Ears Wide Open: Julie

Kevin Bronson on August 24th, 2022

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Orange County-bred trio Julie emerged in 2020 with all the makings of underground heroes … from 1994.

They make prickly art-rock music drawing from shoegaze, grunge and noise-pop bands down through history (and down through the cobwebbed corners of intrepid independent labels). As influences, they’ve cited Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine and Swirlies, along with more obscure acts such as Mad Planets and Henry’s Dress. (We are also reminded of Bardo Pond, some of the Elephant Six collective and small-but-loud bands like Liquorette and Corndolly.)

Julie — the 21-and-younger trio of singer-bassist Alex Brady, singer-guitarist Keyan Pourzand and drummer Dillon Lee — wield dissonance and volume as potent weapons, with a healthy disregard for song structure and just-opaque-enough lyrics completing their formidable package.

This month, the trio, who have designs on making the project a design collective in addition to a band — released the double-single “Pg.4 a Picture of Three Hedges” / “Through Your Window.” The songs were produced with Sonny DiPerri (DIIV, These New Puritans, Emma Ruth Rundle, Animal Collective, Dirty Projectors, among others).

The release is the follow-up to last year’s “Pushing Daisies” EP.

Hold on to the guardrails, if there are any.

||| Stream: “Pg.4 a Picture of Three Hedges” / “Through Your Window”