Altered Zones

By Marissa A. Ross

MP3: Young Prisms: "Sugar"

MP3: Young Prisms: "Feel Fine"

I kind of hate the portrait the alternative media has painted of Young Prisms. Every article that I read seems to either glamorize or condemn the San Franciscan quartet for their "stoner-slacker" reputation. Often, the articles themselves foster this image by offering little in terms of critically engaging with the stereotype itself. Writers seem determined to reduce “Sugar,” their recent single, to a marijuana anthem, assuming the connection runs deep, given the group’s nonchalant attitude toward talking about drugs with the media. Even their own press kit perpetuates the image, pushing for their own Golden State genre of "Psychedelic Slackerdom.”

Admittedly, they know how to make their music sound how California can feel. Friends For Now, their debut full-length on Brooklyn’s Kanine Records, conjures up cliches of seventy-five degreed Sundays in February with weed fresher than water, a taco joint just beyond the horizon. But even if the music of Young Prisms perfectly refracts the illusion of the West Coast lazy day-off, there is nothing lazy about Matt Allen, Gio Betteo, Stef Hodapp, and Jordan Silbert. Between the national tour they are on as we speak-- alongside the likes of The Radio Dept., Melted Toys, and Speculator-- their new record, and an upcoming trip to the UK, Young Prisms seem to be everything but the kind of unemployed jackasses who collect bongs and survive on mooching off their mothers' pantries and empty guest bedrooms.

I guess there is some traditional sense of "slackerdom.” The foursome all dropped out of their scholastic programs-- ranging from community college to fashion to master's programs-- to pursue music. "Speaking for myself," singer Stef Hodapp comments, "I just never knew what I wanted. I kept trying different things out, like ‘Maybe this will work! Maybe this will work!’ But it never really worked out. I never planned on singing either, but this seems to be working out [laughs]."

It does seem to be working out, and it's not because Young Prisms are TwitPic-ing plates of grass or selling grinders with their logo on it. (They're not.) It's because of their psychedelic side. Their music has garnered a stack of attention, with about every adjective that can be paired with shoegaze. Friends For Now sounds like an echo from a beach in space-- one that you're not sure you've even heard, but you know you have somehow experienced. It's like, "Wait, this sounds familiar... right?"-- which seems to be the sentiment Young Prisms have about their music, too.

"Our influences are much more subconscious I think, stuff we were once really into at a point in our lives, but we're not so much anymore," Gio Betteo says. "When Matt and I were like, 13, my cousin Steven Harkins [of Melted Toys] had this Volvo. He didn't even have his license yet, but we'd sit in it and listen to My Bloody Valentine on a cassette tape. Then we see that we've been compared to it in some review, and it makes sense in a subconscious way-- things from a long time ago that are in the back of our brains but that we never got out. Sometimes people say that there is a New Order bassline that I never meant to have-- but that's just how it came out. It's probably because Matt was listening to New Order every day after school on his boombox. It's all stuff that is just buried."

Even without ever going through a new wave phase, Young Prisms’ music still resonates with the back corners of my mind. There is an overwhelming sense of youth that triggers the bright, hazy memories of my early twenties. It’s a fuzzy recollection of the long-lost fun and uncertainty of growing up-- that phase when you’re moving forward and drifting through the clouds simultaneously. You’re independent, almost completely free of real world responsibility. Nowadays, when we’re all working around the clock for our own sense of the weekend, it’s nice to visit that place where you had the time to drop acid and dad still did your taxes.

But it's not just what's buried in our psyche, haunting our transitional years-- it's also what's at the surface. The present is also a constant influence on Young Prisms. "[Our music] is about coming of age and figuring yourself out," Hodapp added. "Being on the road and having all these crazy experiences; that is a big part of it."

Touring is a huge force in Young Prisms' music-- not only on their sound, but also in the production of their LP. "Friends For Now was what I consider an unconventional writing process,” Betteo reflected. The band wrote the album in San Francisco, took it on the road, then stopped in Denver to record in the home of Woodsman’s Trevor Peterson. “We pumped out six songs in one day. It was bizarre for us to do that. We got home and we decided to take things more seriously, really focus on finishing the record. We went from a house with a home recording to a proper, professional studio in San Francisco. It's all over the place, really. It wasn't a single process and I think that's what makes it interesting."

And it's not going to stop-- the touring or the music. Young Prisms are getting some serious hustle on, continuing to tour through the Spring and projecting more life on the road in 2012. Aside from the non-stop performance schedules, Young Prisms are already recording a new EP, laying the groundwork for their second album, and prepping two music videos.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but from where I am sitting, Young Prisms seem to be anything but a bunch of escapists with a predilection for foggy allegretto riffs. So why is the world so eager to cast them as just that? "Probably because we just don’t care about hiding it," Betteo replies. "People think we 'rep' it super hard. Or like we're proud stoners. It’s not like we're looking for a sponsorship from ROAR or something, but at the same time, we're not hiding that it’s no big deal. We smoke weed just as much as we drink beer. Always. So what? And we like to think we're not what everyone else thinks, we're not ‘slackers' because we smoke weed.”

Personifying dazed elusion while exemplifying the ethic of a working band, Young Prisms are proving that even those of us who enjoy a good melt into the couch can get just as much shit done as anyone else. One day, weed won't make for criticism or headlines. It won't be sold or punished with the conjunction of "being a slacker" or a Wavves/Best Coast tour. One day, marijuana won't matter, because it never really has. What has always mattered is the effort that is put into our endeavors. And clearly, Young Prisms are putting in the labor behind their love.

“Legalize it!” says Betteo. “And stop writing about how we smoke weed [laughs].”

Friends For Now LP is out now on Kanine Records