Oregon Music News

Pegasus Dream at Superfest 2. Photo by Christine Taylor.

As the festivities of PDX Pop Now! wind down Sunday night, August 1st, an unofficial after party will be ramping up at Rontoms with Pegasus Dream celebrating the release of their first album, Painting Pantheons.  Playing alongside Astrology (featuring members of Panther and Copy/Atole) and XDS, the gig is free and will showcase the debut of an album that’s been three years in the making from Spokane to Portland.

Since the last time OMN spoke with Pegasus Dream in late April, they’ve returned to their core duo of JT Lindsey (guitars, samples, vox) and Andy Carlson (keys, vox) parting ways with former drummer Mikey Dane, as he moved back to Spokane, but picking up producer/drummer Jeff Bond (Diamond Liars, Asphalt Thieves) as a live drummer at Superfest 2.

Running just over 35 minutes, Painting Pantheons retains the tones of influences like Ratatat but without the droning repetition that can bore; rather Pegasus Dream’s debut manages to remain anchored in a poppy aesthetic but with enough experimentation and reigned in psychedelia to wander and tease the right extremes without taking the plunge.

Listen to the new track “It’s Ill Eagle” from Painting Pantheons:

“We know something is good when it makes you smile,” says Carlson.  Often the thing that makes you smile may be “poppy or cheesy” but if these elements are altered and adapted, yet retain their original sensibilities, then the result will be appealing and memorable.

For a band that began as a bit of a joke bound by a fantastical theme, the two have matured into a serious endeavor although the content is still finely tied to the name.

“We’re kind of constructing different mindscapes,” says Carlson.

Each track on Painting Pantheons is a mystical journey that cohesively flows into the next, either organically stitched together with cohesive synths or joined with the help of a carefully crafted musical interlude.  As Carlson says, “Each song takes you somewhere, shows you something in your mind and then releases you onto another idea.”

Showing the listener dream-like alternate realities, each fable (or track) explores a different angle of the same idea with themes encompassing stars (“Stars Light the Way”), mythological beasts (“Smaug the Golden”–named for the dragon from J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit), and the inner workings of the mind (“Find My Mind”).  And the space and time continuum of layered sounds that play backward and forward continues to warp on the final track “The Messenger of Time” as it melts into an extra special trip of a bonus track (that you can only get on the CD version of the album).

Although the self-produced, DIY album was refined over the last three years, Carlson highlights that “75% has been completed in the last four to five months.”  It features 13 tracks, 5 of which were originally released on their demo but have been upgraded with new vocals, guitars, and keys.  Old standouts “Lady Luck” and “KGB” still retain their undeniably infectious riffs but raw energy pulses through the newer “It’s Ill Eagle” (above) and the catchy pendulum swing of “123 Go” while other new tracks slow down the meteoric tempo, notably the dreamy “Sensation.”

The initial run of 100 CDs will be dated and numbered and feature screen printed artwork (see below) on a cardboard sleeve designed by Lindell Serrin.  You can steam the whole album and purchase it digitally on Pegasus Dream’s Bandcamp for $8.

The boys will kick off a West Coast tour on August 6th in San Fran with new temp-to-hire drummer Bond in tow, stopping in Oakland, Vegas, SLC, Boise, Seattle, and their hometown of Spokane.

From beginning to end, Carlson hopes that “once it’s over, you’re in the perfect mindset to start it again.”  Keeping the Pegasus Dream on a continuous, mythical loop.

Album art by Lindell Serrin (front and back):

Track listing:
1. Birds Come
2. KGB
3. Stars Light the Way
4. Its Ill Eagle
5. Find My Mind
6. Sensation
7. Lady Luck
8. Nesting Sky Warriors
9. Birds Go
10. 123 Go
11. Smaug the Golden
12. Birds Stay
13. The Messenger of Time