Live Concert Photography: Blush with Dark Tea, Outside World and Lightning Bug at Union Pool 12/13/17
Perhaps best known as a founding member of locally renowned indie rock band Darlings, an act that released three albums and played at the Whitney Museum, Music Hall of Williamsburg, Death by Audio and Shea Stadium, and a brief stint in the in blogosphere attention grabbing act Beverly, Maura Lynch’s latest project Blush finds Lynch going back to her roots, as the project was inspired by her missing the simple act of making and sharing music with her friends. The project derives its name from a particular series of sporadic bedroom recorded demos, which she had filed as Blush on her computer. And Lynch has explained in press notes, the material she began writing in her bedroom was inspired by a love of straightforward and simple guitar pop with layered vocals — but lyrically the material was written as a sort of diary of its creator’s late 20s with songs focused on loving people who didn’t deserve it, loving people who did deserve it, making sense of the monotony of the working world — and of a woman, who’s trying to find her own place within the world.
Last year Lynch finally felt ready to make those demos into real songs and she got together with her friends Pop. 1280‘s Andy Chugg and Pill‘s Nick and Jon Campelo to flesh out the material, which was recorded over a series of nights and weekends at Chugg’s Gilded Audio Studio — with the end result being their recently released self-titled album. And as you may recall, the album’s first single “Daisy Chain,” found Lynch and company specializing in a shimmering guitar pop seemingly influenced by Phil Spector‘s classic Wall of Sound production and Too True-era Dum Dum Girls — but with a breakneck conciseness. The album’s second single, which built upon the band’s growing buzz was a jangling, guitar pop cover of Mariah Carey‘s smash hit “Fantasy” that manages to retain the song’s swooning nature while being a unique and coquettish take on a familiar song.
Earlier this month, the band play a headlining set at Union Pool to celebrate the release of their full-length debut album. The bill included the indie rock/folk/Americana act Dark Tea, the Brooklyn-based math rock act Outside World and the members of Lightning Bug. Check out photos from the show below.