Boise, Idaho is known for its wide array of recreational activities, potatoes, and a football field with blue turf. To some, it is also known as the hometown of Youth Lagoon, the creator of one of my favorite albums of 2011, The Year of Hibernation. Trevor Powers, however, has clearly not hibernated for the winter with a schedule that includes: a troika of performances in the Pacific Northwest later this month, a visit to Japan, a tour of Scandanavia and Europe, as well as a tour that will crisscross the continent in March and April. Plus, he recently released a new video for the song “July” that most assuredly won’t make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside (see below).
Youth Lagoon’s soundscape is like a modernized adolescent version of the sounds Kim Gordon once roughly described as those a little girl would make behind the door of her room after the tears of her forced “time out” shifted to a resigned need to entertain herself. That, combined with an updated version of the soulful vacancy, feelings of inadequacy, and need for affection present in the musical and visual work of Daniel Johnston. In short, a sense of isolation that is very complex stuff for any artist to ably articulate, let alone one of Powers’ age.
