My Twilight Pilot (2015 Reunion) w A Sundae Drive & Golden Cities

Rudyard’s presents My Twilight Pilot (2015 Reunion) w. A Sundae Drive & Golden Cities.

My Twilight Pilot (Houston, TX)
https://www.reverbnation.com/mytwilightpilot

“Saying that MyTwilightPilot write songs is kind of like saying that Homer wrote a poem….” – Devon Powers – Pop Matters

“From peaks and valleys, to the eye of the storm, the songs on MyTwilightPilot’s debut, the 555 EP (named after a cult in their hometown of Houston, TX), captures the imagination and keeps you involved from start to finish. Through melodic implications and soaring guitars, to the windstorm rhythm section crashing down on you.

MyTwilightPilot makes you feel like you’re falling from an airplane, without a parachute, and for some reason you know everything is going to be OK because the trip is too enjoyable not to end with happy results. Their high-octane, fuel-burning gas engine kicks your ass time and time throughout the 555 EP, which lasts over thirty minutes (and only four songs). It’s a long EP that could pass for a full-length, but doesn’t. Houston’s MyTwilightPilot revel in sounds, but somehow they don’t come off sounding like they’re basking in excess, a tough job for anyone, especially a band that has only been together a little over a year. I’ll give this an A–.” – Alex Steininger – In Music We Trust

“Mixing the quiet and subtle atmosphere of Bedhead, the sonic white noise of Mogwai, and the sexiness of the Afghan Whigs, MYTWILIGHTPILOT numbs your senses like no other artist out there. . . carefully blending melodies and noise and melodies and noise.” – CDBaby

“From 25,000 feet, there couldn’t have been anything better than to hear MyTwilightPilot for the first time. Right away the psycho freakout and full-on rhinestone thriller “Their Sleeping Endeavors” makes you want to pull out a handkerchief to dry the tears and calms your fears of death (what little there are, right?). All around, you get an array of sounds reminiscent of bands as far-stretching as Sigur Ros and The Sea & Cake. This album is quite pleasant.” – Modern Fix

“Houston quintet My Twilight Pilot works the same alienated, ponderous ground as Radiohead and Grandaddy, tempering a grand, far-reaching sound with high, vulnerable vocals and minor key piano notes. The result — a gorgeous battle between the electronic and the human, sprawls across four tracks and 31 minutes — a Floydian symphony of uncommon sweep and reach.” – Jennifer Kelly – Splendid eZine

“Before a recent gig, MYTWILIGHTPILOT’s Matt Crow was discussing shoes (specifically, Skechers). He knew of a store with boxes stacked so high they obscured the surveillance cameras. It’s a fitting topic of conversation, since MYTWILIGHTPILOT is Houston’s closest relative to shoegazer rock — though not in the sense of My Bloody Valentine or Curve. MYTWILIGHTPILOT is just *really* into its instruments. The five-piece employs the standard guitar attack with obligatory spaced-out effects and uses the loud/soft approach to songwriting. Songs build through airy, dreamy stretches and then lurch into feedback-riddled guitar blasts. Sequencer, keyboard, and drums fill the spaces in between. Crow is a serviceable singer, but the group’s preferred mix renders the vocals indecipherable (and it’s not really about the words, anyway). Fans of Radio/Bedhead may find themselves in friendly skies.” – Troy Schulze – Houston Press

“On their four-track debut, this Texas quintet toes the line between Neil Young’s bucolic balladry (and ragged guitar heroics) and Mercury Rev’s majestic atmospherics. Album closer “Main Theme to ‘Smoking Gun’” is a euphoric broadstroke — alternating soothing and soaring — and actually earns its 11½ minute duration and an immediate come-again listen. 555 is a smart, sharp calling card that whets the appetite. More please.” – Randy Howard – Harp Magazine

“And when those fuzzy guitars kick in, closing out 555 in a mess of bloodshot, pockmarked psychedelia, I decide all is right with MyTwilightPilot.” – A. Hawkins – Delusions of Adequacy

A Sundae Drive (Houston, TX)
http://www.facebook.com/asundaedrivemusic

For most of the band’s debut EP, You’re Gonna Get Me, it feels like A Sundae Drive just rolls hazily along, serene smiles across the band members’ faces as the music unwinds itself to whatever its eventual destination’s going to be. They nod and sway like they’ve done it forever, but they’re not dreampop (or shoegaze, or whatever you want to call it), not exactly, but they’ve taken pieces of that sound and made ‘em their own.

Take the driving bass at the start of “…And See the World,” for one example — it bumps its way speedily through, Britpop-style, but over the top there’re wavery, watery guitars that bring to mind Teenage Fanclub (or maybe Surfer Blood), as well as some sweetly drifting harmony vocals.

On the other end of the spectrum, “I’m a Poster” is right-angled and math-y, with defiant, J. Robbins-like vocals, spiraling guitars, and a jagged, almost stop-start structure. And despite the differences, it all sounds like the same band, which is no mean feat in itself. Then there’s “Buenos Aires, Manny Pacquiao,” a soft-voiced look backwards at childhood that makes me think of Austinites Meryll more than anything else; both bands craft songs that are intensely personal and reference events that happened when the singer was a kid but still feel utterly relevant to the listener, right here in the present.

There’s also a resemblance to Copeland’s gently-rocking post-emo pop, both on “Buenos Aires” or on the steadily-building “So Sleep.” What’s really interesting about the EP, though, is that A Sundae Drive sound like a pop band that doesn’t really realize it is a pop band. They’ve got all the indie-rock influences poking out from beneath their sleeves, sure, and it’s obvious they love a lot of sharper-edged stuff — the Pixies-esque guitar drone in the background on “Alone Bad, Friends Good” gives that away, not to mention that nice “walking” melody — but the actual songs they’re writing are warm and fuzzy ’round the edges, nodding in a friendly way when you walk in the door.

At the EP’s end, when the band turns down for the up-close, slow-stepping rumble of “I’m Gonna Miss You Like Crazy,” with the droney, half-distorted, Seam-like guitar line and frontman Zeek Garcia’s deliberate, quiet vocals whispering in my ear, it hits me: I really, really like this band. A Sundae Drive don’t need to bash you over the head with how good they are; they’d much rather stand in the corner, plug in, and play until your brain catches up to what your ears already know. – Space City Rock

Golden Cities  (Houston, TX)
http://www.reverbnation.com/goldencities

Golden Cities began when the opportunity arrived for longtime friends Marcus Gausepohl, Nathan Heskia and Lance Higdon to play music together. After releasing an EP as part of John Sears’ Grey Ghost series in 2007, they released their self-titled debut album (recorded with Jeff Price of Tambersauro & Solanae) in October 2008 on Esotype records.

With Nathan departed to Boston, the band recruited Brian Smyth to play guitar and Meghan Hendley to play keyboard and share vocal duties. After a two-week summer tour in 2009, Meghan departed the band to concentrate more fully on her other project, Solanae. The band has since continued as a trio, with Rehberg The Laptop assisting with drones and samples. Most recently they have been joined by Scott Ritter on percussion.At present, the band is playing local and regional shows while writing songs for a second full-length album.

“This is the perfect record for contemplating the deeper mysteries of deep earth or deep space, or for contemplating nothing at all. Either way, Recommended.” Skyline.net

“This band hearkens back to the early ’90s ambient shoegaze epitomized by My Bloody Valentine. They filled the venue with a beautiful roar of guitars and keyboards and help from the ubiquitous Apple laptop. The 30-minute set left me wanting to hear more.” Rebecca Wilson – Ear Farm