Exclusive Premiere: Brooklyn’s Miracle Sweepstakes Go Long on “Time Is the Joke”

Brooklyn’s Miracle Sweepstakes started, sort of, at a MySpace meetup, where three members of the now-four-piece bonded over shared musical interests. The story from there is familiar: jam sessions throughout high school and college, growing apart after, and then coming back together to record. It’s a good thing they did: “Time Is the Joke,” the B side of their first set of singles, is a weirdly wonderful track that the Village Voice is pleased to premiere exclusively.

For the first two-thirds it pretends to be an indie-pop ditty, melodic and wistful, with singer Craig Heed alternately crooning and yelping over his bandmates’ thoughtful playing. And then we get a breakdown, leading into a coda of repetition, layering, and cacophonous instrumentation including piano, mellotron, and bass clarinet. Says Heed of the big sound, “I added all these instruments because something about the song — I don’t want to say ‘dramatic’ — felt bigger. The chord progression had a much broader feel to it. I was really proud of the coda, [which was] the most ambitious part, with five different vocals that I ended up singing all of. We were all nervous about having a song this long but it turned out really well.” We think so, too.

Take a listen to “Time Is the Joke” below and catch Miracle Sweepstakes live on June 21 at Pianos and July 2 at Bushwick Public  House.