Light FM

Light FM is trying to play a trick on you. In fact, there is absolutely nothing light about this band. Buried underneath the hooks that refuse to leave your head and singer Josiah Mazzaschi’s perfect pop songwriting lurks a monster—a dark, amplified, fuzzed out monster who can sing just as easily about depression, suicide, being orphaned, beaten, and left for dead as he can about love and California sunshine. But what sets Light FM’s music apart is that there’s none of that hipster sarcasm in Mazzaschi’s voice when he sings about death and body bags while surf rock guitar riffs shimmer over three part Beach Boys harmonies. In fact, if you’re paying attention, it’s so earnest that it’s downright disturbing. And that’s Light FM’s secret weapon, the trick they’re going to play on you. In an era awash with brain-numbing irony and I-don’t-give-a-fuck music personas, here comes a band who is unafraid of sincere emotion, even if it swings back and forth from a chemically imbalanced preoccupation with death to a fragile romantic idealism so tender it makes your heart hurt. Light FM is a band devoid of hipster self-awareness, either by nature or by design, a band that proudly wears their hearts on their sleeves. It’s a credit to Mazzaschi’s talent that his combination of dark humor and tenderness blends so effortlessly and in ways that evoke bands like the Pixies, the Kinks, and the Cars—bands who wrote pop songs but who never shied away from noise or unconventional instrumentation. Aside from this four piece being talented and experienced musicians who love playing music with each other, these guys also share a love for experimentation which informs Light FM’s music, giving them a sound that is quite all their own, a sound that incorporates elements of arena rock, punk, 60’s pop and old-school electronic. This is the kind of band that collects thrift store gadgets, vintage keyboards, and anything capable of making a sound they’ve never heard before. In fact, most of Light FM’s new EP entitled “Save the Drama” was written on a 15 year old TalkBoy variable speed cassette recorder while Mazzaschi was driving around in his van, surely prompting some odd looks from the cars around him. But at the heart of it all, Mazzaschi insists, is a quest “to strive to make music that gives you goose bumps—music that is meaningful but playful, music that has a sense of humor even if the subject matter is dark.” Light FM has been playing in and around Los Angeles for the past two years, sharing bills with The Spinto Band, Great Northern, Parsons Redheads, Division Day, Aaron Espinoza (Earlimart), and Jason Lytle (Grandaddy). Light FM’s sophomore CD titled, “Black Magic Marker” is due to be released on San Francisco’s Devil in the Woods records October 14th, 2008. It is 10 songs of pure pop bliss. It was produced by Mazzaschi and blends everything from quirky Devo inspired riffs, “Trick” to fuzzy distorted power chords, “The High” and melotron filled ballads, “Loneliest People” and “IJWUTBM”. The Los Angeles CD release party is set for Tuesday, October 21st at Boardner’s in Hollywood as part of Radiofreesilverlake.com’s, “Let’s Independent” and Wednesday, October 29th in San Francisco at the Knockout. Listen at Last.fm