There comes a moment where music reaches beyond its own grasp and the term “local band” no longer serves as an accurate description. Sleeping Bag is becoming one of those bands. Granted Bloomington has taken a habit of churning out fantastic live and recorded music year after year, there are still albums and performances that inform listeners this has all begun reaching beyond us.
On that note, Bloomington band Sleeping Bag will be returning to The Bishop this Saturday, November 16th at 9 P.M. Although Sleeping Bag has, along with many great Bloomington outfits, played at The Bishop a number of times, this time is different. This time Sleeping Bag brought along friends and tour mates Rozwell Kid, with whom they released a split LP titled “Dreamboat” just this past month through West Lafayette’s Jurassic Pop Records. The sleeve displays a picture of a comic-drawn cyclops girl smiling, sitting on a bed holding a copy of the record on which she appears. “Dreamboat” appears as a heading on the album cover, with a heart shape in place of an O. Beneath lays the tagline, “A Real Chill Listen.” It holds no disappointment in that regard. With song titles like Total Doofus, Chinchilla, and Dogfood, the record keeps a genuine attitude without taking itself too seriously, an admirable quality compared to the rest of today’s musical zeitgeist.
Dave Segedy assembled Sleeping Bag in 2010 creating pop-driven guitar rock, with qualities that remind listeners of everything and nothing all at once. It’s too new to be retro, too retro to be new. Drawing heavily from a sound like that of Pavement, Sleeping Bag has released two albums through Joyful Noise Recordings before the latest release with Rozwell Kid.
Saturday’s show is one of several that the bands will be playing together, and is guaranteed to be a real chill listen.
