Stream Sitcom Gig Bag
Jake Lazovick’s latest album under his Sitcom moniker sounds like both his loneliest and most accomplished to date. Gig Bag feels like a largely solitary endeavor — with only background vocals from Joanna Smith occasionally penetrating the fold — but it’s never alienating. In fact, most of these songs sound like they’re begging for connection, yearning and presumptively hopeful. The two most impactful and longest set pieces are opening number “crumb,” the best musing on feeling insignificant and unfulfilled this side of Krill, and “ice water,” a spectral and sagging six-minute plod through memories and feelings maybe best left forgot. Both songs take satisfying turns, swinging down into sped-up sampled portions before righting the ship.
Three variations on the same idea — “Wind Blows,” “Wind,” and “Wind Blo s” — are so distinctively great that it feels a little like Lazovick’s just showing off. The last one especially demonstrates his talent for creating a straight-forwardly infectious song; the other two show his knack for mood-setting. On “Green Fleece,” the isolation that occupies much of the record takes hold in the deepest and most concise way: “Can’t place myself in my surroundings, but my place has found me/ I curl up in a familiar pose, curl my body around a pillow/ Spend some time with the TV glow until I’m only thinking about videos/ And I forget my name.” Lazovick makes muted pop songs for small spaces, insular notes that appeal to the introvert in all of us. Listen below.
Gig Bag is out now. Sitcom is playing a show alongside Ronald Paris (Porches’ Aaron Maine), Harmony Tividad (Girlpool), and True Blue this Sunday at The Silent Barn in Brooklyn.