New Year’s Eve in Indianapolis; it’s freezing cold and dark as the underbelly of an anglerfish. I have, of course, dragged all my party guests out to that stupid field I love so dearly. We stand under the starless sky, passing around a bone and talking about the coming year. Midnight hits. A bottle of champagne pops, and glasses are filled, fireworks begin lighting up the empty chasm above, and gunfire cries out in every direction. It’s too much for me. I let myself down to rest against the trunk of one of the black cherry trees I hang my hammock from in the summer. The smell of gunpowder and expended brass fills the air; a tune accompanies it. Something twinkling and dreamy with piano and some sort of odd, chorded instrument I can’t place. Unfortunately, before I can ask what’s playing, it’s gone and forgotten, so begins a two-day obsession with tracking the song down.
Well, the results are in. After forty-eight hours of combing forums, googling lyrics, and filtering through discovery playlists, I found it. The song is “Empty Shopping Mall” by Pencil Legs.
This is the latest single from the Ukrainian shoegaze musician. It’s a slow, somber piece that stands out among Pencil Legs' other tunes, which tend to be a little more like typical shoegaze. “Empty Shopping Mall” takes the dreamy factor shoegaze is known for and pumps it up until it’s bulging from every note the song has to offer. The single is an endearing duet of acoustic guitar and piano. The two instruments complement each other exquisitely, like sauvignon blanc and gouda or changa and salted peanuts. We’re treated to gentle, mournful lyrics that are sticky-sweet like the faded memory of your favorite childhood candy. This is occasionally accompanied by that string instrument I mentioned; I still don’t know what it is, but I’m putting my money on harpsichord. Just as you’re getting comfortable with this surreal combination, the song comes to a simple conclusion; the final flutter of the guitar, a few more words, then fade out.
Shoegaze is a genre that exploded in the first half of the 20s. Suddenly, there are a million bands that all sound exactly like Soccer Mommy, trying to capture the cloudy feeling of a dream that continues to slip from your memory the longer you’re awake. “Empty Shopping Mall” accomplishes this without any of the cheap tricks we’ve come to expect from the genre. Shoegaze is becoming a parody of itself; an overcrowded soundscape of compressed vocals and fuzzy guitars all ran through an echo pedal set way too high. It’s refreshing to see a single that performs beyond expectations while forgoing the spectacle the genre pushes.
You don’t need to be half passed out in a field to fall in love with Pencil Legs. It’s damn fine music that will hook you no matter how you approach it. You can find “Empty Shopping Mall” streaming wherever you get your music. If you like what you hear, you’ll be pleased to find that Pencil Legs also has two full-length LPs, both of which I highly recommend. You may also enjoy the several live performances posted to their YouTube channel. However you choose to listen, I think you’ll figure out pretty quickly what it was about Pencil Legs that made me obsess over tracking them down.
