Spiral XP (Seattle, or therabouts) is releasing "I Wish I Was a Rat" on Danger Collective Records in October. "Luna", the first single is "an ode to the moon" according to Max Keyes (who is also the drummer in Versing).
"Luna" hooked me immediately. In fact, the guitar and some of the background vocals made me think of a shoegaze version of Pavement.
We posted about Spiral XP nearly 1 1/2 years ago, and I still feel the Stars on Fire comparison works well. They collaborated as TVXP with fellow Seattle band TV Star on a digital EP. The first song, "Winter Song", recalls early era Pastels.
New Video: Spiral XP Shares "120 Minutes" MTV Alt Rock-like "Window Room"
New Video: Spiral XP Shares "120 Minutes" MTV Alt Rock-like "Window Room" @grandstandhq @DangerCoRecs
Back in early 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic caused the world ground down to a halt, singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Max Keyes abandoned a short-lived move to Philadelphia and returned home to Seattle. The false start helped to spark a sort of existential crisis, and he quickly moved back north to Bellingham, WA, where he’d grown up, hoping the sense of home might provide…
Spiral XP — I Wish I Was a Rat (Danger Collective)
Poised somewhere between, shoegaze, lo-fi indie and grunge, Spiral XP slashes a slow, serrated hole through murky textures. The riffs are monumentally heavy and blurred with dissonance, each surge of guitar bulging with muscular bravado. Still the songs float on a dream-like pillow, their yearning, minor key melodies flitting through diesel fumes and smoke. “Sinner,” one of the early singles, spins out in spirals from a thunderous foundation, the battering power of three heaving guitars leavened by circling, euphoric fluttering. Think MBV but hoarier, or Dinosaur Jr. wrapped in candy-colored rainbows, or Ovlov or Aluminum. It’s an onslaught swathed in tuneful yearning.
Spiral XP was, fittingly enough, birthed out of the pandemic in the Seattle suburb of Bellingham by one Max Keyes, a veteran of the rock band Versing but mostly known as drummer. In those isolation days, he turned to guitar and recorded two quick EPs (Drop Me In and It’s Been a While) and a collaboration with TV Star (TVXP). I Wish I Was a Rat is Spiral XP’s first full-band record, bringing in Lena Farr-Morrissey of Coral Grief on bass and vocals, Jordan Mang and Kyle McCollum to beef up the band’s wall of guitars and Daniel Byington on drums.
Keyes’ evolving partnership with Lena Farr-Morrissey seems especially fruitful. The bassist sings and gets a songwriting credit on the dream pop “Window Room,” which doesn’t so much tamp down the band’s obliterating roar and slather it over with icing. It’s loud as hell, but transporting, its woozy blasts of guitar melting down into static and blare as a haunting, chill-inducing vocals wafts idly by.
Spiral XP’s songs are built out of notes pushed to the bending point. The opening lick from “Awake” boings and recoils, the sounds sliding vertiginously off of true. And yet, the verse is mostly murmured, confided, spoken right into your ear. It’s overwhelming volume feels like it’s been delivered just for you, and aren’t you lucky that way?
I ran across this the other day, liked it and then it disappeared in the tidal wave that is Bandcamp. Thank to the great blog "Did Not Chart" it appeared back on my radar.
Spiral XP is a Washington-state band that features the work of Max Keyes (drummer for Seattle based band Versing). This is definitely woozy shoegaze inspired by My Bloody Valentine and Yo La Tengo - but the vocals remind me a bit of Calvin Johnson (Beat Happening) on a few songs (listen to "The End"). This also recalls the work of Stars on Fire.
Danger Collective Records (Los Angeles) is releasing "It's Been a While" on CD.
