based artist An Authentic Skidmark, is a compliment to the paradox of the song itself and an invitation to that world in between.”
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One of the many things I love about Levitation Austin is how it brings in bands from all over the world that I probably wouldn’t have discovered otherwise. One such band is Vuelveteloca from Chile. They’re part of the apparently large psychedelic rock scene there, and I’m keen on hearing these guys live. Psych rock is always a mind trip, and hearing it from unexpected places tends to make it trippier. They’re playing April 27th at 10:30 at Barracuda.
