Frankie Rose
A former member of Vivian Girls, Crystal Stilts, and Dum Dum Girls, Brooklyn's Frankie Rose launched a solo career in the 2010s playing a blend of melodic indie rock with detours into shoegaze and synth pop. A staple of the Slumberland label, albums like Interstellar (2012) and Cage Tropical (2017) saw Rose move increasingly toward brighter, new wave-oriented material. Following a six-year gap, she returned in early 2023 with Love as Projection, a luminous electronic-driven set.
In the mid-2000s, Rose was an integral part of Brooklyn's thriving indie rock scene, known largely for her drumming and occasional vocals. A founding member of noise pop trio Vivian Girls, she also played in much-loved bands like Crystal Stilts and Dum Dum Girls before making her solo debut as a singer/songwriter with "Thee Only One," a tuneful, reverb-heavy noise rock single for Slumberland. Rather than forge ahead on her own, she teamed up with bassist Caroline Yes, guitarist Margot Bianca, and drummer Kate Ryan to form Frankie Rose & the Outs, which released a self-titled album in the fall of 2010. Moving away from the lo-fi leanings of some of her earlier bands, the Outs' debut favored a harmony-driven classic pop sound. While the group only lasted for a single release, it set the table for Rose's proper solo debut, the 2012 full-length Interstellar. With this album, she established a more expansive sound that wove atmospheric dream pop with jangling guitars and a new wave sensibility, all centered around her beguiling vocals. A collaboration with producer Michael Cheever (also known as Le Chev), the album helped Rose net a deal with the Fat Possum label, which issued her thrilling 2013 follow-up, Herein Wild. 2014 saw the release of Beverly's first album. A duo with fellow Brooklyner Drew Citron, their self-titled debut was completed prior to Rose's cross-country move to Los Angeles, a move that proved to be full of personal and professional setbacks. After a career low point working on a West Coast catering truck, she reached out to producer Jorge Elbrecht and the pair started work on a new album that revolved around Rose's turbulent times in L.A., but with science fiction undertones. She was soon back in Brooklyn where she and Elbrecht were joined in the studio by the Darkside's Dave Harrington. Released in 2017, Cage Tropical marked not only a return to her home city, but to the Slumberland label as well. While working on new original material, Rose took some time out to record a tribute to one of her greatest musical inspirations. Her full-album cover of the Cure's 1980 classic Seventeen Seconds was released in 2019.
Preceding her next album was the 2021 single "I'll Be Your Lightning," an outtake from the sessions that eventually culminated in 2023's Love as Projection. More than any of her previous records, Love as Projection delved deeply into electronic music, pairing some of Rose's most sophisticated songs to date with production marked by synths, drum machines, Auto-Tuned vocal hooks, and a more digital rendering of Rose's well-honed melodic pop style. The album was released once more on Slumberland in March of 2023.
SRSQ
SRSQ (pronounced seer-skew) is the moniker of singer, musician, and elemental force Kennedy Ashlyn. From foundational years as co-founder of visionary shoegaze duo Them Are Us Too (alongside the late, lamented Cash Askew) through her growing body of solo work on Dais Records, she has steadily honed her multi-octave range and moodswing songcraft into an increasingly potent poetic voice. 2019’s celebrated debut, Unreality, showcased a deepening gift for melodic dynamics and emotive exorcism – a mode she half-seriously coined “griefwave.” The album’s passionate response prompted extensive live dates, further sharpening her natural performative instincts.
2022 further confirms Kennedy as an essential generational talent, able to synthesize private struggles and sorrows into stirring, redemptive anthems. Hers is a music of tumult and triumph, darkest night breaking into brightest dawn, where anguish blurs and becomes acceptance. SRSQ’s seeds have only just begun to bloom; looming tours, videos, and more will inevitably hasten an already radiant refinement.
