Young Prisms
Young Prisms play a fiercely loud and sneakily melodic brand of shoegaze that started off spiked with noise rock energy (as on their debut album, Friends for Now) then downshifted into neo-psych dreaminess for 2012's In Between. They combine the two sounds into something dark, yet spiked with hope and melody, on 2022's Drifter, an album made after the band's hiatus of nearly a decade.
The group formed in San Francisco during the late 2000s with a lineup consisting of Jordan Silbert on drums, Matt Allen on guitar and vocals, Stefanie Hodapp on vocals, and Giovanni Betteo on bass and vocals. After the band garnered some notice around town for their live set, bloggers and small labels began noticing them, too. Young Prisms' first records were a split cassette with Worldwide Computer God and a CD EP on Weedza Records. Soon after, in late 2009, white-hot label Mexican Summer put out a self-titled 12" single by the group. This led to a batch of split 7" singles in 2010 with Small Black (on Big Love Records from Japan), Weekend (on Transparent from the U.K.), and Mathemagic (on Atelier Ciseaux from France). That year, Young Prisms made a deal with U.S. label Kanine to release their first full-length album.
With the addition of guitarist Jason Hendardy of Permanent Collection, the band recorded the noise-damaged, Sonic Youth-inspired debut Friends for Now. The record was released in January 2011, and soon after, Young Prisms parted ways with Hendardy and added Ashley Thomas of the Splinters on guitar and vocals. The group's second album, In Between, featured production help from Monte Vallier (who worked with Weekend) and was released by Kanine in March 2012. The set found the band scaling back the noisier elements of their debut in favor of a more languid and effects-drenched sound closer to the softer side of dream pop.
Young Prisms stepped back from recording and playing soon after the album came out. Hodapp and Betteo focused on raising a family, while Silbert moved to the East Coast. Inspired by the ongoing viability of the dream pop/shoegaze sound they had once been a part of, the four original members of the band decided to make music again. In June 2020, they began recording with producer Shaun Durkan. Inspired by the new realities of human interaction, the rocky paths their lives had taken, and the devastation of the California wildfires, the quartet collaborated on a set of noise pop tracks that were dark and sometimes foreboding. Drifter was issued by Fire Talk in March 2022.
© Tim Sendra /TiVo
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Discography
9 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Four Hours (Away)
Alternative & Indie - Released by Kanine Records on 4 Feb 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
In Between
Alternative & Indie - Released by Kanine Records on 27 Mar 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Friends For Now
Alternative & Indie - Released by Kanine Records on 18 Jan 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Outside Air
Alternative & Indie - Released by Fire Talk on 15 Mar 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Young Prisms
Alternative & Indie - Released by Fire Talk on 1 Mar 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo