Treasure Island Music Festival - Featuring Sleepy Sun
When spotlighting a local event, who better to showcase than local talent? Sure, next weekend’s Treasure Island Music Festival features a great lineup- we’re looking forward to MGMT, Girl Talk, Brazilian Girls, Flaming Lips, and The Decemberists among others. But we also can’t wait to catch San Francisco band Sleepy Sun, a sextet whose debut record Embrace was released over the summer to plenty of rave reviews, earning them spots at Noise Pop and SXSW.
Their battle cry is “Let’s get weird!”, and their sound is a ghostly, haunting combination of hazy vocals, catchy classic rock guitar, and building intensity. Songs can often feel epic- ‘White Dove’, for instance, is over nine minutes long- and often have a feverish feel. A mix of folk and trippiness, we liked that each song built into something, and even if the lyrics weren’t especially grabbing, the unique duet vocals were. They have both chops and range, with some grabbing lovely acoustic sections that bleed evenly into acid-rock or vice versa. They show their spiritual side on the track ‘Lord’, which was a standout track, combining a moving piano line with a country feel. We’d call it prog rock, but with influences like Black Sabbath, that’d be a slightly ill-fitting label.
Sleepy Sun performs Sunday at noon on the Treasure Island Music Festival’s Bridge Stage. We can’t wait to see them live, where they by all accounts offer a psychedelic, high energy show not to be missed. Their album Embrace is widely available now, including from Amazon, for around $17. While at the Festival, don’t miss Passion Pit, one of our favorite bands in recent memory. Tickets are only $65, a great deal for so many excellent acts.
