“Brood-gaze” is exactly what it sounds like: moody shoegaze informed by a constellation of legendary bands like Cocteau Twins, Joy Division, and X. Havania Whaal is the self-described “brood-gaze” project of three busy Portland musicians: drummer Noelle Magia (Plastic Weather, Smoke Rings), guitarist Paul Billy Sobiech (Fine Pets), and bassist Caroline Jackson (Lubec). This week, they’re releasing their third album, Elaborate Minor Crisis, on Seattle’s Youth Riot Records.
Since forming in 2012, Havania Whaal have put out two records, most recently 2015’s 13 A.D., a concept album about their 2014 East Coast tour “told through the allegory of The Wizard of Oz.” They take theatrical cues from Of Montreal—Magia says she started her first band a few days after seeing them live—and stage performances with fake blood, glitter, and (now retired) giant papier-mâché heads.