Sunshine & The Rain

Sunshine & the Rain first appeared as a raw garage-pop pair recalling Phantogram and Cults, releasing the Jon Spencer-helmed debut album In the Darkness of My Night in 2017 and then pivoting toward a new-wave, synth-driven aesthetic on the 2018 successor Beneath the Stars.

The New Jersey husband-and-wife duo Justin and Ashley Morey, both ex-members of psych-rock group the Black Hollies, launched the project soon after that earlier band ended in 2014. Their independently issued 7-inch “Can’t Stop Thinking About You” backed with “Pale Blue Skies” secured a contract with New York’s Ernest Jenning Record Co., prompting sessions at Sonic Youth’s Echo Canyon West facility for a full-length record. Jon Spencer produced the resulting In the Darkness of My Night, which appeared in May 2017. Late that year the Moreys returned to the studio and moved away from most psych textures, favoring instead a new-wave approach bolstered by synthesizers on the follow-up album Beneath the Stars.