Obviously, this ended up not being the case. After feeling ostracized by his own music, Trevor Powers, the man behind the Youth Lagoon project, decided to return to it as he was recovering from a mysterious and drastic health condition that left his vocal cords damaged, and his body weakened. However, from this whole incident, he had an epiphany of self-discovery, and documenting this is the album Heaven is a Junkyard, the first Youth Lagoon release since 2015, and the cause for their first tour in over five years. 

Nina Keith leaning over an array of synthesizers. Image via John Glab

Nina Keith opens for the first two weeks of the Junkyard tour, playing her glassy, minimalistic ambient pieces. The brisk air from the incessant rotating fans, and the cold blueish-white light blanketing the stage amplified the icy atmosphere that the music built. Standing there it felt like being surrounded by frozen walls in an ancient glacial cave. Rocks clambering against the metal on a vibraphone sounded like icicles breaking off from the ceiling. Quick lush noises flashed over classical soundscapes and low surging reverberations. In a reoccurring move by Keith and her bandmate Massima, they would strum the ends of the bars on the vibraphone to create chilling ethereal swells.  

Youth Lagoon began the set with the tracks “Rabbit” and “Prizefighter,” both off the new album. On the right, Trevor Powers sat surrounded by three different synthesizers, and a small tower that housed drum machines, other electronic instruments and a laptop with a neon orange duct tape cross. A drum set sat on the left side of the stage being sparsely used since most of the songs’ percussion came electronically from the press of a button. Powers’ bandmates, Tchad and Logan, occupied the middle, and swapped roles between playing guitar, drums and bass. Despite Gabe’s smaller performance space, they still managed to include drenching RGB LED lights, setting them angled on the ground.  

Trevor Powers among his set up. Image via John Glab

The third song of the night was “Cannons” from 2011’s The Year of Hibernation. When Powers played the glimmering synth lead, the audience stirred with excitement. A faint echo of “I have more dreams than you have posters of your favorite teams” from voices singing along backed Powers’ vocals. That echo grew with intensity as the instrumentation became more engulfing, before ending with its biting guitar solo. Youth Lagoon didn’t abandon the older tracks that Powers grew to feel detached from, and played multiple other classics including “Montana” and “17,” which further stimulated the crowd. These tracks followed the calm, reflective, stripped back structure that built up into flooding zeniths, and elongated, indie power-pop jams.  

Following “Cannons” was the song “Deep Red Sea” which had a very loungey feel from plinking piano licks, and light plucked basslines, but still intwined with a course synth part during its end. The setlist was dominated by tracks from the new album. Fitting for the Junkyard tour. The jazzier arrangements of these songs allowed for more people to shuffle along with the music, giving the audience a livelier radiation. The lyrics on these songs had a lot of clarity and personal elements, like with “Trapeze Artist,” which Powers briefly spoke on the tumultuous state he was in while writing it, before playing the song. Tracks like “Idaho Alien” had smooth hooks with lingering, memorable flows. Even though those in the audience were more unfamiliar with the songs because of their novelty, many were still able to find themselves mouthing along to them.  

Image via John Glab

Powers interacted with the audience a lot during the performance, talking back with different people. In one instance, Powers had asked for Tchad’s bass to be turned down in his headphone monitors because the reverb was too much to handle. After himself feeling bad for the request, the crowd started chanting Tchad’s name to seemingly boost his spirits. They then cycled through Logan and ended with Trevor’s name. Youth Lagoon then played what they claimed to be the last song “Mercury” ending with its forcible chorus.  

The three members then walked off the stage and out the back door unconvincingly for a predictable encore. Most of the people in attendance still stood around, either because they too saw through the game of peek-a-boo or were still left buzzing from the performance. Somewhat sheepishly, the band walked back on stage and played the songs “Posters” and “Dropla” for the encore. Afterwards, Powers expressed his gratitude towards the audience, and seemed genuinely humbled by the reaction throughout the night.  

You can listen to Heaven is a Junkyard and all the other Youth Lagoon releases on their Bandcamp and other streaming services. Youth Lagoon continue their tour for another week before taking a break and returning again in September. 

Full Setlist: 

Rabbit 

Prizefighter 

Cannons 

Deep Red Sea 

The Sling 

Afternoon 

Trapeze Artist Mute 

Little Devil from the Country 

Idaho Alien 

17  

Mercury 

Posters 

Dropla 

The post Youth Lagoon Remerges from Hibernation at Gabe’s appeared first on KRUI Radio.

During that time Trevor Powers released music under his own name, with 2018’s “Mulberry Violence,” a more glitched-out, experimental rendition of the flooding power-pop he did as Youth Lagoon, and 2020’s “Capricorn,” an ambient, minimalistic electronic album much akin to Brian Eno, or Mort Garson’s work. These albums were made from his attempts to grapple with his own self-perception.  

Near the end of 2021, Powers was faced with a sudden medical emergency. A drastic bad reaction to an over-the-counter medicine had his stomach acid bubbling upwards. The vapors from that eruption lingered on. His throat was coated in acid leaving Powers unable to speak for extended periods of time. Powers described the experience as a “mini death” that resulted in him having this feeling of rebirth. Having his body destroyed, and then being forced to reassemble all those pieces, it allowed him to transform into a person he better recognized.  

Image via Lightning 100

That led to the creation of “Heaven is a Junkyard” and a return to Youth Lagoon. Powers’ tender damaged voice tells stories of characters with parallels to his experiences over the past few years. From that pain there comes a sense of comfort, from the growth of working through it all and striving to come out the other side. It feels free of anxiety. “Heaven is a Junkyard” has a loungey feel to it with creaking basslines, shallow pianos and light, serene instrumentation. The album has a clean production value to it and ripples, like drops of water into a puddle. This is in contrast to the lo-fi, gushing climaxes in previous Youth Lagoon releases. 

The Youth Lagoon show at Gabe’s in Iowa City marks the fourth show on his new tour for “Heaven is a Junkyard,” the first one in over five years. Since it has been so long, it’s kind of a mystery what the performance will be like. It won’t be the glammed-out, bathed in colorful LED light indie pop concert that was the archetype in the early 2010’s. Powers has grown out of that. Besides Gabe’s can’t really fit that. Yet, will Youth Lagoon pull out a song like “Cannons” or any other one from that era, or have they been permanently laid to rest? Likely the performance will reflect the growth and change that Youth Lagoon has found itself in. 

Youth Lagoon will be at Gabe’s in Iowa City on Tuesday, July 18^th as his fourth stop on his first tour in over five years. You can listen to “Heaven is a Junkyard” and the rest of his discography on Bandcamp and other streaming services.  

The post Show Preview: Gabe’s Hosts One of the First Youth Lagoon Performances in Over Five Years appeared first on KRUI Radio.

A Walk Through Wondrous Bughouse

This lo-fi, noise-pop album created by Idaho native Trevor Powers is a note-packed compilation of eerie ambiguity and luminous nostalgia. Within its oscillating intonations, it creates a confusingly pleasant atmosphere of sound. Its atonal note pattern is matched with seemingly perfect psychedelic reverbs, which elevate its songs to a powerful euphoric experience.

The first track, “Through Mind and Back,” settles you deep into a world of unknowns. Powers alludes to a foreign, parallel realm where all previously held notions of modern sonic revelations are completely obsolete. He has created his own universe within this album, and this piece slowly gestures you into its grandiose landscape.

After being thrown into “Mute,” the listener begins to understand the vast phenomenal field Powers has built from the ground up. His echoic voice, nasally and child-like in nature, battles an evil construct, and his dualist mindset has nowhere to go but deeper into its own self-referential conscience. The album seems to open hidden doors and bring the listener somewhere completely new. “Attic Door” coincides with this idea as its waltz beat lulls the listener farther into Wondrous Bughouse. “You can trust me like you would trust your own brother. Maybe even better,” claims Powers.

“The Bath” opens with the sound of a microphone going underwater, continuing on with various sonar sounds. His words are lost in a sea of sound and you gently float to the unheard maniacal lyrics until smooth guitar riffs wash over the naturalistic soundscape and resolve into a dizzying tone, where the more audible, “Pelican Man” comes to light. This song, the most uplifting and progressive on the album, builds on itself until it erupts into an audacious statement of existence. It continues on in a downward spiral of repeating tones prior to the solidified structure of “Dropla.”

“You’ll never die,” repeats Powers, ingraining the nonsensical mantra until you believe him. His surrealist parables seem like fairy-tales, but they emit a sense of nostalgia and simultaneously break new ground. The dreamland continues through the scary mansion-horror sound of “Sleep Paralysis.” It eventually blends into a semi-sadistic lullaby- something of nightmares or drug-induced psychosis.

“Third Dystopia” sheds some light and allows you to climb back into the comfortable cradle of his harmonic melodies- something more reminiscent of his debut album Year of Hibernation. It aesthetically decays into the track “Raspberry Cake,” a sullen realization of the frailty within us all, but instead of whining, it celebrates the conceptual oneness and breaks down into an emotional triage of piano and live drums. The awesome melodies fade into the final track, “Daisyphobia,” an auditory experimental of grand illusion. The illusion seems endless until the recognition of Powers’s final melody rests with us in his infallible piano waltz.

Wondrous Bughouse holds your brain captive as it transforms highs into lows and recognizable sounds into sonic dissonance, while tackling stories of mortality and happiness. It takes the mind on a journey through the introspective experience of our own consciousness. The music is said to stem from the drawing on the cover and inside the album (they were taken from a psychiatric hospital), and translated into the beautifully convoluted sound heard on this dense, yet tranquilly congruent album.

Buy the full album here.

Check out Dropla here.

The post Album Review: Wondrous Bughouse by Youth Lagoon appeared first on KRUI Radio.