Pale Waves and the Candescents
To see a photo of Manchester UK’s Pale Waves, one might assume that the two dramatic and serious looking ladies anchoring publicity pics get their makeup tips from either Siouxsie Sioux or Edward Scissorhands. It’d be a mistake, however, to assume that they’re a goth band. Well, maybe pop-goth, if goth ever really did become popular. Let’s say Prince and Madonna secretly got together to dress in black, fire up the smoke machine, and jam every track of Marilyn Manson’s Mechanical Animals album; they could easily pass off the resultant demo as Pale Waves. A debut EP from earlier this year will soon be followed by their first full-length My Mind Makes Noises released on the same label as the similar sounding The 1975.
The album is so far preceded by four singles, each with an accompanying video that makes it clear this band is a lot more fun, and even funnier (try not to laugh out loud when you figure out the lyrics to “Television Romance”), than indicated by the frown-y band photos. Their December 7 appearance at the Irenic will be opened by another newborn 1975-ish act on the same record label, Ohio rockers the Candescents, whose first EP and single are hot out of the oven.