"Black" by Fetching Pails

Director and Editor: Jill Townsend

Director of Photography: Michael W. Bunch

Order the debut album, Telekinesis for Beginners, on Ghostly Cyan vinyl (a YK Records release): https://fetchingpails.bandcamp.com/merch

All music and recordings by: Jill Townsend, Nashville, TN

(except for drums by Andrew Core/Mikie Martel, Nashville, TN)

Mixing: J Clive at Classy About Reality, Nashville, TN

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If Nashville singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jill Townsend could fulfill her dream of moving things with her mind, Fetching Pails’ debut Telekinesis for Beginners would have been created seemingly out of thin air. Rather, given the obvious impossibilities, her fingerprints cover it from top to bottom. After years spent in bands and one-off side projects, while simultaneously toiling away on home recordings in secret, Townsend brings forth Telekinesis, which documents her final stages of metamorphosis into a fully realized musician and producer born from a cocoon of her own making.

Longtime fans of local music will recognize Townsend’s presence in the local scene as far back as the late aughts Murfreesboro upstarts Bent Fur to acclaimed indie synth-pop ensemble Nightblonde. That, along with contributions to a handful of tribute bands and assembling the acclaimed Rocky Horror Rock ’n Roll Show, culminates into an eclectic journey and subsequent evolution that’s all the more overwhelming when brought front and center into her most personal and cohesive effort yet.

“Most of my time with music has been solitary, writing and recording demos at home others rarely get to hear,” recalls Townsend. “I used to bounce around the country more back in the day and would record demos in Garageband, singing and playing into the built-in mic of my Macbook, using whatever instrument was lying around. Some of those songs are on this album.”

Produced and recorded herself using largely techniques she learned online, Townsend played nearly every instrument on all twelve of the album’s tracks. Despite its piecemeal assemblage, pulling from roughly a decade of demos, time has given these songs room to simmer into a cohesively catchy and dreamily postmodern mixtape of alternapop nostalgia. Airy synthesizers backing whimsically singable hooks immediately call to mind the 80s-tinged undertones of Kate Bush’s theatrical vocals and Cocteau Twins’ intricate arrangements. Holographic guitar riffs float over crisp, frenetic grooves carrying the DNA of post-punk’s rhythmic recklessness on standouts like “Invisible Lassos,” “Dreamvox” and “Black.” Meanwhile, the driving drums of epic earworm burners like “Lemon Phosphate” and “Shearer” keep the record’s whimsical spirit grounded into solid and reliable song structures with introverted themes hinged on anxiety, insecurity and the everyday neuroses.

Even the vinyl release’s artwork—also created by Townsend—seals her self-described “control freak” process and reflects the album’s attention to detail, care for care’s sake, and a presentation that would likely be just as elaborate if, like the majority of her work, no one was intended to see it.

The days are ticking down to the release of Telekinesis for Beginners, the debut LP from indie popster Jill Townsend under the name Fetching Pails. The record, you may recall, is out Nov. 2 via YK Records. A couple of weeks back, we saw the spookily adorable video for “Shearer,” and today we’re pleased to premiere the music vid for “Black,” the third single from the record.

“Black” follows the lead of “Shearer,” appearing equally charming and haunting. You can see the piece above — it uses moving still pictures called cinemagraphs to tell the story (along with some regular footage). It features classic horror images such as moving Ouija board pieces and eyeballs moving inside a painting. Townsend interrupts the flow to shred an epic, shoegazey bridge on her guitar, and to dance (Kate Bush-style) around some flames. Throughout, Townsend enchants with her distinctive voice, singing lyrics as spooky as the video: “Now I’m just a freeze frame in a dress / Preserved like bodies on Everest.”

Townsend directed and edited, while Michael Bunch (full disclosure, a former longtime staff photographer at the Scene) served as director of photography. You can preorder the album (on ghostly blue vinyl, no less) via Bandcamp. And if you’d like to fall under Townsend’s spell yourself, you can catch Fetching Pails’ release show at The East Room on Nov. 8. You’ll also get to see Chance Cook, Crave On and Ziona Riley — and according to the Facebook event page, there will be cupcakes.

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