VIRGIN FOREST is a road-tested and brilliant band from Brooklyn, but they also have a pretty sweet day job as the backing band for Phosphorescent. While VIRGIN FOREST and Phosphorescent both offer a unique take on traditionally “American” music, the similarities end there. Lyricist Scott Stapleton is a frontman cut from the old cloth — connecting and feeding off the audience. He’s as apt to channel the gods of metal, as the ghost of Townes Van Zandt, blurring all notions of genre.
“South Beach” is a mere two minutes and thirty-five seconds long, but it’s insanely deep both musically and lyrically, effortlessly achieving one of the oldest and most fundamental narratives people set to music. It’s confident, it’s somewhat haunting, and it leaves no questions that Virgin Forest is far, far greater than anyone’s backing band.
Check it out below, and pick up the full LP, Joy Atrophy, via Partisan Records, right here.