Radiation City :: Cool Nightmare

Radiation City—one of the very best discoveries from ET's years living in Portland, Oregon—quietly released another excellent collection of atmospheric pop gems this past March in the form of an EP, Cool Nightmare. Like a slow gathering of storm clouds on a summer day, songs like "Find It Of Use" and "Eye of Yours" lend a touch of electricity to the air as they build swell, form and dissipate. The songs here rarely ever take on one definitive shape or tone, and instead travel from idea to idea as movements within one ethereal symphony. As the instrumentation varies from fingersnaps to giant crashing drums, plucked strings, blows of brass and swirling keys, it can be hard to put a finger on just what makes this five-piece so compelling, but compelling it consistently is.

Purchase Cool Nightmare from Apes Tapes.

Radiation City - "Find It Of Use" (from Cool Nightmare)
Radiation City - "Eye of Yours" (from Cool Nightmare)

Radiation City singer Lizzy Ellison lent her considerable vocal chops to "Forever," a candle-lit scorching slow dance of a number by fellow PDX group The Tomorrow People. Check it out below, and the rest of the group's music here.

The Tomorrow People - "Forever" (from Rose City Rose)

Video: Radiation City - "Babies"

Portland's Radiation City first caught my attention back in June with the excellent single "The Color of Industry," which I called "a Fruit Stripe-caliber stick of variegated pop bubblegum that absolutely bursts with flavor in its nods to lush Phil Spector production and girl-group harmonies." Though nothing else in the band's debut The Hands That Takes You hits as immediately as "The Color of Industry," there are plenty more richly rewarding pop moments, including the beautiful slow-burner "Construction" and the steady build of analog buzz on album standout "Babies." Last spring, after a breakfast of fried chicken and waffles, Portland videographers Into The Woods captured a beautiful live rendition of "Babies" in the band's home. Check it out after the jump.

Buy Radiation City vinyl from Tender Loving Empire. 

Radiation City - "Babies" (from The Hands That Take You)
Radiation City - "The Color of Industry" (from The Hands That Take You)

Rumble PDX Tonight: Radiation City, My Goodness & Housefire

There's a free show tonight at the East End in Portland, OR featuring a three-headed monster of burgeoning young Northwest talent: Housefire, My Goodness, and Radiation City. Lately, I've been chewing on Radiation City's "The Color of Industry"—a Fruit Stripe-caliber stick of variegated pop bubblegum that absolutely bursts with flavor in its nods to lush Phil Spector production and girl-group harmonies. This richly addictive track is off the band's forthcoming LP, The Hands That Take You, out via Portland's Tender Loving Empire this Fall. But why wait? Catch the band perform the song live tonight—for free.

Radiation City - "The Color Of Industry"