“I know the secret stare / Follow me to nowhere / We’ll learn the secret there / I had it all for a time / When I was in your prime / I know the teenage crime”

Above is the second stanza of Brooklyn, NY psychedelic act Starlight Girls’ single “Teenage Crime” off the EP Entitled. This is a compelling, sludgy, psychedelic number that, as you can tell by the lyricism above, is a bit coy in a suave sort of way. I mean that as a compliment—the vocals at first come across as a bit reserved, but as you listen more in depth, the more you realize this actually isn’t the case. You can’t sing reservedly in the context of a track as layered as this. There’s a sense of mystery and allure here too.

On a personal note, when I was doing my research on the band, I found that a handful of folks I got to know early on in my music blogging career actually follow them—including Jason Winner (Cliffs, Indigo Wild, Garbage Greek) and Tamar Kamin (The Van Allen Belt). In this context it this makes sense. Winner’s respective projects hit hard but sometimes get dreamy, and Kamin’s project is just plain odd at times.

On another personal note, the band’s singer, Christina Bernard, is from Ohio (like me) and an ex-mega church attender. As one who grew up in a borderline megachurch and is still a churchgoer—I’d like to have a conversation with her sometime. Churchgoing (or ex-churchgoing) music fans that like psychedelic rock… there are dozens of us. Dozens!

The band notes that their forthcoming EP Entitled has a more reckless feel to it. It’s impressive that something so improvisational in approach can have an end result this polished.

Stream the track below:

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