“Awful Sound” is the name of the new and sweetly raw single by Washington D.C. indie-pop/indie-rock artist Poppy Patica. Blink and you’ll miss it. The happy exuberance displayed by “Awful Sound” is pure indie rock at it’s most fun and uplifting. The track is the lead single from the band’s newest album, Black Cat Back Stage, named for the now shuttered D.C. venue and steeped with D.C.-area nostalgia.
Fronted by Peter Hartmann with Owen Wuerker (Flasher, Big Hush), Nikhil Rao (Bottled Up), Jeremy Ray (Dove Lady), Poppy Patica, pays tribute to the influences lent by popular mainstays of the local punk scene such as Fugazi and Bad Brains while oozing with alt-pop tones in the vein of Animal Collective or Pavement.
The music and lyrics from the album are part of the ongoing historical record of the community the music is inspired by, the experiences of the musicians in the band, and the times in which we all live. Hartmann notes his music “has a sideways approach to nostalgia, filled with the longing that only time’s good at making sense of.”
Black Cat Back Stage, and “Awful Sound” convey an approachable “just enough” sound that grounds listeners into the authenticity of the music without chasing an over-polished sound. The single is available now on all major platforms and the Alchemical Records Multigenre Mixture playlist on Spotify. The album releases next month on May 5 via House Of Joy.
Daniel Warren Hill is an American musician, writer, and motivational speaker. He is best known as the frontman for Washington DC area Alternative Rock band YellowTieGuy, as co-founder of Capitol Groove Collective, and increasing the exposure of artists on a global scale through his work with Alchemical Records.
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Alchemical Records is a Washington, D.C. based music publication. We cover the Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Richmond, VA metro area music scenes, including band interviews, articles about your favorite musicians, new music and concert dates.
