For almost ten years, Producer and DJ James Weissinger (Zillas on Acid) has collaborated with Philadelphia-based video artist “Babystar” (Carolina Leis-Usher) under the name GIRLS CHAT ROOM. The anchor artist for Weissinger’s 100 Years of Solid Dudes label (home to ongoing and one-off projects featuring Philadelphia’s finest musical freaks), GCR offers a slightly brighter take on the Zillas on Acid sound, taking inspiration from freakish fellow travelers like Saâda Bonaire, Geneva Jacuzzi, Mu, and The Flying Lizards, as well as from non-music influences like candy, Nokia ringtones, and The Sims. Post-punk, acid house, and New Beat find themselves smashed together with the dumbest of drum machines to make accidental pop songs to fall down the stairs to. Hovering above, Babystar’s haunting vocals come together with a processed smattering of decayed commercials, all plucked from that great repository of 20th century media meltdown–YouTube. Back in the material realm, fellow Zilla-in-arms Thomas Roland jumps on the drums for the GIRLS CHAT ROOM live band, accompanied by Philadelphia multi-instrumentalist Timothy Tebordo (Cantuitone, Tinmouth), further adding to the mayhem. The new GIRLS CHAT ROOM album SLEEP MASK sees the duo log back into the chat with eight new songs exploring a range of important contemporary themes: the perennial perils of the gig economy (“Bubble Tea”), a lack of rest in an increasingly wired world (“Sleep Mask”), the laugh-track sitcom-ification of everyday life (“TV Turkey”), Gen Z and its piddling preoccupations (“Look at My Friends”), facial cleansing routines as spiritual salvation (“We Got Those Faces”), the post-industrial dance mantra imaginary (“Metal Chant”), vanilla-scented New Age skepticism gone awry (“Déjà Vu”), and wet blankets (“Wet Blanket”). Taken together, these songs tear the collective “sleep mask” from our faces, encouraging us to WAKE UP, look around, and then ok maybe go back to sleep amidst the burning parking lot fire of the early 21st century. For those who have already taken the Girls Chat Room Revolutionary Pledge of Allegiance, SLEEP MASK is a powerful return to form and the logical next step in GCR’s aesthetic evolution. For those just starting to sip the Kool-Aid, the release might just be the beginning of a lifelong journey into the GCR lifestyle.

Release Date: 24/08/2023

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