70’s influenced psych rockers Miracle Sweepstakes – comprised of Craig Heed (guitar/vocals), Doug Bleek (bass), and Ian Miniero (drums) rounded out with Carlos Parreno (guitarist/vocalist) for live performance – have been creating their robust sound since sporadically working together in high school. While they put the final touches on their debut album, we’ve got the premiere of their latest single “Charles ii”.
Maybe it’s just us, but we love the strong start and the beginning coupled with the slow down to the first verse. Heed’s vocals are light, ethereal, and positive. We hear some slightly Weezer influence dancing between the ever-changing tempo of “Charles ii”, which nods to a very vintage rock sound. It’s exquisitely composed, but how will we ever keep up with the intricacy of it all?
“‘Charles ii’ was one of the first tunes Ian and I jammed on in his basement when we started the band,” explains Heed. “It’s one of my faves of ours and pretty representative of our sound and my creative process around the time these songs were written. I feel pretty confident in saying that if you like this one, you’ll like the album. I started with a weird guitar intro and kind of unconsciously tried to see how many weird little non sequitur parts I could string together before getting to a big chorus, writing almost completely linearly without much regard for conventional verse structure. I think choruses are kind of out of vogue in indie rock today, either because people think they’re cheesy or people just can’t write ’em anymore. It’s probably why I listen to less and less new stuff.”
