Generationals, Gemma

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Drew Stubbs & Joni Moore

Generationals

$17 ($15 adv.).

press release: Generationals new record, Reader As Detective, is out now on Polyvinyl. They recently shared the single, "Breaking Your Silence."

When talking about the "Breaking Your Silence" video vocalist/guitarist Grant Widmer says, "I dreamt of a day when we could make our music and blast it into the vast wilderness, void of people and their pettiness and fighting. So we made a video with this in mind, as a love letter to our true, pure audience: horses and trees. "

Director Spencer Kelly adds, "When the Generationals team came to me with the concept of the piece, I knew there was loads of potential to explore the various levels to it. It’s a music video within a music video in a way. So my main goal was finding the proper balance of telling two stories within one frame. Placing the ad truck in the countryside was intriguing enough on its own, but it was finding little ways to bring the world around it alive that was the fun part."

From their inception Generationals have existed at the convergence of classic style and contemporary technique. Students of an analog school actualized in a digital medium, Grant Widmer and Ted Joyner have always felt most comfortable reveling in this juxtaposition. Grounded in a catalog of infectious pop hooks that feel both familiar and radically new all at once, Generationals mastered their distinct voice as a means to widen the path before them.

Reader As Detective, their new full-length album, weds vintage pop canon and modern pop production in a way this duo has proven incomparably adept. From the cornerstone sample of “I Turned My Back on the Written Word,” (a recontextualization of an unreleased b-side) to the playful synths & stuttered drums of “Dream Box,” and jogging rhythms of "Breaking Your Silence," Generationals continue to push the envelope by playing by their own rules.

In the years following their last album, Alix, the band experimented by releasing one-off singles and videos immediately upon their completion, which eventually formed 2018’s State Dogs collection. This method – an exploratory dive in shirking the nature of traditional album rollouts – refined how they approached writing. Freed from the album-cycle mentality, the pair was able to focus on each track autonomously, rather than as a fragment of a larger batch of songs.

Reader As Detective is the result of purposeful time spent honing Generationals’ craft as progressive songwriters. With the help of producer and longtime collaborator Dan Black, they dug into new methods of creation with a fearlessness for experimentation that is equally vital to the experience of both artist and listener. With Reader As Detective, Generationals have reached a high-water mark in an already noteworthy career – isolation and celebration set to a major key.

"...the duo of Ted Joyner and Grant Widmer craft meticulous pop arrangements bridging the gap between Oracular Spectacular electronic psych and the corresponding guitar pop of that album’s period. With a less than subtle nod to the conversational synths of Talking Heads, “Gatekeeper” is no different."

- Flood

""Gatekeeper" is a shimmering display of indie-pop sound that warms the soul...

...prime to being this summer's true indie-pop gem."

- Earmilk

"Their latest single 'Breaking Your Silence' is a slice of summertime sweetness, offering airy instrumentation and sensational melodies in abundance."

- The 405

"...warped and woozy modulated vocals that blend smoothly with some tropical rhythms."

- Under The Radar 

 the band stews up a simmering blend of groovy bass, slightly fuzzy percussion and barely there synths. Lingering there for the first minute or so, we calmly groove with the band before the loud synth hook and vocals peak for the catchy chorus. 

- Austin Town Hall