#painted shrines

[jazznoisehere]

Painted Shrines: Heaven And Holy (Woodsist, 2021)

Artwork - Sophy Hollington

[bandcampsnoop]

5/10/21.

Is it really possible that Glenn Donaldson (Painted Shrines, The Reds, Pinks, & Purples) is releasing another record?

Yes, yes it is.

Vacant Gardens (Bay Area, California based...I assume) is a collaboration between Donaldson and Jem Fanvu.  “Obscene” is their second release (check out the order page at Tall Texan Records).  I was reminded by this release because Monorail Music is selling the record in their shop and online.  In fact, why not let the writers at Monorail take it from here:

“...guitar noise wall married with an angelic vocal from Fanvu that glitters in counterpoint to the stringed distortion like Hope Sandoval or, in the way it shines bright in the fog, like Jonsi's surfing the surging waves of emotion in early Sigur Ros...Vacant Gardens' music suggests oceanic feelings, a hazy intergalactic consciousness that burbles beneath the surface of everything while also touching the visceral points in the human heart that makes groups like Galaxie 500, Yo La Tengo so timeless.”

[milesbutterball]

Watch "Panoramic" on YouTube

[speakers77]

[dustedmagazine]

Painted Shrines — Heaven and Holy (Woodsist)

Jeremy Earl and Glenn Donaldson have a lot in common. Through Woods and Skygreen Leopards both pursue a wavery, hazed over interpretation of classic guitar pop, bending jangle towards mysticism and couching gentle narratives with a faint wistfulness. Earl has a distinctive wispy falsetto that makes his strummed folk sound ghostly, but Donaldson also haunts the ethereal boundaries of guitar pop. They’re a good pair, even if Earl seems a bit more dominant. You’d know it was him without anyone saying so. For Donaldson, you have to dig in a little deeper, into the brash and raucous rock drumming, the NZ lofi haze, the careless melancholy.

The sung cuts are especially Woods-like. “Gone,” the first single framed Earl’s yearning voice with a mesh of strumming, a bright line of electric guitar melody stabbing up through the miasma. Earl leads, vocally, picking up soft harmonies that multiply the song’s sadness in a lovely chorus. A thread of organ, probably Donaldson, weaves through the mix. A tambourine shakes in a disconsolate version of abandon. It is bittersweet, sad/happy ambiguous like all the best pop songs and like most of the work of both principals.

The pair takes a few more liberties in the instrumental cuts, like the hand-drummed, space-whirring “Panoramic,” which zings and rambles with late Beatles mysticism, occasionally interrupted by electric guitar skree from somewhere far away. “Pacem In Terris” is similarly Eastern-slanted, its splayed, sitar-ish guitar sounds framed by the hiss and pop of electronics, and “Soft Wasp” is quite possibly, the best song on the album, sliced through by anthemic guitar chords (which sound very Donaldson to me), stirred into motion by intricate, hand-slapped drum rhythms, melodic but not in a contrived, hum-me-now way, atmospheric and lovely.

Donaldson has been extremely busy during the last year, pairing up with Earl in Painted Shrines and finding some fruitful alone time for his own Red Pinks and Purples project. He disappears into the scenery somewhat in Painted Shrines, but it’s good scenery, and if you like Woods you’ll enjoy this record. If you’re team Skygreen Leopards, however, you might want to wait for that Red Pink and Purples record, which is very good and all Donaldson.  

Jennifer Kelly

[yellowsnow77]

Painted Shrines - Heaven and Holy

Painted Shrines – Heaven and Holy

Painted Shrines es el dúo formado por Jeremy Earl de Woods, y Glenn Donaldson, de The Skygreen Leopards, y más recientemente, The Reds, Pinks and Purples. Y claro, viniendo de estos dos geniecillos, es imposible que por aquí salga algo mal. Estamos ante uno de los trabajos más deliciosos y brillantes de lo que llevamos de año. Y eso que es un proyecto que hicieron en una semana de 2018 y que…

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[madmackerel]

Painted Shrines - Heaven And Holy

Painted Shrines – Heaven And Holy

We recently shared the lovely, wistful track Gone from Painted Shrines new album Heaven And Holy. The record is a collaboration between Jeremy Earl (Woods) & Glenn Donaldson (Skygreen Leopards, The Reds, Pinks & Purples) who met sometime in the mid-aughts and bonded over a love of tambourines and DIY sounds. Back in 2018 over a week together they emerged with nearly an album’s worth of hazy…

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[mxdwn]

Painted Shrines Share Tranquil New Song “Not So Bad”

https://music.mxdwn.com/2021/02/23/news/painted-shrines-share-tranquil-new-song-not-so-bad/