Your Underdog Show of the Week: Alex G, Elvis Depressedly and Foxes in Fiction at Shea Stadium
Summer is waning, so let’s head indoors. Specifically, on Saturday, into a dingy East Williamsburg loft that’s home to the exact sagging thrift-store couch you had in college. That’s where you did all your thinking, dreaming and feeling, yes? Fittingly, the show in question, featuring three label mates from Brooklyn’s mighty mouse Orchid Tapes, is an aggregate of bummed-out pop cut three distinct ways.
Formed in the light of Atlas Sound and Slowdive, Foxes in Fiction fools you into thinking otherwise by swaddling sadness in prettiness. The forthcoming album, Ontario Gothic, stems from main man (and Orchid Tapes co-proprietor) Warren Hildebrand coping with the death of his brother, but the stretches of strings (in part courtesy of household violinist Owen Pallett) and slow-building synths suggest rebirth and aspiration.
As for Elvis Depressedly, it’s right there in the name. Last year’s Holo Pleasures is (1) my favorite EP released in 2013 (2) includes a song called “Okay,” in which frontman Mathew Lee Cothran suggests he’s anything but, and (3) follows it with “Pepsi/Coke Suicide,” a lo-fi ballad shuffling through the line, “Kill me as I become the dull aching heart of everyone” as though it’s an everyday talking point. November release New Alhambra may be his last, which, to keep with the theme, would be a major bummer.
At the center of a growing cult following is headliner Alex G, running sad-man songs through classic DIY insignia — bedroom recordings, drugs? — while never buckling under the nonchalant songwriting that too often tarnishes Bandcamp outputs. His new release, DSU, which sold out just hours after Orchid Tapes announced its first-run release, instills plenty of quirks (listen to “Harvey”) into the glum exterior.
To get you in the right headspace, L.A.-based Imogen Heap-ish dreamer Emily Reo opens the show. This weekend just became very profound. And conveniently priced! Feel all the feelings for the low price of $10.
Follow Lauren Beck on Twitter @heylaurenbeck.