OK, seriously, what is in the water in San Francisco?  Either we’re getting a statistically improbable barrage of submissions from one part of the country that just happen to be really good or there is a really interesting indie revival happening on the west coast.  I am keeping my fingers crossed for the latter, if for no other reason than Nanobot can use the company funds to create the write-up: “Greg and Clay Discover Magic in San Francisco.”  Hm, maybe the title needs work…

Anyway, we’ve covered some great bluegrass, folk, power pop,  hardcore, hip hop, flugelhorn, grunge-revival, and now…. shoegazer!  Less fuzzy than My Bloody Valentine, more experimental than Lush, Phosphene takes the driver’s seat across the dreamy landscape of lo-fi melodic rock on their debut EP.  Vocalist Rachel Frankel crosses Laura Hoffman with Juliana Hatfield with her somber lyrics as she proclaims she is “nothing you’ve ever seen before/not a savage not a whore” on the opener, “Control.”  She and Thomas Holguin utilize choppy distorted guitars while Matt Hemmerich recognizes the color palette of the music and exercise restraint, keeping drum beats and cymbal strikes light and in the background.

As far as debuts go, this is a pretty solid four tracks.  It ranges from the dark and melodic of “Control” and “With Teeth” to catchy pop of “Shark” and closes on the simple, yet thoughtful instrumental “White Moon.”  The EP does all I could ask of one: it makes me want more from Phosphene, because the world needs more of their shoegazer sound.  Help make that happen, go download their EP from their bandcamp page.  It’s a dollar, cheaper than a medium coffee, Red Vines from the break room vending machine, or Angry Birds Take Manhattan or whatever iteration they are on these days.  Take the time to support an awesome band in what we can only surmise is an awesome band city.