Just like the White Rabbit in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, our reporter, August March, was very late for an important meeting with Albuquerque music magicians and rising rock and roll wunderkinds Lindy Vision that occurred over the weekend.But first here’s some background on the subject at hand. Weekly Alibi spent the previous week trying to decide which band to interview, chat with or spend face time with for our next issue, this issue. There were all sorts of choices out there, from heavyweights like Rakim to newcomers like Dance Gavin Dance—who we were just dying to ask about their status as a prog-rock band, by the way—that we might have reached out to.But the truth of the matter is, after all the surveying of emails and listening to tracks sent from this or that PR company came and went, Weekly Alibi decided the best thing to do was revisit a band that we had developed feels for just about a year ago.When we last spoke to Lindy Vision, they had just released part one of their epic no-wave masterpiece Adult Children of Alcoholics and were preparing for one heck of an album release party at Meow Wolf up in Santa.Since then, of course, we’ve gotten distracted by a million and one things—political, musical and personal. But we kept listening to Lindy Vison in the intervening year, deciding as deadlines came down this past week that they’d be the perfect band for this week’s issue.After all, the indescribably unique electronic no wave with funky super chops attached trio just released part two of Adult Children of Alcoholics to local and regional acclaim. And they’re opening for rock demiurge Phantogram next week at Sunshine Theater. It’s clear that the band has been cleared for the next level.Oh, DearAs it turned out, our reporter was late to the aforementioned meeting, even though he clearly spent a lot of time thinking about it happening and had been conclusive in making a determined effort to justify his desire to capture on tape what he felt was the next step in Burque’s rock and roll evolution.The interview was set to happen on Sunday afternoon, the first day of Daylight Savings Time. And, of course, our reporter is that type of Gen-Xer who still relies on an old-fashioned wristwatch and a keen memory to keep time and appointments straight.And, of course, standing in the shower the afternoon in question, he thought it was all cool, that he still had an hour to go. Then the phone rang and it was Alibi Assistant Art Director Corey Yazzie calling to tell our reporter that Lindy Vison was in the house. Literally. They were at the office waiting.Trip to HQHe dressed as quickly as he could, spritzed some English Leather on his wrists and jumped in his dinosaur-juice powered truck and headed on over.When he got there, Dorothy, Natasha and Carla—the Cuylear sisters, collectively known as Lindy Vision—were waiting.After trying to tell the three of the complex set of circumstances leading to his late appearance, and even considering, albeit briefly, an allusory reference to the characters in Carroll’s adventure for children, our reporter flat-out apologized and got down to business.“Hello,” he said to the three. “What has happened in the past year, since we last spoke?”The Tour“Tell me the story of Lindy Vision, as it happened after our last meeting,” he continued.Natasha was the first to speak. She told our reporter that, “Since we last met, we had our huge release at Meow Wolf. That was an electric show, it was really awesome. After that, we went on tour. We did a West Coast tour that started in Arizona and went up the West Coast to California. We stopped in Berkeley and did a show there. We also played in Portland and Seattle. It was two weeks on the road. It was just the three of us, driving.”The band didn’t have any roadies for this outing, by the way, folks; they loaded in, performed, loaded out and drove to the next gig with stunning precision, playing nine shows in the process.“It was like a family road trip,” recalls Dorothy, who added to her description of last spring’s tour by adding, “We tried to recruit a driver or somebody that could assist us, but that’s a lot of time for people to take off. It actually turned out really well, the three of us. We’re family so it’s kinda easy to figure out where you want to stay and what you want to eat.”Natasha added, “We got along really well on this last tour.” Carla then mentioned she had the official stats for the tour, telling all present that “it was 11 days, nine shows, nine cities, 3,921 miles and a little over 105 hours of driving. And two out of three of us were sick the entire time!”Dorothy recalls that the cold they shared during the tour sucked but they soldiered on happily, nonetheless, saying, “We had to do that tour.”The AudienceThe conversation then shifts to discussions about the audiences Lindy Vision interacted with while on tour. Carla was surprised by audience reactions. “I thought that we were received surprisingly well,” she tells our reporter before detailing her experiences on the road. “When we played in Davis [Calif.] at the record store, there was already someone there anticipating us, wanting to hear us perform. That was really fun.”Thinking back to such rewarding interactions, she adds, “The best place we played was Boulder. We had a huge audience.” Dorothy concurs, telling our reporter that they were received well and that “people got what we were doing. People were surprised but they were ready for us. We did our own booking, too, so it’s hard to tell what the venues will really be like.”That for-real DIY ethic lead the band to where they are now, the three sisters agree, on the cusp of the big time, as it were. Natasha says though she was initally concerned about being three young women on the road, “We held our own and we showed that we can do it, the only thing in the way was us.”After the tour, the band was honored by being chosen to play at the annual Gathering of Nations, an invitation that cemented Lindy Vision’s forward momentum, Dorothy concludes, saying, “Our mom always loved the Gathering of Nations, so it was like a bucket list thing for us.”New RecordIt’s clear from the meeting that the Sisters Cuylear really love and support each other and Natasha reiterates that fact before we move on to a discussion of the band’s new record, Adult Children of Alcoholics: Part II.Natasha says that, “We recorded Adult Children parts one and two at the same time, in 2018. We recorded about twelve tracks at Sonic Ranch. We decided to release those 12 tracks as two separate EPs. Part one came out last year, and now we’re ready to release part two. We’ve been sitting on the next record for over a year. We’ve had all this music, and we’ve been performing it, too.”Our reporter then asked what led to that decision. Dorothy says that the work on the album is based on the book by Dr. Janet Woititz. “I think we decided to separate the work because, sonically, the two parts sounded quite different. The moods were different. Part one, to me, sounds a little bit more pop, a little more happier. Part two is definitely darker. Overall, the themes explored in the albums are cohesive and connected—experience, human emotions. Our emotional literacy when we were children was not quite developed. We didn’t know how to identify our emotions, or what we were feeling. As adults, we’ve begun to explore that. We’ve gone through a lot of healing.”Natasha takes up the discussion and offers the following: “This album is really therapeutic and we’ve decided to share that,” adding, “We like to look at our projects as projects of resilience, as healing albums. We’re always using music as an outlet and this is evidence of that artistic process.”Asked about the totality of what they create musically, Dorothy closes by telling Weekly Alibi that, “It’s really amazing for us, that for anything we’ve created, that people understand it. I think that’s the coolest part. We’ve created something from nothing and people are starting to understand that now. We used to make stuff that even we didn’t understand, so I think we’re in a really cool place now.”Finally, all three agree that the key to success is to keep going, to keep writing. Carla concludes the interview by telling our reporter, “That’s been the most important part for our band, I’ve always pushed for it. Bands that are successful just keep writing and writing. That’s something we’ve always focused on and looked forward to doing.”
Phantogram • Lindy VisionSunshine Theater • 120 Central Ave. SWTuesday, March 17 • 8pm • $25 • 13+.
