{"id":29674,"date":"2019-10-16T13:30:48","date_gmt":"2019-10-16T17:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/?p=29674"},"modified":"2019-10-14T17:22:32","modified_gmt":"2019-10-14T21:22:32","slug":"playing-the-bay-sleepover-sf-band-ep-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/playing-the-bay-sleepover-sf-band-ep-review\/","title":{"rendered":"PLAYING THE BAY: Sleepover Balances Musical Influences on New Self-Titled EP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">The self-titled debut EP from Bay Area band <a href=\"https:\/\/sleepoversf.bandcamp.com\/releases\">Sleepover<\/a>\u00a0starts with the kind of intro you would expect to hear on a<i> Best of the &#8217;50s <\/i>compilation album. <i>Take me with you<\/i>, begs lead singer Pakayla Biehn on the cheekily-named \u201cLullabye,\u201d the instrumentals slowly racking up in intensity before diving into a snarling pit of punky menace.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">This is the general sentiment of the EP, which is a fun mix of &#8217;90s grunge, &#8217;70s rock songstress, and modern punk (with a little do-wop thrown in). The &#8217;70s influence is felt most strongly on \u201cNo Place Like Home,\u201d which makes a \u201cCalifornia Dreamin\u2019\u201d reference within the first thirty seconds before slowly building to a killer chord progression that makes me feel like I should be at a tailgate party wearing corded bellbottoms, burning my nose in the sun.<\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"border: 0; width: 350px; height: 470px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=951534812\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/tracklist=false\/transparent=true\/\" seamless=\"\"><a href=\"http:\/\/sleepoversf.bandcamp.com\/album\/ep\">EP by Sleepover<\/a><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">EP closer \u201cLet Me Go\u201d<i> <\/i>sees me at an impasse \u2014 on one hand, it pours some ice water on unrelenting high intensity since the latter half of \u201cLullabye,\u201d but on the other, the repetitive chorus is a little too much of a Jefferson Airplane throwback to end the EP as strongly as \u201cLullabye\u201d opened it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>Would have died a hundred times\/to trade her fate for mine, <\/i>sings Biehn on \u201cLet Me,\u201d a evocative line with the kind of specificity I wish was embraced more throughout the song. Not that receptiveness is automatic anathema \u2014 it&#8217;s quite effective on \u201cNo Place,\u201d especially in the second half, where Biehn\u2019s vocal stylings are supported by yet another great riff, as well as the loopy, yellow-brick-road associations with the song title itself.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The dreamlike quality and soft\/rough vocals of Biehn \u2014 who, incidentally, I think could make some serious magic with Thank You Come Again\u2019s Izzie Clark \u2014 are quite effective and appealing overall, especially when she keeps her feet firmly on the ground, allowing her to go toe-to-toe with the EP\u2019s crunchier moments.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>A great example of this is when she cries <i>you can\u2019t go back again <\/i>on \u201cNo Place,\u201d her voice ever so slightly distorted before the song moves to highlight the riff. Clearly, the band has good instincts when it comes to mixing together their variety of inspirations and influences \u2014 but I do think they are the most successful when one does not overpower the others.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The band \u2014 Biehn, Gabrielle Tigan on rhythm guitar, Lauren Diem on lead guitar, Cindy Yep on Bass, and Jack Douglas on drums \u2014 tagged themselves on Bandcamp as \u201cdreamgrunge,\u201d which might seem like a bit of an oxymoron. However, what is a dream other than distortion and discordance, two paramounts of grunge? Either way, Sleepover knows what they are about, even if there are a few kinks left to iron out.<\/p>\n<p><em>Check out the band&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/sleepoversf\/\">Instagram<\/a> for updates.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The self-titled debut EP from Bay Area band Sleepover\u00a0starts with the kind of intro you would expect to hear on a Best of the &#8217;50s compilation album. Take me with you, begs lead singer Pakayla Biehn on the cheekily-named \u201cLullabye,\u201d the instrumentals slowly racking up in intensity before diving into a snarling pit of punky [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":29676,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6732,7851],"tags":[210,1789,9092],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/0017563086_10.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29674"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29674"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29690,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29674\/revisions\/29690"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}