stephen @stephensprout - Tumblr Blog

5/19/25.

Another of Slumberland's excellent new releases - "Thinking, Dreaming, Scheming!" is the 2nd LP from Long Branch, New Jersey band lightheaded.

This time around lightheaded seem to be leaning into their love of The Aislers Set (Alicia Vanden Heuvel recorded tracks 3 and 4). Gary Olson (The Ladybug Transistor) recorded tracks 1 and 2, and Mikey Young mastered this.

I'll let the Bandcamp page take care of the comparisons since whoever wrote it probably listened to the whole album while you and I are currently only privy to track one:

lightheaded "have the sunshine sparkle of The Left Banke and Margo Guryan, the C86 charm of Dolly Mixture and Would-Be-Goods, and the cinematic swell of Belle & Sebastian and Camera Obscura." And since I've been listening to a lot of Barbara Manning, she deserves a mention as well.

bandcampsnoop

3/14/24.

lightheaded are a 3-piece band from Long Branch, New Jersey. Their cassette release last year on Slumberland. It received a fair amount of attention and rightfully so. It's great indie pop with a 60s flair. Now, the band is set to release a full LP on vinyl no less.

In an interview in 2021, the band described their influences as such:

We love The Pastels, mark that down first. Probably the reason we started the band. They set the template. The Feelies, New Jersey legends. Got to mention them. Stephen used to live in the same town as Stan! Dwight Twilley and Phil Seymour, we love all the sorta one-off power pop bands! Felt are very special to us. Belle and Sebastian. The Clientele’s first couple records... The Go-Betweens never missed... just cut us off now, we’ll take up the whole interview.

I still really feel there is a clear Aislers Set/Tele Novella sound going on here.

stephensprout

Definitely cool about hearing the Aislers Set inspo. We are recording with Alicia soon, so hopefully that only adds to it 😌

velocitypossessed-blog

Visit Original Link

Tiger Trap “Sour Grass”

I’m surprised no one has done a reissue of this ep. I hope it’s on K Records’ list of priorities to make this available to the public again.

stephensprout

Gonna ask Rose about this

annaxmalina

{2023} untitled (prominences) lumen & chemigram

daggerzine

Lightheaded- Good Good Great! (Slumberland)

I don’t know much about this band except that they are the trio of Cynthia, Stephen, and Sara (Erin helps out, too) they’re fairly new and they hail from my native New Jersey.

There are only five songs here, but each song has its own distinct personality, and they all come fully formed (In other words, this doesn’t sound like a demo tape, and they sound like they've been at it for a while, but not sure they have).

The opening song, "Mercury Girl" zings and bounces right from the get-go while “The Garden” sounds like it could’ve come straight out of some obscure 1960s West Coast folk-pop band. “Patti Girl” is apparently an obscure cover but it sounds like it could be a Lightheaded original.

They save their epic best for last with the gorgeous “Love Is Overrated” which unfolds beautifully over four and a half minutes.

Slumberland have a real winner here and I can’t wait to hear what they do next.

www.areyoulightheaded.bandcamp.com

www.slumberlandrecords.com

#thank u

bandcampsnoop

9/8/23.

Today is the 2,500th post.

Slumberland has been really active lately. I love that they're releasing work by lesser known bands. I'd never heard of New Jersey based band lightheaded.

Their Bandcamp descriptor says they're power poppin their way through their music. I wouldn't describe this as power pop, and I'm not sure I would describe it as pop. It is definitely indie pop of a certain sort - it immediately made me think of The Aislers Set and Comet Gain and Tele Novella. Slumberland mentions the songwriting of Curt Boettcher (check out the new Sundazed LP of Sandy Salisbury and Curt Boettcher).

I love that the name of the album is "Good Good Great". Indeed.

stephensprout

🌝