Shana Falana w/Ttotals & The Inscape: at The End (Nashville, TN) Sun. December 16, 2012

Shana Falana w/Ttotals & The Inscape

Pop/Rock

Nashville Scene Critic's Pick …

Brooklyn loft-rockers Shana Falana refer to themselves as “dream pop,” and that’s copacetic as far as the blanket genre term goes — they’ve got the requisite reverb-soaked vocals and droning guitars that go with the territory. But these tend to be weird, fevered dreams. On their 2012 album Velvet Pop, echoing voice loops twist around upside-down spy-movie riffs, while velvety synths lurk just behind minimal beats. At times, a spooky, Middle Eastern-inflected mood hangs over entrancingly open-ended compositions; at others, a spikier, more punk-influenced mien takes over — especially effective on the shouty body-image-malaise burner “I Don’t Want It.” And every now and then the band hits an extra-sweet spot that almost sounds like Nancy Sinatra fronting the Runaways. Heavy-lidded local psych-rockers Ttotals open.

— STEVE HARUCH