Stream: Alyeska, ‘Tilt-A-Whirl’

Kevin Bronson on February 10th, 2017

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Alyeska at the Hi Hat in 2016 (Photo by Zane Roessell)

Alyeska, the L.A. indie trio fronted by Montana native Alaska Reid, have been cultivating their cherub rock for a couple of years, taking a big step in 2016 to travel east to record with producer John Agnello (Dinosaur Jr., the Whigs, Kurt Vile, Sonic Youth, the Thermals, among others). And while a couple of Alyeska’s previous singles possess some arresting, beyond-her-years moments, the latest, “Tilt-A-Whirl,” is a straightforward, sweetly innocent tune drawn from her small-town upbringing and favorite carnival ride. The song will appear on Aleska’s EP “Crush,” due March 3, and Reid told Stereogum, where the song premiered, that it is “an ode to the small county fair in my town. My friends and I would look forward to going every year, we’d see boys we had crushes on, and scream about the creepy carnies or the way your feet turned black with dirt in your yellow flip flops. … The dirt in the midway was pocked with pools of vomit and discarded glow sticks and the carnies would spray you with giant squirt guns, trying to lure you into playing their game. … It was sort of a running joke, that it was your ‘coming of age’ if you got squirted in the chest by the carnies. I just wanted to convey the sparkle and the excitement of when I was young against the neon glow of the county fair as well as the grit and the darkness lurking around the edges.”

||| Stream: “Tilt-A-Whirl”