Those going to see Saturday’s Sundress show at Opolis, attention: Front man Ryan McAdams wants to make sure that you know his band won’t be there.
Kind of.
“The name is actually Shrines now. Sundress is no longer a band,” he said. “Shrines is actually playing the spot, and that’s the new group. It’s pretty much all the same people, almost the same sound and everything, but basically we’ve been given the chance to repackage and re-market everything.”
The switch came about in late January after a strenuous tour of Chicago and the Midwest. The members of the Austin, Texas-based band thought it was time for a change, and so far, that change has allowed them to grow, both as people and a group.
“Sundress had been around five or six years now, since we were in high school,” McAdams said. “So now, with the new material, everything has gotten more mature, more dark, more psychedelic.”
McAdams, a self-described “weird kid” in high school, said he spent most of his time listening to The Flaming Lips, Sparklehorse and My Bloody Valentine which, subsequently, inspired Shrines to pursue playing dream pop.
“I would have to describe dream pop as another form of shoegaze,” he said. “Not necessarily as loud and driving as shoegaze, but it has that atmospheric aesthetic — a dreamy kind of sound to it, but with melodies, where you can differentiate between verse and chorus.”
As the band heads into the studio to record an EP for a fall release, its members look forward to returning to Norman, but are more excited they don’t have rebuild their street cred.
“This Opolis show will actually be our fourth show as Shrines, and it’s great because we’re not starting completely over as a new band. We have enough great connections from Sundress where we don’t have to completely start over brand-new and pay dues again,” McAdams said. “So far, it’s been received pretty well. We got a head nod from [Lips leader] Wayne Coyne. We’ve only played Oklahoma twice, but being originally from Denton, it’s so close, a lot of bands just feed off each other from that.”
Knowing full well that many music fans may not be familiar with the subgenre of dream pop, he doesn’t think that should stop interested parties from attending. As a matter of fact, he feels that it might be the most relaxing time they will have all week.
“I don’t want to say something like, ‘Come out and have shrooms drip from your spine,’ but it’s more laid-back, more enjoyable,” McAdams said.
