Melting Vinyl dedicated to bringing creative artists to Brighton & Kent

Melting Vinyl presents
Lightheaded + Jeanines at The Prince Albert, Brighton on Sunday 20th July
Doors: 8pm. Show starts: 8.30pm.
£14 in advance with booking fee /£18 on the door
Age restrictions – 18+

A summers night of indie pop!

Lightheaded:

Carrying on the long tradition of sentimental pop songwriters, U.S.’s Lightheaded distills decades of jangly, lovelorn tunes into sparkling sounds for modern softies. They have the sunshine sparkle of Margo Guryan, the C86 charm of Dolly Mixture, and the cinematic swell of Belle & Sebastian. Their latest batch of tunes, Thinking, Dreaming, Scheming, showcase the band bursting with ideas in all directions of their record collection. The songs are a simple case of pure pop for now people.

Formed on the shore of New Jersey by Cynthia Rittenbach and Stephen Stec, Lightheaded took time to hone their sound with a rotating crew of drummers, guitarists and backup vocalists. They found a community of like-minded bands in a vast but tight-knit international indie pop scene, which led them to the iconic California label Slumberland Records. Their debut EP, Good Good Great! landed in 2023 followed by the full-length Combustible Gems in 2024. A European tour and gigs opening for bands like Heavenly, The Softies, and The Ladybug Transistor rounded out their breakout year.

The band have signed to Skep Wax records in the UK to release the new EP, Thinking Dreaming Scheming, their most collaborative and earnest release to date. Recorded bi-coastally with Gary Olson (The Ladybug Transistor) and Alicia Vanden Heuvel (The Aislers Set, Poundsign) and drenched in lush reverb on tape by Fred Thomas (Saturday Looks Good to Me), the songs are rendered in a dreamy soft focus that perfectly suits their starry-eyed themes. Lead single ‘Same Drop’ is an aching slice of baroque pop that feels warm and dusty, not unlike a lost cut of 80’s grrl group goodness. Adding to all the fun are the cameos and contributions from the new generation of New York indie pop goodness, featuring members of Starcleaner Reunion and Trinket, pushing the songs on this record to the high point in Lightheaded’s young discography.

Jeanines:

Over the course of nearly a decade making music as Jeanines, Alicia Jeanine and Jed Smith have charted a distinctive course through the history of pop, evoking influences as varied as the 60s folk of early Fairport Convention and Vashti Bunyan, the sunshine pop of Margo Guryan and Laura Nyro, and indiepop touchstones like Dear Nora, Marine Girls, Dolly Mixture, and the post-Black Tambourine projects of Pam Berry.

Their new album, “How Long Can It Last,” finds Jeanines grappling with themes of personal upheaval and self-excavation, adding weight to their finest set of songs yet. With Alicia’s lyrics incisively interrogating connections, ruptures, and time and its reverberations, songs like “Coaxed a Storm,” “What’s Done Is Done,” and “On and On” combine richly melodic tunes with multi-instrumental producer and co-composer Jed’s crisp arrangements (featuring contributions from longtime live show bassist Maggie Gaster) to stellar effect.

Where “How Long Can It Last” really shines is, as always, in the songs. While the themes might be heavy, the melodies and harmonies are simply heavenly, elevating these economical songs to give each the feeling of a lost classic. From the first notes of opener “To Fail” to jaunty closer “Wrong Direction,” this album announces itself as the work of a band in full command of their art (and craft).