Breeder’s Digest: Japanese Breakfast, beabadoobee, Mellow Fellow

Opening an attachment within an attachment within another attachment in Outlook is like going down multiple layers of dreams in Christopher Nolan’s Inception. You click the X button and suddenly you’re back in the real world. Or was it dream level 01? Well, depends if the top is still spinning. Anyway, I’m not saying Inception was really great

Reviews: Beabadoobee, The Buildings

Space Cadet EP | beabadoobee | 2019
Imagine if Reese Lansangan listened to Pavement. Filipino-British indie darling Beatrice a.k.a. beabadoobee released a whooping 5 EPs in 2019 (Space Cadet is EP #5) and she did what most Pavement lovers never thought of before (“I Wish I Was Stephen Malkmus”). Of course being half-British she wants to see the “Sun More Often” and she says “often” with a “T”—unlike her American English-taught Filipino fans. B

Listen to: I Wish I Was Stephen Malkmus

Cell-O-Phane | The Buildings | 2016
This doesn’t deadpan Pavement in the same way Yurei’s screams Nirvana. Maybe because they kept the Pavement signifiers on the periphery (the Bob Nastanovich narration buried near the end of “Sue Me Jack” is echoed in the opening track, the obvious “Shady Lane” MTV references in that “Lucid Sister” music video). And if you listen to them looking for that Pavement influence, which is somewhat hard to parse, don’t think Slanted & Enchanted or Brighten the Corners. Maybe Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain—but only because their best songs are infectiously melodic (“Different Shades of Blue”, “Lucid Sister”) and sometimes has the side effect of sounding like The Breeders (“Museum Tower”), which isn’t bad at all. Some of Wowee Zowee‘s laid back country vibes are here but that’s probably because they are indie-folk darlings Ourselves the Elves’ more indie-rock leaning sister. The surest point of reference then would be Spiral Stairs’ “Painted Soldiers” and its music video where Nina Gordon and Louise Post—after the “dissolution of the band”—took over Pavement. A-

Listen to: Different Shades of Blue