Grapefruit is proud to be hosting this amazing event on our stage after we close next Friday May 24th. Doors open at 7:30. Show starts at 7:45!! Tickets are $10 in advance here and will be $15 at the door so we encourage you to buy your tickets in advance as we expect this to be a well-attended event. NOTE: Line-up has changed, just the two bands on the bill now, Justis won't be playing on Friday after all.
OPTIC SINK is the post-punk project from Natalie Hoffmann (NOTS), Ben Bauermeister (Magic Kids) and Keith Cooper (Jack Oblivian & The Sheiks.) Their debut album was released on Goner Records in 2020, and their second album ‘Glass Blocks’ (recorded at the home studio of Caufield Schnug of Sweeping Promises) is out now on Feel It Records. Between albums, the band expanded on their electronic meets post-punk sound, adding multi-instrumentalist Keith Cooper on bass and guitar, and bringing Natalie’s no-wave guitar approach back into her synth-based setup. The result is a voyage into dynamic sonic territory, with the band’s wide array of influences—from house to punk and beyond—combining to create something vibrant and unexpected.
PRESS
"The band, featuring members of Memphis outfit NOTS, embraces a slippery strain of synth-punk, feeling like heirs to the cross pollination of punk and disco.” - Raven Sings The Blues
"All things Optic Sink are minimal post-punk, synth punk, and new wave, all given by synthesizers, a bass, and a singer whose voice and style are reminiscent of the early days of Siouxsie, Poly Styrene, Anja Huwe, and the bizarreness of Elisabeth Fraser. But don’t think that you will hear Natalie Hoffmann here playing a role in the mirror, but a singer who is coming directly from the roots and the style that she loves…these seeds are infinite. Musically, I heard far-away songs like “Summertime Rain”, and I heard a lovely Batcave-style rendition of LiLiPUT‘s “A Silver Key Can Open An Iron Lock, Somewhere”, and also the minimal synth-pop orbit of “Kaleidoscope”. This is an absolutely amazing album!” - White Light / White Heat
"If you can listen to the undulating synths and addictive beats of OPTIC SINK without dancing then you must be a mannequin. Because I can’t stop moving as I watch their new video for “Modelesque”! It’s a beautiful mix of lo-fi punk vocals and synth-laden post-punk sounds that have me dancing by myself." - Cvlt Nation
"This is the new single from OPTIC SINK, a band that takes a very minimalist approach to synth punk and who released their debut album in 2020 through Goner Records. Side A, “A Face in the Crowd,” reminds me of OMD’s “The New Stone Age” being channeled by the URINALS, while Side B, “Landscape Shift,” could have come straight out of Mute Records in the late ’70s, but not really, because it’s timeless—it actually inhabits a dimension of its own where some transhumans invited you to dance in a club that is a white room floating in the eternal ether of creation. It is really good. - Maximum Rocknroll
David Nance & Mowed Sound will be closing the show, welcome home our hometown heroes and Grapefruit shop/label personnel fresh off three weeks on the road supporting their new album on Third Man Records!
Instagram: @davidkennethnance