Indie-rock band, benches look inward with their latest EP, ‘Kill the Lights’
Indie rock is known for its unique, gritty sound and soul cradling lyrics, a place where musicians can express themselves and relate with fans at full volume.
Four-piece San Diego-based group benches falls in line with this tradition, with the May release of their latest EP, Kill the Lights, being a palpable and unguarded look inwards.
In this EP, benches touch on themes of mental health, relationships and facing the world’s crushing realities along with the turbulence that accompanies these experiences - feelings of regret, longing and acceptance to name a few.
Kill the Lights starts with Departure, a minute-long instrumental track reminiscent of Tibetan singing bowls. The heavy use of synth reverberates throughout, an atmospheric sound setting the tone for self-reflection. Naive follows, a turn from the zen of Departure, with punchy drums and wailing guitar. The truth hits the speaker like a bucket of ice water to the face: “I tried to sell you lies against your will / You tried to sell naive and that takes skill”. In trying to will reality as the speaker sees it into existence (“lies”), reality as it actually is retorts, “I don’t know what you’re talking about” (“naive”). The song is noisy - almost overwhelming, “You could say it makes sense / You could say it makes sense if it helps you sleep”. In the chaos, the speaker mourns the loss of their rose coloured glasses, chastises themselves for being gullible, and has to choose–either accept what is and try to make sense of it or exist in the safety of naivety.
The title track, Kill the Lights, comes next with swelling, ballad-like notes suddenly breaking into an energetic rhythm scored with angsty lyrics, “I still get that fantasy that tears me apart / I sure was a fighter when I played the guitar”. It’s the song’s past tense that stands out, a feeling of what-could-have-been permeates, “In another life, I was almost me”. It reads as regret, painful to reckon with and move past. The song’s refrain, “All the years fade from my mind”, looks to the healing power of time, cliche as that may be, to let memories fade and move on as it all becomes “fantasy” in the speaker’s mind. But the listener is left wondering, can we ever really forget? Space and distance helps, yes, but it can only do so much.
Of all the bangers on this EP, and one can argue every song is a banger in its own way, Orchid stands out in particular. The early-2000s blend of guitar, drums, and vocals is strong with this one, the lyrics descriptive and melodious, blending into each other in an incredibly satisfying way, “What are you scared to find? (Every face looks off) / What are you scared to find? (Been away too long) / What are you?” In the EP’s press release, frontman Anson Kelley comments on Orchid’s lyrics saying they’re “caught in a time loop [...] In the search for perfection, you will almost always end up lost.” Not just lost, but burnt out, hence “I was the fuse” repeating throughout.
Social media bombards us with the seemingly overnight success of one young, bright creative after another making the viewer feel as though their journey is lacking because they haven’t “made it” yet, whatever that actually means. In the “search for perfection” Kelley alludes to, one rushes to get there sooner completely missing that the process - the struggle, the boredom, the flash of inspiration, the act of creating - is the whole point. “We’re flowers in bloom / too soon”, all of us. Orchid asks listeners to lean into themselves, trust their intuition and know that they already have what they’ve been looking for.
Reaches, the EP’s penultimate song, speaks to that inescapable pull back towards something that isn’t good for us. The speaker is caught in the delirium of will-he/won’t-he but ultimately knows “I'll meet you there one last time”. He can’t help it. While he craves closure, he also fears the loss of this situation in his life even though he’d be “better off leaving alone”. Simply knowing this often isn’t enough - letting go of anything is a painful undertaking that likely goes through multiple lapses before it sticks.
Finally, Kill the Lights reaches its conclusion with the moody and cinematic, Here Come the Bitter Tears, a song that continuously brings the subject in only to push them away. A desire for romantic togetherness clashes with the need to be alone, “Here come the bitter tears / The more I get to know you / And I hate to see you cry / But you're never on my mind”. It’s brutally honest, brutally vulnerable, and just straight up brutal. Rejection, especially romantic rejection, is not easy to navigate; the speaker knows his actions hurt the subject. Though “I tried to warn you”, the speaker can’t control what’s going on in the subject’s mind - the excitement of a new beginning and a potential future together - “You were so in love then”. Despite the hurt he causes, the speaker accepts that this is who is at this time, better to be honest now and grow from the moment than stay in an unfulfilling situation and become resentful later.
After recently wrapping up their support run for Inhaler and very own headline tour, benches are set to play Lollapalooza in Chicago at the beginning of August and another set at Cleveland’s House of Blues.
Tickets are still up for grabs, but in the meantime, Kill the Lights is available to stream along with the rest of their music on Spotify: