The Sunshine Factory is a three-member shoegaze/alternative/psychedelic rock band from Mobile, Alabama consisting of Ian Taylor and (guitar, vocals), Sally Robertson (bass, vocals).[1] The group has three albums to their credit: Vintage Revolution (2009); Sugar (2010); and Sugar Live (2011).[2] The group's musical influences include My Bloody Valentine, considered one of the original shoegaze bands from the early 1990s, and latter-day bands such as Slow Dive, Ride, and Lush.[3] Robertson’s vocals have been compared to Bilinda Butcher’s.[4] The band has also been compared to Bear in Heaven and A Place to Bury Strangers.[5]
Taylor, whose Eastern Orthodox upbringing also informs the band’s songs, began as a one-person band with the debut release of Vintage Revolution in 2009. Hendrich and Robertson joined in 2010 to complete the group, resulting in the Sugar album, which began as an EP.
Recently, the band’s video “Twisted and Clover” from the Sugar album was featured on Popmatters.com, which referred to the music as “distortion-fueled pop.” [6] In advance of the Sugar release, “My Sugar Cane” from that album was featured as “song of the day” on October 21, 2010 on futuresounds.com.[7]
A German reviewer of the Sugar album found it closer to works of My Bloody Valentine on a continuum stretching from The Jesus and Mary Chain to MBV.