“I love supporting any band that’s doing intelligent pop music. I feel like the dream would be like Stereolab, Sufjan Stevens, Belle & Sebastian… Alex G, that would be a really fun tour,” says Joe Stevens, founder and songwriter of Los Angeles avant-pop outfit Peel Dream Magazine (Yes, named for that Peel.) Peel Dream Magazine has toured alongside PHILTHY phavorites like Soccer Mommy and Chastity Belt, and this May they announced a two-week tour supporting dream poppers Wild Nothing, including a stop at our very own Underground Arts on Tuesday August 13th.
Last month I got a chance to chat with Joe Stevens via phone, and he admits that he actually really likes touring as a support act and leaving headlining duties to someone else: “I love support tours… I feel like I think more about my art on a support tour… A lot of times when we’re headlining, I’m just too caught up with the everyday stuff to think about anything like that.” He starts to tell me that he suspects Peel Dream Magazine aren’t quite big enough to do headlining jaunts yet, although he pauses mid-thought to tell me that they may have just turned that page: “People know the band and people want to see the band, but I don’t think we’re ready to do proper headlining gigs… although that might have changed in the past few years.”
The past few years have had Peel Dream Magazine touring behind their third LP, Pad, which dropped in October of 2022, courtesy of Slumberland Records, their home since 2018 debut Modern Meta Physic. And those past few years have apparently provided a handful of major highlights of the band’s career. Stevens mentions feeling like they’d sort of broken through while they were on tour with Soccer Mommy: “That was our first time playing in really big rooms, to like 1,000 people… and then going back to playing for 100 people [laughs]… I remember this one show in Asheville, where we took an elevator to the stage and then were escorted to stage by security.” He also talks about the band’s first tour of Europe, in early 2023, which included one exceptionally meaningful experience: “I got to play with one of my heroes, Sean O’ Hagan of The High Llamas, and at one point Stereolab. It was a London residency, and we did a duo show, and we got to hang out and then play a gig. He played some of my songs, I played some of his songs… it was a dream.”
However, late last month Peel Dream Magazine announced the September 4th release of Rose Main Reading Room, their fourth full-length and first for Topshelf Records (In addition to the label itself, Stevens admits to being a big fan of our buddies in Ratboys.) The album announcement came with the release of the LP’s first single, “Lie In The Gutter,” a nod to the classic Oscar Wilde quote. “This theme of ‘the natural world’ has been jostling around my brain for awhile and is a big part of the album. The song is meant to be a very simple statement about finding joy and wonder in life despite whatever may be on your mind,” Stevens wrote of the track upon release.
During our chat, Joe tells me that the new record is a bit of a departure from Pad, but not an entirely new direction for the band: “I would say, harmony-wise, melodically, it’s a return to the vibe of the first two records… It just sounds like a band playing songs, instead of an aesthetic experiment [like Pad].” Although he clarifies that Rose Main Reading Room does embody the variety of the sounds that the band indulges in: “Some of it’s rock-forward, and then there’s folk, electronic, classical, with woodwinds, a bit of everything [laughs].”
And Stevens says that this current sonic aesthetic of Peel Dream Magazine will certainly change the dynamics of the live show from what fans have experienced in recent years: “When we did Pad, we… toured with classical guitar and drum machine and organ… I felt like I couldn’t do some of our older songs, the more shoegaze-y, dream pop stuff. For this one, I’m wanting to present an archetypal band vibe again.” He tells me that setlist on the band’s dates with Wild Nothing will likely include a handful of throwbacks to the earlier years of Peel Dream Magazine, in addition to a lot of unreleased tracks.
“We’ll be playing songs from the first two records again, and maybe something from Pad, but the main focus is gonna be new songs… We really like playing the rock-forward stuff live. I feel like that really works in a live situation. I mean, crowds aren’t always interested in the most left-of-center thing.”
Just prior to their dates with Wild Nothing, Peel Dream Magazine will be playing a headlining show in Denton, Texas, and just following their Wild Nothing shows, they’ll play two more headlining shows, in Atlanta and Austin. Rose Main Reading Room’s Record Release Show will take place September 7th at Sat Zebulon in Los Angeles, and just today they announced their October 10th appearance at Desert Daze 2024 (which features Alex G!), where they’ll be playing as part of the Thursday Night Welcoming Committee, alongside White Fence, English Teacher, and cumgirl8, among others. They’re also currently working on booking some touring throughout October and November, but with nothing in the books just yet. However, Stevens says that all of this certainly hasn’t slowed his writing process: “I’m always working on new music. There’s new, new, new music already in the works.”
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