To sum up outside perceptions of the band, Blushing singer-bassist Christina Carmona quotes an old aside from her bandmate, singer-guitarist Michelle Soto: “I think we could write a reggae song and people would say it sounds exactly like Lush.”
Precursors to the 2020s shoegaze revival, the Austin quartet debuted their own brand of dream-pop back in 2017, complete with airy guitars and ethereal vocals akin to the London innovators. Lush singer Miki Berenyi even co-signed the band in 2022, lending her voice to the song “Blame.”
Less dreamily lands Blushing’s third LP, Sugarcoat. Out May 3 via Kanine Records, the album hits harder and runs shorter – trading light, expansive soundscapes for dark, compact rock songs.
“It’s like a bad dream now,” Carmona quips. Though they’ve peppered heavier moments throughout their discography, going into Sugarcoat, the band – rounded out by Christina and Michelle’s husbands, guitarist Noe Carmona and drummer Jacob Soto – resolved to push past shoegaze constraints.
“We’ve shown that we can write dreamy, we’ve shown we can write shoegazey, we’ve shown we can write indie,” Soto says. Going into LP3, “We were like, ‘Fuck it, let’s get heavy.’”
Heavy indeed, the album’s bass-driven title track recalls early Nine Inch Nails, while Soto compares the breakbeats and processed guitar of “Slyce” to the indie-dance Madchester scene of the late Eighties. The group wrote the latter song toward the end of recording sessions with their go-to producer, Ringo Deathstarr leader Elliott Frazier. Out of studio time, they turned to Frazier’s space at Austin Community College, where he teaches in the audio technology and industry department, and recorded the track on campus – in front of Frazier’s class.
“I felt like I really had to perform,” Carmona recalls of tracking in front of an audience. “Maybe that’s what doctors feel like whenever they’re doing surgery and medical students are watching them play Operation.”
Like Berenyi’s appearance on last album Possessions, Sugarcoat features another revered pedalhead: longtime Smashing Pumpkins guitarist Jeff Schroeder, who plays lead on “Seafoam.” Though “the nicest person in the world” agreed to play on the song right away, touring with Billy Corgan kept him busy. Blushing worried his contribution, received several months later, wouldn’t fit the track, but Carmona sighs, “it was absolutely perfect.” Even better, it reminds her of her favorite Smashing Pumpkins song, “Stand Inside Your Love.”
On May 2, Blushing debuts Sugarcoat at Hotel Vegas alongside Ringo Deathstarr. The gig, and a fall UK tour that follows separate U.S. runs, reunites the bands after an especially fun 2019 outing. “It’s just laughing until literally – I won’t name names – but until someone pees,” Soto says of playing with her longtime friends.
That initial run inspired the bandmates, who all work day jobs, to dedicate all of their vacation time to playing more out-of-state shows. “It’s so much harder, and it takes so much more dedication, but we want to play for crowds that have never seen us,” Soto says. “And then when we go back again next year, some people remember us. There’s so much satisfaction to playing out-of-town shows where you’ve started building a fan base.”
The release show presents a rare opportunity for locals to catch Blushing, self-admitted sporadic Austin giggers, at their most eclectic. Or as Soto describes their new writing mantra: “We don’t have to prove anything. This is just for us. Let’s just try to write some crazy shit.”
Sugarcoat Release Show w/ Ringo Deathstarr, Prehuman
Thursday 2, Hotel Vegas Patio
Inside Blushing’s “Bad Dream” Dream Pop
A version of this article appeared in print on Apr 26, 2024 with the headline: Inside Blushing’s “Bad Dream” Dream Pop
This article appears in April 26 • 2024.
