Guest post by Nathan Arizona
Glenn Donaldson works hard to craft the blend of guitar jangle and atmospheric dream pop that makes his band, the Reds, Pinks and Purples, sound so good. But the San Francisco musician works hard other places, too. Like Alcatraz prison, where he’s employed by the national parks conservancy.
Like most musicians these days, he needs a day job to stay afloat financially. One survey determined that only about 20 percent take in enough to live on music alone, mostly from touring and selling merchandise at shows. CD sales have tanked and they make very little from streaming platforms. The exceptions tend to consistently score high on the pop charts. A handful become filthy rich.
So the lives of most bands, even those well-known in their musical world, don’t exactly scream “glamor.” And Donaldson, who is 50ish, has been around long enough not to think his band is the next Coldplay.
At Alcatraz, he helps support gift shops and tours. Other musicians clerk in stores, tend bar, teach, work at Home Depot, sell shoes, design web sites or even bag fries at McDonald’s. A lot of them have learned to love Kickstarter.
Donaldson lives simply in a pastel house in Inner Richmond, a lower-rent part of his city, where puts together music in his kitchen and strolls outside taking photos of colorful houses that find their way onto his album covers.
So these bands are making music, well, for the art of the thing.
Reds, Pinks and Purples is a shining example of recent bands who have heard plenty of R.E.M., Teenage Fanclub and the like. Melodic and lilting, with a beat. The dream pop aspect adds a slightly moody air. The group also brings to mind the “C-86” bands of the 1980s who helped kick off the whole indie pop scene by countering the harder music of the day. And it’s hard not to hear the Smiths in there.
This is the opening track from the group’s 2020 album “You Might Be Happy Someday.”
The Australian band Quivers has been turning heads with a similar style, influenced by classic Aussie pop bands like the Go Betweens.
This jangle-dream (?) sound is coming from all over. Here’s something from the German band Some Sprouts.
