As of late, i’ve been involved in musical projects which elude conventional description (e.g. rock n roll, hip hop, trap, etc.). These are some of the attempts at describing both of them.

Young Lovers

• “You should get in touch with your emotions.”
• “It’s like if Chet Baker played guitar in Mogwai.”
• “Underwater mermaid music.”
• “Intense.”
• “It’s pretty anime.”
• “Come to a show and then you’ll know.”
• “It’s like post-rock…?”
• “Just come to a show, trust me.”

REVERB LITE

• “Uh”
• “You know how VHS tapes are slightly purple when you play them back? Yeah it sounds like that.”
• “It’s kind of like demonic Japanese commercials.”
• “Real trap shit.”
• “It’s like being in a waiting room.”
• “Um”

Whenever I go to Young Lovers practice, I’m always really amazed at the sounds we manage to eke out of our relatively shitty equipment. Squier Strats and $3 plywood pedalboards forever.

A friend of mine just texted me about what music I used to play when I was in a certain band in middle school, and it got me thinking about how many bands i’ve ever been in, or at least temporarily been a part of. Here’s a list of all of them if you’d like to know.

1. A two-piece with this kid named David in the 5th grade. We played Weezer covers.
2. A 3 piece with a couple of kids from band from 7th to 8th grade. I remember us playing a Rush cover and being really proud that I could play the bassline to YYZ cause that shit is hard as fuq. The guitarist suggested we be named the “Free Radicials” but I thought it sounded too much like New Radicals who do that You Get What You Give song.
3. A 4 (?) piece with a couple of other kids who were not from band in 8th grade. All I remember is playing a cover of There, There by Radiohead, then playing at a party, and then quitting over ~myspace~.
4. A 6 piece jazz combo from 9th-12th grade. We tried writing our own songs, but then ended up practicing jazz standards most of the time. We never decided on a name, but we did consider the following: The Antique Wizards (not really), The San Fernando Valley Pseudo-Intellectuals, Mantra (I was really against this for some reason), The Synesthetics (I thought it sounded too much like the Eurythmics), and I think that’s about it. Most of our time was actually spent sliding down the mountains dividing Simi Valley and the San Fernando Valley in old sleds and shooting stuff with air rifles. Yeah.
5. A 3 piece psychedelic rock band with the drummer from the jazz combo. I don’t know if this counts because I only went to one practice. I decided not to join because I wanted to do other things.
6. A big band consisting of the best high school jazz musicians in Los Angeles County. I quit after one practice because I hated the band director, so I don’t know if this counts either.
7. A 4 piece jazz-funk band jokingly named Affirmative Action because of our unintended diversity. We had a black drummer, a Persian guitarist, a Jewish saxophonist, a Nicaraguan/Native American trombone player, and me, a Fiilipino bassist. This is the band I played with and took first place with at the Club Nokia’s Battle of the Bands. Other places we’ve played: A Rite-Aid.
8. A two-piece drone metal shoegaze cover band called Moon Phases with Gawby Weinstein, currently of Ghost Noise. We covered a lot of really good pop songs (Somebody’s Baby, etc.) and performed once at our practice space.
9. A three-piece one-off band called The Wild Individuals with John Connolly, currently of Ghost Noise, and Robyn Agito, a friend of ours who has a really sweet Fender Strat. This lineup was chosen at random from scraps of paper with all of our friends’s names on them. After one month, all of the resulting bands played a show at our practice space just to see what would come out. This was the first band I ever played drums for.
10. A 3 piece project called REVERB LITE. We make vaporwave. You can check us out here.
11. A 4 (maybe 5?) piece post-rock/dreampop/feelings band called Young Lovers. My current band and my personal favorite of all the projects. You can check us out here. We will probably have some ~real~ recordings in the near future plus some fly ass merch, so stay tuned for that. After about a year, I still don’t know how to describe what we sound like.

Holy shit that took a lot longer than I thought it would. Ah well.

• Cover Wham! at a show.

More blisters on me fingaz. Good practice today.

A possible candid, lo-fi recording of a Young Lovers practice session on its way? More on that when I wake up later today.

Writing: done. Now we just have to record.