NYC's Shower Curtain sign to Fire Talk Records imprint, announce debut record
NYC BAND SHOWER CURTAIN ANNOUNCE DEBUT ALBUM
WORDS FROM A WISHING WELL
DUE OCTOBER 18 VIA ANGEL TAPES / FIRE TALK RECORDS
NEW SINGLE “WISH U WELL” PAIRS EMOTIONAL WHIPLASH
WITH MELODIC TONES, ARRIVES WITH OFFICIAL VIDEO - WATCH
TOURING THE EAST COAST WITH BLEARY EYED THIS MONTH
Shower Curtain, the four-piece NYC band led by Brazilian-American artist Victoria Winter, are thrilled to announce their debut album words from a wishing well due out Friday, October 18 via Angel Tapes/Fire Talk Records. Arriving with the announcement is lead single “wish u well” and its official music video, which offers a preview of the sonically swirling but complex echo chamber of early adulthood captured by Victoria and her bandmates; Cody Hudgins (Crate) on bass, Ethan Williams (Punchlove) on guitar, and Sean Terrell (Fasting) on drums. Self-produced with Williams, “wish u well” serves as an ode to the early bedroom pop beginnings of Shower Curtain whilst showcasing how the band has grown leaps and bounds through break-up musings and layered guitar riffs.
“‘wish u well’ is about the feeling of having the rug swept from underneath you,” says bandleader Victoria Winter. “In a lot of ways, I think this song is a lot of what my teenage self wished the project could create. That vision has long changed and I am definitely aware of this song not having the more shoegaze and heavier grunge elements that represent the project's new phase and is more similar to the old phase of Shower Curtain. Yet, I still think its production is unmatched and next level between Ethan and I.”
LISTEN TO “WISH U WELL”
WATCH THE OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO FOR “WISH U WELL”
PRE-ORDER WORDS FROM A WISHING WELL
The music video for the track is out now, directed by Trevor Scholl (Been Stellar) and starring Brenna Gonzalez (Lola Star) which features Gonzalez picking up emotional baggage to the point of exhaustion. On creating the video, Trevor says, “It’s an ode to the mentally healing aspect of going for a walk and how stepping out invites the unexplainable. I wanted to capture the sense of exploration found in fantasy films while capturing places we frequent and not relying on overtly “magical” props. ‘wish u well’ is a wistful and bittersweet song. I ultimately wanted to extend these emotions with a daydream in a video.”
The band’s upcoming debut follows their 2021 EP Something Instead and 2023 singles; “meus passos,” with Brazilian group terraplana, and “edgar,” the final track of words from a wishing well that Stereogum called “a lingering blast of poignant shoegaze” and Paste Magazine praised as “a gorgeous, reflective arc of survival and loss and hope.”
Last year’s singles represented a significant milestone in the band's journey, signaling a bold artistic evolution for the band from bedroom pop to sludgy rock after a two-year hiatus. Beginning as Victoria’s solo project, Shower Curtain has grown into a four-piece band and found a home within Brooklyn’s emerging slowcore and shoegaze scene.
Shower Curtain is on tour this month with Bleary Eyed and Flooding, following a run of dates with fellow New York band Joyer. They’ll go down the East Coast before heading back to Brooklyn for a hometown show with Winter at scene go-to Baby’s All Right. More dates will be announced soon. For more information, see below for a complete list of Shower Curtain’s upcoming shows.
SHOWER CURTAIN LIVE
AUGUST
6 - The Meatlocker - Montclair, NJ $%
7 - Otto Bar - Baltimore, MD %
8 - The Tourist Trap - Boston, MA $%
10 - Philly Style - Philadelphia, PA %
SEPTEMBER
23 - Baby’s All Right - Brooklyn, NY *
$ - w/ Flooding
% - w/ Bleary Eyed
* - w/ Winter
SHOWER CURTAIN
WORDS FROM A WISHING WELL
ANGEL TAPES / FIRE TALK RECORDS
Release Date: October 18, 2024
1. benadryl man
2. wish u well
3. take me home
4. you’re like me
5. tell u (interlude)
6. bedbugs
7. starpower
8. put me on a shelf
9. edgar
words from a wishing well is the debut record from Shower Curtain, the New York quartet fronted by Brazilian-American artist Victoria Winter (vocals/guitar), alongside Ethan Williams (guitar/vocals), Sean Terrell (drums), and Cody Hudgins (bass). Self-produced by Winter and Williams, words from a wishing well sketches early adulthood experiences in swirling layers of guitars. Winter wrote its tracks across her first few years of living in New York City, and they exist within a conversation between one’s own intuition and that of the universe. Channeling the sludgy distortion of 90s shoegaze and grunge, words from a wishing well establishes Shower Curtain as a standout in the city’s latest crop of bands.
Lead single “wish u well” offers a connecting thread into words from a wishing well, combining the pop tendencies of early Shower Curtain music with heavier production. One of the last songs written for words from a wishing well, Winter and Williams crafted “wish u well” across a pair of whirlwind sessions in the final days of tracking. “tell u (interlude)” emerges from these same sessions, and similarly pulls from Winter’s adolescence. Inspired by the Brazilian music she grew up with, the largely electronic interlude demonstrates the breadth of Shower Curtain’s forward-thinking alt-rock.
In addition to Winter and Williams, Shower Curtain is anchored by drummer Sean Terrell and bassist Cody Hudgins. Throughout words from a wishing well, guitars and vocal melodies co-exist alongside a textured blend of moments heavy and soft. “Bedbugs” turns up the fuzz as Winter lists obsessive patterns atop Terrell’s breakneck percussion: “Tapping, hiding, facing, searching, feel your hairs calling me out.” Album centerpiece, “You’re Like Me,” probes cycles of hurt between walls of distortion, and puts Shower Curtain’s dynamic approach to rock on full display.
Sinister opener, “benadryl man,” explores the struggle to feel safe in your own home, having trouble sleeping in a place not yet yours. Its screeching strings — performed by Catcher’s Zach Mezzo (violin) and Wince’s Wil Ren (cello) — are improvised and overdubbed, forming a makeshift quartet fit to score any case of sleep paralysis. “Everytime I go to bed // there’s a man sitting on the edge // of my velvet purple couch,” Winter sings, injecting metaphor into her real-life nightmares. “He’s hanging out when I’m not around.” This anxiety extends throughout words from a wishing well, and takes different shapes across tracks informed by grief, envy, love and lust.
“If one wishes into a wishing well, I’d like to believe that there is a reason why that wish would or wouldn’t come true,” Winter says of the album’s title, which reflects her search for spiritual guidance in life and music. “‘words from a wishing well’ speaks to the return of that wish from the universe.”
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