HOLY WAVE
Share new single “Bog Song”
New album ‘Five of Cups’ out August 4th on Suicide Squeeze
Austin, Texas band Holy Wave share a new track from their forthcoming album ‘Five of Cups’, out August 4, 2023 on Suicide Squeeze Records.
Following the mellow psychedelia of recent track “Happier,” now Holy Wave continue to push their sound in an airy, ‘90s-indebted direction on new track “Bog Song”. The dreamy track is accompanied by a retro futuristic visual, put together by band member Ryan Fuson and animator Joshua Kirk Ryan.
Fusion comments: “Bog Song is a recounting of a trip I took with my dad in Idaho while he was guiding some elk hunters. I was both in awe of the landscape and wildlife while also feeling conflicted about our reasons for being in the mountains. I would sit in the dark, before the sun would come up, and look into the mountains and hills for elk. Sometimes seeing headlights cruising along some mountain road and I would wonder what their drivers intentions were and if the animals in those mountains ever watched headlights like those and wondered the same.”
Easily one of the most hypnotic arrangements you’ll discover. The track commences with the spacious drum beat and softer shuffle, joined by dazzling effects and this sweeping rhythm. The shuffles collide with the shifting atmosphere, forcing the direction to alternate and the vocal harmonies ooze character and this lo-fi appeal. The patterns give this delirious direction, weaving into the bed of lush textures and the hypnotic attributes that centre this composition.
In Tarot readings, the Five of Cups card signifies loss and grief. Depicting a cloaked figure with a bowed head looming over three spilled chalices while ignoring two remaining vessels, the Five of Cups is generally interpreted as representing a forlorn dwelling on the past and an inability to appreciate the positive things in the present. It was this card that struck a chord with Ryan Fuson, member of the Austin TX subversive subterranean pop outfit Holy Wave, during a Tarot reading at the height of the pandemic. “I was really sure that the music world was finished and it seemed like internet aggression and, well, aggression in general was at an all-time high, so I was ready to stop playing music,” Fuson says. “It could be so easy to become jaded and pessimistic and I had to really decide what perspective I was going to take.” Rather than abandon music, Fuson and his compatriots chose to immerse themselves in their work. Fittingly, the Tarot card became the muse for Holy Wave’s sixth full-length album—‘Five of Cups’.
Back at the beginning of their career, Holy Wave leaned into a tranquil realm of psychedelia, eschewing long-form jams and guitar heroics for a dreamy pop-oriented approach. As the band evolved, the early Sgt. Peppers-meets-the-Velvets sound yielded to more sophisticated melodies and tripped-out instrumentation, effectively steering their music away from sun-bleached nostalgia to a color-saturated dimension where sounds of the past, present, and future intermingled.
The childhood friends of Fuson, Joey Cook, Kyle Hager, and Julian Ruiz grew up in El Paso, where they cut their teeth in the local DIY scene. Hungry for more music and broader perspectives, the members made frequent road trips across the Southwest to catch touring bands who opted to skip West Texas markets. That wanderlust eventually prompted their relocation to Austin, but it also permeated in their adventurous songwriting and love for touring. No small surprise then that these aural explorers felt that a whole way of life was taken from them with the onset of the pandemic. But on ‘Five of Cups’, it sounds as if the physical limitations of quarantine life prompted Holy Wave to wander even deeper into new sonic territories.
As with the Tarot card from which it got its name, ‘Five of Cups’ is an acknowledgement of hardship and a reminder to embrace the joys available to us. And like early ‘70s Pink Floyd, Holy Wave have figured out how to conjure a sense of profound exhilaration out of pathos, filtering dark elements through a lens and bending them into a kaleidoscope of light.
Holy Wave’s ‘Five of Cups’ will be released via Suicide Squeeze on CD/LP/DSP on August 4, 2023.
‘Five of Cups’ tracklist:
1. The Five Of Cups
2. Bog Song
3. Chaparral
4. Path of Least Resistance
5. Nothing is Real
6. Hypervigilance
7. The Darkest Timeline
8. Nothing in the Dark
9. Happier
Live Dates:
Aug 8 – Andy’s – Denton, TX
Aug 9 – Opolis – Norman, OK
Aug 11 – Back Alley Ballyhoo – Indianapolis, IN
Aug 12 – JJs Bohemia – Chattanooga, TN
Aug 13 – Upstairs at Avondale – Birmingham, AL
Aug 15 – Alabama Music Box – Mobile, AL
Aug 16 – Continental Club – Houston, TX
Aug 17 – Paper Tiger – San Antonio, TX
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