Though local indie-electronica act Blank Brothers has been racking up SoundCloud listens for a while now, the short shelf life of their weekly singles and the lack of context within a greater work has prompted the trio to release a new album, Placeholders.
“There’s a tremendous demand for new content, and as a result, Soundcloud feels like a musical landfill where artists can disappear as quickly as they appeared,” says Jon Fricchione, as he explains to us the cyclical nature of audio consumption. “So what happens when the music you listen to is delivered as a performative gesture, or something to consume and throw away? What tends to happen is clean production and blunt lyrics that reflect a mood… an auditory status update that you can show your friends.”
Rather than let their songs grow stale on SoundCloud, Blank Brothers wanted to give them a new home. As Fricchione tells the story behind some of the tracks on Placeholders, it becomes even more evident that the album is not just a repackaged collection of singles.
“Looking at the overarching lyrical themes of Placeholders, there’s an element of self-reflection that LAX fits very nicely,” he says about “LAX,” one of the oldest tracks on the album. “It’s very much about young Hollywood types, but it’s also referencing our own, occasionally potent, combination of vanity and introversion.”
Fricchione notes there’s a greater sense of intimacy on this record than their latest, Peak Color Hour: “like someone talking with you and making eye contact versus just looking at their shoes.”
But, their sound stays intact. The similarities to Glass Animals are still there; we’re lost in a rainforest, surrounded by strange droplets of sound, a smatter of plinks and bloops.
Listen to Placeholders below: