Christchurch/Auckland DIY’ers Jim Nothing drop an engaging video for the heart-warming song “Yellow House”, the first single from the band’s upcoming debut album, “In The Marigolds”, due out on September 15th through Meritorio Records and Melted Ice Cream.
Hanging around the local underground music scene through a bunch of local groups, albeit most notably playing the drums in noise-indie pop trio Salad Boys, the multi-instrumentalist, singer and composer James G. Sullivan established his Jim Nothing alter-ego in 2013, dropping a couple of self-released lo-fi tape EPs, but only the complicity with longtime Christchurch‘s friends, namely experimental violinist/vocalist Anita Clark (Motte, The Phoenix Foundation, Don McGlashan band) and dynamic drummer, producer and Melted Ice Cream label head Brian Feary (Wurld Series, Salad Boys, The Dance Asthmatics), involved in sporadic, late-night recording sessions around 2018-2022, a real band and the project of a full-length, took a cohesive and definitive shape.
The sound of “In The Marigolds” has ‘strong roots in the classic ’80s and 90s Indie Rock of the land it was born in, but other influences can be heard, especially the likes of Aussies The Go-Betweens, Breeders, Guided by Voices’, to which I would add the spectral buzzing melodious bubblegum of JAMC, dappled with psychedelic shades and opiate droning murk of laidback Velvets.
A rollicking tune of captivating noise-pop, “Yellow House” is jam-packed with swaying fuzzed-up guitar riffs, underpinned by stumbling drum beats, and feint throbbing bass lines, to instill organic, lackadaisical moods of comforting nostalgia and familiarity, whilst juxtaposed dual male-female energies carry on a casual conversation about some of Vincent Van Gogh’s more memorable works, to elicit restless feelings of joyful melancholy and confused angst, amid airy layered hums, mercurial atmospheric vocal melodies and beautiful bittersweet honeyed harmonies from Anita’s sad fluttering violin strings, to conjure a lazy summer day of youthful memories.
The artsy DIY video captures the creative process of an off-kilter artist/ musician whose warm and vibrant backyard studio sets the stage for a series of whimsical distractions. A colourful palette, stained paintbrushes, and an impromptu performance sync perfectly with the cosy vibes of the soundtrack to illustrate the inspiration for “Yellow House.”
Jim Nothing‘s debut LP, “In The Marigolds”, is scheduled to be released, in white or black 12″ Vinyl and Digital, on September 15th, via Meritorio Records (EU/UK/USA) and Melted Ice Cream (RoW).
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