Quivers

Quivers

Oyster Cuts

Merge

***Oyster Cuts, the Merge Records debut of Quivers, finds the Melbourne, Australia–based outfit awash in the kind of emotions people tend to fear losing themselves in. Finding love after grief, the outsized guitar pop of Quivers gleams like the surface of an ocean, beneath which lies a reef that is at turns beautiful and painful, its features alien and sharp enough to wound. Propelled by melodies that at times recall Galaxie 500 and The Pretenders, Quivers make music that is tender and tough, compelling the listener to dive in again and again, each song a new angle on all of your feelings. Oyster Cuts is sunshine pop with blood in the water. The losses and loves that have informed Quivers’ music since their inception—the sudden loss of a brother in the cracked optimism of We’ll Go Riding on the Hearses (2018) and the life in and after grief of Golden Doubt (2021)—ripple into Oyster Cuts, which is committed to moving forward while accepting that some feelings, like grief, are a cycle. Crucially, Quivers committed to moving forward with each other. Paring away the choir and strings of Golden Doubt, Oyster Cuts is a showcase for what’s still possible when four people—Sam Nicholson (guitars), Bella Quinlan (bass), Michael Panton (guitars), and Holly Thomas (drums)—make music together.

Quivers

We'll Go Riding On The Hearses

Hotel Motel Records

Available in North America for the first time, We'll Go Riding On The Hearses is the first album from Australia's Quivers. Much like their latest release, Golden Doubt, the album is a jangle rock beautify, with tons of melodies and harmonies in the best indie pop tradition. Quivers is a band formed in Hobart, Tasmania and We’ll Go Riding on the Hearses was first a tape release before the band moved to Melbourne and released again on vinyl for Australia’s Hotel Motel label. It’s an album of songs written after singer Sam lost his brother, Tom, unexpectedly in a free-diving accident. It’s maybe an album about that, but also about trying to not think about that, and often comes back to ghosts, benders, water, and pissing in the snow. The album was recorded halfway up Mount Wellington/kunanyi by Anthony Rochester in just two days to not overthink it all, and celebrates the catharsis that comes from singing with friends. All my best friends are a little broken, all the best people are. That’s what the first single “Pigeons” says while Hammond circles around some really 90s guitars.  Since the album’s release Quivers have toured Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States - playing at the 2019 SXSW before filming a session for KEXP. Quivers were set to play again at SXSW in 2020 before their first long tour of the US but postponed it all when the Coronavirus hit. Quivers have released a subsequent 7” for single “You’re...

Quivers

Golden Doubt

Ba Da Bing!

Melbourne-via-Tasmanian four-piece Quivers first released their 2018 debut We’ll Go Riding On The Hearses as hand-made cassettes. The album dealt with singer Sam Nicholson’s loss of his brother in a freediving accident, and “trying to not think about that, and often coming back to ghosts, benders, water, and pissing in the snow.” When demand for the album grew, it received a vinyl release and led Quivers to tour the US, film a KEXP session, and be selected by NPR Music for both the Austin 100 SXSW preview and as a “Slingshot” artist to watch. Their life-damaged but hopeful jangle pop has only sharpened since then, and while 2021 follow-up Golden Doubt conjures up REM or The Clean, there is a lyrical directness that sets this record apart as always its own.  Golden Doubt is carried by shimmering guitars and the harmonizing vocals of members Holly Thomas and Bella Quinlan. Elevated by the production of Matthew Redlich (Holy Holy, Husky, Ainslie Wills), the record explores what comes after grief, and how one throws oneself back into love. As Nicholson explains, the album tries to bottle “the rush of feelings and fears when you give in to falling for someone. It’s also an album in love with other albums, and the other bands around us.” Before each take at Woodstock and The Aviary studios in Melbourne, Australia, the band would imagine a scene together (a waterhole for “Laughing Waters”, an overgrown carpark for “Videostores”) and then dive in to capture live group...