The Antlers: Hospice

The Antlers have amassed a quiet following of fans for themselves. Quiet being the important word. Looking at their myspace page, I noticed they have shows lined up throughout the US & UK all the way into November. As a rule of thumb I try not to compare bands and albums to anyone, and it is very easy NOT to do that with these guys. Their second album, Hospice, is one of the most unique pieces of work I've heard. Ever. Their combination of delicate lyrics & the slow but intense movement of music is the source of this exclusive sound.

They make use of quite a wide array of instruments: voice, harmonica, harp, accordian, keys, drums, random percussion, trumpet, bowed banjo, bass guitar, and guitar. There are only 4 people in this band. I want to watch them live so I can time-them on how long it will take to unload just the instruments.

At first glance, you might look at the list of instruments and assume that they are some sort of blue-grass band. However, this album is far from that. From my understanding, Peter Silberman, the main singer and song writer, is the force behind this project. Isolation, death, unhappy relations: It all seems to add up to one depressing scream fest of content. Silberman doesn't do this though. He slowly guides us through an impressive story with accompaniments of trumpets, weird sounds, and strangely intense rhythms that strike like a cat and strike hard. Then this cat slowly leaves you alone for a while to let you think about what it has done to you.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this album. I listened to it alone in my car driving to and from New Orleans, and I'm glad I listened to it this way. It was an album that needed to be appreciated alone. It plays like a refined cult classic movie. The way the tempo only picked up on tracks 5 & 7 was amazing. Because the entire band is very talented, and being able to play their instruments slowly so well is amazing. Then when you least expect it they turn a corner and take the listener through a more climactic part of their album, such as in "Bear" and "Two."

The entire album was written & sung by Silberman. I don't know if he drew his lyrics from personal experience, but it doesn't matter. If it is a work of fiction, it's so well written you will believe it's true. I'd consider this work of art a concept album dedicated to dying. So if you do listen to it, realize there is a reason for every sound and beat that The Antlers throw at you.

-Cory Vogel

Fruit Bats, Album: The Ruminant Band

Ok, stumbling around looking for the next band to listen to, I was recommended this band... Fruit Bats. I've heard one of their songs before from I don't know where. "When U Love Somebody" from their 2003 album Mouthfuls. By the way, great song.

To cut to the chase, according to Wikipedia, this is a Folk Rock band from Chicago & now based in Seattle. Cool cities. Must mean cool music. Most of the music has been based around Eric Johnson's style for the past decade. BUT! Their album The Ruminant Band broke that trend, so my first impression of them is their whole band's ideal output. According to Eric, he really let the rest of the guys play this time.

I didn't like this album.

I have no idea what the rest of their albums sound like (this is their 4th to date), and I'm actually curious to see how different they are. From an interview, it seems that the whole band was really pleased with this album. I found some highlights to the music, and I really liked the first 2 songs. Not love, liked!....At some point on the third track it started getting unenjoyable. I want to call this album a Trippy, Folk Rock, Pseudo-psychadelic album with traces of old style piano and crazy background effects every couple of tracks. That best describes how I feel about it.

The crazy thing is that I like most of those kinds of sounds (except pseudo-psychadelic), but when meshed together like this, it just doesn't work out. I had to listen intently to every little detail in order to appreciate some of these songs. That kind of effort is daunting. The one aspect of this recording that drove me crazy was the fact that this album is obviously yearning to tell a story, and I couldn't understand a word Eric was saying. Folk Rock, right? Stories are important in this type of music.

I'll give the band props for some cool background singers on tracks 2 & 9. Random, and it worked well. Also, the trippy nature of their "folk" instruments really made me smile sometimes.

To say the least, these guys are interesting, check em out at http://www.myspace.com/thefruitbats

-Cory Vogel

Manchester Orchestra: Mean Everything to Nothing

I've been catching up on 2009 album releases and I stumbled upon a band I enjoyed a lot back in 2008 at Voodoo Fest. The lead singer & lead guitarist, Andy Hull, impressed me with his ability to merge genres and maintain a calm collective sound that worked well in a live performance. His stage presence wasn't the most audacious thing I've ever seen; in fact, it was very humble. A t-shirt and jeans complemented with a full beard projected a sense of pleasure for what he does, but the rest of the band seemed pretty irrelevant aside from him and Chris Freeman on the keyboard.

So anyways, Manchester Orchestra released 'Mean Everything to Nothing' back in April 2009 and it got a lot of great reviews, but I wanted to add a little more to what was said.

Andy Hull is the writer for all of the lyrics on this album, and he excites, frustrates, then makes me wonder all throughout the album. Lyrically, I was taken on a journey through his weird lifestyle, with witty and confusing stories about love & relationships at every turn. At some point I began to side with his own frustrated mentality and I felt empathetic towards his existence. Then all of a sudden he starts singing (or screaming, I don't know?) about how his girlfriend is pregnant and he felt love. As if love is something he has never felt before. Cry yourself to sleep, Andy, please.

Instrumentally, I felt the album was ambitious. Back at Voodoo, the whole band was exciting to watch. Especially Chris Freeman, the keyboardist. He would randomly spaz out in the middle of his set and then appears to inadvertently play his instrument. As much as I'd like to talk about their ability to rock out on stage, I want to stick to the music. The whole thing is complicated and controlled enough to enjoy and respect. The band's ability to bring the context of the lyrics into fruition by complementing them with appropriate crescendo's and chord progressions is very impressive. Their instruments aren't too diverse, but they make use of different textures (such as cool piano supplements) which makes me believe they've worked really hard on this album.

All in all, I'd recommend listening to this album once or twice if you're getting bored with most other bands. It's not too hardcore that it made me walk to class with a stone-cold look on my face, and it's different enough that it made me appreciate the bands that you love. The vocals and instruments come together in a solid mix of "what the fuck?" moments and aesthetically pleasing music, and the lyrics only add to this complex collaboration of organized sound. However, aside from Andy Hull's intense vocals and crafty lyricism, I'm left with nothing to think about or yearn for. The first couple of tracks set the stage for a classic album that fans would remember for all time. But we didn't get that album. It started out great and at some point took a left-turn into a dark forest where nothing was happening. I'll give the band respect for the song "Shake it Out" because I definitely set it on repeat and listened couple times before moving onto the latter tracks, but I was thoroughly disappointed with the rest of the album.

Listen to some of their main tracks at their myspace page.

-Cory Vogel