Space Heat

Space Heat are a 4-piece from San Diego and this is their debut EP ‘Happy Birthday’ released on one of my favourite labels, Bleeding Gold Records.
First up is the dreamy ‘Porn’, a glorious sun-drenched song with a laidback groove. The more uptempo ‘Starsign’ follows; a breezy, poppier number with a catchy, toe-tapping beat. Possibly saving the best ‘til last, the sublime harmonies of the superb ‘Place Inside’ rounds it all off brilliantly, making sure the EP ends on a high.

These three beautifully crafted, melodic indie pop songs are available to download now for NYOP on the player below. - Route for the Underdog

Now that summer heat and summer showers have made their way into Austin, I’m always looking for something that’s going to pique my interest beyond the average fare. That’s precisely what happened when I got this new track from Space Heat, who’ve just released the brand new Happy Birthday EP via the reliable Bleeding Gold Records. There’s a jangling aspect to the guitar work and a certain affectation of swinging about when you put this tune on your stereo. The EP only has three tracks, and all offer something a bit different, though I think this is the tune that’s probably the most accessible for larger audiences. Take a listen. - Austin Town Hall

“I don’t listen to reggae,” says Jakob McWhinney, guitarist and singer for Space Heat, an ambient pop group based in La Mesa. “Maybe I did as a kid because it was on in the house.”

Reggae was on in the house because Jakob’s dad, Quino McWhinney, was the lead singer of Big Mountain, the San Diego band that had a worldwide hit in 1994 with a reggae remake of Peter Frampton’s “Baby, I Love Your Way.”

But Jakob wasn’t a convert as a kid.

“I was in Big Mountain briefly, and that was the first time I ever played a skank.”

Despite being only 24, Jakob has an extensive musical background, everything from Dylanesque singer-songwriter stuff, side gigs with Big Mountain, to experimental bedroom recordings.

Now his focus is the ambient pop of Space Heat, a five-piece group that will be playing November 23 at the Soda Bar.

“We want to make accessible music that is ambient and introspective,” Jakob says. “It’s riffy and has breakdowns that tangent into other things — like floating instead of falling. We call it ‘nightpop.’”

Jakob’s “nightpop” is literally night and day from the sunny reggae music that made Papa Quino a headliner at the Reggae Sunsplash, reggae’s biggest musical festival.

Past Event
Space Heat, Habits, Alligator Indian
Sunday, November 23, 2014, 8 p.m.
Soda Bar, 3615 El Cajon Boulevard, San Diego
21+
But Dad couldn’t be prouder.

“I’m blown away by him,” Quino said during a break from working on Perfect Summer, Big Mountain’s first new album in 11 years. “His arrangements are interesting. It blows me away. He always had the songwriting. Now he has the groove.”

As father and son, the two had their challenges, Jakob says.

“It was never rainbows and butterflies and throwing footballs on Sundays,” he admits. “Musically, I wanted to create as wide a divide as possible. We’re very different people and I had this nightmare of succeeding on someone else’s coattails.

“But he has helped me over the years, and I understand where he’s coming from now. I guess the best advice he’s given me would be don’t compromise. That’s something he learned the hard way.”

Quino, 48, says in some ways the child has become father to the man.

“Jakob has encouraged and supported the new direction Big Mountain is taking on the new album,” Quino says. “We’re letting the arrangements breathe more, and I’m more open about adding country and blues influences to the mix.

“It’s tough to be old and hip, but Jakob is hip and I love to be around him and feel that." - San Diego Reader

Back in April, indie-rock quartet Trips—formerly Jesus A.D.—announced the launch of their own label, Field Trips. To christen the new imprint, each member of the group would introduce his own solo project, and all of them would eventually be collected as a two-LP compilation.

The first of the band to introduce new music, singer / guitarist Jakob McWhinney, has adopted the name Space Heat, and his record, the three-song Happy Birthday EP, is a fun and jangly introduction to a new musical persona. It’s not a drastic transformation, by any means; where Trips is a danceable, guitar-driven indie-rock band with surf and punk influences, Space Heat is dreamier and more atmospheric. At the end of the day, though, it’s still a project characterized by the use of similarly shimmering guitar leads and bright, catchy melodies. If it ain’t broke— and so on and so forth.

Happy Birthday is short—just around 12 minutes long, which makes it the perfect length to fit on a 7-inch single. But the three songs featured cover enough melodic ground to make for a compelling enough preview of things to come. The first track, “Porn,” is also the strongest. It’s the longest and most spacious of the three, driven by a dub-influenced rhythm and scratchy post-punk / dreampop guitars. And it’s those guitars—lightly treated with reverb and delay—that make the song such a delight, though McWhinney’s own double-tracked vocal harmonies are a fine complement to the song’s arrangement.

The other two songs, “Starsign” and “Place Inside,” are a bit faster and a lot more straightforward. The former is two minutes of surf-punk hedonism, kicking up the tempo and turning up the fuzz, while the latter splits the difference between the other two songs, itself a perfectly good, if unremarkable, slice of beach indie. And almost as soon as it begins, Happy Birthday fades out, following one of show business’ most cardinal rules: Leave the audience wanting more. Though there are only three songs here, and plenty of growth ahead for Space Heat’s songwriting, as a first EP, Happy Birthday isn’t too shabby. - San Diego CityBeat

Trips, a band that changed its name from Jesus A.D. last fall, has announced plans to start a record label called Field Trips, a partnership with San Diego-based Bleeding Gold Records. The label's first releases will be by Trips and side projects featuring Trips' members, but it will eventually branch out and release music by other bands.

"For a long time, I've wanted to start a small label that works on helping small bands who are putting out things themselves—more of a DIY feel," says frontman Jakob McWhinney, talking to CityBeat on the smoking patio at The Ould Sod in Normal Heights.

The first project for Field Trips is a double-vinyl release made up of solo work by Trips' four members: McWhinney, guitarist Ren Rogers, bassist Frank Mindingall and drummer Skylar Eppler. The band is still wrapping up recordings for the release, tentatively scheduled for late 2014 or early 2015.

"Right now, we're focusing on trying to get some kind of online presence," McWhinney says of Field Trips. The idea, he says, is to eventually offer wider distribution options to smaller bands that could use exposure outside of San Diego.

"I've spent so long watching my friends need that one step, or that one thing that enabled them," he says. "It just felt like the right time to do it."

Trips will debut some of the material included on the upcoming two-LP release when they play at Soda Bar on April 7. - San Diego CityBeat

Like cable and cell-phone providers, promoters increasingly turn to “bundling” to attract a wide selection of customers. Events like the Exchange series offer a variety-show format that mixes music, spoken word, comedy, foodie fare, and art. “Exchange is all about bringing groups of people together to experience art, be it music, writing, something visual, or otherwise, and to socialize and share ideas and influences,” says Jakob McWhinney of the Field Trips band collective. “We wanted to create a place and an event that emphasized inclusiveness, and strove to be not only engaging...but affordable.”

Priced at seven bucks and co-produced with Bleeding Gold Records, Exchange No. 2 takes place at the Merrow on January 16. “It combines music, art, fiction, and poetry, as well as boasting an hour of free beer, free pizza, free vegetarian food, and a free record and merch giveaway,” McWhinney tells the Reader. “We have some bad-ass readers and artists, including writing professors from Grossmont College and art from Justin Cota of Gloomsday.”

The bundling principle also applies to the band lineup, which includes Bleeding Gold’s Tape Waves (coming in from South Carolina) paired with locals Glass Spells, Shady Francos, Flaggs, and Space Heat/TRIPS guitarist Ren Rogers with his solo project, Kooties. “We wanted to put together a roster of local bands that bridge the gap from Tape Waves’ dreampop beach riffs to Flaggs burnt-garage pop. Even with the range of styles, all of the bands belong on the same bill, something that will be apparent when you hear them back-to-back.”

Kooties just made its concert debut on New Year’s at the Tin Can. They combine girl-group garage pop, Strokes riffage, and a touch of Smiths-y lyrical aloofness, candy-coated and delivered at under two minutes a pop. Kooties’ debut EP, Yearbook, is set to drop over the next few weeks.

“The night will start with an hour of reading, free beer starting at 8:30, and music starting at 8:45, with each band getting 30 minutes apiece to melt some faces or hearts,” says McWhinney. “As far as the food, we’ll have some chow around the same time as the beer until it runs out, with a planned re-injection of pizza later in the night.” - San Diego Reader