Snowball II

(CMJ Reporting FYI: "?" is in CMJ as "Question Mark")

Snowball II is a psychedelic shoegaze and experimental indie rock band that is native to, despite their chilly moniker, sunny Los Angeles. Snowball II's forthcoming debut album mystically entitled ? was released on February 29th of this year. Do not be deceived by California’s palm trees and bikinis; although this record was dreamt up and recorded only miles from some of Hollywood's hottest stars under the sun, it translates the dark whirrs of obsession, infinity, and anxiety in a 59-minute soundscape that'll have you set the record on repeat ad infinitum.

Snowball II is fronted by and under the direction of Berklee College of Music educated, 23 year-old multi-instrumentalist and producer Jackson Wargo. These intricate and innovative songs were all produced, written, and recorded by Wargo himself at his home studio in Long Beach, which allowed for his artistic vision of each song to be fully realized. The record sounds like an imaginative combination of My Bloody Valentine’s swirling guitar textures surrounding Spacemen 3’s tremolo drones and accompanied by melodies so catchy one is apt to mistake them as covers of The Kinks. These melodies are sung through the lyrics of an unpretentious, 21st century James Joyce reincarnate.

This is a band with influences from all around the map, and is a band which is unafraid to approach genre with such fluidity it is difficult to bind them to one style. The album’s first single, “I Can Come,” is the catchiest neopsychedelia song since Animal Collective’s “My Girls.” The song was released along with a wild, unapologetic music video codirected by Kevin Anton and Tyler Taormina. One of the band’s first recordings (which won’t be on the album) will be heard in Gavin Weisen’s upcoming film The Runaround.

Snowball II is forging the sonic future of indie music by a pastiche of textures that have been forgotten for decades and sounds that have not been made before; it makes you wonder what this band is going to do next.

RIYL: My Bloody Valentine, Spiritualized, Deerhunter, DIIV, Nada Surf
TRY: #3, 6, 8, 1, 2
DIRTY: #4

Download full album here:
https://www.piratepirate.com/downloads/

More Info Here:
https://www.facebook.com/snowballiiband/
https://snowballii.bandcamp.com