November 18, 2013 | 0 Comments

CUMULUS is KILLING IT at Top 200 Radio!!!!

GUESS WHAT!! Cumulus is already my most successful radio campaign of the year, and it’s only in Week 3. There are so many reasons to love the Seattle band Cumulus, not the least of which is that they make completely delightful hooky-but-deep swirly ladyfronted pop music that was so good Chris Walla decided he needed to release it on his Trans– label. They just got off a humongo nationwide tour with their labelmates The Lonely Forest, which I had the privilege of catching at the Mercury Lounge in NYC, and now they are TEARING IT UP on the CMJ charts. On their Add date, 11/5, the album tied for #5 Most Added, and this past week it already made its debut at #98 on the Top 200. This week we’re gonna shoot for Top 50. Pretty sure we’re gonna crush that. I’m co-promoting this one with my friends at the Syndicate, so not only is this an album you’re just going to want to play the crap out of because of how great it is, it’s also an easy way to make two promoters happy at once by pushing it up yr charts!! YEAH!!!

CUMULUS

I NEVER MEANT IT TO BE LIKE THIS

Trans-Records

Cumulus’s songs are a study in juxtapositions: delicate but powerful, specific but universal, naïve but knowing, and above all personal despite being steeped in the classic pop themes—love, loss, youth, wonder, disappointment, joy.

Trans- (Chris Walla‘s record label) releases Cumulus’ debut full-length, I Never Meant It To Be Like This, this autumn. The album, produced by the band at Phil Elverum‘s studio The Unknown in Anacortes, WA, is what Spin has called “an elegant, understated work of deftly flickering guitar pop,” and “a comforting rainy-day blanket.” We prefer to think of the record as a masterpiece in miniature—ten songs of expansive, explosive indie pop at whose epicenter are the indelible melodies and haunting twilight voice of singer/guitarist/songwriter Alexandra Niedzialkowski.

For reference: I Never Meant It To Be Like This places Cumulus squarely alongside contemporary acts like Best Coast, The Dum Dum Girls, and Tennis, while reaching back to a not-so-distant golden age of indie pop when good bands had hits, and the knack for wide-readership hooks (Elastica, Veruca Salt, Juliana Hatfield) and loud guitars (Yo La Tengo, My Bloody Valentine‘s first album) didn’t preclude a heroic dose of delicacy (Heavenly, the Delgados, Velocity Girl, Tiger Trap). All of which is to say you could almost mistake Cumulus— who appear, let’s face it, pretty adorable—for twee if they didn’t rock so commandingly.

RIYL: Tennis, Best Coast, The Dum Dum Girls, Tiger Trap

Start With: 3, 1, 6, 2 FCC CLEAN

Here is a fantastic video from the summer for their first single, “Do You Remember”. Their next video, for “Hey Love”, will debut through KEXP this coming Friday (11/22):