Nirvana's Kurt Cobain famously once said that if he could be in any other band, it would be Scotland's unsung indie pop heroes, BMX Bandits. That same band once provided a home for the extremely talented Lawrence Kim, who has just released a video for the single, "Rodeo."
Considering the aforementioned, the track is no surprise, stylistically. It's a whopping eight and a half minutes of jangly, breezy, effortlessly pleasant minor key power pop, with the "power" coming more from the songwriting skill than from any sort of amped up aggression or volume. Its significant length surprisingly never becomes obvious, without a look at your preferred streaming tool. Instead of dragging on annoyingly, "Rodeo" begs you to put it on for a backroad joyride.
The single is taken from Kim's forthcoming album, The Hours and the Times, due out in May of this year. While Lawrence wrote, produced, arranged, played, and sang most of the album, he wasn’t flying completely solo.
“I decided to rope in as many pals as I could, to lend some variety to the proceedings. And thank God I did, because they give the songs a depth they wouldn’t have had otherwise.”
The various guests include enigmatic chanteuse Emma Tricca, drummer extraordinaire Kid Millions (Oneida, People of the North), psychedelic bluegrass belter Rachel Cox (Oakley Hall), singer/songwriter/filmmaker Alexandra Helgerson, sax ace Stephen Chen (Ghost Funk Orchestra, San Fermin), multi-instrumentalist Peter Hess (Philip Glass
Ensemble), Vincent D’Onofrio collaborator Dana Lyn, and more.
