Headlights

After spending most of the last year and a half crisscrossing the United States. and visiting Europe, Headlights spent the past summer at home in Champaign, Illinois, recording the follow-up to its debut full-length, Kill Them With Kindness. According to the band's MySpace blog, the time in its hometown was a welcome break and allowed for some much needed R&R, barbecues and beer-drinking. Hopefully, the sunny, laid-back surroundings helped Headlights produce more of the bright and bouncy indie-pop that has become a staple of its live show and recent recorded output; Kindness was loaded with sugary tunes which tastefully touched on the fringes of the shoegaze revival while retaining an identity all their own. Short touring stints this fall have paired the band with Battles, Ted Leo and the New Pornographers, and so no doubt hopes are high within the hard-working trio that its new full-length (due out on Polyvinyl in February) will help its profile continue to rise within the indie-rock community.