Artist

Bedroom Walls

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BEDROOM WALLS
Live at the Derby
March 28, 2003

Bedroom Walls describe their music as Romanticore—approximating (among other things) “eating stale cake for breakfast...knowing your ex-girlfriend is happier now...driving in circles." What sets it apart from typical diary-rock is that this is also music about joy.

Joy is a difficult thing to write toward. Joy isn't mere happiness, nor is it ecstasy. Joy may be pleasure you don't earn, simply allow yourself to experience. Coming back to the band's mission statement—"knowing your ex-girlfriend is happier now”—this joy is sad and kind of beautiful, the ability to shrug it off. What's familiar is the willingness to be absurd, refusing to let your intelligence become a burden. Because joy is absurd, joy's all about enjoying things more than you should, be they cigarettes, wind or bedroom walls. Even music. Perhaps especially music. Music has to be liked a bit too much.

Bedroom Walls make that easy, playing songs with awkward perfection; music to dance to like an idiot, in your room alone, or in the opulently lit Derby. How to convey the music? It 's shamelessly melodic, kind of ambient, kind of spaced-out, surprisingly clever. It's like your little sister on drugs, insouciant and a bit off-the-wall.

Russel Swensen
LA WEEKLY

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