Big Lake
Gig Seeker Pro

Big Lake

Jersey City, New Jersey, United States | INDIE

Jersey City, New Jersey, United States | INDIE
Band Alternative Rock

Calendar

This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

Music

Press


"The World According to Wawrzyniak"

This five song EP CD from a New York City-based independent music project goes heavy on the beautifully brooding angst with often striking and always melodic results. Lysa Opfer’s lovely whispery voice projects certain quietly intense strength that’s both arresting and affecting in equal measure. The moody arrangements hit the harmonic spot, with cutting guitars, graceful pianos, and subdued, yet persistent drums creating a hauntingly delicate, yet harmonic and captivating moody sound. Exquisitely gentle and elegant stuff. - Jersey Beat Magazine


"Best New Releases"

This week’s Best New Releases includes a bounty of new singles from bands we never heard of before, but are so glad we have.

In Dee Mail Releases This Week: Big Lake, Sissy Menai, Gene Wildest and Noel Carlon

One of the longest running playlist series on IRC, In Dee Mail, highlights only artists and bands that send us their new releases directly. Thankfully, it has also been one of the most popular playlist series, probably because the songs we choose for the In Dee Mail mixes are from DIY and unsigned artists. Lately, we’ve been calling out new releases that In Dee Mail by creating a separate section in the weekly Best New Releases.

It’s a great feeling to know that over the years, we’ve helped to launch relatively unknown artists into the spotlight, with some even telling us that IRC was their first big break. But the credit there really goes to our readers/listeners, because it is all of you who ultimately drive what music makes it onto the site, and more importantly, what music becomes the most popular. This is evident by the weekly Top Ten Songs mixtapes (based on number of listens/downloads a song gets), and more recently, the Best Songs of 2011 mixtape series.

Big Lake is an indie/shoegaze band from Jersey City, New Jersey, led by New York City musician Lysa Opfer. The band’s debut EP, Do You Love Me? Yes/No?, officially dropped this week via Evil Island Fortress Records. Opfer sent us a couple of tracks from the EP to share with IRC. Just some of the many bands that Big Lake are influenced by include Broken Social Scene, Local Natives, Album Leaf, Maps, Arcade Fire, Battles, Beach House, My Bloody Valentine, The Ramones, Joy Division and The Walkmen. - Indie Rock Cafe


"Big Lake: Do You Love Me? Yes / No"

Big Lake, DO YOU LOVE ME? YES / NO (Evil Island Fortress)
The debut offering from Jersey City’s Big Lake (aka Lysa Opfer) may only be five songs, but they are five huge pieces of deep, lush, mesmerizing songwriting, channeling an evocative gamut of emotions and displaying a fully-realized musical voice. True, I am biased. But I’m also tellin’ the truth! - 50 Words or Less


Discography

EP "Do You Love Me? Yes / No"
Released Nov 15, 2011

Photos

Bio

BIG LAKE

Borne of nebulous shoegaze, post-rock and early punk influences, Big Lake is an indie rock project headed by NYC area musician Lysa Opfer. Lysa spent four years and many late nights building her own studio, which she uses to record all her own instruments and vocals. She began work on the EP in the spring of 2011, eschewing any kind of social life to completely devote herself to creating music. She then tapped friends Thomas Barrett to play drums and Jeff Maiore to provide additional guitars, rounding out a moody, provocative sound, which has drawn comparisons to My Bloody Valentine, Lush, Garbage and Ride.

Big Lake's debut EP "Do You Love Me? Yes / No" is a tribute to childhood and embraces the nostalgia—sometimes dark—of early life. Growing up at the edge of the woods in a small lake community provoked an imaginative obsession with many spooky things that lived in those woods when the sun went down. Trees became menacing shapes, winds became ghosts and windows were to be avoided altogether. "Do You Love Me? Yes / No" is a five-song collection of these haunted memories, told from unique points of view, and finds an easy home in indie shoegaze and post-rock.

Lysa has been hooked on making music from the time she was able to bang a wooden spoon against her mother's metal pots. She has since been in or contributed to many bands, including HIGH SCHOOL SWEETHEARTS, STUYVESANT, THE WRENS, THE DEMANDS, and currently, WJ & THE SWEET SACRIFICE. Her enduring passion for pursuing her own solo project very recently and suddenly exploded all over her apartment and completely drained her savings. But she couldn't be happier.