Jon Weiss’s jangly indie rock band The Sea Life has been the anchor of his label Babe City Records for many years. We last heard from them as a trio with the cathartic music video for “Red Eyes” from last year’s self-titled album. Now, just as you were asking yourself “Hey, I wonder what’s up with The Sea Life?”, they’re back with a new lineup and new songs this Friday night at American University, providing the hometown support for Video Age from New Orleans and Montreal’s Anemone. Recently Babe City quietly released this music video for “NY Models”, a catchy tune about life’s transitions from their 2013 EP Transitions. The VHS-quality retro style gives us the feeling of looking back on good old times from years past.
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Tag Archives: The Sea Life
The Sea Life – Red Eyes
“Red Eyes”. Come on. You were thinking it too, right? But no, the single by indie rock band The Sea Life is not an ode to the hazy smoke of creative inspiration that these lads (and lass) probably enjoy on the reg. The music video by directors Eli Sinkus and Robin Groulx of Not West Not East presents the very DC angst of slaving away at a corporate job while all you want to do is rock out. Singer Jon Weiss, bassist Jordan Sanders and drummer Jules Hale look so respectable and professional in their business attire, but their sadness at fading away as rock stars is heartbreaking. Enjoy youth now, it doesn’t last forever. Grab their album on digital for whatever price you like courtesy of Babe City Records, or buy it on CD, cassette or vinyl and put some scratch in their wallets.
Podcast for March 16th, 2017
Tony heads to Texas, while Paul sets the record straight.
Tracklisting:
Will Eastman – Froggie [Hilo]
Venn – Surreal [Venn EP]
Dulio – Nostalgia Web [single]
The Sea Life – Red Eyes [The Sea Life]
Vegas with Randolph – Women in Airports [single]
Yoko K – Lou [We Stand: An International Compilation In Support of Planned Parenthood]
Or listen in SoundCloud:
Subscribe to the Hometown Sounds podcast in the iTunes Store or your favorite podcast app! (and tell a friend too!)
The Sea Life – NY Models (GemsOnVHS)
A big part of the DIY/DIT house show scene in DC is crashing on couches. For the touring musicians, that is. Overindulgent patrons are typically relocated to front porches or back alleys. Anyway, Nashville’s Anthony Simpkins, chief everything officer of visual creative content company GemsOnVHS, recently visited our town and got a fitting intro to the DC music scene from The Sea Life‘s Jon Weiss, and his sofa. Simpkins’ camera caught this excellent stripped down performance by Weiss and Payton James of “NY Models”, from their 2013 album Transitions (name your own price!) in Dupont Circle. Much like last week’s Pree video, the tighter focus on Weiss’s vocals and lyrics than is typical for a Sea Life performance is cool to see and hear. The Sea Life next performs live at DC Music Download’s Autumn Spectacular at the Howard Theatre on Saturday October 11th with Typefighter, Teen Mom and Lowercase Letters.
The Sea Life – Prozac & Merlot (Dresden Sessions)
My love of music videos should be pretty apparent at this point, but these days my favorite ones are well-produced, well-edited live takes. I connect with a song more when I see the musicians performing it and feel their affinity as a band. It’s the next best thing to seeing a live show, without the challenging sight lines, close quarters and oppressive sweatiness (<3 you anyway Bathtub Republic). If you’ve somehow missed The Sea Life‘s rise from prominence to near-dominance in DC’s indie rock landscape, it’s well past time to get on board. While touring earlier this summer in Charlotte, the band took up the offer of The Dresden Sessions to record a live video in exchange for a crash pad for the night, which sounds like a no-brainer win-win situation to me. Jon Weiss’s distinctive woozy guitar sound and performance style come off perfectly here. Catch them late Saturday night at Comet Ping Pong with Paperhaus, BRNDA and a DJ set from Outputmessage.
The Sea Life – Sleep (Blue Light Sessions)
There should be no chance in hell that you’ll be bored this weekend. Now that the heat is broken and everyone’s back from August recess, there is no shortage of awesome activities all over town. I’ll be dropping all my cash on minicomics and artwork at the Small Press Expo in North Bethesda, but if you aren’t a comics nerd like me you should definitely head over to the H Street Festival on Saturday. Taking over H Street NE between 8th & 14th Streets, the Festival offers 12 live performance stages, a pie eating contest, a “doggy beach” and something called “Hair Show”. You can check out some awesome local indie rock from Young Rapids, Shark Week, Teen Mom and The Sea Life, the band behind today’s featured music video. Pick Up Productions recently captured a live in-studio performance of their song Sleep, from their latest FREE self-titled EP, for the Blue Light Sessions series. Have an awesome weekend DC!
The Sea Life – Nocturnal video
Friday night the Black Cat hosts the second of three FUNdraisers for DC’s biggest music festival, the Sweet Tea Pumpkin Pie Music Fest, cramming this town full of great music Columbus Day weekend. The Black Cat shows feature some of the bands STPPFest is excited to host in October. This Friday’s show includes Graph Rabbit from NYC, Gary B & The Notions from Baltimore, and the Young Rapids from DC, and it’s started off by College Park indie rockers The Sea Life. Check out the video for Nocturnal, from their FREE self-titled debut EP, and get to the show early!
To hear lots more music from the festival, check out the official STPPFest Spotify Playlist.
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