mvm.

Your Artist of the Week: In a new segment for 2023, we cast our eyes to highly-spirited and new incarnations of bands, artists and super-groups that may otherwise not be on your radar just yet. This is your Artist of the Week; and this is Liily.

Whether it was a stroke of algorithm luck that Liiily’s new release, Applause fell into my Spotify or not, I am eternally grateful that I’ve come across them now. Hailing from the City of Angels (known as Los Angeles to you and me), the work of Liily have quickly gained momentum in the space of a year and a half. A pensive alt-rock wallabang of passionate fire, 2019’s first EP-blood, I Can Fool Anybody In This Town, drove the young band at the time to some surprising successes: performing at local Lollapalooza to name quite a big ‘un. Toro and Sepulveda Basin were big hitters among the rock fandom as they received similar nods to British touring artists, Turbowolf and Bad Nerves.

A more abrasive language indoctrinated in straight lashings of American rock, 2021’s debut album came with a new defining era for the LA boys. Still containing the unbridled energy we see from past projects and live performances, the debut TV or Not TV enters the territory of psychedelic post-rock as they leap from genre to genre, dabbling in strange sounds to satisfy.

More a spunkyTalking Heads than any straight-talking rock altruists before them, 2021’s TV or Not TV may not have the same highly-octave success as their 2019 introduction, but concludes Liily as an ever-adaptive band as they taste-test new alternative palettes for exciting rock that sets them on a course willing to try new things, with no worry of ever getting stale as a band from a songwriting point of view. Notable favourites of mine are Anvil, Man Listening to Disc (I transform to this!) and of course, Early Bopper.

“I think thematically it’s very different, I think the intensity of it is very different. I think we had the same intention though which is to try to maintain a sense of forward momentum – that’s what it still has in common.”

Lead singer, Dylan Nash on their ‘new era’.

Now, into the new year of 2023 – we get Applause. An explosive furry of two combined efforts as above, it is one of the real gut-punching anthems; a real hero in the making. I can’t wait to hear what 2023 has in store for these lads.

Like Early Bopper’s “I see his face in the basement,” it’s every bit psychedelic rock as it is post-punk spit that we’ve grown to adore here in the UK with the likes of Gilla Band and shame. They fit handsomely among any rock forum or post-punk playlist with any questions asked. May their catatonic rise be constantly rising.

Of course, hailing from America, they’ve amassed a greater following over there than across the sea as of yet, but as ever – that is subject to change.

You can witness them performing both Applause and Beastie Boys’ Sabotage on Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party live from Miami, FL the other night: