A Sunny Day in Glasgow

Listeners tend to favor descriptors such as “ethereal,” “shoegazing,” and “ambient” when describing Philadelphia’s A Sunny Day in Glasgow. Comparisons with Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine, etc. surround and abound. And sure they’re true and fairly accurate, but for now let’s move on.

Besides being all of those things listed above (and not to be repeated anymore), A Sunny Day in Glasgow are essentially playing cool pop music (just with loads of reverb and unidentifiable electronic sonics), with full recognition and celebration that they are not going to win American Idol any time in the next century.

Instead, the band reminds me of 1995/1996, after all of my friends in Philadelphia seemingly abandoned the hardcore/emo scene in favor of the Cardigans’ album, Life, and Rollerskate Skinny. (Think maybe, Medicine’s Shot Forth Self Living, as a result of the collision.) Today, one might compare them to New York’s Asobi Seksu, though they pay a little more homage to club (meaning discotheque, break out your glowsticks) music than say, Sonic Youth.

It’s easy to hear this brother-sister-sister combo as starting in a bedroom with looped and layered song ideas that have now evolved into a dissonant Stereolab on club drugs. The songs are about ambiance (say it in the French way, rather in the Eno way), but are at their best when the dual vocals hook you in. (See “5:15 Train.”)

Be on the look out for a new record, called Tout New Age, available on July 10, 2007.

A Sunny Day in Glasgow play June 14 and 15rth in Brooklyn: Union Hall, Soundfix/loft party. See their website below for details.

Listen: “Watery (Drowning is Just Another Word for Being Buried Alive Under Water)“, “5:15 Train” from Scribble Mural Comic Journal available on Notenuf Records.

http://www.myspace.com/sunnydayinglasgow
http://www.asunnydayinglasgow.com/