Shana Falana – “Heavenstay”

In the young person’s game of indie rock, one advantage to having some years behind you is that you acquire the skills and the guts to be who you really are — to navigate through the Scylla of reinvent-the-wheel novelty and the Charybdis of herd-like “cool.” I hear that on “Heavenstay” by Shana Falana, who assembles mountains of chorused guitars, treated vocals, and reverberant rhythms into a concise and startlingly catchy anthem. As elsewhere on her excellent forthcoming album Set Your Lightning Fire Free, Falana fuses several styles of music with an uncommon strength of character. This is shoegaze minus the diffidence, goth without the adolescent baggage, dream-pop unafraid to kick some ass.

Shana Falana has had her hand in music-making across a variety of styles for almost two decades. Tellingly, it took her relocation from Brooklyn to the small upstate New York city of Kingston to set in motion a proper debut album. In removing herself from the urban crowd and finding sympathetic colleagues (like Team Love Records, based in neighboring New Paltz), Falana has developed a powerful, confident sound that could thunder out of stadium loudspeakers. In terms of spark, accessibility and execution, Set Your Lightning Fire Free is an astonishing album — truly music to climb and look over the mountain to.

Set Your Lightning Fire Free comes out today (April 7) on Team Love Records.

SHANA FALANA ON TOUR:

April 7: Rochester, NY – Bug Jar
April 8: Buffalo, NY – The Hive (house show)
April 9: Cleveland, OH – Happy Dog
April 10: Columbus, OH – Double Happiness
April 11: Chicago, IL – Coles
April 12: Louisville, KY – Mag Bar
April 13: Lexington, KY – Al’s Bar
April 14: Bloomington, IN – The Backdoor
April 15: Rock Island, IL – Rozz Tox
April 16: Madison, WI – Mickey’s
April 17: Milwaukee, WI – Riverwest Public House
April 18: Minneapolis, MN – Kitty Cat Club
April 21: Bozeman, MT – Wild Joe’s Cafe
April 22: Missoula, MT – The Real Lounge
April 23: Spokane, WA – The Bartlett
April 24: Seattle, WA – Jewel Box Theater
April 25: Portland, OR – The Know
April 26: Eugene, OR – TBA
April 29: Nevada City, CA – Coopers
April 30: Oakland, CA – Awaken Cafe
May 1: San Francisco, CA – Hemlock Tavern
May 2: San Francisco, CA – Amnesia
May 3: Santa Barbara, CA – Fun Zone
May 4: Los Angeles, CA – pehrspace
May 5: Pomona, CA – da Art Center
May 6: Phoenix, AZ – Trunk Space
May 7: Tuscon, AZ – 191 Toole
May 8: Taos, NM – TBA
May 9: Albuquerque, NM – Gold House
May 10: Norman, OK – Opolis
May 11: Little Rock, AR – Vino’s
May 12: Nashville, TN – Stone Fox
May 13: Knoxville, TN – Pilot Light
May 14: Atlanta, GA – Mammal Gallery
May 15: Athens, GA – Flicker Bar
May 16: Savannah, GA – Graveface Records
May 19: Asheville, NC – Mothlight
May 20: Durham, NC – Pinhook
May 21: Richmond, VA – Balliceaux
May 22: Baltimore, MD – The Crown
May 23: Philadelphia, PA – TBA