Twilight Sleep
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Twilight Sleep

Los Angeles, California, United States | SELF

Los Angeles, California, United States | SELF
Band Alternative EDM

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

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Press


"Live review: Manchester Orchestra, Sleeper Agent, Twilight Sleep unite to please [Updated]"

There is a humility to good rock 'n' roll -- a sense that its practitioners are unaware of their power over an audience. Such was the feeling at the Music Box at Henry Fonda Theater on Thursday night, when Manchester Orchestra played past an enthusiastic encore and into a spastic strobe-lighted sing-along set.

The Atlanta-based indie rock band may pay homage to Manchester-bred greats including Joy Division, the Smiths and New Order, but the sweaty-T-shirt-clad five-piece owes more to the newfangled rhythms and syncopation of great post-punk bands including Modest Mouse, Built to Spill and Arcade Fire.

"I can't explain how much you mean to all of us," guitarist and singer-songwriter Andy Hull said to the sold-out crowd, as 11 p.m. breathed a boozy veil over the night's proceedings. "I haven't said it, so give me a chance to say it. I've been in a band playing since I was 17 ... so it means a whole lot to us that so many of you give a ... about what we do."

Then Hull -- his maroon shirt soaked crimson with sweat -- leapt into a crushing show closure that left the crowd sure of why it came.

L.A.-based Twilight Sleep and Bowling Green, Kentucky-based Sleeper Agent opened, with the former delivering a dark, groove-laden set. (Full disclosure: This writer has a long-standing friendship with the Twilight Sleep team.) The latter, Sleeper Agent, teased with riffs resembling a Strokes-inspired experiment in female-led, drum-driven extravagance.

When the night ended and fans filed out the open doors onto Hollywood Boulevard, a young woman said, "That was a slow burn. All night. A slow burn."

And those present for the warming heat will be all the better for it in the thin morning light.

-- Jessica Gelt - LA Times


"Twilight Sleep Elk ep Review"

"Los Angeles’s dream-rock quintet Twilight Sleep’s EP is a mere 3 songs (and a bonus track) but contains just as many inspired moments as most of their contemporaries’ long -players. From the hazy atmospherics and stutter-stop drumbeats that open “Broken Record” to the New Order-ish dance-off that closed the record, the band manages to be consistently compelling throughout the abbreviated length of Elk. Much credit is due to the captivating voice of front woman Tracy Marcellino, whose sultry delivery strikes a fine balance between tenderness, smoldering tenacity, and mysteriousness. Marcellino is capable of somehow sounding like a damsel in distress who’s in complete control, and who’s probably hiding some profoundly dark secret. “The Other One” finds the singer’s vengeful spirit on full display as she steadfastly denounces the notion that her lover would choose anyone else. It may be the most sensually obsessive song since Shirley Manson set the bar unreasonably high for female stalkers on the Romeo + Juliet Soundtrack. Marcellino’s cohorts provide as steady, muscular instrumental backdrop, always matching their leader’s vocal dramatics with intensity. Ethereal keyboards, droning guitars, and overdriven bass coalesce to form a suitably nocturnal sound atmosphere. “Comme il Faut”, with its galloping beat, delayed guitar arpeggio’s , incessant synth bass, and bit-crushed keyboards especially showcases the band’s penchant for crafting dreamy, vaguely gothic sounds that would surely wither and wilt in the daylight. With a thoroughly enjoyable four-song release that rouses (but doesn’t completely satisfy), we could only hope that Twilight Sleep will give us more music to soundtrack our late nights." (Amorn Bhoulsangngam) -LA Record - LA Record


"Music Pick: Twilight Sleep at the Silver Lake Lounge"

Monday, August 23, 2010

The local band Twilight Sleep live up to their name with a shadowy sound that feels fuzzy and foggy, as if one is trapped between the worlds of reality and dreams. Their new EP, Elk, glows with synth-heavy tracks like “Comme Il Faut” and “Broken Record,” which combine the atmospheric wash of New Order with singer Tracy Marcellino’s yearning lyrics. The self-described “chronic daydreamer” lists “robots, the light sculptures of Olafur Eliasson and airplane cockpits” as her chief influences, and the band’s icy soundscapes are spacey yet danceable. Although Marcellino hails from San Francisco, there is something geographically untraceable in her diction and melodies, with the group sometimes sounding more European than Californian. This moody sense of dislocation is what sets Twilight Sleep apart from most local indie rockers. (Falling James)
- LA Weekly


"Amateur Chemist review"

"Twilight Sleep blew me away this time with a batch of tunes from their upcoming EP “Race To The Bottom of The Sea”. Tracy Marcellino (Vocals/Keyboards) seduced the audience with her sultry voice as the keyboards laid you down into a literal twilight sleep. “Broken Record” was one of the new songs that was absolutely hypnotic with percolating synths and dreamy delayed guitars. “Don’t Fire Your Guns” was a faster paced song with slightly overdriven guitars countered by cloud like synth lines. Twilight Sleep will be having an EP release party at the Echo on March 6th. I recommend that you swing by and pick it up.
- Amateur Chemist - Amateur Chemist Blog


"H Magazine Review"

"A lusty siren of the Siouxsie Sioux variety guides you through this dreamland dripping with rockin guitars and fanciful synthesizers and politely crashing drums. My favorite track here might actually be "Broken Record" which mellows things out for awhile with a gloomy seranade to the stars. Worth seeing live if you have the chance..."
- H Magazine


"LA Weekly: Spaceland on Ice with Twilight Sleep, Kissing Cousins"

Twilight Sleep specializes in a sultry style of synth heavy shoegaze made hypnotic by the husky vocals of singer Tracy Marcelliono. When the project was a solo act, Marcellino found occasional collaborators in folks like Silversun Pickups singer Brian Aubert, but now she has an all-star indie cast to back her full-time: guitarist Nicole Gehweiler (The Comas), bassist Nicole Fiorentino (Radio Vago, Veruca Salt), and drummer Davey Latter (Everest, Great Northern).

(Chris Martins) - LA Weekly


Discography

Twilight Sleep self-titled 2004
Race to the Bottom of the Sea ep
Elk ep Sept. 2010

Licenses:
Gossip Girl Episode #411
The Real L Word
Mammoth trailer (starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Michelle Williams)
AMC Hitchcock commercial

Photos

Bio

Consistently reprimanded in school for not paying attention as a child,  chronic daydreamer Tracy Marcellino found a way to channel her diversions into assets. She developed an early affinity for synthesizers, singing, and song writing.  As a shy young latchkey kid in San Francisco, she preferred to wander around used record shops spending her allowance on records that caught her eye. Sometimes, she'd take some home just for the artwork on the cover.  New Order was one of her favorite bands.  "I loved how when you listened to them you could feel sad and dance at the same time."

Dubbed “gloomy noiseniks” by August Brown of the LA Times, Marcellino’s band, Twilight Sleep, embodies her love affair with sound experimentation crafted into well-written songs.“I ‘discovered’ guitar when I moved to LA 8 years ago. For a long time in San Francisco, house music and dj’s were dominating. Starting a band was near impossible. My interests led to Warp Records artists like Aphex Twin and the like, and ... people breaking molds. My early songs were comprised of loops, samples, and occasional musical guests such as Tomas from XLR8R magazine recording drums in my bedroom with a duct taped mic. When I got to LA and saw more live bands, guitar was this amazing new experiment for me. I know it sounds backwards... usually people tire of their guitars and find electronics.”

Fronted by Marcellino and illuminated by an elegantly moody cast of talented players, the band is gaining momentum having already shared the stage with Silversun Pickups and Manchester Orchestra, and receiving early radio airplay on Jonesy's Jukebox and NPR All Songs Considered. Drummer, Brett Mielke and bass player Hanford Pittman keep a syncopated pulse, while guitar player Sami Banuelos rounds out the soundscape with arpeggiated lines and distortion.

Synth sounds bent by pedals, guitars that sound like synths, and voices that sound like strings are all part of their repertoire as they cite robots, the light sculptures of Olafur Eliasson, and airplane cockpits as sources of inspiration.

Live, Twilight Sleep is electric and enveloping. Alternating between fragile and potent with an underlying foreboding, Marcellino's distinctive vocals are an anchor. Twilight Sleep will excite you and break your heart in just the way you want it to be broken, and yes... you will want to dance.