Ears Wide Open: Midnight Faces

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midnightfaces-Greer K. Bratschie

It seems like more and more bands are turning their backs from big studios and instead crafting tracks in their apartment (or wherever they can get down to creating). And that’s exactly what Matthew Doty and Philip Stancil did in making their sophomore album. Together, they are Midnight Faces, now based in Los Angeles after their origins in Washington, D.C.  Doty was initially in the post-rock group Saxon Shore in the early 2000s with Josh Tillman (now known as Father John Misty). During Saxon Shore’s hiatus, Doty began to write tracks on his own, eventually sending them to Stancil to add vocals. The duo focus on the sharp, synth-laced tracks reminiscent of ’80s New Wave and post-punk. Last year, they debuted with the Jason Martin-produced “Fornication,” and now the follow-up “The Fire Is Gone,” made in Doty’s apartment, is slated for a May 13 release via Doty’s own (and we should wink here) Broken Factory Records. The propulsive “Over Again” is not quite New Order, but it’s orderly.

||| Stream: “Over Again”

Photo by Greer K. Bratschie

||| Also: After the jump, check out the video for the title track to last year’s “Fornication”:

Midnight Faces – “Fornication” from Nimblefox Productions on Vimeo.