Each Measure Feature: Empty Pinata

FEATURE

There’s something very summer garage concert about Empty Pinata’s first new single, I Have a Huge Crush on Doja Cat. As if the tongue-in-cheek humor of both the artist and the song title wasn’t enough, the lyricism of this jam is a fun poetical collage playing with rhymes and images with comedic flair. The playfulness of the track weaves throughout with some well-placed reverb and a noisy drum kit, a few fragments of backup voices occasionally floating in from the sides. Even though supposedly only Empty Pinata’s first release, the mix and lyricism are impressively confident. I wasn’t surprised to learn that the face behind Empty Pinata, Alejandro Rodriguez, used to make music under the name LA Rodriguez. This new sound is easygoing, fun, and hits a great spot reserved for my indie rock appreciation.

Like surf rock meets The Strokes; the sound is very nostalgic, complete with the special, matter-of-fact, wilting vocals of the emo days. This time though, it’s new and improved with a pinch more humor and rolling buckets of clever lyrics. “I’m on my final round. I think I found myself. I’m rolling on the ground and right back on the shelf.” Every time I listen to this track, another image appears with as much sense to it as the last; the effect is of a montage of friends and places blending into one colorful road trip down memory lane.

The breaks in singing give listeners a chance to just flow with the music (or easily dance to it at a house concert). While it flows happily along with bubbling echoey guitars and twanging vocals, I do think a sweeter, deeper spot is reached, probably the same spot that has the audacity to sing “Hate me...date me” and “It’s amusing, how you use me.”. Sardonic, ironic, and thoroughly modern, this is only the beginning. With an EP set for the summer, you can be sure Empty Pinata will be playing from a few sticky car stereos in a few months.

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