Blushing

Considering Austin’s long love affair with boundary-pushing alt rock, it comes as little surprise that it would produce a band like Blushing. Formed in 2016 and consisting of the double husband & wife pairs of Christina & Noe Carmona and Michelle & Jacob Soto, Blushing’s unique brand of dreampop-infused indie rock hearkens back to the halcyon days of college radio. With a diverse array of influences including Elastica, Curve, Veruca Salt, Lush, The Breeders, and Smashing Pumpkins, Blushing manages a deftly executed eclecticism that recalls the best elements of alt rock’s past while retaining a vitality and immediacy that tethers them firmly to the present.

After releasing the Philip Odom engineered EPs Tether (2017) and Weak (2018), the band partnered with Ringo Deathstarr’s Elliott Frazier to produce their self-titled 2019 debut LP on Wallflower Records and their 2022 followup, Possessions, on Kanine Records. Across their discography, the group’s ever-expanding scope and increasing refinement is easily chartable, culminating in the swirling but propulsive shoegaze of Possessions. Boasting collaborations with Miki Berenyl of Lush and Mark Gardener of Ride, Possessions channels the dreamlike qualities of 4AD’s most ethereal bands paired with the guitar-forward approach of early 90s American indie rock. The result is an astoundingly effective synthesis of forms that is as dynamic as it is comfortingly familiar.

On their recently completed third LP, Sugarcoat, Blushing’s dynamism is on full display, flitting effortlessly from spacey psychedelia to twee pop jangle with finesse and panache. Having once again enlisted Frazier and Gardener for engineering, mixing, and mastering duties, Sugarcoat is a dense, reverb-laden exploration of alt rock’s 40+ year history that conjures up concord from chaos. Whether it’s the post-punk-tinged “Seafoam” (which happens to feature Jeff Schroeder on lead guitar) or the hypnotic psych of “Slyce”, Blushing weaves a cohesive musical arc that effortlessly blends their disparate influences into a sonic watermark that is unmistakably their own.

Between their recent Japan tour with Softcult, extensive stateside touring, multiple appearances on live-session staples like LEVITATION, SXSW showcases, and sharing stages with Snail Mail, Blonde Redhead, Beabadoobee and countless others, Blushing’s mastery of their craft is hardly mysterious. Buying a Fender Jaguar and an analog reverb pedal is one thing; Knowing what to do with them is another matter entirely. Blushing is a band who understands that fact acutely, and they continue to demonstrate it with an adroit, genre-bending versatility that only seems to sharpen with each new effort.

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