Brilliant Colors

Brilliant Colors' gritty indie pop sound, rooted in old-school New Zealand-based indie pop acts like the Chills and the Bats, grew out of lead singer Jess Scott's bedroom recordings. The group started playing gigs around its native San Francisco in 2007 with an original lineup that included bassist Michelle Hill and drummer John Garmon. The latter amicably split with the group early on, and ex-Carnal Knowledge member Diane Anastasio, who'd just moved to San Francisco for a job at Maximum Rock'n'Roll, was brought in as the band's new drummer. Brilliant Colors' self-titled debut, a four-track, 7" EP, was released on Make-a-Mess Records in early 2009. A 7" single, "Highly Evolved"/"Takes So Little," came out on Captured Tracks later that year. The group's debut full-length album, the appropriately titled Introducing, was released on Slumberland Records that fall. After releasing two singles and half a split single in 2010 ("Never Mine"/"Kissing's Easy" for Slumberland, "Walk into the World"/"Bad Vibes" for Make-A-Mess Records, and "You Win" on the single for Slumberland and Tough Love they shared with Girls Names), Brilliant Colors released their second album, Again and Again, in the summer of 2011.