Local Review: lucy – Now you lay, terrified

lucy
Now you lay, terrified
Ephebopus murinus
Street: 11.15
lucy = (julie + Saetia x Unwound) ^ vampirefreaks.com

Salt Lake City’s resurgent screamo/skramz scene—built and upheld by Tripp-clad teenagers and driven purely by angst and a deep love for their community—is a glorious thing to witness. If you’re seeking the enthusiastic, passionate DIY spirit that allows underground music scenes to thrive, it can be found in the lineups on hand drawn cartoonish flyers for local screamo shows. One such act is lucy, a “multimedia art project centered around but not limited to music, fashion, art, self-expression and the color red,” according to their Spotify bio. A lucy performance is as much of a theatrical experience as one could hope for from a DIY project; their lineup includes a live DJ and keys in addition to classic guitar, bass, drums and vocals, and the band’s on-stage garb presents a carefully curated display of the best alternative trends that characterized underground music in the ‘90s and early ‘00s. 

While lucy is nestled nicely in the local screamo scene, their approach to genre is anything but confined, lending them to sounds entirely their own. The nature of their heavy shoegaze influence leaves some tracks dripping with nostalgia. They’re songs you listened to during your worst phase in middle school decades ago, but they’re unlike anything you’ve ever heard before. “dracula3,” Now you lay, terrified’s opening track, exemplifies this phenomenon: Its tender, mellow opening, accessorized by Lou Fisher’s soft vocals, is an emotional segue into a heavy shoegaze chorus with guitars fuzzed to the max and post-hardcore screams of agony. Think Swirlies, but with the pain of a band like Love Lost But Not Forgotten. “Salzakudor!” continues the same feel, but with greater intensity—a track that shifts from one crushingly sad section into the next with intermittent, impressive mathcore riffs. Its melodic climax is amplified by distant-sounding screams. 

In both music and aesthetics (particularly Fisher’s outfits as lead vocalist and guitarist), lucy brings to mind Japan’s visual kei scene at its (arguable) peak in the early to mid ‘00s. “Hymnal-pg.1,” with its haunting, gothic quality in the vocal and synth performance, is reminiscent of Malice Mizer. “Farnese-MarthaMix” is instrumentally similar, but with the vocally expressed agony and crunchy, fuzzy tones dialed all the way up. The track is concluded by dial and ringing tones mangled by distortion. “Acquiesce” incorporates a similar element of darkness and drama, as spooky synths bolster its melody. Thick, chugging guitars offset by panic chords make their way into this track before it is closed by droning synth, guitar and cymbal hits that align with each tortured scream. 

“Denial of my life ending prematurely.” opens with Duster-esque guitar leading whispered vocals of yearning before a gentle drum beat crafted by Calvin Hickey tucks itself into the track beneath Fisher’s crooning: “I’ll find you.” It’s a testament to lucy’s knack for maintaining this overarching mood of darkness while experimenting with instruments and genre that make them difficult to place into any one niche. If a release appealing to fans of shoegaze, screamo and even nu metal wasn’t victory enough, fans of ambient electronic and noise have a place in “Saint Olga of Kiev and the Drevlian Uprising,” a 17-minute experimental journey of synths, screams and sirens galore. 

Following their performance at SLUG Localized at Kilby Court on November 14, lucy instantaneously secured their place as one of my favorite active local bands. Their creativity in risk-taking when it comes to genre, aesthetic and performance is that of a band years ahead in age and experience. Or maybe it is this art project’s youth that drives their spontaneity and innovation. Follow lucy on Instagram at @lovely.lucy.x for upcoming shows and hopefully, even more groundbreaking releases that awaken the part of you that longs to frolic in a cemetery and post those pictures on MySpace. –Emma Anderson 

Read more local album reviews:
Local Review: Sleep Cult – Speed Freak
Local Review: Suppertime – Here’s the Thing