Flashlights will release their new album,
Bummer Summer, on June 24 via Hard Rock Records. In anticipation of the release
Impose Magazine is streaming the album in full the week before street date. Impose says, “Every song here tells a different story of difficulties, seasons of change, past friendships, and situations to see us through summer 2014.”
Bummer Summer is available for pre-order now at
iTunes. Earlier this spring,
Pure Volume premiered the lead track from the upcoming album, “Failure.” Pure Volume said, “Taking inspiration from ’90s indie heroes
Sebadoh, Archers of Loaf and
Superchunk, Flashlights’ riveting guitar pop continues to evolve in a big way on their upcoming full-length album.” Flashlights’ Terry Caudill told Pure Volume, “We’ve been waiting to release something new for so long! This track is about when your expectations fail you and it makes you sad. The ending is EPIC.” “Failure” is also available to stream and share via
SoundCloud.Flashlights also recorded the track for Balcony TV in Los Angeles. The sessions is streaming now at
YouTube. Look for Flashlights summer tour dates to be announced in the coming weeks.
Who exactly are Flashlights? They tour in a van and sleep on couches. They have a strange affinity for cats and Pokemon. They’re called Flashlights and they are a rather spectacular band from the decidedly unspectacular Brevard County, Florida. What began as a solo acoustic project for 24-year-old singer/guitarist Terry Caudill in 2007 has added various members from the local punk scene before settling on their current lineup of Tony Oriza on guitar, Will Powell on bass and Melissa Hopkins on drums.
They made a pretty good record in 2011 called I’m Not Alone and now they’ve just finished a new one. It’s called Bummer Summer and it’s even better. Produced by Scott Hutchison and Andy Monaghan of Frightened Rabbit, it’s full of songs about dead end jobs and lousy living conditions, heartbreaks and hangovers. And, of course, there are also songs about cats.
Creaky and hissy, you would be forgiven for confusing it with early Archers of Loaf, Superchunk orBuilt to Spill. Caudill’s voice has been favorably compared to the likes of Lou Barlow and Jeff Mangum. Bummer Summer lives up to its name but it also manages to find hilarity in humility and beauty in the bleak.
