PORTLAND TRIO Naked Hour's upcoming debut, Always on the Weekend, is a series of vignettes chronicling the worst breakup ever.
Songwriter, vocalist, and bassist Teal Bluestone's nonlinear storytelling flourishes on what was originally envisioned as a concept album. She revisits what she calls "sentimental specific bullshit" with her lyrics, leaving a trail of metaphorical breadcrumbs as she tries to figure out how the hell she ended up here, coughing up the ashes of a relationship that really, truly crashed and burned. This frustrated disorientation is reflected in swift tempo changes that masterfully smear together fuzzy dream-pop, DIY punk, and twinkly emo.
Naked Hour was initially an experimental bass/drum duo, made up of Bluestone and her friend and longtime bandmate Ethan Conroy. They met as freshmen in high school, and have made music together almost nonstop ever since. Naked Hour seems founded on the impassioned emotional currents connecting its members, so it was a huge change in dynamics when, after admiring another local band, they decided to bring on a guitarist.
"I was watching one of Little Star's earliest shows at Townshend's and I wrote down in my phone, 'Jackson should join Naked Hour,'" Bluestone says of the band's guitarist, Jackson Dean Walker. He and Conroy played together in locally beloved pop-punk/emo four-piece Robot Boy, so Walker wasn't a random choice. Bluestone still does the majority of the singing, but Conroy and Walker contribute to the band's vocals—together they sing the pummeling hook of the album's title track.