Austin’s Pale Dian have the kind of shimmering textures and swooping soprano vocal melodies that will surely garner plenty of (not totally off the mark) Cocteau Twins comparisons, but we hear in their fusion of dreampop swirl and post-punk thump more Cranes, Strange Boutique or even the relatively obscure Skinner Box (from the Projekt compilations, not the ska band). “In A Day” is the first single from their debut Narrow Birth, and it’s appropriately gauzy-layered and swoony, with a steely rhythmic backbone. Singer Ruth Ellen says of her lyrics: “It’s about the struggle for what I want and what I actually get. All in a day I want it all just like the rest of us. Love, happiness, success, good sex. But it doesn’t always work out. Sometimes my goals, creations and desires are the very thing that destroy me and I am caught saying, “Don’t leave me behind.” I have left myself behind, because I want it all in each and every day, and I’m devastated when I can’t get it and, in turn, am unable to enjoy the present. On the surface people think one might have a flourishing and efficacious life, but in reality it proves to be a lonely and unfulfilling one. My intensity is unshakable, nothing is ever enough and I am my own worst enemy.”
Anyone who has ever reflected on the shifting images we throw up of ourselves on social media and the hollow nature of immediate likes and shares will surely find the subject matter relatable and perennially contemporary.
Narrow Birth will be available June 1 on Manifesto Records.
Pale Dian tour dates:
February
26 Austin @ Swan Dive
March
2 Albuquerque @ Winning
3 Tucson @ The Flycatcher
4 Los Angeles @ La Cita (Part Time Punks w/ Puro Instinct)
5 San Diego @ Soda Bar
6 San Luis Obispo @ Perpetual Energy Factory
7 San Francisco @ Hemlock Tavern
8 Salem @ 50 Pub
9 Portland @ Liquor Store
10 Seattle @ Lofi
11 Boise @ Neurolux
12 Provo @ City Limits
13 Denver @ Rhinoceropolis
14 Wichita @ Kirby’s Beer Store
15 Dallas @ Crown & Harp
16 Austin @ SXSW
