Video premiere: Light FM, ‘Tourist’

Kevin Bronson on November 6th, 2019

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Twenty years ago in Chicago, a guitar-obsessed kid decided to start his own rock band. His name was Josiah Mazzaschi (about whom the Chicago Tribune once wrote, “[his] guitar speaks in tongues”), and the band was Light FM.

Mazzaschi would move to Los Angeles not long after the release of Light FM’s first album, restart the band with a retooled lineup and go on to amass a catalog of five albums and two EPs, the last coming in 2015. He also made a mark in the studio, working for fellow Chicagoan Dave Trumfio (credits including Built to Spill and the Jesus and Mary Chain), as well as going on to produce and/or engineer music by a host of L.A. bands over the years, ranging from mid-Aughts wunderkinds the Adored to Deap Vally to current upstarts such as Night Dreamer, Velvet Starlings and Livingmore. He’s also a member of synth-’n’-shoegaze quintet Bizou.

Light FM, with its Cars-meets-Weezer-meets-Rentals crunch and fuzzed-out pop hooks, is first in Mazzaschi’s heart, though, and on the occasion of the project’s 20th anniversary, he is busy issuing and reissuing. Last month, he released the 14-track retrospective “Turn on the Light FM,” an excellent introduction to the catalog. And on Nov. 15, Light FM will release a new EP, “Tourist,” a collection of four songs written collaboratively (including one featuring Brett Anderson of the Donnas).

Alternately buzzing and shimmering, the title track comes to life in the video directed by Ben Golomb (Modern Time Machines) and featuring Madeleine Mathews (MAWD). “‘Tourist’ is a song about feeling alien in your hometown,” Mazzaschi says. “Lately it’s been tough being American. We’re the laughing stock of the world. This song kinda identifies with not feeling like you belong.”

Whether those confounded Lime scooters belong is another story entirely, but enjoy Light FM’s ride.

||| Watch: The video for “Tourist”