New Driveway

Duo, couple, from LA: Interesting amalgam of retro yet forward sounds, plundering 70’s-80’s disco as well as 90’s Belle and Sebastian/Camera Obscura type indie pop, and even “new wave punk” a la Devo with a dash of krautrock and 90’s electro. Some tracks smack of later Glass Candy (I’d say check the library, but someone stole every last CD and 7” we had of GC). Good stuff with male vocals, if any, as many tracks are instrumental. All vary keeping you on your toes, but the presence of quality analog synth is there. See track by track but don’t miss this. “’Instead of filtering out the ideas some people might consider cheesy or too catchy we wanted to own them and go with it’ explains Andy”. I’d say they succeeded. RIYL: Human League, Kraftwerk, Devo, OMD, Berlin. Donna Summer, Later Psychic TV.

1) (0:48) spoken word of his childhood driveway, with loons, about growing up, and finding his new driveway – we all need a “new driveway don’t we?” see last track 2)* (3:42) upbeat new wave fun, boy does this sound early 80’s, like I’m watching MTV with Martha Quinn, “I’m your weekend special” 3) (3:33) old school synths bely the solid disco retro love, vocals on this 4) (1:02) chill brief abstract 5)* (3:50) male/female disco love, later Glass Candy comes to mind, “fire” sexiness, oh how I miss our stolen GC records and CDs…. 6) (1:08) experimental feel, analog synths and creepy tones, treated 7)* (1:45) cheery bent analog synths, Kraftwerk/Neu instrumental again 8) (2:03) analog synth sound fades in, Kraftwerk comes to mind, instrumental 9) (0:58) brief synth pop instrumental 10)* (3:09) like a completely different band appears: driving synth “punk new wave” a la Devo, “don’t wanna go to work” 11) (2:56) more proto disco with the strings and sequenced rhythms, instrumental 12) (4:15) synth pop takes over, 80’s disco love as the strings arrive 13)* (4:06) upbeat feel, Belle and Sebastian, the melody hits you as if this is a cover, and I finally figured out it’s vaguely Born to Run 14) (4:08) pleasant pop song, an ode to childhood, skating on his new drive way is all he needs