Check out the Soundafide Monthly playlist, a project featuring our Artist of the Month, Bedridden.
At the end of last year, Stereogum released a gargantuan passion-project of an article titled “The New Wave of American Shoegaze.”
While the piece was met with mixed reactions from the included band’s themselves, it showcased scene heavyweights, like They Are Gutting A Body of Water (TAGABOW) and Wednesday, as well as promising up-and-coming acts such as Greg Freeman (check out our recent feature) and Hotline TNT.
One group that missed out on all the noisy guitar attention, is the Brooklyn alt-rock-shoegaze band, Bedridden. The group’s debut EP, Amateur Heartthrob, was released at the end of January, about a month after the article was published.
Straddling a plethora of 90’s rock influences, and modern gaze innovations, Bedridden finds solace in deliberate surges of chaotic distortion.
From his first thrift-store-found guitar, a Christmas present with Kurt Cobain’s name engraved on it, to his hardcore background, Bedridden’s frontman, Jack Riley, has had multiple phases with music.
Riley said that Bedridden previously appeared as a four-piece band in New Orleans with “MBV-like poppy shoegaze songs … still with the same driving guitar, but … more melodic, not as punky.”
When he moved to New York about three years ago, he had a rude awakening and started to write differently based on his surroundings. In a culmination of this experience, Amateur Hearttrob is “less dreamy and fun, and a little more personal.”
The intro track, a misty abstraction named “Logger,” smolders with emotional-stress while lyrics touch on an innocent love interest that sours over time.
The song’s poisoned admiration is represented in the seemingly-innocent line “autograph the back of my lunchbox.” The lyric means a lot to Riley personally, encapsulating a specific moment, while also appearing as a tongue-in-cheek artist bio on multiple streaming services.
Long-suffering guitar lines strife effectively, while Riley’s at-odds delivery is as disdained as it is regretful while singing the conclusive lyrics:
“Leave your junk in the car
I clean it out every Sunday anyways
My flashlight just burnt out
I’m not afraid of the dark anymore
Drive slowly (x4)
Grow lonely”
Distorions bleeds over into the following track, “Clara’s Mouth.” The lead single captures the feeling of spinning out of control with a submersive, undulating guitar melody worth thousands of headphone listens in private moments.
The soft-spoken chorus twinkles, before an angular guitar part welcomes a fume of distortion and listeners are immersed within the downcast verses once again.
The release comes from Julia’s War Records, a community based record label run by TAGABOW lead singer, Doug Dulgarian. With the support from Julia’s War, and the accompanying Philadelphia scene of thriving left-field shoegaze acts, the group looks forward to their next record tentatively set to release this summer.
For the time being, stream Amateur Heartthrob on Spotify, Apple Music or Bandcamp.
