Sunflower Bean, Jackie Hayes, Interlay

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Driely S.

Sunflower Bean

New York City trio Sunflower Bean reinvents the rock power trio format for modern times, mixing heavy/fuzzy and soft/sweet in equal measure across their three albums. Headful of Sugar, just out on May 6, feels a bit darker in texture on initial spins — fitting for an album mostly made at home by the band during the ongoing pandemic and the cascade of other existential threats of our current times — but the band's innate catchiness shines through the gloom. A stellar bill also includes spiky pop from Chicago-based Jackie Hayes and hypnotizing post-punk by Madison's Interlay.

$18 ($16 adv.).

media release:New York trio Sunflower Bean—vocalist and bassist Julia Cumming (she/her), guitarist and vocalist Nick Kivlen (he/him), and drummer Olive Faber (she/they)—released their sophomore album Twentytwo in Blue in 2018, which skyrocketed to the UK’s Top 40, and quickly followed it with 2019’s King of the Dudes EP, which saw the band’s Triple A debut with “Come For Me.” Now, three years later, the band returns with their long-awaited third studio album. Headful of Sugar will be released on May 6 via Mom + Pop, and follows Sunflower Bean navigating the agony and ecstasy of contemporary American life. “Tomorrow is not promised, no tour is promised, no popularity is promised, no health or money is promised,” bassist/vocalist Julia Cumming says. “Why not make what you want to make on your own terms? Why not make a record that makes you want to dance? Why not make a record that makes you want to scream?” A psychedelic headrush designed to be played loud with the windows down, Headful of Sugar features songwriting collaborations with the likes of Shamir, Suzy Shinn and Jacob Portrait (who also produced, mixed and co-engineered the record with Faber).

Pre-order Headful of Sugar HERE

Sunflower Bean are known for their singular live performances, which has seen them perform at major festivals like Glastonbury, Governors Ball, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Reading & Leeds, and tour with the likes of Beck, Cage the Elephant, Interpol, Courtney Barnett, The Pixies, The Kills, DIIV, Courtney Barnett, and Wolf Alice, and even open for Bernie Sanders during his primary campaign rallies. Now, the band is gearing up to get back on the road for a massive Spring tour in support of Headful of Sugar.

Sunflower Bean also shares Headful of Sugar’s lead single and opening track, the taut groove “Who Put You Up To This?” It’s a kiss-off to a former lover, maybe, but also a former self. “In another life I was a bitch/ In another life I was your bitch/ Here’s how it turned out,” Cumming sings, her voice alternating between the gritty and the divine, drawing comparisons to contemporary iconoclasts like St. Vincent. “Who Put You Up to This?” finds freedom in a fraught predicament, her sense of self fully divorced from the circumstances she finds herself in. The band says of the track, “Are you satisfied? Who put you up to do things that you do? Was it your own choice? Questioning your life is the first step to taking the agency to change it. Sometimes you have to let go of who you have been so that you can become who you want to be.“