Stare at Your Shoes and Stream Keep's New Seven-Inch 'Psychorama'

If we are all being honest with ourselves, the whole shoegaze revival thing seems to be heading towards an inevitable destruction soon. I mean, how many pop punk transients can the genre support before it caves in on itself? Yet, like any movement, no matter how oversaturated it is, there will be torchbearers and fresh blood alike, ready to bring something new to the table. To judge a band based on the genre is not only entirely too common in the digital age, it’s pretty boring criticism, and the Virginia-based duo Keep are here to prove that shoegaze still has something to say.

Following their self-released debut, Hypnosis for Sleep, Keep are back at it with a follow-up EP entitled Psychorama, which is set for release via Ohio’s Mayfly Records on November 20. While Hypnosis for Sleep was aptly titled, a sort of droning indie lullaby, Pyschorama is a much darker and heavier outing. The record’s title and final track is its standout, which buries the reverb-drenched vocals in a sea of psychedelic guitars. It was no accident that Pyschorama marks a noticeable improvement in the band both tonally and technically. The record took nine months to complete, which means they spent upwards to three months per track. “Though it took almost a full year to record only three songs, we were able to spend time on making sure that the sound we wanted was conveyed. The writing and recording process was more meticulous. We had a better grip on how to be a band, as well as what we wanted to accomplish,” Keep describes of the process.

With myriad of labels specializing in these kind of records, Keep have seemed to find their perfect home at Mayfly. Owner and sole-operator of Mayfly, Bob Farley, has a history of championing young, new bands from diverse genres. His label was an earlier supporter of hardcore acts like Code Orange Kids and Incendiary, as well as a home for bands as different as Pianos Become Teeth and Vestiges. If anything, Mayfly is more defined by difference than anything else. That is what Farley seems to see in Keep, stating that, “for me, Keep is a band that draws as much from 90's alternative rock bands as they do from the obvious shoegaze influences. Their harmonies owe as much to Alice in Chains or Jawbox, as they do Slowdive or My Bloody Valentine.”

Keep’s Pyschorama is limited to 300 copies on coke bottle clear and can be pre-ordered here.