Steven Ross of Oxford, Mississippi indie rockers ILLLS has anounced that the duo is now a solo one piece, with the Carson Culver directed video for "Wales" as the first offering debut from the forthcoming full-length. Ross explained to us the situation of carrying on the ILLLS banner solo in the spirit of perseverance and moving on while signaling and hinting toward the new dream-dazed-sound directions.
"My friend, Jim, who I recorded the first EP with, ended up getting really busy with his other band and there wasn't enough time for both, so I took over this project and he continued with his other. The song 'Wales' is the first single off of the new LP and it is more of a representation of me on my own."
"You're only chance to evacuate is to leave with us", warns the former Heaven's Gate cult leader Marshall Applewhite in the introductory video sample as the thick red syrup begins to pour into the bathtub in a steady trickle. Sporting circular skull holographic glasses, Steven sits in the tub's viscous sea with rubber duck company as the preserves pour over him from a shower head that probably should be checked by a plumbing authority. Images of random skulls, stars, stripes and skateboard clips cruise by as Ross moves things along with notes of wonder amid life's time straining processes of, "I don't know why, it takes so long".
The guitars are bathed in the day-dream-set channels while the "oh ohs" are accompanied by more skate footage, tongue and feet shaves, hooded anarchist cameos, yet more fun with red jam, more skulls, soda swigs, smokey room ambiance, split screen effects, and buckets and buckets of the rich, red ooze's endless rain. While the crimson syrup pours down over Steven's head and the guitars chug in circular comforts of late night pinings; the mixed emotions and feelings become "lost in devotion", and rhymed in the song title word play couplet with, "feel like the whales that get lost in the ocean… without you".
The song's namesake reference to Wales of the UK alludes to the country on the western side of the British Isle; as the ILLLS song "Wales" presents a solo Steven Ross on an island of his own taking the sound toward more personal, dream gauged sonic directions. From the post-modern-punk melodics of the previous Dark Paradise EP, the new solo mission finds Ross looking into the guitar amplifier's multitude of possibilities, expressions and sentiments that gives the tones the dimension expanses of a deep blue sea where getting lost is a destination. This solo representation presents ILLLS as a cult lead by one central, supreme leader, seeking member recruits through bolder guitar electrics that seep into the cranium recesses of the unconscious where the memory of dreams and wakened life become meshed together like red jelly and bathtubs. The audio stream for "Wales" can also be heard here.
Listen and look for the forthcoming ILLLS full-length details via Bandcamp and upcoming NYC gigs February 14 at the Cameo Gallery and February 16 at Cake Shop.
