Brain Emoji: Music from ‘The Dome Sessions’
[Life is overwhelming sometimes. This review is from LAST Monday’s release. We will have the second one later today!]
Brain Emoji? WHAT IS THAT? The members would respond:
Fully improvised. Wildly unpredictable. Brain Emoji is the band you didn’t know you were in.
Brain Emoji began to take form when Joe Marcinek, the alleged Hoosier who puts together A-lister bands all across the country, adopted Florida as his second home (maybe first?). And he spends a lot of time at Dunedin Brewery on Florida’s west coast. He and brewery proprietor Mike Bryant began experimenting together. Marcinek is a guitarist and vocalist who also plays keyboards. Bryant is a keyboard and electronics wizard who sings and plays drums and guitar.
The sum, as they say, has been far greater than the sum of the parts. Add to those two bass master and recording impresario Vinny Svoboda (Anthill Cinema) and drummer Jamie Newitt (The Heavy Pets), and you have a formidable team. Newitt also performs as tiny.blips.
There are four singles ready to release. The first, “The Cool S,” dropped August 18. The second is due later today. Bryant observes:
Got a plan to drop 4 in a row every 3 weeks starting Monday. Plus some other fun along the way like Oktobeerfest at the brewery and a festival appearance in early 2026, to be announced soon.
The singles all come from The Dome Sessions—which is the full album. Recorded in a geodesic dome on the side of a lake in Clermont, Marcinek, Vinny, Jamie, and I went in with no plan except to build a studio and record our jam sessions. Everything is 100% improv.
“The Cool S” is layered magic, driven by Newitt’s inventive beats and myriad contributions from the team. This is the sort of magic these gentlemen conjure up each time they meet and each time they take the stage. We are looking forward to the next three singles and their Oktobeerfest set.
