Currently comprised of founding member Gregg Dolan (vocals, guitar), Deidre Sage (vocals), Joe Hansen (guitar), Lee Evans (bass) and Shane Reid (drums), the Denver-based indie rock act Kissing Party can trace its origins to when Dolan prematurely booked the band’s first show — without actually having a band to play it. With only thirty days to pull together the slop-pop band he had been dreaming about ever since he had turned eight and saw Purple Rain for the first time. Initially, the band wound up being comprised of a then-rag tap group of strangers that Dolan says he met “by fate:” Dolan recruited Sage to join the band on the basis that “her name sounded cool,” their first guitarist was a guy who worked at a local bank because he actually owned a guitar and Reid reluctantly joined, despite having never having heard any of Dolan’s songs.
Hansen replaced the band’s first guitarist, and Evans joined the band to complete the band’s lineup. Within their first year of being a band within Denver’s DIY scene, the band quickly became a local staple as a result of their described “slop pop” sound; in fact, their full-length debut Rediscover Lovers landed at #3 on The Denver Post‘s Best Albums of 2007. Building upon a growing profile, their sophomore album, The Hate Album received attention from Three Imaginary Girls, Filter Magazine, Skope Magazine and a number of other national outlets. The Denver-based quintet signed to local label Hot Congress, who released their third full-length album Wasters Wall, Looking Back it was Romantic, which also received a limited cassette tape release from Austin, TX-based Fleeting Youth Records.
Hot Congress also released their Christmas album, 2017’s Winter in the Pub and their most recent effort, a split EP with labelmates Bleak Plaza. The band’s fourth album Mom & Dad, which is slated for a May 17, 2019 release will be the inaugural release from the band’s own label BBYV, a Kickstarter effort that pooled over $5,000 from some of their most dedicated and devoted fans. And interestingly, the album as the band’s Dolan says in press notes isa 31 minute opus, featuring “everything [he’s] wanted to say in a record.” Thematically, the material reportedly portrays moments of small town life — the attempt to find yourself and your place, the attempt to find like-minded souls and desperately trying to make it through yet another dull, repetitive day, as well as debt, regret and heartbreak.
Mom & Dad‘s latest single, the 120 Minutes–like “A Little Star” is centered around jangling and distorted guitars, a soaring hook featuring boy-girl harmonies and while the song is generally hopeful, there’s a subtly bittersweet air to the proceedings. And while generally capturing the at times ambivalent and vacillating feelings of young lover — hell, of most love, really — the band does so with a much-needed earnestness.
The recently released video follows a young couple killing time and goofing off at a small town hotel complex — and while initially wholesome and sweet, the video takes a dark turn with the couple attempting to rob their local pizza guy. Much like the song, the video captures the day-to-day life of being young and in a small town without much to do.