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FRIGS’ “TV” Is a Brooding Slow-Burner, and It’s Excellent (Premiere)

Ah television, the place where many us spend our off-time and vacation days, where we can watch other people live their lives from our La-Z-Boys and dream of what it might be like to be them.

Television and its effects are the themes of FRIGS’ latest single, “TV,” premiering today on Nerdist. The Toronto-based foursome are led by vocalist Bria Salmena, whose affecting brood places FRIGS in the same canon as other emotive, female-led indie outfits—think Angel Olsen, Torres, Weyes Blood, et al. And they’re of that same caliber, too. The band’s forthcoming EP, Slush, was recorded in their Toronto apartment and it quickly attracted their excellent hometown label, Arts & Crafts.

FRIGS ostensibly cleaned up since their 2013 debut arrived under the Dirty Frigs moniker, but “TV” is hardly “clean.” It’s dressed in a thick film that matches both Salmena’s disillusionment and her uncertainty after a life spent watching the small screen. “What am I supposed to be?” she wonders.

“TV” has a heaving sway that burns slowly over the course of four and a half minutes. Guitars shimmer in the periphery, as the bass is fittingly reminiscent of the opening riff of the Twin Peaks theme song—enough to suggest its lilt and salient mystery. At the center of it all is Salmena’s sultry voice: “I wanna be like the lucky ones / I gotta be like the lucky ones.” And after a lifetime’s worth of breezy sitcom’d endings and whitewashed celebrity lives, who wouldn’t? How are we to know what we’re supposed to be, if not them?

Slush arrives today, so check it out. If you need more convincing, you should know that, according to Facebook, their band manager is Bruce Willis. Whether that’s true, or a joke, or maybe it’s just that their manager is some other guy named Bruce Willis, I’m for it. Go check out one of their shows and ask for Bruce:

FRIGS Tour

June 19 – Sudbury – The Townhouse *
June 23 – Calgary – Sled Island – Broken City (Patio) %
June 28 – Edmonton – The Buckingham
July 1 – Vancouver – The Cobalt
July 02 – Nanaimo – Crace House
July 05 – Seattle – Blacklodge
July 06 – Portland – High Water Mark
July 07 – Oakland – Sgraffito
July 08 – Los Angeles – TBA
July 10 – Albuquerque – Gold House
July 11 – Denver – Rhinoceropolis
July 12 – Omaha – TBA
July 13 – Columbia – Cafe Berlin
July 14 – Carbondale – House Show
July 15 – Chicago – The Hideout

August 6th – Toronto- Time Festival
August 20 – Ottawa – Arboretum Festival

* w/ Blue Crime
% w/ Protomartyr, Chastity

 

Featured Image: Arts & Crafts

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