Surrealist Doom Pop

Last year, Ohio’s Saintseneca released Such Things, one of the freshest, and yet familiar, indie-rock records of 2015.

Saintseneca’s guitar-based music is sweetly earnest, exhibiting the infectious melodies and charmingly snotty lo-fi sensibilities of Pavement. In other words, Saintseneca are quintessential college rock.

Bandleader and multi-instrumentalist Zac Little calls Saintseneca’s sound “surrealist doom pop,” adding that when Saintseneca plays live, “we are surrealist doom pop with mediocre jokes in between.”

Little’s words evoke Dali-esque imagery with lyrics like “hanging like a loose tooth in the sky” from Such Things’ “The Awefull Yawn” track.

And that sense of humor and edge of the absurd carry over into Saintseneca’s creation story. “I met a purveyor of dream crystals,” Little tells EW, describing his band’s beginnings.

“It was said that if you placed the crystal under your pillow at night you would be granted access to a mystical dreamland,” Little says. “Similarly, others who possessed the dream crystals could enter the same realm.”

Little continues: “You could interact with these individuals in dreams, despite what might appear to be an otherwise insurmountable distance in the waking life. Here I saw all of my bandmate’s bands play and I liked what they did, and asked if they would be in a band with me.”

North Carolina’s Des Ark and Newberg’s The Hill Dogs join Saintseneca 8 pm Monday, Feb. 1, at WOW Hall; $12 advance, $14 door. All ages. — William Kennedy

A Note From the Publisher

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