New Noise Magazine is pleased to be bringing forth the exclusive premiere of “Isn’t Real” by Tender Age. The song is electrifying with loud, sparking guitars. The noise rock track is full of psychedelic trances, bending with glee and shining with a sparkling glimmer. Take a view to the video below.
“‘Isn’t Real’ is the second single to be released from our forthcoming album, Becoming Real Forever. The video is a jarring kaleidoscope of imagery taken from VHS footage of our time staying in a cabin on the Oregon coast. We recorded most of the album with a 16-track tape machine in a cabin we transformed into a makeshift analog recording studio over two weeks in mid 2017. We snaked mic cables through heating vents in the wood paneling and along the worn shag carpet under doors, tracking everything live in the living room as tourists walked by gawking through a huge picture window, bewildered by the racket emanating from within. It doesn’t sound like a “beach” album, but it’s deeply connected to the sunny, dreary Oregon coast and to the experiences we had sharing that weird little cabin with each other and the friends who visited us.” – Tender Age
Tender Age’s particular brand of noise-infused pop music feels like being pulled into an automatic car wash, but instead of hot multi-colored foam, it’s guitars coating you, and after being blown dry you emerge from the tunnel shimmering and glossy. The music can feel as euphoric at times as it does dark and complicated at others. Indeed, balancing contradictions is what the band does best. They juxtapose beauty with dissonance, punctuate accessible melodies with dense noise freak-outs, and write cryptic vocals that come across as deeply personal while being vague enough to be universally relatable. Fans of Sonic Youth and The Breeders will appreciate common threads they love about those bands weaving throughout Tender Age’s music, but with a refreshing lack of genre clichés or tribute band vibes.
The Portland, Oregon five piece have released a pair of 7” singles and a 12″ EP since the band first formed in 2013. Since a lineup change in 2017 brought Olives (Drums) to the band, the group has experienced a new level of cohesion and a wave of productivity that resulted in Becoming Real Forever, the band’s first full length release, as well as a yet to be titled EP that has been recorded and is likely to come out later this year.
