Unlike our previous visit to the Canopy Club’s Discover series, Nov. 3 delivered a lineup of musicians cut from the same indie-rock cloth, rather than three distinct genres.
All four bands managed to be distinct in not only vocal delivery but overall musical approach as well. If anything, it highlighted the subgenres and complexities of what makes indie-rock such an exciting genre. From cinematic swells and storytelling to laid-back instrumentals fit for a rainy day, the Discover series had it all.
Lys Allen
Song(s) of the night: “305”
Honorable mention: “Palatable” (Unreleased)
Transitioning from her folk-centered EP, “Sharks in the Swimming Pool,” lead singer Alyssa Allen – henceforth known as Lys – carries intimate sentiments and confessional storytelling into a new indie-rock backdrop. The Lys Allen band could be mistaken for veterans of the genre, armed with a firm grip on lyrical and instrumental storytelling laced with smart tempo changes and wide dynamic contrast.
Each song plays out almost like a film score, unraveling in valleys of deep melancholia and peaks of clarity that feel almost visual. The band’s firm grasp of lyrical and instrumental storytelling is laid bare in “Angel” and “Palatable,” two songs that would sound right at home on the silver screen.
“Palatable” was perhaps the best showcase of the tasteful ebbs and flows we might be seeing in the band’s upcoming album. The song goes through several ups and downs before arriving at a well-earned, heavy rock-out. It was a melodic roller coaster in all the best ways.
Boyish worked as an appropriate opener, greeting the audience with a firm smack in the face. Unlike the rest of the setlist, the song hardly takes its foot off the gas pedal after starting. It also serves as a primer, familiarizing the audience with Allen’s unique voice and pleasant vocal flips.
As a band, Lys Allen has a way of convincing listeners that there is always something more going on under the surface.
Allen breaks the fourth wall in “Bitter,” a song originally debuted on TikTok with a hazy voice and dry wit. Allen sings “Changed my name / Was it enough to make you hear me? / Are my colors fading? / Are you watching as it drains?” Allen has a gift for injecting the personality needed to elevate indie-rock songs, and it is likely the reason for their current biggest triumph:
“I think I wanna call the cops on your party /
– “305” by Taurus Hate Club
No more late nights for 305 /
I didn’t make it out to karaoke /
Was too busy overthinking the invite”
“305” is a fan-favorite (according to current Spotify numbers and audience sing-alongs). The live rendition of the song is always played slightly differently, but pleasantly so. The lyrics and delivery are likely the largest contributors to its success, and the next generation of songs promises to be just as quotable and twice as meticulous.
For all of the band’s pleasant moments, there was a particular dim spot in the form of “Columbia.” Many venues have struggled to refrain from swallowing up the rapid-fire delivery of Allen’s quiet verses, and the Canopy was no different. While the song has the fun lore of being what the lead singer used for admission to Columbia College, it may serve better as a studio-version exclusive unless enunciation and volume changes are made between the singer and live mixers.
The band closed out on an intensely somber note, choosing “The Call” (another song that exists only as a TikTok demo) as their final song of the night. The level of restraint and quiet drum rolls harkens back to Allen’s first EP, proving that although she plans to take a bigger band and more melodrama into the next era, she and the band are still more than capable of creating slow tear-jerkers that require one to stop and fully appreciate its story.
Lys Allen’s next album is likely to be every bit as emotional as it is cinematic in approach. It is likely to draw in fans of Boygenius (and its separate members), Wednesday and Mannequin P****.
Sitrus Sol
Song of the night: “Envy You” (unreleased)
From uniting in middle school and making music to being a four-piece band (and back down to a duo in early February) to winning spots in Solshine Reverie via the 2024 bout of Canopy’s Battle of the Bands, Sitrus Sol has a long, untold story under their surface.
In many ways, this extensive history translates well to the stage. While they did not interact with the crowd as directly as our last batch of Discover artists, their quiet chemistry and mutual encouragement seep themselves into the mostly laid-back landscape of dream pop the band offers.
The Canopy Club helped to set the scene. In several previous reviews, we mentioned the Canopy Club’s tendency to miss backup vocals and mic issues. However, the venue stepped up to the plate this time around. Exercising the use of gentle reverb and balancing the volume of the mics well enough to shift between Brown and Marsh’s trading backing and lead vocals.
One of the highlights of the night came in the form of a cover. “Without Me” by Mac DeMarco wiggled its way into the top performances of the night. The band of two – along with enlisted members David Counter (drums) and Chris Riggs (bass) – elevated the song into something resembling a truly heartbreaking ballad. Marsh poured character and charisma into the usually sleepy-sounding song, trading its pointed whimsicality for emotional grit.
The band continues this feeling in “Envy You,” an original that tops the previous performance by leaps and bounds. Between Marsh’s raspy vocals and Brown’s mastery of the lead guitar, the song took on a life of its own that needs to be captured in studio form. The song features some of the best vocal and instrumental work, featuring well-placed harmonies and mastery of the guitar’s fretboard during solos.
The band ultimately saved the best song for last, leaving off on what felt like a good cry. Distressed tonality and flips into falsetto were used extremely well, blending in with a finale of drum fills and jaunty guitar rhythms to rise to the occasion one last time. The finale had won the club over, audience members swaying along with the band.
The band did not shy away from prolonged improv guitar solos or vocal work with built-in imperfections, allowing emotion to sweep them away whenever needed. The comfortable and easygoing energy around each other translated well to the crowd, making the sudden bursts of emotion all the more powerful.
Sitrus Sol seems to know where they fit best, often covering Mac DeMarco and Beach House. They may also be enjoyed by fans of Slowdive.
Grey Slush
Song of the Night: “Spare Key”
Approaching the bittersweet end of the Emily How tour, T.J. Syndram opened with kind words about the tour’s conclusion.
“[It’s] good to end it here in welcoming company with friends and family,” said Syndram. He decided that, along with handling the guitar, keyboard and one-half of the band’s vocals, he was also going to handle the mic for the bulk of their crowd work.
Syndram expressed appreciation for the artists within the Illinois scene, saying, “Some of the best music in the world is, I think, [happening] here.”
Where the other bands felt like nods to cinema and earlier times, Grey Slush’s newest EP, “Out of Touch,” is reminiscent of sitting in the rain and sifting through memories.
Syndram, the lead for “Will We Get it Right,” a song that sets listeners adrift at sea lightly rocking the boat with existential questions. The song earned a collective sway from the audience, drawing eyes and ears onto the stage despite the slow tempo and soft delivery. It rang out like a collective meditation.
Hill makes up the other half of the band’s vocals, taking the reins for the album’s opener, “Bottle It Up.” The lyrics mostly speak for themselves, with “Bottling up / Everything I felt but never have the guts to say / It’s coming undone / The fabric of myself / I wish I had someone else to blame,” serving as the first declaration of the work. The sentiment makes it all the more heart-wrenching when he does find someone to blame and luckily for him, he does.
The keyboardist came back to helm “Spare Key,” a favorite of ours that goes on a journey from self-deprecation to awareness of spiraling but being unable to stop it or allow others to try.
Grey Slush was fully committed to the torment wrapped neatly within the song’s framework. The laid-back demeanor was ditched at the drop of a hat. The whole band chose to get lost in the wall of sound right along with the audience, who showed support by jumping along with the band. The sonic journey of the song drives the jagged lyrics so much deeper than they would initially go, all culminating in a gut-wrenching yell.
“So long
– “Spare Key” by Grey Slush
Don’t you have somewhere else to be?
Don’t you have something else to think?
So long!”
Syndram and Hill share composition and production credits on the song respectively, handing listeners a load of emotional baggage that may require several listens to process… and yet, it is even better live.
Connor Fitzgerald (bass) and Matt Filarski (drums) lend just as much to the band’s in-person magic, forming a rhythm section that is truly the head of the operation. While discreet at first, Fitzgerald and Filarski guide the band up and down in pace and through dynamic ranges.
The band previewed a few new songs, confirming the rumblings that although they had released an album this April, they were already working on another.
Grey Slush has put out an album roughly every year since 2021. Syndram says the band sticks to “a while-supplies-last” model, producing merch all at once for an era/album and then never again. The keyboardist expressed a commitment to this earlier in the night, joking “I’m on a four-day streak of talking about merch… My previous record was one.”
The band seems fully committed to the nostalgic and “had to be there” feel of their music, creating moments and memories while performing.
Grey Slush has a large catalog of music, but the current “Out of Touch” era feels like a pleasant blend of multiple elements: the intimacy of sign crushes motorist, the hushed intensity of Peach Pit and a unique blend of acoustic and sampled elements entirely unto themselves.
Emily How
Song of the night: “Cross Ur Mind”
Honorable Mention: “Moss Avenue” (unreleased)
If How’s music had to be summed up in a single word, it would be “cathartic.”
“I wrote [these songs] when I realized no one else was going to do it for me,” How said regarding her 2022 EP, “Flight Behavior.”
It is an experience that envelopes one within a fireball of emotion. Whether it be the self-targeted outrage of “Useless” or the embittered empowerment within “Ladybug,” every song contributed sparks to a blaze of truly raw emotion. As How quaintly puts it:
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
– “Cross Ur Mind” by Emily How
AHHHHHHHHH!!!
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”
If there is one recording that stands above the rest, it would be the Stumbling Block recording of “Cross Ur Mind.” How delivered a faithful rendition of the tune for the final leg of her tour, complete with blood-curdling screams that felt almost contagious.
The song is an all-too-familiar story of unmet expectations and fears of wasted potential. As youth fades, ruminations of regrets and alternate paths tend to settle in. This is the tale that How wails out, detailing her journey of going against the grain and dropping out of college to pursue her passions.
Despite shouting several times in the night, How demonstrated that she had possibly mastered her craft, finding no issue in swapping to softer songs like “Brain Cells” uninhibited. She finished off her set with “I Hope I Die Inside a Fire.”
The track currently sits as her top song on Spotify. The singer idealizes rage and the relief that comes from being able to let it all out – if just for one time.
How obliged the request by stripping down to her original mode of performance: just her and a bedazzled guitar. “Moss Avenue,” an unreleased song written by How after moving to Peoria and reconciling with the disparity between her and the people living in ornate houses. It was an emotional ending that served as not only the official conclusion of How’s tour but a glimpse into what comes next for the artist.
For those new to Emily How, now is a great time to get acquainted.
Sitting at well over 50 thousand total streams and over one thousand concurrent monthly listeners on Spotify, she has also been making big moves relatively undercover.
Earlier this year, How was voted by fans into the top 20 of over 7,000 entries for the 2024 NPR Tiny Desk contest with a stripped-down, emotionally raw recording of “Useless.” Live, the song was just as temperamental, exposing vulnerable emotions as “Real Pain” by Indigo DeSouza.
Achievements and accolades aside, How showed up and delivered a series of performances that connected with audiences on a deeply personal level. Whether it is because of her lyricism or her hair-raising screams, How left the audience with an experience to remember.
Emily How would be right at home on a playlist with artists like Indigo DeSouza, Big Thief, Mitski and Snail Mail.
Final Thoughts
Nov. 3 served as an appropriately intimate yet high-powered end to the 2024 Discover series. Pumped by cinematic compositions and visceral screams, the heart of indie-rock kept beating throughout the entire night.
The small stage of the Canopy Club routinely brought forth artists who had a desire to entertain and lay everything on stage. Sometimes there were only 10 people, and sometimes the roomwas nearly packed. In any case, the artists decided to fully commit.
Although this show was the last of this year’s Discover series, the whole of it makes a compelling case for the next bout starting up next year.
