by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
What’s important to realize about a record label’s very first release is that the artist is without a doubt of the utmost significance to those involved, a catalyst into the weird world of releasing albums. For Squirm Records, a new label founded by the members of New York duo Gorgeous, that impetus is Anyhow, the solo project of Asheville’s Matt Giegerich. A screenwriter and USA Today bestselling mystery author by trade, Longtime Sunshine is Giegerich’s full length debut as Anyhow, due out November 11th. Recorded with producer Matt Labozza (Palm, Palberta) at his Peekskill studio - which is rumored to have once been the home to Pee-Wee Herman - the two brought Anyhow’s songs to life, taking years of voice memo demos and constructing a shapeshifting album in the process.
With additional musicians and friends lending a hand (including Gorgeous’ Judd Anderman and Dana Lipperman, among others), Giegerich and company drift through fuzzy indie rock, tranquil art pop, and a bit of shoegaze, rarely staying in one place for long. “Come To My Island,” the album’s lead single and our official introduction to “Come To My Island” is easily one of the record’s most dynamic songs. While it starts with a fairly simplistic power-pop kind of bounce and overdriven guitars, it’s the way the song shifts toward progressive dream pop in the hook that almost dissociates from the rest of the song. Anyhow run with it, lulling and picking up the pace in equal measure on a song that really keeps you guessing (and I’ll be damned if there isn’t at least a slight nod to King Crimson’s “Islands” thrown in there).