Send "Radiation City " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Popmatters |
 Radiation City started as a friendship between singer/keyboardist Lizzy Ellison and guitarist/vocalist Cameron Spies. Before they started the band, the pair founded a DIY record label, Apes Tapes, which releases music only on cassette. As a band, Radiation City seems to draw from a similar outmoded aesthetic. It’s tough to tell if Ellison and Spies (along with bassist Matt Rafferty and drummer Randy Bemrose), actually love the ‘60s genres they’re drawing from, or if they’re adopting elements of bossa nova, the close harmonies of classic Brazilian pop, and gauzy dream-pop vocals simply because it hasn’t been tried by anyone for a while. I suppose the intentions don’t matter as much if the results are good. It’s when the results are poor that people start to ask questions. On Radiation City’s debut album, the results are decidedly middling, which of course just raises further questions.The Hands That Take You opens with a quiet kick drum beat, accompanied by a percussive rhythm featuring a series of snaps and handclaps, while Ellison softly coos “Do you remember / I remember” Eventually the song, “Babies”, coalesces into something a little more upbeat, with a more hard-hitting syncopated rhythm. But there’s a laid-back, dreamy quality to the entire track that works nicely. Problems arise because much of the album has that same dreamy, mid-tempo feel. It often seems like The Hands That Take You is one long song with some slight variations along the way; the production choices and track order do the album no favours. Second song “The Color of Industry” has some nice flourishes, like a wonderful harmonized brass interlude followed by an acoustic guitar solo. But the band also makes the decision to turn Ellison’s entire lead vocal into a close, three-part harmony that quickly starts to feel oppressive....full text |
| Playgroundmisnomer |
| Sometimes you have to just let the band speak for itself; “It’s familiar yet it’s not. I think people like familiar but they also like something new that they can grasp on to. It’s a lucky happenstance where we unintentionally started making this music but all the good things about it are easily understood by the listener.” Via an interview with Portland’s Willamette Weekly, those are the words of Lizzy Ellison, one of the two creative minds behind Radiation City’s debut LP The Hands That Take You. Thematically and musically, the album does exactly what Ellison asserts it does, creating an album that feels familiar but wholly original. Sure, the comparisons are there – The female lead sounds a lot like another Lizzy: Powell, from Land of Talk; much of the instrumentation would fit on a Grizzly Bear or Department of Eagles album and the vocal harmonies resemble those of St. Vincent (lyrics also share her cynicism); every once in a while, influences from The Doors, The Beatles, and Pink Floyd jump out at you (which makes sense when you consider the band bio from their Facebook, which describes their sound as “your parents’ record collection spent some time on the Event Horizon, and this came out.”) – but their music also retains the experimental and genre-bending nature that’s associated with so many bands from their Pacific Northwest hometown. This should be no surprise when considering that The Hands That Take You was originally only available on cassette through Apes Tapes before being picked up for a September release by Tender Loving Empire. If you’re looking for a cure for repetitiveness it may very well be with Radiation City, as the songs themselves often take sharp turns thematically and rarely explore a dynamic for long or multiple times. They employ tempo and time signature changes, even referencing the latter in “Park” (mp3 available for download below), which, as it alternates between an intense waltz and calm asides, informs us (despite probably employing more of a 6/8 time signature, but that’s semantics) that “Three-four time leads us to the warmth inside.” Lizzy is the predominant voice on most tracks, but boyfriend/creative partner Cameron Spies interjects or takes the lead in a few songs. At times he sounds like Ben Bridwell (“Park), others Jim Morrison (“Phantom Lady”), and in the case of “Mammals,” Prince. The impressive skill they show is in making the unlikely fusion of so many unique features natural without fragmentation or awkwardness....full text |
| Myoldkentuckyblog |
| Seriously. No s..t. Truly. I’m listening to The Hands that Take You, which has been sitting within hearing distance for at least several weeks. And the words that come out of my mouth keep being: “This is so good!” In between exclaiming, “This is so good!” I try to define why it’s so good, since people tend to want to know that sort of thing when you keep shaking them and going on about something. The best I can do is, “I’ve never heard anyone so creatively mesh ‘50s/’60s pop balladry (and the pop harmonies that preceded them, from artists including the Boswell Sisters) with a touch of the subtle eeriness of Angelo Badalamenti, a fanatical love of the moodily atmospheric, and a free-form sense of fun.” Of course, when music is this good, having to analyze it can be annoying. I just tend to add it to my list of favorite things; and my list of examplars of the ability to not only endure, but arrive at brilliance. Also, I really like how much Radiation City initiators Cameron Spies and Lizzy Ellison, who live in Portland,Oregon, love melody. The emergence of Radiation City could be inspiring – or fairly frightening – for a host of electronic-, retro-, garage-, chamber-, and just plain “dream-pop” manufacturers. ‘Cause it’s just raised the bar a lot higher....full text |
Radiation City lyrics
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