Radiation City – Come and Go

Labels: Polyvinyl
Number of Tracks: 1
Total Time: 3:46
From the Album: Synesthetica
Formats: Triple A, AAA, Non-Commercial, NPR
Available Date & Time: February 11, 2016 12:30 PM ET
Impact Date: February 14, 2016
Country: USA

ALREADY ON KEXP and OPB MUSIC

In late 2013, with two well-received full-lengths and an EP under its belt, Radiation City got the itch. The band had built a strong following in its native Portland and connected with fans around the world, and from the outside, the path seemed clear enough: find a great producer to work with and further develop the smooth, space-age doo- wop sound that had put them on the map in the first place.

But on the inside, things weren’t so simple. Cameron Spies and Lizzy Ellison, Radiation City’s founding couple, were falling apart. Rad City, a tight-as-family band that always seemed to work so effortlessly off- and onstage, was on the verge of calling it quits.

Then a something happened: Spies and Ellison got together to record some new, urgent and semi-spontaneous songs and rediscovered that old magic. "None of it felt rushed, or belabored," Spies says. "It was honest and unafraid."

Radiation City was not going to polish up its old style for Synesthetica; it was going to completely overhaul both its process and its sound. After recording with Vanderslice, the band took its new directive back to Portland and turned to Jeremy Sherrer (Modest Mouse, Gossip) at Ice Cream Party to flesh out its studio sessions.

In contrast to all the human drama involved in creating Synesthetica, the album itself turned into something otherworldly. "We were trying to get to a place where cultural constructs didn’t mean anything," Spies says. "We wanted to destroy the barriers between all the things we keep separate in our daily lives."

Based on the condition known as synesthesia, whereby a person links one sensual experience with another (for Ellison, who experiences it, that means seeing specific colors when she hears different musical sounds), Synesthetica is a place where multi-sensory experience is commonplace; where feelings and definitions blend and melt, and surreality becomes reality.

The word synesthetica is the summation of a pivotal third album that, from the outside, probably seems as effortless as every other Radiation City release. Synesthetica almost killed this band, but instead, it serves as the opening salvo of a monumental second act, and Radiation City is invincible.

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