***"'What do I do? Is this living?' In asking these questions, Richmond-based musician Sarah Everton underlines the absurdity of human existence. We reach out for meaning in an indifferent world. Jane From Preoccupied America, the debut LP from her project Added Dimensions, explores what we do in the face of this indifference: the bullshit we preoccupy ourselves with, the anxieties we develop as we suffer through the mundane, the coping mechanisms we adopt, the people we choose to be. What makes this record great is the extent to which this is communicated, not just via lyrical content but by the music itself. Sarah’s loose overdubs and hauntingly beautiful multi-part harmonies are fastened to a backbone provided by Rob Garcia’s deceptively simple drumming—a bundle of insecurities standing upright, moving through the world one step at a time, perhaps a little unsure but steady. Some tracks spread indie pop sweetness over primitive punk (imagine Tender Trap backed by Buck Biloxi), not unlike a facade you put up to avoid fully crumbling into despair after witnessing another day of atrocities. Other tracks eschew melodicism in favor of something more akin to Wire’s brash matter-of-factness, multi-tracked until reaching a Swell Maps-esque DIY wall of sound, reflecting a more measured approach you might need to adopt to navigate some acute crisis—focused and pragmatic, but ultimately a little surreal. It’s a record that celebrates living by virtue of existing, which, really, is all any of us can do."—Alex Howell (Garbage in My Heart)
LP $23.95
10/03/2025
***Time Suck / Hellbent is the first vinyl EP from Richmond, Virginia’s Added Dimensions (the home recording project helmed by Sarah Everton of Blowdryer and Telepathic), following a self-released, self-titled cassette released in 2022. Sarah’s trebly/jangly guitar riffs and sneaky bass lines are backed by a charge of unfussy, driving drums from Rob Garcia, all cloaked in the perfect amount of lo-fi Tascam grit, as she lyrically pares down the heavy psychic weight of modern living (the social cost of convenience and connectivity, the inane routine of labor as a means of survival, etc.) into disarmingly hooky mini-manifestoes—even the sugar-coated melodies can’t hide the harsh truths behind lines like “every day, same as before” (“Interruption”). Wire rubbing elbows with the Shop Assistants as a C86 band? A Kim Deal-fronted Urinals? Charms you can’t resist!
7" $9.75
04/12/2024
***"When Sarah Everton and her husband hoofed it to rural Virginia some years back, that spelt the unofficial break-up of her Philadelphia trio Blowdryer, and she proceeded to hole up for the great plague that we’ve all pretended to forget. Some of those 'late period' Blowdryer songs were sitting around from a direction Everton had been plotting in which she’d attempt Carole King doing Electric Eels-style songs. Added Dimensions—triumphantly named after a plus-sized clothing store her mother frequented back when stores really had names like that—was the result.Those first 2022 home-assembled recordings might not have fully nailed the Tapestry / God Says Fuck You hybrid (keep trying!!), but they weren’t far off, and there was some real 'buzz' that year, as we say in the industry, about her sharp, minimalist punk cassette tape debut. Added Dimensions’ short and aggressive pure-DIY songs then were particularly influenced, and still are to some extent, by The Urinals and Wipers. Everton’s themes centered around hating her job, being depressed, the indignities of masking and how exhausting it is/was, drugs ('Default Mode'), hating the music industry ('Wirey'), and social media/internet bullshit ('You Got My Number'). Themes everyone can rally around!For years, dating back to her time in Reading/Bleeding Rainbow in the late 00s/early 10s, it’s been Everton’s voice that’s been a primary calling card. Not because it’s operatic or snotty or bratty or overwrought, but because she brings a clean, melodic and still tuff set of pipes to each track, a thoroughly natural voice with...
LP $20.85
TBD