Fleeting Joys
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Fleeting Joys

Sacramento, California, United States | INDIE

Sacramento, California, United States | INDIE
Band Alternative Rock

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"Review of despondent transponder"

Sacramento's Fleeting Joys have been the buzz all over the internet in the past six months with their take on My Bloody Valentine's Loveless. The densely, distorted guitar and bass tracks are so aggresive, well-crafted, and beautiful it takes repeated listens before you can pin-point how the guitar sounds weave in and out of each track without disturbing the vocals. Despondent Transponder comes across like a breath of fresh air these days with it's approach to sound that is familiar but stands out among everything that is deemed "Noise-Pop".

The opening track 'The Breakup' is a gliding, sugary song that you can actually sing along to. 'Lovely Crawl' and 'Go & Come Back' showcase Rorika's innocent and child-like vocals that float confidently over mountains of overdriven, slow-motion guitars. 'I Want More Life" begins with it's warped and tone-bending guitars in a more ambient setting. After about a minute the guitars and drums blow up into a heavy progression with fire-cracking snares and crushing noise.

During the second half of the album 'Satellite', 'While I'm Waiting' and 'Magnificent Oblivion' have more of an up-front vocal feel and could easily make their way into radio rotation. But 'Satellite' is clearly the album's trademark. Lifting off within seconds you're pummeled by the guitar bending, a la Dinosaur Jr., layered in reverb. Surprisingly, the final track is almost as stunning as anythng on the record. 'Patron Saint' is groovy and super-heavy with a bassline that I just can't get over. It's not too often that a band will save one of it's great moments to finish off an already stunning album.

Fans of My Bloody Valentine are going to love this simply for it's dual vocals and guitar sounds (courtesy of Rorika & John Loring), but there's more to it. Fleeting Joys don't hide behind the effects, these songs are crafted to rock you. Unlike many of the indie world's shoegaze-inspired bands Fleeting Joys write songs that are more immediate and to-the-point than their predecessors. Despondent Transponder keeps you mesmerized for the entire ride.

http://www.sonicbids.com/epk/epkedit_media.asp?epk_id=77513 - Autopia


"The Fleeting Joys"

At this point I think it's pretty safe to say that My Bloody Valentine are never getting back together to finish up their follow-up to their classic Loveless album. There have been some glimmers of hope in the past few years - tales of the band reconvening in the studio have occassionally circulated around the internet - but it's just not going to happen. This is where California's Fleeting Joys come into the picture. The group has got the classic My Bloody Valentine Loveless-era sound down to a "t". The dense fog of disorienting guitars, the powerful drums, the hard to understand vocals that could be coming from a man, a woman, or both....it's all here. Seriously, you could pass these nine songs off as a collection of unreleased My Bloody Valentine tracks and nobody would doubt it.

Sounds pretty pointless, right? Wrong. If the Fleeting Joys were just copying the style of Kevin Shields and Co. without doing anything interesting with it, it would be easy to just ignore them. However, The Fleeting Joys write some truly top notch tunes. In fact, a few songs on this album are just as good as anything on Loveless ("Go and Come Back", "Patron Saint" and the awesome instrumental "I Want More Life FKR" come to mind), and that is no light praise. They're not signed to a record deal yet (Only Forever is the band's own label"), but they really should be. Hell, I'd sign them if I knew how to run a label! Given a proper recording budget, these guys would be capable of putting out some classic material.
DAVID MANSDORF

http://www.losingtoday.com/reviews.php?band_alpha=t - Losing Today


"When You Hear This Sound-Fleeting Joys"

I first heard about the Fleeting Joys on an MBV site, hit their MySpace page, heard one song, and immediately ordered their CD (which was produced and is sold by the band). Now I buy a lot of music and listen to recommendations and online radio constantly, and generally, I'll check something out, let it simmer, put it on as mood dictates, and then move on to something else. After receiving "despondent transponder" on a Saturday morning, I immediately threw it on and upon hearing the first few seconds of "The Breakup", I began recalling the first time I heard "Only Shallow" and I knew that the Fleeting Joys were not just another MBV-guitars with none of the song structure band, they were the real deal. After listening to their sonic waves lap over me for thirty-six minutes and seven seconds, I reached over and hit repeat because I just didn't want the sensation to stop.

Now, most MBV-like bands can get the sonics right, but they can't get the songcraft and melody as strong as Kevin Shields million-dollar masterpiece. Upon listening to the Fleeting Joys songs on repeat, there were subtle melodies, vocals, and structures I completely missed the first time, making for rich, warm-textured soundscapes that complimented their already catchy, lovely songs. Which is to say, if somebody had leaked this as MBV's new album, the most dedicated and cantakerous shoegaze fans would be hailing it as proof that the band never lost it. Except in this case, "despondent transponder" is Fleeting Joys' first album, which makes it that much more unbelievable and astounding an acheivment. It is the closest thing to the MBV Loveless sound I have ever heard, and I think (okay, I know) the band would be proud to hear people say that about it.

The album starts off with one of the strongest of the strong tracks, "The Breakup", which showcases the dreamy vocals and swirling guitars of Rorika and John Loring. Boy/girl singing, happy guitar drones, and an extended outro consisting of blissful tones - there is no doubt about what musical territory we have just reentered. If this album had had just this song on it, I would've been happy, but they felt that they had to crank up the ecstasy over the course of nine more songs. The whole album begs to be played on repeat repeatedly, but standout tracks include "While I'm Waiting" and the final track "Patron Saint", but that's if I absolutely have to pick favorites and most likely I will hear something in one of the other tracks and it will displace my top three. There are so many little guitar flourishes and velvety sheets of pedal-bloomed noise that will pull you towards them every time you out it on, and whatever your path through, you'll feel a whole lot more cheery, as if just given a sonic massage. If you like MBV, shoegaze, dream pop, sonic bliss, guitar noise or just well-crafted albums that just might renew your faith in music, you owe it to yourself to pick up Fleeting Joys "despondent transponder" (check out their MySpace page for samples - they can be found in my "friends" within my profile). I don't often gush about new bands, but I will be talking this one up for the rest of this year.

Also, if you're in the LA/OC area, Fleeting Joys will be appearing in LA and Long Beach in August. What's more is I hear they are already working on new material, so we won't have to suffer a fifteen year hiatus for a followup. But in the meantime, please get yourself a copy of their latest album and treat yourself to the best shoegaze (and overall) album you'll hear this year. - Brian Mitsoda


Discography

May 2006
despondent transponder - cd/Only Forever Recordings

July 2009
Occult Radiance - cd/Thomason/Japan and Only Forever Recordings/USA

March 2010
despondent transponder re-release with bonus tracks - cd/Thomason Sounds/Japan

all tracks from the albums are being played on college radio stations and podcasts around the world

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Bio

"The California trio attack their songs a little harder than MBV ever did - kind of like a grunge friendly shoegaze."

In the same genre with Silver Sun Pickups, The Warlocks, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Asobi Seksu, Serena Maneesh, Jesus and Mary Chain, Sonic Youth, The Cure, Joy Division, Swervedriver, Spacemen 3