For fans of: Big Star, Dinosaur Jr., Blur, Nada Surf, Stephen Malkmus, Squeeze, Weezer, Pavement, Fountains Of Wayne, Superchunk, Guided by Voices, Harvey Danger
BROOKLYN | May 12, 2017: Kick back and have some fun this summer, with the whimsical power-pop music of Brooklyn’s Onesie! They released their album Leos Consume today, which premiered via Huffington Post earlier this week. The band’s first full-length release is packed with vivid, hooky, guitar-pop anthems pulling from scraps of British pop, American punk, and classic rock influences. As they explore the voyage toward modern adulthood, they remind us all to have some fun and not to take life too seriously!
The origins of Onesie date back to 2007, when Ben Haberland quietly exited The Isles, a New York quartet often compared to likeness of The Smiths. Easing back into music, he began to stockpile guitar pop demos while focusing on his daytime career. “Somehow this album feels like a personal greatest hits,” Haberland shared. “The songs were culled from my favorite bedroom demos of the last 8 or 9 years. I try not to take myself so seriously but recently I realized the connective tissue lyrically is an attempt at aging gracefully while recognizing one’s core creative desires may remain shockingly similar at 20, 30, or 40 years old. I took that anxiety and tried to smush it into fun pop songs.”
Leos Consume opens with the crooning 90’s crunch-pop of “Karaoke Killers”, complete with a double time drop-D chorus, ripping harmony solo, and the kind of gently strummed breakdown that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Tom Petty record. Haberland’s lyrics are more scatterbrained, Malkmus-styled wordplay than linear storytelling or pop cliche, though he trades in most of indie rock’s whimsy for painting life as a hilariously cruel and unfair act. On the jangly, anthemic album closer “Understudy” he plainly asks, “Why’s everyone in a rush to go nowhere? And why can’t randomness be happiness’ understudy?”
As they bounce from one style to another, Onesie’s allegiance to hooks, solid melodies, and momentum more often than not lands them firmly in “power-pop” territory; from the lush telecaster sparkle of “Ballad Of The Boomerang” to the 80’s brit-pop influenced “Hotelekinesis” and “This Minstrel”.
Though Leos Consume was a long time in the making, Onesie promises more to come. “Constant change and friends coming and going are part of the life cycle of being a New Yorker,” said Haberland. “Luckily music keeps happening for me regardless of the exterior world. I have to write, record, and perform to feel like myself, and sharing that with other people is still the best feeling. It’s worth chasing.”
Onesie released their first single “Ballad of the Boomerang” last fall, followed by “Daytime King” last month with a mystifying music video, which premiered via Idobi. Leos Consume was recorded and mixed over several sessions with John Meredith at Mollusk Studio and mastered by Brooklyn’s Josh Bonati, renowned for his work with Captured Tracks.
Leos Consume is out now; order it on Bandcamp here. The band will be celebrating with a record release show on Thursday, May 18 at The Gutter in Brooklyn, NY (event) alongside An English Place, The Sharp Shadows and Sirs&Madams.
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Biography: Onesie is the musical moniker for Brooklyn-based songwriter Ben Haberland. Stitching together vivid, hooky guitar pop anthems from scraps of British pop, American punk, and Classic rock, the band deals in the currency of anthems written on the voyage toward modern adulthood. The live band, formed in 2013 with fellow scene survivor Zack Fanelli (ex Man Without Plan), wields a visceral dynamic reminiscent of the pair’s early days in the DIY punk scene.
