nowhere else to be are an indie rock band from Montreal led by Oren Lefkowitz, who also releases music under the name Oscar Louis, and Chris Vincent. With a minimal online presence, deliberately fuzzy artwork, and press releases liberally redacted with black highlights, they seem to be intentionally cultivating an air of mystery. Fortunately, what they may lack in biographical detail, they more than make up for with their songs.
And there are a bunch of them already! The band has been quietly releasing a string of singles for the past six months: "hanna," margins of a scene," "across the line," "brother bear," and "higher! higher! (for Paul)." Today, they're officially announcing their debut self-titled album, out in December, and sharing its anthemic opening track "r1 (ripples)," which pairs some delicious guitar fuzz with a beautifully soaring vocal melody. According to the band:
"r1" is the album's thesis. A violent, beautiful birth. You are the result of everything that came before you, but you are also constantly influencing everything around you. That can destroy you or give you power.
The song moves through three emotional phases:
- the joy of feeling connected to something larger than yourself
- the tragedy of a man, Oren's father, strung out and alone, unable to carry that weight
- and then back to the opening question: aren't we all ripples?
Listen below, unless you have somewhere else to be.
TRACKLIST:
01 "r1 (ripples)"
02 "hanna"
03 "margins of a scene"
04 "across the line"
05 "brother bear"
06 "higher! higher! (for Paul)"
07 "intermission"
08 "toronto story"
09 "do you ever miss the sun?"
10 "m4m"
11 "cruise"
12 "4 it burns you"
13 "dream"
14 "gold eyes"
15 "r2"
nowhere else to be is out 12/4 via Rose Garden. Pre-order it here.
