New Music: Introducing - Sidney Gish

Until last Friday the name Sidney Gish wasn’t on my radar at all. Then thanks to Spotify’s New Music Friday playlist a quirky little ditty called Where The Sidewalk Ends jumped out like a friendly jack-in-the-box and introduced me to Sidney's colourful world of d-i-y indie pop. “I wanna write a book, and put it in your mailbox, and when you go to pick it up, you would send it back to Amazon,” sings Gish over a tune that sounds like a long-lost track from the soundtrack of the movie Juno. She had me hooked straight away.

As it turns out this isn’t Gish’s debut single, far from it; it’s just one track from her recently released No Dogs Allowed album, the follow up to a previous record called Ed Buys Houses. Another tune from the record, the perky Sin Triangle, is also giving Gish some extra exposure over and above the Spotify playlisting, flying up the Hype Machine charts over the last few days. It seems that her brand of melodic, sometimes witty, sometimes humorous, sometimes twee guitar pop music is getting noticed and more importantly liked. 

“To be completely and genuinely candid, no review, write-up, or piece of enthusiastic praise will ever do No Dogs Allowed and Gish’s seemingly inherent lyrical and musical talent any justice,” says Boston Hasssle. I wouldn’t go quite as overboard with my compliments, but there’s certainly something very charming about Gish’s work which sounds endearingly fresh as well as entertaining. Anyone who has song titles like I’m Filled With Steak and Cannot Dance and I Eat Salads Now is certainly carving out their own little space amongst the thousands of artists trying to get heard.

“Sidney Gish sounds like she grew up in a full house of music with Simon, Garfunkel, and Sufjan as her wacky yet sensitive musical uncles,” suggests one comment on her Bandcamp page.  I’d add in The Moldy Peaches to that list as well. And maybe a few giggling slightly drunk aunties as well.

You can hear No Dogs Allowed, which is self-released, over at Sidney’s Bandcamp page or through all the usual streaming services. Get a taster of it (as have over 100,000 other Spotify listeners over the last three days) with Where The Sidewalk Ends, which will have you clapping, smiling and singing along blissfully to Sidney's top-drawer songwriting.

Sidney Gish - Where The Sidewalk Ends