Ever since I stumbled upon Youth Lagoon at Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago two summers ago, YL has become one of my favorite emerging bands. Starting off as a one-man band in 2011 (they’re now a 4-piece band), Idaho native Trevor Powers made a debut with “Year of Hibernation”, a moody, delicate, and minimalist album. It’s definitely one of those headphone albums that are best enjoyed when sitting in your bedroom in solitude, because it marries introspective lyrics with dreamy melodies. In fact, Powers recorded the album over his Christmas break when he was going to Boise State.
Powers’ music opens a window into his world, and that is made even more evident in his second album “Wondrous Bughouse”, which was released this past spring. The album is a little more multi-layered and balances mellow melodies with explosive sounds and progressions. Listening to Youth Lagoon is like a psychedelic and psychological journey. In an article by Interview magazine, Powers describes his music as a “musical journal of moments, images, and conversations from his past, those memories are often blurry, the vocals that convey them not always crystal clear, but that makes them no less moving.” Powers talks a lot about his anxiety, and his way of getting those issues out of his system has been through painting a picture and presenting how it sounds in his head.
Youth Lagoon’s performance at The Pabst Theater on Thursday, September 12 was hauntingly beautiful and definitely a memorable experience. Powers mostly played songs from his newest album “Wondrous Bughouse”. Spending most of the time hunched over his keyboard and bobbing to and fro, Powers (along with the band) created dense soundscapes and instrumental breakdowns. It’s extremely difficult to come up with the words to describe the concert, other than the fact that it left me speechless and I could feel every song soak into my brain. In between songs, Powers thanked the crowd with a nervous smile. After the show, I got to meet him and I immediately got a sense of his down-to-earth and humble spirit. You go, Trevor Powers.
