Brilliant Colors has been played on NTS shows including Yesterday's News, with English Cities first played on 4 July 2018.

Brilliant Colors' gritty indie pop sound, rooted in old-school New Zealand-based indie pop acts like the Chills and the Bats, grew out of lead singer Jess Scott's bedroom recordings. The group started playing gigs around their native San Francisco in 2007 with an original lineup that included bassist Michelle Hill and drummer John Garmon. The latter amicably split with the group early on, and ex-Carnal Knowledge member Diane Anastasio, who'd just moved to San Francisco for a job at Maximum Rock'n'Roll, was brought in as the band's new drummer. Brilliant Colors' self-titled debut, a four-track, 7" EP, was released on Make-a-Mess Records in early 2009. A 7" single, "Highly Evolved/Takes so Little," came out on Captured Tracks later that year. Brilliant Colors' debut full-length album, the appropriately titled Introducing, was released on Slumberland Records that fall.