Keen appreciation for melody, melancholy, and noise is The Sylvia Platters' stock in trade. Hailing from BC’s Fraser Valley, the fourpiece outfit has been crafting idiosyncratic jangle pop gems since 2013.
Alex Kerc-Murchison's tuneful guitarwork and Stephen Carl O'Shea's dark, steady basslines complement and enhance brotherly duo Nick and Tim Ubels' knack for indelible lyrics and vocal melodies. Nick's jangly rhythm guitar and Tim's propulsive drumming round out the band's distinctive sound. Bearing the hallmarks of their unique songwriting voice, The Sylvia Platters’ inspirations nevertheless run deep along a lineage of off-kilter guitar-centered pop music stretching from 60s masters like the Kinks and classic indie releases on C86 and Flying Nun through to 90s revivalists such as The Stone Roses and Teenage Fanclub and contemporaries Alvvays, Yuck, and The Lemon Twigs.
The Sylvia Platters’ dynamic live performances have brought them to over 100 stages and festivals across Western Canada. The band has released a steady series of acclaimed LPs, EPs, and singles, earning them two Fraser Valley Music Awards, and a top ten album on the national earshot! campus and community radio charts.
Their latest album is 2024's Vivian Elixir (Grey Lodge Records), an intoxicating concoction of sweetness and sadness touching on depression, alientation, conspiracy theorists, and making love last. The motif of an elixir, a secret medicine that might make it all better, emerges across the album’s eight new studio tracks. But is this potent mixture a miracle cure, pure snake oil, or another escape from the mundane horrors of everyday life?
“My inner and outer worlds have felt like chaotic places to inhabit over the past few years,” says co-lead vocalist Nick Ubels. “This record is an attempt to make sense of how to move forward with your soul intact.”
On Vivian Elixir, the Sylvia Platters have sharpened their distinctive jangle pop sound while touching new textures: country on “Severance”, heartland rock on “Creased Sneaker”, and even drum machines on “St. Catherine”. These melodic ruminations culminate in “Kool Aid Blue”: a vividly rendered anthem that is equal parts self-discovery and self-destruction.
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