Week in Pop: Dinowalrus, Kate Grom, Versing

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Vassals

Catching up with The Vassals; press photo courtesy of the band.
Catching up with The Vassals; press photo courtesy of the band.

Brooklyn’s Vassals delivered the single of local lore & allure via “SoHo” featured off the upcoming Halogen Days EP available April 7. Lead by Shay Spence, the sounds of the city & the thrills of the weekend invite you to listen & indulge further. The enthralled sentiments that revolve around the notion of “I want to feel alright” are met with a series of introspection sections that mull over the inward fleeting sentiments where introverted & extroverted aspects collide in an explosion of spinning city lights.

Newfound fans of Vassals are also encouraged to indulge in the visuals for “SoHo” that offers up a wealth of psychedelic oddities that are sure to awaken all the senses.

Shay Spence shared the following inspirations that informed “SoHo” along with insights on the making of the upcoming Halogen Days EP:

It was one of those winters where all the big-box shops on that strip of Broadway blast their central heat and lite house out open doors. I had been living in NYC for a couple of years, was shopping on my one day off and having a real hard time. There was this wedding or engagement party or something and I was hoping to show up as anything other than my threadbare struggling self. I was dizzy with swatches and price tags, my body always unexpected in the dressing room mirror, all of Europe and the outer boroughs were there. I was probably starving. The bodies and bags and coats, the extreme temperatures, the painful awareness of being so middle class, it all added up into one of the first moments I thought, well New York definitely hates me.
Halogen Days feels like our most together recordings yet, so it’s funny that most of the songs have to do with being alone (but not lonely though). Alone in a crowd, alone at home, repeating phrases and actions until they start to resonate and generate this useful magic. The sound of the band on the record totally reflects that in its repetition and intensity.