Mexico City Blondes – Blush – Used LP

For decades bands have formed through notices on music shop pin boards, advertising groups needing members to fill out their sound. Mexico City Blondes are a product of the internet variation of this recruitment approach. Greg Doscher, multi-instrumentalist and ½ of Mexico City Blondes explains; “Allie replied to a post that I had put up on Craigslist looking for a collaborator with similar influences.” On what drew her to Craigslist, Allie Thompson, the voice of the duo said: “I had a bone to pick a few years back after my boyfriend (now husband) wouldn't allow me to collaborate or perform with his band.” Doscher and Thompson, both from Santa Barbara, clicked and began work immediately, resulting in their first single “Fade.”

"Fade" became a breakout hit after getting picked by an assortment of music blogs, and landing in the top spot on Hype Machine more than once over the next few months. After the sudden and unexpected success of "Fade" and the duo’s subsequent EP, Doscher and Thompson began working with several different producers and collaborators but quickly realized that approach was not right for them. “Allie and I just hated the process and were started to hate the results of those efforts.”

The duo quickly realized that they needed to regroup and try and find a way to write and record new material that felt like the music they wanted to make, rather than try to appease others within the industry. "We totally scrapped everything we had worked on and started over, just the two of us,” Doscher said. “I took the money from a publishing advance we had received and built out a new studio in my garage, and we went back to taking our time and working just the two of us on writing and recording whatever we felt like.” The result of this approach is the album ‘Blush’
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“On the first EP, we really didn't think many people would hear it, and we'd never put anything out before so there was a lot of freedom and the songs could be whatever they wanted to be. We started to be identified by a particular sound, so we needed to just take some time to make sure we were making music that we wanted in the world and let the songs show us where they wanted to go.” Thompson adds “it's turned out to be a very personal album, and because it is such a part of me, I blush a bit to share it. I hope the authenticity in the songs translates to a sense of real-life happening, and thankfully for the sake of writing songs, it always is.”

Drawing inspiration from a wide range of musical influences, Blush is one of the most hotly anticipated albums this year among the indie music press. Are Mexico City Blondes the next big thing in indie music? In this case, the internet has already spoken, and the answer is yes. Fitting for a band that met through an online ad.