Spinning Lucy

The light in the darkness; the silver lining; failure and forgiveness. These are the topics explored again and again throughout the songs on Spinning Lucy's debut CD, 'The Everything Pill.'

Though Spinning Lucy, a Philadelphia-based power pop/rock band, may not yet be familiar to you, they soon will – thanks to the release of 'The Everything Pill.' Though the songs are entirely original and stylistically varied across the CD, listeners have compared elements of their work to bands like Rooney, Fountains of Wayne, the Killers, and all the way back to Big Star and Cheap Trick – so fans of everything from modern melodic pop/rock, '90s post punk, to '70s power pop will find much to like on The Everything Pill. It is a lovingly crafted musical rhetoric that should – in its style blurring hooks and composition – sound almost familiar to you… but not quite. This new CD represents Spinning Lucy’s coming out party; and what a party it is.

As primary lyricist and vocalist of the group, Will Roberts’ lyrics tackle topics from love to loss and back again. From the brutally honest (“all the best rides get disassembled, eventually”), through the cautiously optimistic (“If you forgive the monsters in me, then I’ll forgive the ghosts in you”), the songs can take a listener for a ride across an emotional landscape. And if you aren’t inclined to listen to lyrics, the songs themselves are infectious, memorable and catchy; and it’s hard to not roll down the car windows and sing along.

Most bands get their start in the basement, and Spinning Lucy is no exception. The group formed around DC-transplant Roberts and Doug Johns, a Jazz-trained drummer from Boston; and after a short bout of trial and error became a unit with the addition of Brian Pylant, veteran of the Philadelphia-area music scene on guitar and vocals, and Dave Lash, another former DC musician on bass. Inevitably, the band fled the basement for a new weird but super-sexy studio they could call their own, full of musical instruments and homebrewed beer, and has continually honed their sound and feverish live performances on stages throughout the East coast. This is just the beginning.

In the summer of 2007 Spinning Lucy went into the studio to start recording its first full-length CD, which over the next 10 months evolved into their summer 2008 debut, ‘The Everything Pill’. Recorded in New Jersey, mixed in DC, and mastered in California – like the CD itself, the songs take the listener on a thrill ride. Pop darkness with just the right amount of light.

All the best rides get disassembled, eventually.