When last I heard from Brooklyn experimental chamber pop outfit Friend Roulette earlier this year, they were taking a break from their trademark genre-bending to release an EP of ballads written by their friend, Texas musician Matt Sheffer, in the form of the appropriately titled Matt Sheffer Songbook Vol. 1. It was a far different change of pace from the off-kilter pop fans of the band have come to expect and yet, not without their brand of strange and wonderful whimsy. While the sextet prep a brand new EP to released later this year, they had the chance to participate in ThrdCoast's Blue Room and recorded a live session for a brand new song that'll be on their forthcoming I Want Out EP.
"(This Is Why I Hate) Clocks" finds the band swinging back towards their more characteristic influence in psych rock, art pop, and jazz. Singer Julia Tepper leaves her violin behind in favor of sprinting vocals as the band start at a full on gallop while John Stanesco switches from bass clarinet to EWI (electronic wind instrument). But Friend Roulette has always been a band that favors dynamicism and the track shifts tempos and sections frequently: going from the all out power pop of the introduction into hazy psychedelics for the chorus. As the song proceeds the distinction between the two sections blurs and they blend into each other until the lyrics from the faster section take on the elasticity of the chorus. It's a subversion of typical songcraft as instead of starting slow and picking up speed and ending on a climactic high, the band instead elongate their phrases all the while never dumbing down the instrumentals. Also Friend Roulette are a band that make the most of their time in the studio adding elements that might not necessarily be possible to perform live so it's very likely this version of "(This Is Why I Hate) Clocks" will sound mighty different from its later studio version.
Friend Roulette's I Want Out EP will be out later this year on Pretty Purgatory.
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