Just 3 months after their recent EP release on Old Flame Records and 12” vinyl via Adagio830 & Echo Canyon Records, Massachusseetts’ sheogaze act KINDLING (IDIOTEQ interview available HERE), are back with a new split release with their Canadian friends from KESTRELS. The record is out now via Noyes Records and can be streamed in its entirety below!
United by their shared love of crushing-yet-tuneful walls of sound, Kindling and Kestrels are kindred spirits of modern shoegaze. The bands decided to commemorate their kinship on wax, each contributing a striking original track, as well as a nod to their influences with Kindling covering The Replacements’ “Can’t Hardly Wait”, and Kestrels covering “Thorn” by My Bloody Valentine.
More about both bands:
It would be difficult to find two bands better suited for each other than Kindling and Kestrels. This record is a culmination of a long-running friendship & kinship between Chad Peck of Kestrels & Stephen Pierce of Kindling – two guitarists & songwriters who share a similar affinity for the balance of noise, volume & atmosphere with melodic pop hooks & soaring guitar leads. Like two sides of a coin, the result can often land somewhere between esoteric & accessible, heavy & light, visceral & restrained, crushing & beautiful.
Kindling, from rural Western Massachusetts, returns on the heels of the 1-2 punch of their 2016 debut LP “Everywhere Else” and it’s companion EP “No Generation” with a stunner of a song in “Wait”, a longform rumination on loss & hope that showcases a band that has markedly evolved in the short time between recording sessions from three-chord punk rock shoegazers to something much bigger, much more focused & composed; it lays down the gauntlet for things to come.
From remote Halifax, Nova Scotia, Kestrels are also registering a quick follow-up to late 2016’s self-titled third LP with “Octavio”, recorded during the same sessions. Hardly an outtake, “Octavio” works more as a summary of the best parts of Kestrels – direct & anthemic, a dynamic pop song both expansive and self-contained.
Also included is a cover song from each band – each a selection that nods to a point of inspiration from the past. For Kindling, the choice was to cover “Can’t Hardly Wait” by The Replacements — of course, it’s referencing the version of the song that was recorded during the “Tim” sessions, rather than the one on “Pleased to Meet Me”. For Kestrels, the choice was “Thorn” by My Bloody Valentine from the “You Made Me Realise” EP.
