angela_yuriko_smith
Yes please! Keep doing this! I love the sound and the message is vital. I've never heard music that represented me before. It means something.
Favorite track: Shimanchu.
Yoshimasu Kamiya 神谷嘉益
Another fantastic release from Maya and Floating Room! On a personal note, "Shimanchu" is a song I absolutely needed as a Shimanchu (Okinawan) teenager with identity issues. I hope young Shimanchu can hear this song and feel empowered!
Favorite track: Shimanchu.
howiecohen
The songs are amazing. Every one is perfect in its own way. My new favorite is See You Around but they are all so strong my favorite will probably shift around a lot. The vinyl. My GODS the vinyl is beautiful. I got the pink/purple swirl and it's got to be the most beautiful disc I've bought this year. Don't miss this EP while you can still get it.
B.G.
Floating Room is a band that exemplifies the potential for iteration in music. Building from the origins of a mostly solo recorded debut album, their latest EP “Shima” is both a logical progression of everything that came before, and an indicator of a new, bold direction for the band.
subscription’s up and it seems you’ve had
enough
i won’t take up anymore of your time
i pled my case and it wasn’t becoming
i won’t take up anymore of my time
i’ll see you around
you better step up if you don’t want me to
leave
i still got places i could be
it hurt my pride but now i’m doing fine
i’ve drawn my line in the sand
i’ll see you around
if i could say some words to you i’d say
“hold on”
if i could say some words to you i’d say
“it’s cool to be alone”
so who needs to be loved?
who?
who needs to be loved?
not you
so don’t you waste your time trying to
prove your worthy of theirs
they’re not worth your time
if they can’t see your worth
there’s nothing wrong with you
so whatcha wanna do?
you’re not really alone
‘cause i feel you
if you choose to let me in then i’ll watch
over you
and if you wanna know your worthy then
i’ll show you the proof
i wrote this song for you
you
i love you
you
so don’t you waste your time trying to
prove your worthy of theirs
they’re not worth your time
if they can’t see your worth
there’s nothing wrong with you
so whatcha wanna do?
you’re not really alone
‘cause i feel you
FIRETRUCK
there’d be a target on our backs
but i don’t really think i’d mind that
if i could be with you
if i could be with you
i don’t mind being a pariah
i don’t like anyone anymore these days
except for you
and each time you get my heart all fired
up
i feel like i’d better call a firetruck
i’d burn down this whole town for you
i’m an islander but i’m away from my
island so i am the only island here
i keep on screaming and
you can tell me you hear me but
you don’t even know what i am
i cried on my birthday as
i described my pain but
no one there could understand
i’m an islander
my land’s been colonized
i’m an islander
i won’t be patronized
i’m shimanchu
by those who can’t see past my eyes
i’m an islander
don’t you call my island paradise
i’m an islander
your silence disturbs me
i’m an islander
your absense perturbs me
i’m shimanchu
and now i know exactly where you stand
i’m an islander
i don’t need you i don’t need
i’m an islander but i’m away from my
island so i am the only island here
about
Portland band Floating Room has been saddled with a multitude of stuffy genre descriptors over the years—shoegaze, art pop, slowcore, baroque pop. But the band’s latest release, Shima, makes one thing clear: this is a rock band.
Led by multidisciplinary Uchinanchu American artist and DIY veteran Maya Stoner, Floating Room has featured a revolving cast of musicians since its inception. Their somnolent debut release, 2016’s Sunless, was recorded mostly solo and entirely in Stoner’s bedroom, while the full-length followup, 2018’s False Baptism, captured a louder, more energetic incarnation of the band and was recorded at the legendary Anacortes studio, The Unknown.
Shima arrives on the heels of last year’s Tired and True EP, which saw Stoner experiment with symphonic instrumentation and lush, soft-rock textures. Shima, by contrast, is a rollicking punk record that whips by at warp speed, highlighting Stoner’s emo and riot grrrl roots; it’s Tired and True’s photo negative. Opening track “I’ll See You Around” is an unmistakable pop-rock hit that sounds like it could have been written by Adam Shclesinger for the Josie and the Pussycats reboot; “Shimanchu” is both a paean to Stoner’s Uchinanchu heritage and a retort to the condescension she faces daily as an Asian American woman; “Firetruck” is a love song disguised as a ‘60s pop pastiche, and “I Wrote This Song For You” is a message to an inner child disguised as a love song. Shima weds the heavier leanings of Stoner’s earliest work—her first popular Portland band was hardcore three-piece Teeath, which she co-fronted—to the highly personal and unflinchingly confrontational lyrics on Tired and True. The result is an exciting development from one of the Pacific Northwest’s most exciting and stylistically restless songwriters.
Shima was recorded in a single day at The Magic Closet in Stayton OR, and was produced by Mo Troper, who also played guitar, bass, and drums on every track. Floating Room will be accompanying Drug Church, Citizen, and Glitterer for every date on their U.S. tour this fall/winter. Live, Stoner is joined by Mo Troper on drums, Brenden Ramirez (Bory) on guitar, and Keegan Bradford (Camp Trash; reluctant Twitter celebrity) on bass. Shima releases on digital and 7” vinyl via Famous Class Records on November 12, 2021.
credits
released November 12, 2021
All songs written by Maya Stoner
Vocals & guitar by Maya Stoner
Guitar, bass, drums & vocals by Mo Troper
Produced by Mo Troper
Recorded, mixed & mastered by Ian Watts at the magic closet in Stayton, Oregon