Wishbeard

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on the Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole, comes from Seattle dream pop band Wishbeard. Strawberry ’79 is the lead single from their debut EP, It’s All Gonna Break.

Ever since Wishbeard popped up on the Seattle scene last year, they’ve been dealing smiles all around with their equally progressive and accessible pop tunes. These four women easily cover the vast musical ground between the likes of Beach House and Dum Dum Girls all the way across to Sleater-Kinney. The resulting mixture is divine - Wishbeard build songs like a post punk band but flesh them out with atmospheric euphoria. Their sound is a great new contribution to the modern Seattle scene. They introduced themselves in March of this year with the “I.H.Y.P”/”Runnin’ Around” single, and now It’s All Gonna Break gives us four more reasons to love this wonderful quartet.

Strawberry ’79 opens the new EP and gives a wonderful introduction to the band for newcomers. Starting with Brighton’s classic post punk bass line and building into with Res’s driving, synthesized keyboard line, Wishbeard don’t waste time us interested. Jude’s static drums keep energy moving only ever forward. “If you want to keep me, take a key and lock me up”, Bryn whispers again and again over the rising track. As the track builds from a light shower to a raging storm, the anxiety in her delicate voice rises ever slightly, creating a continuous rage of energy between the four of them. For as reserved as they seem at a glance, over the course of Strawberry ’79?‘ three minutes, you’ll be cranking the volume constantly. And when it disappears without warning, you will only want to hit repeat.

Wishbeard’s next scheduled show is on November 23, at the Comet Tavern (assuming it’s still open), and they’ll be performing with tomorrow’s featured band, Lazer Kitty, and Half Kingdom. To preview the show, they’ll be live on KEXP on November 16th at 8:30PM. Look for more information at the band’s website and Facebook page. For now, enjoy “Circles”, another song from It’s All Gonna Break: - KEXP.org

The four ladies of this wonderfully named group have crafted this year’s floatiest local release. Listening to this four-song nugget will make you feel like a buoy in an astral sea, gently wafting to and fro. It was mixed by Erik Blood, responsible for THEESatisfaction and Shabazz Palaces’ records, as well as his own shoegazey solo work. It’s no wonder Blood was drawn to Wishbeard, as the quartet soaks every instrument on the record in a dreamy, shoegaze haze. “Circles” quietly hums along in this manner, intimate-sounding and The xx–styled. The wordless album closer, “Adeline Street,” also billows in a cushy cloud, slowly building into a spacier post-rock coda. But the real standout track here is opener “Strawberry ’79.” It’s Wishbeard at its most muscular, riffing on a dancier Joy Division bass line that skirts around under a skittery, rolling drum line. It’s a refreshingly subtle punk number, and, like the best songs, sneaks up on you. While all tracks on It’s All Gonna Break are lovely in their own way, it would be great to see Wishbeard pursue the punchier tendencies of “Strawberry ’79”; the added beef helps anchor the band’s breezier side, something it could use lest it drifts away into space completely. Nevertheless, if you are looking for something to soundtrack your waking—or sleeping—dreams, Wishbeard’s new EP will do the trick. - Seattle Weekly

Wishbeard has made large strides this year. The Capitol Hill-based power-jam quartet played its first show a mere six months ago in a friend's crowded basement and recently shared the Neumos stage with dark electropop outfit Austra. Not bad for a band that started as two acquaintances introduced at a Taco Tuesday at the Wildrose.

Musically, Wishbeard spins web-like songs that first prompt shoegazing and then awareness that those shoes suddenly dancing. Tonight they play another impressive opening slot at the Crocodile with JD Samson and Men. We spoke with Bryn Santillan and Jude Miqueli, the pair that started the group. - City Arts Magazine

Wishbeard is a "psychedelic dream-pop machine" from Seattle that, in just ten short months, went from playing friends' basements to opening for some of your favorite acts like Austra, JD Samson and MEN. The machine - Bryn (guitar/vocals), Brighton (bass), Erin aka Res (keys/synth) and Jude (drums) - are currently in the studio recording their debut EP and winning hearts at venues all over Seattle and the greater Pacific Northwest.
- autostraddle.com

Wishbeard “Vision Quest”
Imagine a tiny light penetrating outsized darkness. That’s the sound of Wishbeard’s four-song EP It’s All Gonna Break, synth-soothing and velvet-blanket cozy but attuned to the wide world. Second song “Vision Quest” hints at the quartet’s pop potential with sugary chord changes, peppy drums and Bryn Santillan’s woozy vocals. - City Arts Magazine

Wishbeard are a Seattle queermocore band that play lovely music for sailing to the moon in your dreamboat made of pizza. You can dance to Wishbeard, you can kiss to Wishbeard, and you can listen to Wishbeard and wish you had a wispy purple wizard beard. - The Stranger