Showing posts with label Pleasure Curses. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pleasure Curses. Show all posts

PLEASURE CURSES "Screens" (Self-Released)




Looking for some music to play in your expensive car, while you drive downtown at night? This is it. You are on your way to a club where they only let the cool people in. What those cool people in that club don't realize is, in your pocket,  you've got this tape from Portland, Oregon duo Pleasure Curses. (What a great name for a band, right?) Once this music goes in the player, the party goes to another level. For about eight minutes. That's how long the tape is.

And just like the great name of this artist, "Screens" can be taken several ways. According to their Bandcamp, this tape is an exploration of how disassociated people have become in the digital age. And that's something I normally could get behind, except that this music is so supercharged with dance energy that I am finding it difficult to concentrate on the high minded concepts they are pitching my way.  I was just now listening for some lyrics I could quote as an example, but I ended up just bobbing my head and admiring the cover art. It's a good looking J-card. Artwork is tight, pulled together, and purposeful, like the music I'm hearing. And for an EP that was started in an abandoned house in Chicago and finished in a blizzard in Portland, I'd say it wound up pretty hot.

http://www.pleasurecurses.bandcamp.com

-- Gray Lee

PLEASURE CURSES “Pure/Lust”
(Prince George Records)



Pleasure Curses are a synthpop/new wave duo comprising of two guys with three names each: Jahn Alexander Teetsov and Evan Maxwell Grice. They hail from Washington DC but make music that sounds like it’d fit best in a Miami nightclub sometime during the 80s. This casingle is part of a larger project they made outside in a studio outside of Chicago that includes two corresponding videos and a third song that isn’t on the tape.  

“Pure” centers on themes of feeling pure and togetherness with others. “Lust” is a much more sexual song that has some edge to it. Teetsov’s vocals are a perfect fit over the on point instrumentation. The two sides flow cohesively together. Fans of acts like Hot Chip and The Human League who haven’t already given these guys a chance should do themselves a favor and pick up a copy of the tape. Even those among us who don’t like those bands should still give it a try.  

Stream all 3 songs from the project including “Concrete” (not on tape): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Jnao80JEIc&list=PL5ICwEsf_17a_f9ta4Z1Nc25RM0Q4AGss


-- Roy Blumenfeld