In 2016, No Joy decided to forgo the full-length album route for a series of not-so-long albums. If last year's Drool Sucker EP dug into the band's shoegaze-by-way-of-Sonic-Youth-noise side, then "Califone," from the forthcoming Creep EP, opens its production palette. Where past releases cloaked Jasamine White-Gluz's voice under guitar distortion, here she floats above No Joy's most intricate guitar melodies as restless drums burst apart tufts of clouds. It's more akin to Pinkshinyultrablast's bustling dream-pop than to the gorgeous shards of sound on No Joy's own 2015 LP More Faithful.
Ben Clarkson directs the "Califone" video, a curious collage of computer-generated and green-screen images: a San Francisco Giants-branded coffin on a Tron-like grid, Tom Cruise's head chopped off at the guillotine, guitars dropped like bombs from a fighter jet, White-Gluz's floating head and body hanging out with Left Shark and cryptic visions of the world flashing "The Economy."
Creep comes out Feb. 24 on the brand-new label Grey Market.
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