Brightback Morning Light
Thanks to tight jeans, minimal riffs, and copious irony, there isn't much room to fit mysticism into indie-rock these days. Actually, that's always been the case, but don't tell that to the lost tribe of Brightblack Morning Light. The duo of Rachel "Rabob" Hughes and Nathan "Nabob" Shineywater don't just play music; they summon it from somewhere distant -- an ethereal plane, maybe, or the bowels of the earth -- and spool it out with heavily reverbed instruments and voice. Last year's acclaimed, self-titled Matador debut featured cozmic blues expansions (with titles like "Star Blanket River Child" and "Black Feather Wishes Rise") drifting along on Shineywater's languid slide guitar and Hughes' cavernous organ. Performing under a serene, meditative trance, the band puts on shows that are more mindful ritual than crowd-pleasing concert -- a result of the pair's rural ramblings in Alabama, Northern California, and the Southwest, as well as a healthy distrust of all things urban.
"I've never lived in a city, I live in rural New Mexico now," writes Shineywater via email. "When we did live nearby San Francisco, we couldn't really afford to cross the bridge, so our friends here in SF and Oakland would go north to visit us and go for walks in the National Park. We refer to every city as a Babylon. It's designed so you have to spend money in order to exist. It's everyone's birthright to find things they enjoy that don't cost money, most likely those things are found in nature, for free."
The band's website offers a hint at Brightblack's ecological concerns -- one page is headlined "Action Is the Antidote to Despair" -- but when asked about the connection between music and activism, Shineywater demurs. "I am not sure that the contemporary definition of activism exists beyond a reality of the written word or concept of a self-image," he writes. "Julia Butterfly says, 'One Can Make A Difference,' but there hasn't been enough activism to halt old growth logging in Northern California. Our collective striving for individuality has left us all reacting to the stupid ideas of leaders with guns. Our Vice President shot his own friends' face off. Currents of racism, sexism & speciesism with environmental destruction still flow in unchecked abundance."
Along with BBML's sensual, earthy lullabies, it's that deep reverence for nature that makes the band so potent. It imbues every facet of the Brightblack experience, even their stage décor.
"Those little sticks we haul into our shows have been collected in unique places," Shineywater writes. "We don't treat them as art. Some of the sticks are from very, very old trees, older than the state of California! We set up the sticks that used to be branches usually every time we play music. These sticks bring in another realm for us. Usually it starts with a good memory from the place the sticks grew. The Earth is alive, not dead, and it lives in many realms." - JONATHAN ZWICKEL
- Noise Pop 2007 Program Guide
When Nathan Shineywater and Rachael Hughes were still living in Alabama, the duo's band Rainywater would tour with fellow Birmingham resident Will Oldham. On one such jaunt in 2002, the pair reached Lagunitas, California, and decided to stay put for a while. Adding Noah Wilson's drums to Hughes' Fender Rhodes piano and Shineywater's guitar, the now renamed group make some of the slowest, country- streaked, and reverb-soaked music around. Throw Shineywater and Hughes' layered, languid vocals into the mix, and beauty is most definitely found. Keep an eye out for the trio's second full-length, slipping from the hands of Matador Records this spring. -Mike Munz
