Night School - Heart Beat Vinyl Record

"Because I had nothing better to do." When a coincidental event turns into a landmark moment, sometimes you have to acknowledge it's random significance. This seems to be the case for northern California three piece Night School. Already accomplished singer Alexandra Morte (Whirr, Camera Shy) was at work on some new material, but was having trouble finding a drummer. Enter Baylie Arin, the pair integrate song ideas, and plot their first EP. That EP took six hours to record. The songs were bounced back-and-forth between Morte and Arin, who contributed various alternative synth, post-punk, and shoegaze elements. Recorded, mixed, and mastered at Atomic Garden in Palo Alto by Jack Shirley, that six hour session produced Heart Beat; four tracks of pure bliss rock inspired by the sad love songs of 1960's girl groups like The Shirelles, The Crystals, and The Shangri-las. After the recording of Heart Beat, Sarah Trevena, a friend of Arin's, was asked to join Night School as lead guitarist. Night School's spontaneous debut fuses garage-rock sounds with the intimacy and soul of the previously mentioned artists. It is as if by total coincidence that Night School was even formed and these songs were written. I'm glad they didn't have anything better to do.