Stefan Weich might be from sunny Los Angeles, but on the forthcoming Granite Prism EP, the musician—who’s also recorded under the names Das Bowls, Chicle, and Couch Baby—is looking east, toward the autumnal flickers of Microcastle-era Deerhunter and the moody, chilly atmosphere of Northeastern indie-pop.
“Louie,” Granite Prism’s lead single, takes a similarly nostalgic tack. Over a simple midnight cycle of a guitar line, Weich sings an apology in a hushed voice: “I’m sorry I left the TV on through the night / I couldn’t fall asleep after you turned off the lights.” The story Weich is here to tell isn’t new—a couple finds itself growing apart—but he tells it so gently, and with such intermixed sadness and enjoy, that it becomes almost impossible to look at. For a song with such a simple approach, it’s surprisingly affecting; the warm peal of a pedal steel guitar haunts the song’s second half, which comes to halt in swirl of windchimes and radio static. It’s an outdoor conversation, the kind punctuated by uncomfortable and unresolvable silences.
The video, which we’re premiering today, is nothing more than an abstracted view from a car window as it passes parks, stores, and other cars. Coupled with Weich’s voice, though, the trailing images make it feel as though you’re staring into space—anything to avoid the pain at the center of the song’s subject.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uPBUmUlTkM&feature=youtu.be
