Young Jesus - Whole Thing is Just There

Vinyl LP pressing. In the 1980 documentary Philip Guston: A Life Lived, the famed neo-expressionist talks about a painting he keeps starting over. "It looked alright - but it felt to me as if it were additions - this and that and that," he says. "What I'm always seeking is some great simplicity where the whole thing is just there." "That, to me, is the ideal feeling of existing," says John Rossiter, singer/guitarist of the LA-based art rock quartet Young Jesus. "That feeling you pursue when you're creating, when the world is opening up and things are on the cusp of beauty and revelation, but it's just out of reach. To maintain that in the face of depressing or difficult stuff is what I'd like to be able to do." This pursuit is what drives Young Jesus, and it's documented on their new record The Whole Thing Is Just There. Taking it's name from the late painter's words, Young Jesus combines a palette of indie rock instrumentation with a spirit of unhindered spontaneity to construct - and deconstruct - emotionally potent and inventive sonic landscapes. Imbued with a sense of both desperation and discovery, each track unfolds like a deep sea voyage: beginning on the familiar ground of a conventional song structure before setting sail for the open waters of instrumental experimentation and plumbing the depths of the unknown in search of some conceptual treasure before heading back to port.