January tends to be thought of as the most miserable month of the year – after all the build up to Christmas (with Christmas adverts seemingly starting earlier every year) it’s all over leaving us skint and overweight, dark mornings, short days and generally rubbish weather (even by UK standards) coupled with giving up everything we enjoy in the vain hope of losing all that extra weight, can indeed make it a pretty miserable month that seems to go on, and on, and on and, well you get the picture.
But as a music fan I’ve always found it quite an optimistic month.
From about November, pretty much the only albums being released are greatest hits albums and rubbish Christmas cash-in albums that people would only ever buy as Christmas presents (and the recipients no doubt fake enthusiasm and put in a drawer never to be listened to) so January is a time to look forward to all the new albums being released towards the tail end of the month, just in time for your January pay cheque!
Of course with streaming services, album releases aren’t such a big issue as there is plenty music waiting to be discovered at any time of the year, but one thing that is still relevant are tour announcements.
My first scheduled gig of the year isn’t until the end of January, so it gives me lots of opportunity to reflect on some of the great bands I discovered last year, and check out the touring schedules for some likely highlights of 2020.
The first one to really grab my attention is Chicago’s Beach Bunny.
Musically, their uplifting, bright surf pop is just the thing to remind us that sunnier days are ahead!
Lyrically, Lili Trifilio reminds me a little of David Gedge from the Wedding Present (aside from being Female and American obviously!) in that most of her songs seem to be about getting dumped and/or unrequited love.
But hey, this is 2020, so no point in me trying to describe what they sound like, even if I was any good at painting word pictures that capture the essence of a band, so let’s take a listen instead!
(the actual song starts at 56 seconds so you might want to skip ahead – if you like the music then it’s well worth watching from the beginning. If you don’t like this tune, you may as well stop reading now!)
This is probably my favourite track so far. They just seem to be having so much fun in the video, and it’s a nice catchy tune which is infectious. With over 800,000 views on YouTube, it seems a lot of people are starting to discover them.
Another super-catchy pop song that wouldn’t have been out of place in the 90s. According to someone on the youtube comments she wrote it about her platonic love for her bandmates. Might not be true, but cute if it is!
This is their “big hit” (at least, in terms of YouTube views and Spotify streams) with over 6.5 million views since it’s end of December 2018 release, and a whopping 35 million streams on spotify. Not sure if it’s been featured on telly or in an advert or something, I can’t find anything on google, but if it’s purely from going Viral then that’s an impressive number of views/listens for an artist who isn’t on a major corporate record label AFAIK!
And this is the current single, the first from their upcoming album “Honeymoon”:
and here’s a pretty cool acoustic session:
Their Bio says:
“♡ Beach Bunny is the singer-songwriter project and stage name of Lili Trifilio, with tunes reminiscent of alt-pop and “sadgirl” music, beginning in 2015. Adding backing musicians Matt Henkels (guitar) and Jon Alvarado (drums) to her live performances in 2017, Beach Bunny is a Chicago act you don’t want to miss.
From people falling head over heels for Lili’s sweet voice and catchy composition style, her latest release Crybaby took Chicago by storm. Drawing inspiration from heartache, her brother fighting cancer, struggles of being a female in the scene, and everyday obstacles – you can listen to Beach Bunny on almost every streaming platform.”
Shame to hear about her brother, let’s hope he’s doing well.
Here’s more info on the band’s journey so far:
The Chicago Tribute declared them to be “the coolest band to come out of Chicago in a very long time.”
(Click here to view the article, but you will need a VPN if you are outside the US)
@BeachBunnyMusic on Facebook
Their new album “Honeymoon” is released on 14th February (Valentine’s day, of course!)
Beach Bunny’s UK tour dates are:
Sunday 7th June: Glasgow – The Hug and Pint
Monday 8th June: Manchester – YES! Basement
Wednesday 10th June: London – Boston Music Room upgraded to The Dome, Tufnell Park due to high demand.
Support from San Francisco’s Field Medic:
Tickets on sale now – don’t delay though as these are relatively small venues and apparently tickets are flying out!
