EXPOSURE/ALBUM: Frankie Rose's Interstellar

From rockabilly-country to garage punk-rock, Frankie Rose has been a part of a series of varying, seemingly incongruous projects.  She started out playing in San Francisco with some random groups.  One of them was Cow People, the rockabilly-country group that was admittedly her  “goofiest” project.  After moving from San Fran over to this side of the country, she played for some garage bands including the Crystal Stilts, Dum Dum Girls, and the Vivian Girls. In the first album solely under her name, Interstellar, she is stepping away from the garage genre.  She claimed in an interview with Vogue (after being named Vogue’s Artist of the Week) that her “ears are tired of the term garage”. Interstellar, which was released in February 2012, features a single from Frankie Rose and the Outs.  This new album is Rose’s stepping into her own, and exploring a new sound for herself, and herself alone.  She collaborated with “synth-wizard” Michael Cheever to create a lower key electronic sound. The album is chill, has lots of cool tech-y ups and downs in tone and pitch.  It starts out very low key with “Interstellar” and “Gospel/Grace,” and picks up as the album progresses with “Daylight Sky” for the rest of the album.  “Night Swim” does have a little bit of that garage-rock feel, which is mixed well with the synth-electronic sound.  Overall, this new sound sets Frankie Rose apart from her incongruous past collaborations.  She has a great novel sound with a chill energy.  All around a great album to check out if you’re into a little bit of synth sound with good lyrics and low key feel. Here’s the music video for “Gospel/Grace,” it has a very Twilight Zone-esque feel, a little spacey but cool, and reflective of Rose’s new sound.