Video: Jesse Kivel, ‘Burning Man’

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Jesse Kivel

Jesse Kivel notes that his debut full-length “Infinite Jess” (out Friday) was five years in the making, arriving as it does a half-decade after the third album from his duo project Kisses.

But “Infinite Jess” has the comportment of a work that is really 35 years in the making — a memoir, or the beginnings of one, poignantly told and richly orchestrated. There are nods to his Santa Monica roots (“R&D Kitchen” and “Northside”), a paean to Arthur Russell (“Desert, Moonlight”), a salute to his current home in Maine (“William”) and a meditation on “home” (“Burning Man”), all of which benefit from the painterly production of Joey Genetti.

Kivel got his start with his twin brother Matt in the indie-pop band Princeton, which released two albums, in 2009 and 2012. Kisses, the new wave duo with the woman who would become his wife, Zinzi Edmundson, released three albums between 2010 and ’15.

Appearing on “Infinite Jess” are Kivel’s mates in the side project Mt. Si, Michael David (Classixx) and Sarah Chernoff (Superhumanoids), along with chameleonic bassist Sam Wilkes, drummer Jeff Brodsky (RAC), Marcus Buser and Big Search’s Matt Popieluch, among others.

The ’90s-indebted “Northside” might be the album’s biggest hook; it’s a reference to the neighborhood in Santa Monica locals know as “North of Montana.” “This song is a love letter to a time when music was brand new and limitless in my mind,” Kivel explains. “As a kid, my brother and I would walk from our high school to Barnes and Noble and spend hours reading Q, NME, MOJO and all the other British music magazines. Our favorite group was Oasis, and we just wanted to be the Gallaghers. This song also nods to the Smashing Pumpkins, Primal Scream and Polaris, who I also deeply connected with at the time.”

||| Watch: The video for “Burning Man”

||| Also: Stream “Northside, “Desert, Moonlight” and “William”