The Midnight City has been well known in the Charleston area as a popular party band for the past 10 years, but the dynamic four-piece releases original music as well. The indie pop outfit’s new EP Infinite Summer unfolds four very different tunes, bringing to light a wide spectrum of musical personality.
Guitarist Brian Jarvis and keyboardist Taylor Jarvis share lead vocals, often harmonizing with bassist Joel Chinloy, and drummer Joey Tran rounds out the ensemble. Infinite Summer is a follow up to the band’s 2019 EP Heartdream.
The first track, “About Us,” is a pure sugar-rush guitar rocker, a streamlined, insistently pulsing tune that wouldn’t have sounded out of place coming out of a car radio in the mid-’80s.
The second song, “It’s Not Me, It’s You” is a cavernous, synth-driven kiss off, a breakup song with a great point-counterpoint vocal battle between Brian and Taylor.
The EP goes cosmic on the third track, “Space Cowboy,” which sounds more modern than the first two songs. Taylor takes the lead here, and the electronic background sounds like Chvrches or Purity Ring.
The EP closes out with a complete change of pace, a charging rocker with country accents called “For The Better.”
It’s a heck of a collection of songs, and the EP, the band’s second after its 2019 project “Heartdream” was immaculately produced at Brian’s Hanahan recording studio, the popular Anchor + Pine Studio.
Brian said that the title of the EP, Infinite Summer, was definitely chosen because of the general windows-down vibe of the songs.
“These are songs that kind of felt that they could be good for the summer, but they would transition into kind of that fall style a little bit,” he said.
Midnight City didn’t necessarily need to do original songs — they make a good living as a cover or “variety” band — but Brian said that their two EPs are both an outlet for the act’s creativity and a response to fan feedback.
“I think it’s just the passion of being musicians — we just wanted that creative outlet,” he said. “So we started just with the cover stuff and then we built such a reputation and a following that people were asking us to do originals. Cover music allows us to pay our bills, but still be creative and come out with originals without the fear of needing to supply our income.”
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