After a name change from Reading Rainbow, based on advice from Sleater Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein, the Philadelphia pair of Sarah Everton and Rob Garcia added a guitar player to their ensemble and recently dropped their album Interrupt. Diving head first into dark sounding shoegaze and fuzzed-out alt rock, this fourth album solidifies Bleeding Rainbow as one of the best post-punk-meets-noise-rock bands that exists today.
“Time & Place” starts the disc out perfectly, where Everton’s dreamy vocals meet muscular ’90s alt-rock, and one can’t help but imagine Matt Pinfield introducing Bleeding Rainbow on 120 Minutes after a Sonic Youth video. “Tell Me” follows and is a bit less forceful as the dual gender vocals blend into a memorable chorus. Though Everton’s vocals prevail on most tracks here, the heavy drumming on “Start Again” is matched by Garcia’s bark, though again it all works into plenty of busy melody.
Shoegaze is another dimension that the duo has down pat. Tracks like “Monochrome” and “Phase” inevitably bring the almighty My Bloody Valentine to mind and build up thick walls of melodica, and they also take nostalgic stabs at grunge rock with the powerful blast of the short lived “Images.” Though things are rarely quiet here, “Out Of Line” is as close to a ballad as you’re going to get, though it’s far from a maudlin moment.
While it’s true that if you aren’t a fan of any of the aforementioned bands or other legends like Dinosaur Jr. or current greats like The Joy Formidable, Interrupt probably won’t change your mind on the genre. However, if the early days of alt-rock or the current wave of post-punk bands out there are on your radar, put some time aside to spend with Bleeding Rainbow. They are worth every second.
