Chill out with Two New Tracks from Icewater [stream]

Icewater – Good Face SoundCloud

Last winter I was excited to hear and report on the debut album of Brooklyn psych rock quartet Icewater, and now as the winter winds start creeping in again, I am just as excited to share two brand new tracks from this band of brothers (only half literally). To give a little teaser of their sophomore LP Cardinal (release date TBA), last week Icewater released “Good Face” and “Wisecrack”. Both tracks sport elegant haziness and create an atmospheric blanket that manages to support, not swathe, the roaming melodies of bass, guitar, keys and vocals.

This pocket of music — whether you call it dream pop, garage pop or whichever other label you prefer — often depends heavily on guitar or synth riffs barely discernible from the surrounding reverb, contested here on “Good Face” by the clarity of the keyboard line that opens the song. The little lick is situated within different combinations of stacked melodies throughout the track, most charming when chiming parallel to the elongated syllables held out by vocalist Malcolm Perkins. At other moments, Perkins sings conversationally and lingers with a certain twang on choice words, such as in the line “as the sunset colors our distance.” After recently discovering that Icewater started as a country band, this twang made a little more sense.

The band does in fact include a set of blood brothers, the younger of which (Jonathan Rosen on bass) is featured on “Wisecrack” for his Icewater vocal premiere. While the timbre of the instruments remains consistent with their signature sound, Rosen sings with rounder tones that give the song a softer color, nicely complementing the more assertive character of “Good Face” even though “Wisecrack” has the more persistent beat. Lucky for us, Rosen will have several more moments in the spotlight on Cardinal. Icewater will be celebrating this release with a show at Baby’s All Right on October 15th, with another band we simply adore, Caveman. It’s a match made in heaven and we can’t wait to see you there!

Icewater – Wisecrack SoundCloud