DOROTHY AND NATASHA CUYLEAR started their band, Lindy Vision, nearly 20 years ago in Las Cruces. Dorothy, whose nickname is Dee Dee, is on lead vocals and synthesizer; Natasha, or Na, plays guitar and electronic beats. (Their sister, Carla, who played drums, left the group a few years ago.) They consider their activism-oriented music-making a sacred process that has resulted in three EPs and six albums; Perpetual Discontent was released in April. The new record—an explorative mix of new wave that plays with peppy synth beats, a baby’s heartbeat, and traditional drums—mirrors the band’s radical joy and expansive mindset. As Dorothy tells it, Lindy Vision isn’t chasing fame—the band is excavating the world through their lens of understanding as Black Indigenous artists.
Lindy Vision came along as we got more serious in our college years and in our early 20s. I read The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and there’s a chapter in there where he’s talking about how natural Lindy Hopping is to Blacks, and it just resonated with me.
This is in our blood, we just have this natural rhythm, and “Lindy” just made sense.
Perpetual Discontent is throwing it in your face: You’re not going to be happy in this capitalistic system. That’s the theme of the album. You’re not going to be happy no matter what you do in America unless you right the wrongs, like reparations and [the] Land Back [movement].
I’m actually pretty content in my life, but it’s not from my material world. It doesn’t come from money. It doesn’t come from whatever junk you have in your house.
It comes from something within and from my Native American spirituality, my study in Eastern religions like Buddhism and Hinduism. It doesn’t come from American greed and American patriarchy.
Tap in at lindyvisionmusic.com.
¡Más música!
If you’re into Lindy Vision, check out pop singer Willajay’s electric 2025 showcase on PBS’s Bands of Enchantment.