text:
Side A:
The Facts
Same Clothes Same Time
Middle Brother Watches Younger Brother While Older Brother Goes Out
Side B:
Popular Music From the Birthplace of Humanity
Slippery Slope
A Feast and the Seven Days Following
RE: I'm Freaking
All of the tracks from our 3-EP project with experimental/post-rock trio CONTROL, remastered and pressed onto vinyl! Limited edition of 200.
Tracks from EP titles: Grabhorn, C / Schulte, A / Longino, K
Includes prints of the art (3 total) from the EPs and download card.
*See individual EP releases below
Order Now: $20.00 - Vinyl | Digital tracks on Bandcamp
Wow. A horse sneezing lightning. That's got to be in the running for the cover of the year award. 'Longino, K' is the final installment in a trilogy of EPs by Wisconsin experimental/post-rock trio CONTROL and sees them further explore structures, time signatures and the range of sounds that you can wrench out of guitars, bass and drums. Scientifically there's some dispute over the birthplace of humanity although many consider it to be somewhere in Africa, and it appears that humanity's passion for innovation and abstract noise has been diluted as we've (d)evolved. 'Popular Music From The Birthplace Of Humanity' is thundering, choppy drumming and squalls of cutting guitar. Those cavemen knew the score.
Along a similar line is 'Same Clothes Same Time' which pushes the equipment further, really testing out those primeval amps with some funky bass work and more guitars that attack you like a swarm of wasps. Then it's time for these cats to jam. The jazzy and chilled 'RE: I'm Freaking' has a wandering bassline and sound effects that have been beamed down from outer space; as usual the drummer is given license to join in whenever he sees fit. An interesting technique but one that works. The crunching 'Horn' wraps things up like someone trying to recreate glam rock by mixing together several totally unrelated genres; it's abstract and it's heavy. Organized chaos never sounded so wonderfully disorganized.
- Sound of Confusion
1. Popular Music From the Birthplace of Humanity
2. Same Clothes Same Time
3. RE: I'm Freaking
4. Horn
*DIGITAL TRACKS AVAILABLE on Bandcamp/iTunes
Order Now: iTunes | Digital tracks on Bandcamp
- Cassette (download card included) All four songs repeat on both sides
- Screen print (download card included) 12 x 12 print featuring visual work from artist Kevin Longino.
* Scroll up for VINYL option!
1. A Feast and the Seven Days Following
2. Middle Brother Watches Younger Brother While Older Brother Goes Out
3. Lapse
Order Now: iTunes | Digital tracks on Bandcamp
- Cassette (download card included) All four songs repeat on both sides
- Screen print (download card included) 12 x 12 print featuring work from artist Alyssa Schulte.
* Scroll up for VINYL option!
Review of Schulte, A on Sound Design and Assembly.
Wisconsin instrumental math rockers Control put out this tasty cassette Schulte A little while back, that is now out on all formats (vinyl, digital and CD). The trio have been doing EPs with artists doing screenprints, a great collaborative interest that at $15 each is a deal and a half. I was originally turned on by their influences - Fugazi and The Minutemen, how can you go past that? - and the music fulfils my taking a chance. The music is tight, athletic, energising and a lot of fun. They are worth checking out, and you can get their stuff in any format you want (three guesses which one Ill be championing...).
- Sonic Masala
This three-piece from Madison, Wis., delivers a mostly instrumental quartet of tracks and in doing so bring to mind elements of a number of bands that have also taken a slightly less than straightforward musical route with their output. These bands would include the likes of the Minutemen/fIREHOSE, plus Gang of Four, along with hints of Fugazi, Beefeater and Branch Manager from the Dischord label and I even managed to hear a bit of Crass in there as well, although none of these examples match exactly what CONTROL is doing.
I say "mostly instrumental" because there are some vocals occasionally featured, but they are more atmospheric and employed as a background to the music rather than an upfront element to deliver a particular message. The music itself has an almost hypnotic quality from start to finish, with bass lines moving all over the place on a wild journey of discovery, visiting tangents at will whilst the drums resolutely keep track wherever they need to go to keep in line with that far from stationary bass. Alongside this you have the clean, deliberate guitar parts that add an angular component to the music, picking away with a purpose that is almost opposite to the approach of the rhythm section and driving the tracks forward, adding a nice counterpoint in a more structured way.
Whereas some bands performing what is often termed as "math rock" tend to go overboard with the levels of intricacy, CONTROL manages to make the four tracks sound ridiculously simple yet full of content at the same time, thus allowing it to be extremely listenable both in the foreground or as background music whilst performing other tasks, i.e. sat at my desk working.
Apparently this is the second in a series of three releases by the band which will be packaged up onto vinyl later in the year. Currently, the three parts are being released as limited edition cassettes and also as downloads. I look forward to getting hold of the whole series when available, especially if parts one and three are as good as this one. One thing to note is that the marvelous artwork is provided by Alyssa Schulte, which provides the answer to anyone questioning the title of this release.
- Punk News
This trio from Madison, Wisconsin describe their sound as "post everything", but if that's a little vague for you then it may be better to label them as intense, instrumental post-rock, piled high with angular, math-rock guitars. Now that may seem a complex tag to place on CONTROL, but if you have a listen to this, their latest EP you'll find that the noise they make is equally complex and not easy to categorize. Influence-wise they cite, amongst others, King Crimson, The Minutemen, Gang Of Four and Fugazi, and true to their word scraps of those bands can be heard throughout 'Schulte, A'.
The spiky urgency of Gang Of Four is blended with the hardcore punk of The Minutemen and progressive overtones courtesy of King Crimson, topped with the post-hardcore experimenting of Fugazi. The result isn't for the faint hearted and the intricate guitar shredding adds a hectic, desperate twist to the otherwise spacious soundscapes. When the drums follow suit they create a potent and forceful sound which also incorporates enough melody and light to stop things turning too muddy. If you like your music spirited, powerful and exploratory then CONTROL should be right up your street. - The Sound of Confusion
*Download card included to download full album plus previously-unreleased bonus tracks.
Order Now: $15.00 | Vinyl | iTunes | Digital tracks on Bandcamp
(For CD format, scroll down on this page to release #SOSOS010)
Beating on pawn-shop acoustic guitars and trashcan lids while whooping it up about all the joys and pains of being young, dumb and awkward, this ramshackle four-piece takes its cue from fellow Wisconsin misfits the Violent Femmes on its sophomore album. At times, Expensive Vomit In A Cheap Hotel's lo-fi shittiness is so raw it sounds like the band is busking in a high-school bathroom, but somehow the wheels stay on this mess of charming melodies and mischievous wit. - MAGNET Magazine, Best of 2008: Hidden Treasures
The second album by Sleeping in the Aviary is a balancing act: The band has perfected the art of teetering between the frenzy of an unpolished living-room performance and the coherence of an intricately composed folk-pop song played by a group of skilled musicians. The disc revolves around the quivering vocals of Elliott Kozel, whose voice and sense of melody recall Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes at some points and an old West Band blues musician at others. In fact, the whole band sounds like they could be from another time, with instruments like the accordion, saw, and ukulele adding to the organic, porch-swinging feel.
- City Pages
What dewy tenderfeet get from Bon Iver's Justin Vernon, the weathered gimp who writes this column gets from Vernon's fellow Wisconsinite Elliott Kozel. Kozel leads actual band members, second fiddle though their bass-drums-accordion/saw may play, and sings like a 14-year-old freaked out by the frog in his throat rather than an angel choking his monkey. Informed by two untimely deaths as well as a Kanye-like combo of ailing mother and fractured romance, Kozel is feeling his mortality more concretely than the average young guy struck by the fact that 25 years equals a quarter of a century. Over a bereft, sardonic, punky power strum, he spins out songs that evoke the nearness of death and the fragility of romance all the more suggestively for not being quite literal about either, which is rarely how it works with tenderfoot image-slingers these days. First he's running around with his girl in the ground, then he's helping his mom with her shot. Both ways he feels terribly alone but knows he isn't.
- MSN Inside Music: Consumer Guide
Opting for a heavily acoustic-based, playful indie folk affair that sounds like Jeff Mangum listening to a shitload of Bob Dylan before recording In the Aeroplane Over the Sea... Sleeping in the Aviary has released another superbly solid full-length, and consequently deserve way more notice than they seem to receive. Get on it, people.
Their debut full-length...was a controlled chaos of warbled vocals, fast riffing, and sentiments of abjection. This year's Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel comes up with a similar thesis - but this time around, it's been filtered down to a level somewhere between post-psychotic folk music and a pre-apocalyptic drug addiction. For my money, this is a pure coclear joy.
- PRICK Magazine
Despite lyrically heavy content -- and the fact that this album was written the very same week frontman Elliott Kozel experienced the deaths of two close friends -- Expensive is nonetheless full of blithely charming up-tempo songs. At nearly 45 minutes long, the band's second album provides a pleasantly tailored listen throughout. While songs like "Write On" are incredibly infectious, other tunes, like "You're A Party," crescendo with polished nonchalance and delicacy. Then "Things Look Good" has a Dylan-esque vibe to it with a friendly harmonica, nostalgic gritty vocals and catchy guitar chords. Alternately somber, poignant, lively or even a bit waltzy, Expensive Vomit in A Cheap Hotel will leave you neither nauseous nor drowsy.
- CMJ New Music Report
Searching for a lo-fi Violent Femmes? Look no further than Sleeping in the Aviary, and their 2008 release, the charmingly titled Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel. Hailing from Madison, WI, Sleeping in the Aviary certainly possesses the same snotty charm as the aforementioned Femmes (circa their early era), especially in the vocal stylings of singer/guitarist Elliott Kozel, which can be heard clearly on the album opening "Write On." Elsewhere, you'll also find a Pixies-esque ditty ("Gas Mask Blues") and a haunting album closing ditty ("Windshield"). The trio keeps it bare-bones sounding throughout, as Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel sounds like it could have been recorded in your living room, with just a few mikes strewn around. And that is exactly the charm of Sleeping in the Aviary.
- All Music Guide
*DIGITAL TRACKS AVAILABLE NOW on Bandcamp | iTunes
- Cassette (includes download card) All four songs repeat on both sides
- Screen print 12 x 12 print of cover art by Craig Grabhorn.
* Scroll up for VINYL option!
SOSOS018 - The first volume in a three-part art/music project, this EP includes four songs that slide between angular and aggressive to ambient and dub. Best described with the phrase: "The unaimed arrow never misses." Featuring visual work from designer Craig Grabhorn. Digital Release Date: November 15, 2011. Cassette Release Date: December 20, 2011.
Order Now | CD : $10 / Limited-Edition White Vinyl (100 hand-numbered) : $16 / Black Vinyl : $15 | iTunes / Digital tracks on Bandcamp
Ever hear a record and instantly feel that you want to meet the songwriter just to see what he or she is like? Since the music and words that they have penned are so unusual, so distinct, that meeting the author face to face could help you better understand just how this music originated? That's kind of how I feel about Nick Whetro, the brainchild behind Icarus Himself. Whetro's brand of minimal and repetitive eletro-psych folk is an odd endeavor, and he has released a disc that is seemingly as random in sound as the cover art.
Though the disc has a theme, it's hard to tell unless you follow really closely. The storyline is a man who is tired of working class monotony and flees elsewhere in search of a better existence. Along the way he stumbles upon love. To convey this story, Whetro and company (he has just now added two band members) offer a variety of sounds, from sparse and wispy to quick bursts of energy, while the vocals range from hushed to soaked in reverb.
The disc opens with "Wake Up," a quietly plucked indie-lite tune that sets the foundation for the introspective and often melancholic overtones that remain constant until the end. It's not all calm, though. Songs like "MCO" and "Anywhere You Go" turn the volume up, emitting a more raw version of Icarus Himself and serves to add new dimensions to the listen. Probably the most straightforward tune, "On Your Side" is an all-out love song about a woman our hero would marry, complete with hazy synth and cyclic drum looping.
Career Culture is a pensive listen that can mirror the greatness of Holopaw yet also channels the experimentalism of The Velvet Underground. Anyone with an eye toward atypical, compelling and often lo-fi song craft should take some time with this.
- The Daily Vault
You know that already-expansive, ever-growiing list of bands "you totally need to hear before you die!" The one you keep on your hard-drive and try not to look at because doing so will fill you with a feeling of utter failure and the sense that you are nothing but a miserable speck on the shit-smeared canvas we call Earth? The list filled with 250 semi-clever band names that are bad puns or references to some mythical creature or an 80's pop icon - names like EarEctile Dysfunction, Tidy Aphrodite, or Shumway's Comet? (And for all you wave-riders who have real jobs or are just out of high school, that's an "Alf" reference - a classic american-sitcom which aired between 1986 and 1990.) Well, this week I was fortunate enough to scratch a name of that frustratingly-long list: Icarus Himself.
Having never heard the band before, I felt it was only right to go back and take a listen to their previous work so that I could fairly judge the progression of the band and decide for myself whether they had enduring talent or were merely some semi-clever band with a semi-clever name. Fortunately for me, I was pleasantly surprised by what I heard, to wit:
The second full-length release from Icarus Himself is entitled "Career Culture," and is described by the band's Science of Sound label as "a sonic cinema in electro-psych-folk, drenched in the influences of artists like Kurt Vile, Deerhunter, The Who, and David Bowie." And while comparisons to Kurt Vile and Deerhunter are not without merit, I would personally say that "drenched" is a misleading adjective. "Lightly spritzed" would be more accurate, especially when applied to the Who and Bowie.
As the album's first track "Wake Up" begins with a softly-plucked and dreamy Db maj arpeggiation, I suddenly wondered whether I was listening to Bright Eyes' "Road to Joy," but alas, I was wrong. (And to their credit, they do not have much in common with the whiny, emo-indie-folk castration that make up Bright Eyes.) The song serves well to establish the contemplative, melancholic vibe that will reign dominant throughout the rest of the album, in songs like "Mornings at the Bar" and "Half Moon Eyes," with band-founder Nick Whetro's voice, heavily-soaked in reverb and typically-overdriven, providing a fittingly hopeless delivery, as if he'd taken vocal lessons from Damon Albarn and then did his best Edwyn Collins impersonation. Whetro's lyrics walk a fine line between introspection and self-indulgence, but manage to steer clear of pitiful despondence that is all-too-often confused with depth and personal-awareness.
Occasionally the devitalized spirit of the music is punched through with bright yet fleeting flashes of intensity in songs like "Anywhere You Go" and "MCO," the latter of which reminds me more of early, live Velvet Underground than any other classic rock name I could muster in my current state of exhaustion. That energy then quickly subsides back into the more typical delicately-layered synths and gentle guitar work of Whetro and band-mate Karl Christenson, with drummer Brad Kolberg's sparse-yet-functional style providing only the necessary elements to maintain the momentum and keep the songs from drifting into ambient-noodling.
Ultimately, this album shows growth and refinement of the bands sound and songwriting skills, stringing together an interesting collection of styles with a consistent pathos and sonic characteristic that they pull off about as well as any of their contemporaries. I will certainly be keeping my eye out for more from this band in the future, and am looking for an opportunity to see how these songs hold-up in a live performance. (So come out to Philly, you bastards. I even know a few bands who'd make perfect openers for you.)
- The Ripple Effect
Icarus Himself had always been an outlet for individual exploration. Initially conceived as a solo project for National Beekeepers Society's Nick Whetro, the guitarist eventually left and disbanded his old group to focus solely on producing his brand of sample-laden guitar rock. And with two more members at his side, Icarus Himself's latest, Career Culture, is exactly the ripe and nuanced record that 2009's Mexico EP hinted at.
Career Culture is a tale of discovery, though it's not necessarily the one you'd expect. The album's arch was intended to portray Whetro's journey from the lonely confines of Indiana's industrial wasteland to the greener grasses of creativity, marriage and Madison, Wisc.; but his saga loses traction when paired up against his band's own self-discovery that fuses both. Their sound is undeniably muscular and propulsive, but on Career Culture they litter enough lightweight moving parts to keep things from becoming too cumbersome.
And if Icarus Himself are anything, they're deliberate. Every sample and guitar pattern on Career Culture is so meticulously charted, you sometimes lose track of each. Notes glide into each other fluidly, creating a stark contrast for the samples, muted clips and cathartic wails that pace the record.
Take "MCO," which starts with a heavy guitar riff that stops to hang in the air while Whetro yelps about a comfort destined to be pulled out from underneath him. Each piece is carefully juxtaposed against the others, creating a crisp, full-bodied minimalism—this is what Spoon might sound like if they focused more on live sound than studio.
But Icarus Himself's most distinctive moments come when they cut loose of their deep-throated, muscular underpinnings and embrace the agility of a higher register. Buried as the ninth track, the album's first single, "On Your Side," marries the group's workmanlike rhythm section with layers of impulsive samples. The result is a propulsive and engaging melody that practically jumps off the record.
All throughout, Career Culture is most engaging in these lapses of restraint. When Whetro strains his voice to a wail on "MCO" or slows the guitars to arpeggiated chords on "You Think You Know," the group exude a nimble liveliness that pairs surprisingly well with their smooth, assured personas. "WI via IN" is the narrative's fulcrum, wherein Whetro finally abandons his mind-numbing day-to-day for the more pleasant scenery of Madison, Wisc. But all told, the music stays about the same on either half of the LP. "You Think You Know" and "In Sept." are both lush companions for tempered expectations; while both "Mornings At The Bar" and "Used To Be" feature light, summery guitar parts that look back reluctantly on concerns that are thankfully regarded in past-tense.
And I suppose that's the whole point. Whetro's transformation is complete, and maybe we should be thankful his songwriting has evolved irreversibly from the man on the first half of Career Culture. But the narrative here is superfluous. Whetro superimposed a saga of self-discovery on a product that's already tied to its own conclusion. That's not an indictment so much as it is a testament to Icarus Himself's instinctive formula for success. They've found a cozy niche of full-bodied minimalism for themselves, and the best parts of Career Culture are too flush to worry about whatever baggage might have come with them. The more space they put between their music and the apprehensive muscularity of their former selves, the more interesting and captivating their songs will become. They've already gotten themselves a pretty good start.
- Prefix
The first two albums from Icarus Himself, "Coffins" and "Mexico," left me wanting something almost totally at odds with singer-songwriter Nick Whetro's aesthetic: more.
Whetro doesn't really do "more." The jumbles of words that drift in and out of our minds every day -- a strand of overheard conversation, a half-remembered letter to an old love, a five word observation about someone we'll never see again, a pang of love or hurt -- Whetro holds onto these fragments and crafts two or three minutes of song around them. Sometimes he fills in context, often he doesn't. He repeats the same phrases over and over again, the same guitar lines, until these flashes of inspiration or illumination become their own story -- the story of all the little things we notice and forget, or try to forget but can't, or bury until they pile up in our subconscious and explode.
Here's Whetro on menial labor at the start of his new record, "Career Culture": "Wake up. Wake up. It's time to do it all over again." And again. And again. And again. There are maybe fifty words in the whole song, because the repetition IS the story -- the clocking in, the clocking out, the soul-crushing drone day after day after day. A life in three minutes.
"Career Culture" follows that life longer than usual for Whetro, stitching together eleven such moments into a loose song cycle about a flight from working class tedium in search of "my time in the sun" (naturally our hero moves from cloudy Indiana to luminous Wisconsin), and finding love along the way. Connecting these minimalist dots is a real band coming into its own. Drummer Brad Kolberg and instrumentalist Karl Christenson have turned this one-time one-man side-project into a three piece that fills in the spaces around Whetro's words with all the things previously left unsaid.
In retrospect, while the chilly sparseness of "Coffins" was appropriate, it also underlined Whetro's minimalism a little more than necessary. The island beat flirtations of the "Mexico" EP are now as much a part of the band's sound as Whetro's lonely yowl, and they take Whetro's song to more deeply-felt and inhabitable places. Maracas and a dreamy guitar score "Mornings in the Bar" like a sad vacation from reality, giving the song a buzz of short-lived pleasure that makes its pain more real. Jungle drums and bass make the drive to "WI via IN"sound a lot more exciting than I remember it -- point being that starting over is dramatic no matter where it's happening. And if you still have a hard time imagining a place in the sun in Wisconsin, then you haven't heard "On Your Side," a love ballad Whetro delivers with cautious calm over an ecstatic electric guitar, synth, and drum loop, the music voicing the joy behind Whetro's quiet tenderness. It's one of the best songs of the year, and most of the lyrics are in the title.
So no, an Icarus Himself album might never cross the 45-minute mark, might never spill into a double album, might never inspire a rock opera. After "Career Culture," I wouldn't expect anything less.
- Rocksposure.com
Nick Whetro, lead singer/songwriter for Icarus Himself, seems like a shy guy. His lyrics tend to be introverted, brief, and lament life's evolution in a most solitary manner. When his voice trembles, it almost sounds painful, but cathartic. Having said that, the group's second full-length album, Career Culture, is a surprisingly rich and haunting experience that left many of the album's songs wandering around my head, clamoring for attention.
To me, "On Your Side" has a similar variation on psychedelic rock much like the album thatYellowbirds put out earlier this year. And it's hard to listen to "Anywhere You Go" and not hear a little Capitol Years' muzzled brilliance. Even in its cryptic but beautiful shadows, "In Sept." is a slow burning, acid pop creation stylized with Elephant 6 recording techniques.
Overall, Career Culture has a lot going for it. Obviously, the content is raw and sometimes chilling, butIcarus Himself is already off to a great start in their brief, but influential career.
- The Owl Mag
Madison, Wisconsin trio, Icarus Himself (started by Nick Whetro in 2008), posted its sophomore release, "Career Culture", available for streaming at soundcloud today only. It follows in the wake of Icarus Himself's 2010 EP, "Mexico". This new 10-song LP is a mix of intoxicating sonic textures, intricate electronics, scorching electric guitar and eccentric psych-folk. The official release is October 11th on Science of Sound. The album opener, "Wake Up", sets the ghostly tone of the album, with the hard-thumping percussion of drummer Brad Kolberg, and its quasi-Western rhythm akin to a band like Calexico. "Mornings At the Bar" is a drowsy hangover, highlighted with ambling, woozy and sparse electric guitar. Whetro's vocal delivery is feathery and caressing. "WI via IN", as evidenced by the song title, feels like a road-trip groove, tribal drumming and repeated backing vocals build into thunder of strings. Icarus Himself allow just enough room to let songs breath, keeping vocals and instrumentals balanced. "Half Moon Eyes" is a restrained backroads ditty about falling victim to love. It's lyricism is slow-burning and sophisticated, beginning with a great storytelling verse, "I saw you from across the room …" "MCO" comes off like a Spoon track, the vocals set on high volume, delivered energetically between eruptions of guitar and hammering drums. Whetro gets a good deal of help on this record, including guests, Michael Gallope on keys (Janka Nabay & the Bubu Gang, Starring, Skeletons), Jonathan Lang on keys and clarinet, Jacqueline Kursel on cello, and Rob Ferrett on tenor sax. Follow the band on facebook and twitter. Pre-order "Career Culture" from bandcamp and you'll get two digital tracks right away. The physical album will be released on both CD and limited-edition white vinyl. I highly recommend this record. It's a beauty. Just listen to and download the single "On Your Side", below, courtesy of the band.
- David D. Robbins Jr, Their Bated Breath
Icarus Himself - now three strong with Nick Whetro, Karl Christensen, and Brad Kolberg on drums - got an awful lot of mileage out of 2010's short Mexico EP. Rightfully so, since that brief glimpse at where the band was headed didn't waste a minute, jumping right into the excellent "Digging Holes" and not losing focus until the furious final bars of "Seen It Coming (Mexico)." The new full-length, Career Culture, picks right up where the band left off, with the surging "Wake Up" building a good head of steam for windmill-riffing "Anywhere You Go" to ride through the ceiling. Career Culture maintains a bit of warped Western charm with the help of songs like "Mornings At The Bar," but at points the band breaks toward new ground, as in the wondrous "On Your Side," which enters amidst a stinging swirl of distorted organ and meditative vocals, gaining shape, definition, and edge from intuitive guitar, bass, and drums.
- A.V. Club, Madison
Icarus Himself - a psych-folk band brought up by Nick Whetro in 2008 - has quickly come together as a solid trio full of passion and newfound clarity. With the addition of Karl Cristenson and drummer Brad Kolberg, Icarus has grown to understand its intentions: to sound natural, simple, and structurally solid.
According to Whetro, the move from factory life in Indiana to the open-minded city of Madison, Wisconsin about eight years ago established a new level of comfort. Having the comfort of "a smaller town to take your time and really figure songs and sounds out" makes everything "so much easier and enjoyable." I buy it. Madison will do that to you.
The band's first full-length album, in 2009, was titled Coffins. Icarus Himself then went on to release the EP Mexico last year. Off of Mexico, the track "Digging Holes" stands out as low-key killer, as highlighted on 2010's year-end list. One of the more powerful elements of Whetro's series of tracks is that each album carries with it a sentimental part of his life. His autobiography roots out from his unconventional, yet exceptional masterpiece of sound, flawlessly intertwining his life and music together. The latest project, Career Culture, is another full-length album due on October 11.
Career Culture is the turning point towards a basic, rock music album produced live in the studio. A different approach for sure. Whetro claims they "spent way more time on this album than all the past Icarus recordings combined," and actually finished up with "technically a simpler sound." They are no longer using a drum machine. They are trimming down on the overdubs. Eight of the eleven songs are primarily recorded live in the studio with just a guitar, baritone guitar, and drums.
Recently released from the new album is the spine-tingling track, "On Your Side." It finds itself looping, cycling, and twirling your mind through an endless journey for love. As soon as his hypnotic voice pulls you into the story, his desires seem to float away without direction. It all comes together at 1:44; the beat picks up and his tone starts to reflect contentment, knocking you out of a dazed trance.
This "concept record" is unlike anything Icarus Himself has done yet. "On Your Side" is just a slice of the pie, and honey, this pie is about to be delicious. Without a doubt, the band's versatility, talent, and desire to experiment will manufacture a flavorful transition.
- Max Simon, Jonk Music
Track Review: "On Your Side"
This one's a keeper. Wisconsonite trio Icarus Himself have apparently been adding to and perfecting their sound since Nick Wheatro started the project as a solo act in 2008. Since then, the addition of a drummer (Brad Kolberg) and "multi-instrumentalist" (Karl Christenson) as bandmates have made for some pretty well-crafted music.
On Your Side is a looping, buzzing psychedelic-folk track that steadies itself on a background riff while the sounds of an electronic guitar accompany Wheatro's vocals, eventually building into a joyful arrangement of sounds by song's end (though not before throwing some acoustic guitar in). It's the kind of shot in the arm that I've needed musically.
On Your Side is part of the concept album and band's second full-length album Career Culture, due out on October 11th (via Science of Sound).
- 1000x/minute
I sometimes worry my ears are far too weak and vulnerable to the pretty girls that sing and play instruments, but suddenly I am relieved, because these three gentlemen sound mighty perdy. Vocalist Nick Whetro, drummer Brad Kolberg and multi-instrumentalist Karl Christenson are the trendy Power Rangers that form together to become the mighty Megazord of a band: Icarus Himself. If you've ever found yourself in a stupor of any sort, you know how much of the world becomes suddenly too forceful and harsh. "On My Side" is neither of those, with a constant and steady malaise of percussion, bass and appeasing vocals. It's beautiful in its own slo-mo seascape kind of way. It's entirely normal (and altogether perfect) to imagine the mythological Icaraus falling gently to the ocean to this song; flames dancing the whole way.
- The Wounded Jukebox
We heard "On Your Side" by Wisconsin band Icarus Himself the other day and we've had it in rotation here at b3sci HQ ever since. "On Your Side" is built around a simple psychedelic-esque groove that serves as the foundation for big distorted guitars, organ washes, and a nice sharp little melody. Where a lot of tracks in this lane, if not properly restrained, venture into Jesus and Mary Chain coverband territory, "On Your Side" has a gravity and soulfulness to it that separate it from tunes drawing from a similar palette of instrumentation and influence.
- Track Preview of "On Your Side" by BLAHBLAHBLAHSCIENCE
Order Now | CD : $10 - Vinyl : $15 | iTunes / Digital tracks on Bandcamp
Jonah Bromwich may or may not have green hair and a jacket stabbed with safety pins.
Punk is about attitude. More specifically, it's about an attitude that makes conservatives (political or otherwise) uncomfortable. Wisconsin band Sleeping in the Aviary have always understood that attitude thoroughly and on their new album, You and Me, Ghost they put it into practice in their most innovative fashion yet: combining their signature off-putting creepiness with hooky songs, most of which are about romance.
Sleeping in the Aviary fans are used to cheerfully bizarre cynicism and discordant yet somehow catchy songs. So it's a bold step for the band to make an album that sounds so rooted in pleasant, everyday experiences. And yet, the band remains far from normal. That's why their seemingly typical love songs frequently end up with a couple of disturbing or off-putting elements; the love song parts force long-time fans to experience the band in a new way, the weird sounds to freak everyone else out.
Take, "Are You Afraid of Being Poor?" on which a typical romantic build-up enters a sudden awkward phase when singer Elliot Kozel asks his potential soul-mate the title question. It's sincere and weird and the chorus of "sha la la's" in the background exaggerates that weirdness.
Elsewhere, upbeat clangers play like drugged up outtakes from the first Fratellis album: opener "Talking out of Turn" is short, loud and explosive, while "On the Way Home," cheerfully turns dejection into an anthem. Kozel lists off the things he does on the way home after a girl rejects him. She tells him to "help himself to the loneliness," and he responds by drinking and driving, getting lost, and puking while ripping chords to soundtrack his descent.
You can still hear the band's inclination for playing with odd sounds on songs like "Love Police," when occasional distortion in the background makes it sound as if there's a musically-inclined murderer taking care of business in the studio. While "So Lonely" is a paean to the solitude you can feel even in good company-one that uses a pulsing strobe sound that threatens to cause aural epilepsy.
The most interesting song on the record is an interesting counterpoint to the 2010 ballad, "The Very Next Day I Died." One of the best songs of last year, "Died" used a tight structure to tell the story of a morbid life which managed to sound depressingly familiar and oddly epic. On You and Me, Ghost, the song "Karen, You're an Angel" tells a story that spans a similar amount of time but is insanely upbeat, recounting the long-lasting romance of a pair of high school sweethearts. It grapples with the same ideas that Ty Segall addressed on the stellar Goodbye Bread, namely, the comfort and banality of diving into the domesticity of grown-up life. The song is romantic and saccharine sweet, but the couple's stereotypical life (they have kids, a house in Boulder, they still do the same things they've always done) gives the listener pause. It's well-written, spare and creepily cheerful.
When a band makes this kind of leap, fans frequently accuse them of changing for someone. Luckily, Sleeping in the Aviary are so far away from a scene that developments of this type come across as being entirely organic. And they've still got their warped sense of humor (check their appalling website sleepingintheaviary.com if you doubt it) and their punk sensibilities. With You and Me, Ghost they've managed to channel their oddball aesthetic into relatively straightforward pop form. Attitude still comes first, but its seemingly prosaic nature makes the strangeness both more surprising and more insidious. And that's a good thing.
- Passion of the Weiss
It was just six months ago that I reviewed Great Vacation. Sure, I was a few months behind the trolley on that one, but the fact that Sleeping in the Aviary has already kicked out another record, You and Me, Ghost, speaks to their dedication and work ethic. Or maybe Elliott Kozel and company just can't put down their writing pens. While there's only so much point to comparing a new release with its predecessor, the short length of time in between makes it a touch more relevant. The primary difference that listeners of You and Me, Ghost will find is a dedication to '60s pop and doo-wop taking over the structures, giving the band a more defined sound and making the indie pop label more accurate than ever, with a bit of a Brian Wilson sheen to it. The record also has an ambiguous theme surrounding love—not the mushy stuff, but more the personal, first-person insecurity than comes with the emotion, and Kozel's abstract lyricism is a perfect pairing for such a tone.
The record starts out with a few of the heavier songs—not to call it heavy music, but the guitars on "Talking Out of Turn" and "Love Police" and definitely louder and more driving than on the latter, choral-focused songs. For the most part, though, the album follows Kozel's tangential lyrics that wander in a storytelling fashion, sticking on a general subject but hitting it from varied, sometimes ambiguous angles. The subject, for most of the record, is the positives and the pitfalls of love. To back such a theme, what better musical style to conjure than doo-wop? Most of the songs include some type of "sha la la" chorus and "On the Way Home" even mimics the frontman stylings of the genre. All of this is peripheral and complementary in the songwriting though. At the core, Sleeping in the Aviary play slacker indie pop with an off-kilter, wanderlust tone. The doo-wop simply gives the songs structure along with a musical nod to their influences.
Much like "The Very Next Day I Died" on Great Vacation, the highlights here come when Kozel explores relationships in connection with the process of aging. "Karen, You're an Angel" should be too cute for its own good, but the earnestness of the song holds true and it stands as a highlight of the band's strengths. It's the type of song that will make its way to many-a-mixtapes, isolating the subtlety of the lyrics and the power of the melody. Compared with their last record, the doo-wop bent gives a greater cohesion and makes the record stand strong as a whole.
- Scene Point Blank
So vomit works its way into another Sleeping In The Aviary album. (At least it's not the title this time.) But the lyrical transgressions of "On The Way Home" are actually what separate this upper-Midwestern Elephant 6 bastardization from clear influences like Neutral Milk Hotel and early Bright Eyes. Where you just wanted to hold Jeff Magnum and Conor Oberst as they sobbed and shook, your time with this quintet will be spent making sure they don't empty your liquor stock and stop kissing all the girls, like some randy first-grader. The Replacements and Titus Andronicus also stain their stylistic rug, which hasn't been cleaned in years and would probably disintegrate were it ever to be
- Illinois Entertainer
From Minneapolis via Madison, Wisconsin comes another band to disrupt my ignorance. This is their fourth album, not a stitch of the previous three had I heard before this, and still haven't. Nor any of the other bands that various members have spent time in previously. (What kind of name for a band is A Paper Cup Band?) Anyway, here, I'm intrigued and impressed. Their sound has a scruffy Indieness, with echoes harking back a decade (first EPs from Strokes, Libertines and the Supergrass album from around that same period, Life On Other Planets – though with a trade in of its patron saint T.Rex for something more like Sparks (Island period). But also melded in on some numbers are bits of the first Doo-Wop revival (when Italian-American white boys entered en masse) of the end of the '50s/start of the '60s and their contemporary girl vocal groups. That alone would make them stand out, since the lack of effort put into vocal arrangements seems to be the great failing of our current Indie era.
Front man Elliott Kozel has a somewhat raw, distortion treated, larynx shredding style though with a fare amount of malleability. Newish member Kyle Sobczak contributes a pair of tunes and gets to step forward with more of a baritone touched with a slight rasp, though equally capable of doing those Indie twirls.
The record kicks off with a pair of taut rockers: The mid-tempo, driving "Talking Out of Turn" with its pace setting bass and rolling rhythm. And the more up-tempo "Love Police," where Mr. Kozel's shreddedness hits its maximum point, swooping over cross-cutting guitars and a pumping rhythm which includes some wonky, saturated bass distortion. Jumping a good deal down the track list, "On the Way Home" is a hopping rocker set to a modified rockabilly beat; it runs 2' 40" but it has an arty 50 second runout with various noise protuberances that make the number seem to go on much longer. Mr. Sobczak's first move to the fore, an alluring rocker "So Lonely," of barely beyond one-and-a-half minutes, has the band being impelled along by a gnarled, yet euphonious lead guitar in contrast to the lyrical ennui.
Following on comes that unexpected portion with the rawly ornate vocal arrangements (if only because the bar has been set so low for so long) filling out a group of ballads (an affiliated general weakness of your typical Indie band). "Are You Afraid of Being Poor?" is a skeletal number which beyond the intro has an almost incidental instrumentation (most prominent being organ) beneath the lead vocal and the many backing harmonies (particularly cute are the Shirelles-ish "Sha-La-La"s), which at points intermingle via phase shifting creating an ethereal effect that is enhanced by its organ sounds. "Karen, You're an Angel," Mr. Sobczak's other contribution, starts off with just his lightly straining voice, handclaps (or treated finger snaps, or some such) and an occasionally lightly strummed electric guitar for the entirety of the first verse. Then the whole ball of wax rolls in with the chorus: the band snaps to and picks up the tempo a bit, stacks of voices envelope behind, all to a fetching melody of some familiarity. The last number of this run is "Molly." Introduced with a shimmering, liquid guitar, some vocal group backing "dum dum"s, and a bit of Big Beat, it builds aloft its sweet melody. Mr. Kozel's vocals stretch and twist, and when met by the backing "aw-who-hoo"s in the bridge the recollection of Sparks is most manifest. And while it runs the same length as "On the Way Home", it seems to be over all too quickly.
- TorpedoPop
Sleeping in the Aviary is an ever-evolving band. Going to trio to quintet, the band has shifted its sound with each album – from pop-punk to indie-folk to soulful pop. The band's fourth album, You and Me, Ghost, layers its vocals with oohs and ahhs from '50s pop but accompanies the songs with an aggressively modern approach and the steadfast energy that has become the only signature of their diverse catalog.
- The Wheel's Still In Spin
When an album starts out with a song as good as the new Sleeping in the Aviary LP You and Me, Ghost, does with "Talking out of Turn," you run the risk of a letdown over the course of the LP. While the band never reaches the twitchy-on-the-verge-of-breakdown torment of the album opener, the record is a cut open your vein opus that fully utilizes the group's wide spectrum of influences to make this anything but a normal "breakup album." Eschewing the normal mope of these types of records, You and Me, Ghost may be the groups most adventurous record yet, which is saying something for a band who have no qualms about changing sound from album to album.
Ranging from the feverish anger of "Love Police" to the more serene title track, the band come across as a less boring Blitzen Trapper, casually employing genres ranging from punk to country to old time sounds to razor edged pop beaten out of acoustic guitars to format their sound. There are some tracks that employ vagueness in the subject matter, but a few, like "Ain't So Bad," with the line "What's she doing know, I don't know…I stopped loving her years ago," visibly bear the scars of frontman Elliott Kozel. While some of the lyrics (including album closer "Pathetic Housewife Remembering Her First Martini) range towards heavier subject matter, the group do a good job a throwing enough curve balls throughout the album to not leave the listener wanting to jump in front of the next light rail. Some of the sounds the group toy with range from the jangly pop mixed with doo-wop of "Karen, You're an Angel" to the short burst of post-punk of "So Lonely," a song that has been a life firecracker for the band over the last year.
You and Me, Ghost is a wily LP that doesn't really conform to any sort of description, which to me is one of the things that make the group so good. The LP is most definitely a "break up" album (they admit so in press releases), but it isn't an outright angry or overtly somber affair, more of a chance to blow off steam with some of your best friends. While their live show is where it is at to get the full Sleeping in the Aviary experience, You and Me, Ghost adds another wrinkle to their diverse and impressive catalog over the last few years and is another example of how many ideas you can really pack into one 12 song record.
Catch the band tonight celebrating the release of their new LP with a great lineup featuring Brute Heart, Night Moves and Red Pens at the Triple Rock Social Club.
- Reviler
If you're anything like me, it can seem at times as though there is too much music floating around the internet. No, that's not a complaint, but it is to say that with so much new music each and every week, it can be hard to hone in on what you like… and often too easy to overlook something you'll love. Luckily Sleeping in the Aviary ignited just that little spark of something in my brain. As soon as I saw their new release on the list I knew I wanted to check it out. My musical memory brought me back to 2008 when I first heard Aviary's "Write On," a delightfully poppy, yet also subtly dark track, that obviously left an impression. Fast forward to 2011's You and Me, Ghost, and you get a slight, yet obvious, departure from their previous records, but are left with the same overall sound I grew to love in my first exposure.
So what's so different? Well, first off let's be clear: this is still straightforward indie rock, with solid hooks and melodies to suck you in and smart lyrics to keep you coming back for more. But this time around, Sleeping in the Aviary is clearly borrowing from a 1950s or '60s-era vibe; or as front man Eliot Kozel says in the press release, "fuzzed-out doo-wop" tracks that are "all about girls!" What does that mean to the listener? All the fun, peppy hooks of a sock hop, mixed with some delightfully indie, almost-shoegazey rock. The first single, "Talking Out of Turn" really sets the tone for the entire album, one that appropriates bits from some bygone era while still keeping itself firmly planted in today. If you're a fan, you'll hear something different for Sleeping in the Aviary, yet all at once completely what you've come to expect. As a music fan, with so many choices available, be sure to give this one a chance. It's easily one of those records you might overlook, but one you definitely should not.
Sleeping in the Aviary "Someone Loves You"
Bit of an exclusive for you here at CMG: the latest Sleeping in the Aviary song about how being CS-gassed in the face with love. The Minneapolis quintet have been charting romantic devastation for three LPs now, with the upcoming You and Me, Ghost set to be another forty minutes of sing-along self-loathing. Sticking to vocalist Elliott Kozel's pledge to change genres with every release, this one sees the band put their stylized loneliness to '50s jump blues and girl pop. Just what you need if you live by their lyrics, and have now reached that point of terminal reclusiveness where only doo-wop can save you from bedsores.
A successful mix of their new parent genres with a haymaker of unrequited love, "Someone Loves You" throws Kozel's frustrations into a five-chord guitar chug, as angular and bittersweet as an old Suede demo. "I felt my heart explode," he caws when he realises his intended has been spoken for, happily cosying up to someone with social skills. Polka dot choruses put some icing on his pain, and when the backing girls break out the "La la las" you think he might've found closure, but it's a trick - this is a two-minute romantic wrecking ball; the sound of bedsit agony married to guitar pop. "Why won't my heart expand?" groans Kozel, wishing he could move on and stalk someone else. It's never that easy, and there's only one way forward: rent van, buy binoculars, attend gun range, build dungeon. Or go outside.
- CokeMachineGlow
City Pages Interview with Elliott of Sleeping in the Aviary
Madison Expats Sleeping in the Aviary Release New Album
Sleeping in the Aviary has always been unpredictable. From straight ahead power punk to acoustic indie folk and everything in between, the band has never been shy of exploring new music genres. Their live shows have become infamous for a satirical circus-like atmosphere where anything goes and that's just the way they like it.
The Minneapolis quintet has a new release "You and Me, Ghost" just out on Madison's Science of Sound records. Following on the footsteps of "Great Vacation" that came out late last year, the band have become certified road dogs, crisscrossing the country, bringing their brand of "fuzzed-out doo-wop" to indie audiences everywhere. A Madison CD release party is set for Friday, Sept. 9th at the UW Memorial Union Rathskeller.
If the first single off the record "Talking out of Turn" is any indication, Sleeping in the Aviary is headed for a very successful run with their upcoming tour. We pulled vocalist/guitarist Elliott Kozel away from his Minneapolis apartment long enough to answer a few questions for us:
The first track we've heard "Talking Out of Turn" from the new album "You and Me, Ghost" is definitely different than anything on your last release. What was the attitude like while recording the new album?
The attitude was "Let's get it done with as quickly as possible and try not to think too hard about it." We also wanted to make it dirtier and nastier than the last. We wanted to capture the feeling of us as a live band and limit ourselves to the 16 tracks on the tape machine so we didn't go all bonkers with the overdubs like on Great Vacation. I tried to make sure I was drunk before I did any vocal takes. Sorry Ricky, I stole some of your whiskey from your liquor cabinet.
Was there a conscious effort to move in a particular direction for "You and Me, Ghost"?
Yes, we wanted to get to a more pure simple sound and make sure there is always an instrument on every song mixed "too loud". All the songs are personal in nature so I would say they are a lot more heartfelt than the last album. Pretty much all the songs are about girls in some way. There is definitely none of the made-up bullshit about scuba diving or anything like that. It's not that I consciously started writing this way, it just happened like that because of my old friend loneliness. I broke up with my girlfriend of 5 years right before I started writing all these songs, so yeah, its "one of those break-up albums."
One of the things we like the most about Sleeping in the Aviary is the band's sense of humor. It seems to come through in the song lyrics and stage show. How do you keep that loose spontaneity going, even after months on the road?
It's really the only way to stay sane on the road for months and months. If we played the same set every night and didn't leave room for a little chaos here and there,we would be bored to tears and would probably all quit the band and go back to working at Pizza Hut. That's why I enjoy things like strings breaking and getting half empty PBR cans thrown at me and power going out in the middle of our last song and all sorts of stuff like that.
Our requisite road dog question. Sleeping in the Aviary toured quite extensively in 2011. What's the weirdest thing that happened to you on the road this year?
Someone got shot about 15 feet away from Phil trying to sleep in the van in New Orleans, but I guess that's not all that weird. During our set in Charleston, SC a drunk driver in a minivan crashed into the side of the bar we were playing at and his horn went off for about 15 minutes. He survived. But I guess that's not that weird either. One night in Tennessee a raccoon somehow got into our van and ate all of our trail mix as we slept inside a stranger's house. He couldn't figure out how to get back out and in the morning we found him and man oh man he was freaking out.
What are the future plans for the band after the new record comes out in September? You've got a gig coming up in Madison, right?
Yeah we are paying in Madison Sept 9th at the Rathskeller for our album release. We are gonna go on tour out to the east coast and down south until the end of October. Then Kyle is going to Ecuador and Celeste is going to India. I'm probably gonna work on recording a band up here called Teenage Moods and try to get my children singer thing called Googly Guy off the ground so I can figure out some way to make a living off of this music thing. Lord knows Sleeping in the Aviary ain't payin' anyone's bills anytime soon.
- Rock of the Arts
To a Sleeping in the Aviary songbook that already included a country ditty written from the POV of a bullet blasting through a suicide's mouth, a man worrying he might want to beat his unborn daughter for looking like her mother, car crashes, stalker freak-outs, and bloody heartstring-slicing anguish, last year's "Great Vacation!" added an elegy for a lover who chokes to death on a ball gag, a mock-"Titanic" shipwreck that ends with gargle-drowning Method acting, and a blow job joke disguised as a swimming pool meet cute.
Disturbing, hilarious, tense verging on violent, and uh, really, really hilarious, these songs were vintage Sleeping in the Aviary riffs on love gone wrong, and the least surprising songs on an excellent album -- after all, "Maria's Ghost," "Last Kiss on a Sinking Ship," and "Y.M.C.A (No Not That One)," had been live staples for the better part of two years (as had rueful closer "The Very Next Day I Died"). The surprise was that the band had given their garage punk scuzz a pop rock spit-shine. You felt less dirty laughing at poor Maria forgetting her safety word with a slide trombone underlining the punchlines. A surf rock beat and sing-a-long chorus bailed out the freewheeling greaser speed- freak terror of "You Don't Have to Drive." Not only did Sleeping in the Aviary tidy up their past, giving fan favorites a long-overdue pressing, but they also conducted wacko experiments like the spacey chamber pop of "Axes Ground Looth Tooth," and added a new member, guitarist Kyle Sobczak.
In other words, "Great Vacation!" practically screamed, "Transition album! Transition album!" The Sleeping in the Aviary of "You and Me, Ghost" aren't a whole new band, but if you weren't a fan before, they're not the same band that might have turned you off, grossed you out, or made you seriously contemplate killing yourself. They've buffed that spit-shine into a blinding, beautiful polish, and lead-singer Elliott Kozel has found less aggressive, more subtly rock-nerdy ways of expressing his simmering hipster rage. This isn't any kind of a retreat, more like Sleeping in the Aviary realizing that they already recorded an S&M accidental homicide-love song. When you make your name by going too far, eventually you can't go any further without repeating yourself, or parodying your greatest hits.
This band is way too smart to let that happen, and critically, Kozel is way too talented a writer. "Talking Out of Turn" opens the album with a rush of guitar strums that are bright, bouncy, and maybe just a tad too loud for the "Doo-doo-doos" in the background, and Kozel's sweet longing for a girl he spots at a supermarket checkout lane. As always with SITA, something is a little off even before it goes way off-kilter, and as Kozel's vocals get more frantic, more desperate, sure enough, it turns out he's following this girl home, watching her run into the safe arms of another man. Still twisty, still creepy, but in that "Every Breath You Take" way that lets you appreciate the band's mastery of retro melodies, drawing you into the universal, lovelorn ache that Kozel does so well.
Kozel does need to brush up on his Bro Code though: the swirl of lust and guilt and loneliness that comes with wanting someone else's girl is the story of "You and Me, Ghost." A startling guitar riff bends around corners like a police siren on "Love Police," hunting down Kozel after he steals the girl, or, more likely, feels bad for even thinking about it. On the dreamy title track, Kozel makes an awkward pass at a party and feels so embarrassed that he flings himself off a tower and spends the next few weeks slipping in and out of consciousness, with only his ghost to keep him company. The "la la las" on "Someone Loves You" practically laugh right in Kozel's face. "On the Way Home" starts out like a straightforward '50s rocker, but after Kozel tries to kiss a girl who -- surprise -- is at a party with another guy, one of the guitars staggers away by itself as Kozel grabs a beer and runs home, chugging and puking and laughing as he goes, and the whole song sounds like it might rattle apart.
None of these tunes rub your nose in icky emotions the way "Maria's Ghost" or "Gas Mask Blues" did, so it's harder to pretend like you've never felt these feelings. "You and Me, Ghost's" birth-of-rock R&B, doo-wop, surf punk, and psychedelic psycho pop sings the songs left unsung on the oldie's station -- the urges that couldn't be soothed, or even described, the lines that couldn't be crossed, the things that happened after someone spiked the punch at the sock hop, the unsanitized versions of the stories our parents told their parents when they came home after curfew. "Molly," with its lovely guitar reverb and backing harmonies, sounds like it's going to be a pitch-perfect crooner's paean to that one special girl. Then Kozel starts singing to … Shauna? Molly is his second choice, and then he moves on to Julie, and so on, like he's canvassing his entire Senior class for a prom date, looking for someone, ANYONE, to love him back. Still funny, still creepy, still desperate, but the ball gag stays hidden in the underwear drawer.
In the end, Sobczak finds his happily ever after on the beach bunny bounce of "Karen, You're an Angel," and poor Kozel is still alone, singing, "I'm so in love with someone else" on gorgeous closer "Pathetic Housewife Remembering Her First Martini." Too bad one of the best records of the year can't keep Kozel warm at night -- those seem to come pretty easy to him.
- ROCKSPOSURE.com
If you were to ask Elliott Kozel, throaty front man of the eccentric 5-piece Sleeping in the Aviary, what he thinks of his new album You and Me, Ghost, he'd probably respond cheekily "Best one yet!" He'd laugh since this is the way he introduces all of his albums, but I might have to agree. As much as I'm a sucker for their first two albums especially, by the time I was approached about reviewing this album I'd already gotten my mitts on an advanced copy, and iTunes informs me I'd already listened to it over 20 times through.
A perpetual dark horse in the mainstream indie scene, SITA doesn't spend much time worrying about convention or genre, weaving from post-punk to raspy-folk to Hawaiian-garage and now to radical doo-wop. Resurrecting dated musical styles may not be a revolutionary concept, but in a sea of old-as-new competitors, Sleeping in the Aviary's approach is unique. They don't define themselves around an old-timey persona, but instead continue to evolve their style organically over time, never allowing their musical ilk to be resigned to a unilateral category.
You and Me, Ghost is rife with shoo-be-do's and sha-la-la's, but make no mistake, this is not your grandmother's 50's record. Whether it's a tender ballad or a song so frantic the words are trapped stampeding out of Kozel's mouth, every song is still unmistakably Sleeping In The Aviary in style. Smart-alecky but playful, grainy but sweet, this release adds yet another layer of complexity to SITA's repertoire.
The album opens with their new hit "Talking Out Of Turn," which is probably the song that best ties together You and Me, Ghost. It's an abrasively smooth number that sets the tone for the album, preparing you both for prettier numbers and those with more of an edge. It encapsulates not only the style but also the theme – this is their first album where all the songs are about girls.
"Talking Out Of Turn" is easily one of my favorite tracks on the album, but there's no shortage of stand-out tracks. "Love Police" and "On The Way Home" are probably the most deranged, but I also think in their recklessness that they're the most fun. On the flip side, the title track is one of the slower numbers, and rattling in its earnestness. A forlorn letter to the ghost of a former lover, complete with haunting "ooh-oohs," its somber affection is pretty touching.
Every once and awhile Kozel steps aside to let one of his bandmates wrestle with the lead vocal role, and on this album we get to hear newest SITA member Kyle Sobczak play frontman on both "So Lonely" and "Karen, You're an Angel," my other two favorite tracks on the album. "So Lonely" has a really fuzzed-out 50s-beach-party kind of vibe, and "Karen, You're An Angel" is like a 2011 answer to the 1950's Penguin's song "Earth Angel." A love song about getting older and saggier and growing nose-hair, it's definitely sillier than something you'd have heard in the 50s, but the sentiment just as dear and the harmonies just as tight.
Other tracks on the album include "Someone Loves You," which is probably the most mainstream sounding song on the album, the toe-tapping "Ain't So Bad," and then four much airier songs woven throughout the second half of the album – "Are You Afraid of Being Poor," "Molly," "Infatuation," and the last track "Pathetic Housewife Remembering Her First Martini." These are the four more timeless numbers on the album – relatively straightforward songs that actually might have been hits decades ago, though there's a bit of hollering toward the end of "Infatuation," some distorted shrieks in "Molly," and some murky riffs in the other tunes that still distinguish them as current-day numbers.
Now promoting their 4th album in just 5 years and about to embark on yet another unrelenting tour schedule, Sleeping in the Aviary is teetering on the brink of success with You and Me, Ghost. Big guys like Daytrotter are starting to take notice, and I suggest you get yourself an album and catch them on tour now so you can brag later that you liked them before they blew up.
You and Me, Ghost drops on September 6, 2011, being released by Science of Sound Records. Sleeping in the Aviary is Elliott Kozel (vocals, guitar), Phil Mahlstadt (bass), Michael Sienkowski (drums, backing vocals), Celeste Heule (accordion, keyboards, musical saw), and Kyle Sobczak (guitar).
- Dorise Gruber, They Will Rock You
Sleeping in the Aviary "Talking Out Of Turn"
We last heard from local band Sleeping in the Aviary with their underrated 2010 LP Great Vacation!, and the band are now back with their latest LP, You and Me, Ghost. The first song sly kiss off "Talking out of Turn," which fans of the band may have heard during one of their fun and raucous shows around town in the last half year. The track combines everything that makes the band so great, with the angular pop riffs, the charging intensity, the irreverent lyrics mashing into three of the most fun minutes released from the local scene this year. You and Me, Ghost will drop on Sound Records on September 6th, 2011
Sleeping in the Aviary - single "Talking Out of Turn"
Here is the new single from Minnesota doods Sleeping In The Aviary, coming from their upcoming album You & Me, Ghost (out September 6 on Science Of Sound Records). It's their fourth, yet this is my first bit of their cherry (innuendo semi-intended). It has a fantastic crunch in the guitar, a fat vibrating bassline, and some real urgency wrapped up in an innate sense of fun - this is not meant to be taken seriously. Think...Weezer. Ahem, I meant to say old, GOOD Weezer. It bears those pop trademarks with distinctive kudos given to the kids of the 60s who knew that rock and roll wasn't evil, and the girls were into it, but didn't necessarily know it was sexy either. Good times! (And their website kills...)
- Sonic Masala
Sleeping in the Aviary "Talking Out Of Turn"
You know those bands that just make you go, "HUH???" or "Where did they COME from?!"…. Yeah. Sleeping In The Aviary is definitely one of those bands. A blues-ish tone mixed with some fantastic chaos that is very organic in sound is just what Sleeping In The Aviary will give you with their new track "Talking Out Of Turn". The Minneapolis based group is sure to shake up your day in a pleasant way
- Ear Plugs Not Included
Order Now | CD : $10 - Vinyl : $15 | iTunes / Digital tracks on Bandcamp
"Whimsical, yet based in just enough reality, Sleeping in the Aviary fall into a class of folksy indie-pop that should attract fans of Modest Mouse, Neutral Milk Hotel, and The Mountain Goats."
When a band starts off an album with a song called "Y.M.C.A. (No, Not That One)," there's always the danger of dealing with an act where potentially forced wackiness takes precedence over, say, making actually interesting or enjoyable songs. (Doubtless listeners have their own non-favorite examples.) Sleeping in the Aviary thankfully don't try to force the issue -- there are no ironic quotes in the song, for instance -- and instead it's the kind of slightly breezy, chipper power pop in a 21st century indie rock context that can be expected from any number of acts. Admittedly, plenty of other touches can be heard in the music -- from gargling to harps -- but Spike Jones this isn't when it comes to truly gone silliness. Neither is it Neutral Milk Hotel, but there's a ghost of Elephant 6 hanging over the whole thing, a kind of polite studio playground aiming to catch the ear rather than befuddle a listener, down to the ambling ukulele performances. There are occasional moments of cutting loose in other directions -- the opening seconds of "Maria's Ghost" might as well beDillinger Escape Plan in their frenetic grind and chaos -- but it's all back to winsome modern vaudeville soon enough. And that's no sin, but after a while grandiose demi-anthems like "Start the Car" are plowing well-established ground. Still, ending on a keyboard-led song called "I Want You Back (I Want You Dead)" that half sounds like a lost lounge anthem from 1980 is a nice, unexpected kicker.
Sleeping in the Aviary "Great Vacation!"
-Finally a band worth tweeting about-
SitA have with their first two records explored lo-fi (think Wavves) and Americana (Mountain Goats x Violent Femmes) - these were two solid records and with this one they really take flight, seemingly after having received a huge kiss from the Flaming Lips. It's not that SitA sound particularly like Wayne Coyne and chums (though at times they do – they've also stayed at the Neutral Milk Hotel once or twice), it's the itchy experimentalism about them, the same kind of sonic restlessness that led the Lips to discover the elixir of left-field pop acceptance, free form whimsy alloyed to a steady grasp of rhythm and melody. Elliott Kozel's voice does have that helium Coyness at times and 'The Very Next Day I Died' takes its humour directly from the 'She Don't Use Jelly' playbook, there's inventiveness in the use of mouth harp, banjo, choir and simmering psych guitar. It's the kind of lyrical cacophony that gives this music a good name.
'Y.M.C.A (No not that one)' kicks things into gear in a Granddaddy play gentle psych with a side order of surf rock, this is music for the curious and they make a decent stab at making gargling as a credible musical ploy. 'Weightlessly In Love' leaves this planet behind for some space pop adventure whilst 'Maria's Ghost' goes to a very strange place where spazz rock (think Mass Appeal) smacks into Tin Pan Alley replete with 'Doo-bee-doo's' steel guitar, whistling and trumpet. There's a guitar solo on the lovely swaying 'Last Kiss on a Sinking Ship' that is worth the admission on its own and that being backed up by more gargling makes this a fitting end to a song about shipwreck. These songs are playfully inventive, lyrics lurch from the surreal to the gut punch of emotional recognition, time signatures switch and era's are juxtaposed, it all reminds me of the days when Victim's Family, Eugene Chadbourne and the like freely played around with possibilities. Here the results are consistently entertaining in a way that a lot of records just aren't, they're happy to take chances and they do it without alienating the listener. It's the kind of band the Emusic subscriptions were invented for, once you are exposed you'll want to find out what else they've done.
- AmericanaUK
"Great Vacation!" Short-Lived by Sleeping in the Aviary Interview - Capital Times / 77 Square
Interview with Spotlight Artist: Sleeping in the Aviary on They Will Rock You
Wisconsin Wacko Vs. The Axel of Hipster What I call the Brooklyn/Echo Park Axel of Hipster dominates the indie scene right now. As different as they are, bands like Best Coast, Crocodiles, Dum Dum Girls, Vivian Girls and The Drums, not only have a particular sound in common (lo-fi, pop-noise) but also share an almost religious commitment to tight songs. These bands are influenced by The Jesus and Mary Chain, Factory Records and 60's garage rock. They have nothing to do with ruminating styles like the Blues or Daniel-Johnston-style epic love ballads. Needles to say, "weird" instruments like the Hawaiian guitar or the harp are not part of their musical universe.
Sleeping in the Aviary, on the other hand, are all about rumination. This particularly shows in the band's latest album, Great Vacation!
There isn't really anything surprising about a good band that does not have a cohesive sound. There have been many great ones: Butthole Surfers, Pixies and Sonic Youth, to mention three off the top of my head. It's just that, because the Axel of Hipster bands (most of which I like) have such a strong scene going on right now, finding an outsider band like Sleeping in the Aviary doing interesting things on their own is kinda refreshing. It's nice for a change, that's all.
The first song, "Y.M.C.A. (No, Not that one)" starts with strange sound effects and moves slowly forward over Michael Sienkowski's marching band drums. Singer Elliott Kozel screams things like, "teach me CPR/dry up my soggy heart." His sweetly pathetic, child-like voice compliments the melancholic storytelling. "Sand between my teeth/seaweed for a beard/the ocean licked my toes/they took off all my clothes/her head eclipsed the sun," he sings, reffering to a girl he met at the Y.M.C.A. At the end comes the recording of a girl laughing and a muffled melody that sounds like mermaids gargling underwater, which gives the song a tongue-in-cheek, children's storybook feel.
Multiple instruments (including heavy doses of Hawaiian guitar) in the slowly unraveling love stories create a sense of sunny nostalgia for teenage love. Too bad Elliott Kozel does not enunciate his words more clearly, a production issue perhaps, as the stories he sings about are full of what seems like a mixture of unique biographical and imaginary details.
"Last Kiss on a Sinking Ship" starts as a straight 70s-sounding ballad. It sounds like a random corny song by Rod Steward or something. But the lyrics draw the reader in. "All the freaked out passengers are talking on their phones to the loved ones they won't see back home/The Captain, he jumped overboard/We're a 150 miles away from any shore/You're the only girl I've seen that looks about my age." And then the corny chorus: "So come on and love me, no one can punish us...." Lines like, "while we're both still dry/ let's hit the bar and grab two bottles of expensive wine/we can take a blanket to the crow's nest," while not ultra poetic, do show a unique lyrical imagination. The weird mermaid gargles also make an appearance here, coloring the song's slightly disheveled cheap lounge style. Soft irony, or a tribute to corny love ballads in the form of a loving spoof, that's what "Last Kiss on a Sinking Ship" sounds like.
Except for "Blacked-Out Fun," which has a faster garage rock feeling and "Axes Ground Looth Tooth," which features female vocalist Celeste Heule, who kinda sounds like Kim Gordon (a good thing) most of the songs in Great Vacation! follow the "Y.M.C.A. (Not that one)" and "Last Kiss on a Sinking Ship" route. A great thing.
Not that there aren't weaker songs. A song like "Nothing," for instance, while pleasant, does not have a melodic musical kick and so the story told in the song can't shine through as much. Clearly, Sleeping in the Aviary is at their best when they find a melody that sticks around from the beginning to the end of a song, particularly if it's a slow one. Weak songs, however, are not the rule in Great Vacation!
One of the strongest ones "I Want You Back (I Want You Dead)" comes at the end. It really is a strange little gem. It has that ironic 70s ballad feel, but also sounds as if it had been made with a cheap vintage keyboard. Kozel's high pitched delivery and Phil Mahlstadt's Galaga-like sound effects make it both humorous and touching at the same time. "I want you Back" is the musical equivalent of finding an old video game you used to play when you were a kid. As in the rest of the album, the song's nostalgia is totally real, but also --and it can't be otherwise!-- tongue-in-cheek.
I don't think Sleeping in the Aviary are part of a new wave of bands that will replace the currently favored short, hip and sharp sounds with long, wacko and loose musical trips. If anything, like the Butthole Surfers and Daniel Johnston, bands like Sleeping in the Aviary tend to breed in a strange universe of their own. - AND Magazine
Sleeping In The Aviary have always had a hard time sitting still. After forming right here in Madison, some seven years ago, the then-foursome released two albums of hyper-active jangly punk songs on Science of Sound records before riding over to Minnesota's Twin Cities and picking up a fifth member. On their first dispatch from the Land o' Lakes, Great Vacation, Sleeping In The Aviary ditch their most screeching punk styles for a more flush album that reins back their wild catharsis with dapper production and tidy pop numbers.
If you've somehow missed the boat and you're curious what Sleeping in the Aviary sound like live, listen to their debut, Oh, This Old Thing?But anyone who's seen them since 2008 can tell you that Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel standouts like "Everybody's Different, Everybody Dies" take on a similarly frenetic vein in their live interpretations. So I know what you're thinking, and you're right - these songs sound quite a bit different live.
That's symptomatic of the internal disconnect for Sleeping In The Aviary. Live, they invoke inspiration from punk bands like the Buzzcocks or mid-'80s Hüsker Dü. On record, they draw more influence from twangy pop acts. They're loose and dishevelled by nature, but on Great Vacation they make a concerted effort to look nice and clean for the consumer.
In some ways, Great Vacation also marks a graduation process. Instead of desperate thrashings for acceptance or vengeance, Great Vacation offers quaint novellas like "Last Kiss on a Sinking Ship." They've matured past picking fights, and when lead singer Elliott Kozel says, "And I know that you've been lonely / By the length of the skirts you wear," he's not asking for a second chance.
But I'd be lying if I said everything translated perfectly. "Blacked-out Fun" in particular struggles to marry disjointed elements of '50s with angular distorted guitar. Crowd-pleaser "The Very Next Day I Died" doesn't benefit much from the polished presentation here, and "Maria's Ghost" doesn't do enough to turn its fatalist masochism into vaudeville. In each case they try to satisfy two disparate ideas that end up going in different directions, leaving them stuck in the middle with little to show for themselves.
Full immersion is the key for Sleeping In The Aviary, and their biggest successes come when they tear down the fourth wall and refuse to short-change themselves. On older records, that usually meant kicking-and-screaming rock 'n' roll, but on Great Vacation it's noted by more subtle intimacy. Keyboard/accordion/hacksaw player Celeste Heule takes over lead vocals on "Axes Ground Looth Tooth," a cozy piano-driven meditation on humility and expectations. Kozel follows it with "Start the Car," another tamed reflection on vulnerability. It concludes a three-song stretch that sees Sleeping In The Aviary at its most disarming, and it's the most unlikely of successes in their catalog.
Thematically, Great Vacation is just as dislocated and lost as any of the group's previous efforts. Functionally, though, it portrays a band finally getting comfortable in its own skin. Sleeping In The Aviary are notorious for putting literal blood and sweat into every live performance, but it's all detached from the band's true strength - writing terrific, heart-soaked pop songs. Great Vacation offers both a reprieve from the tear-soaked hysteria of yore for a more accomplished and diverse band; and a moment of illumination in which we realize that Sleeping In The Aviary should be getting ready to move somewhere new - somewhere much, much bigger.
- Kyle Sparks, The Daily Cardinal
I first heard Sleeping in the Aviary on their sophomore album, which was focused around the groups smart, Pavement leaning alt country indie rock. When I read the press release announcing their new album, "Great Vacation!," and mentioning a "change in sound," I couldn't help but feeling a tinge of apprehension. Luckily the group has traded good for better, with the weirdo pop on Great Vacation! helping to move their sound forward and creating a highly entertaining record.
The closest band I can think to relate Great Vacation! to is the work of Nick Diamonds (Islands, Unicorns). The song structures are pretty straightforward pop, but the lyrics and presentation are decidedly, and to great effect, weird. The song subjects range from someone forgetting the safe word and being killed during sex ("Maria's Ghost") to hooking up on a sinking ship ("You Can Stay But There Won't Be Pancakes"). Other songs are slightly less goofy, but even some of those tracks, like the quasi ballad "Nothing" and the spooky, circus pop of "Axes Ground Looth Tooth" are case studies in abstract pop writing. When the band takes a stab at a classic folky sound on album closer "the Very Next Day I Died," it to me came across with even less weight compared to the smart material that preceded it. While it is a little bit of a letdown to end the record, it really goes to validate how creative and entertaining as a whole the record is.
While the changing of horses midstream can result in disasters, Sleeping in the Aviary have again successfully completed the jump with their third record. Great Vacation! is both smart and fun, a feat that isn't easily accomplished, and results in a really solid effort from a band that has continued to push boundaries and succeed on their third record. Check out the band live Saturday night with Chelsea Boys and Buffalo Moon at the Kitty Cat Klub at the record release show.
- Josh, Reviler
Review on Das Klienicum (in German)
Video premiere for "Last Kiss On A Sinking Ship" on Magnet Magazine's website. Film at 11: Sleeping in the Aviary
Sleeping in the Aviary Makes Whoopee in New Music Video / The A.V. Club Madison
As a general rule, spazzy punk trios are preferable to indie-folk troubadours. But spazzy punk-folk troubadours are best of all, and that's what the former thrash-and-yelp smartasses of Sleeping In The Aviary mutated into on their second album, Expensive Vomit In A Cheap Hotel. Elliott Kozel's voice was too ungainly to go the prissy pastoral route, bassist Phil Mahlstadt and drummer Michael Sienkowski were too habitually uptempo to wax fussily intricate, and newcomer Celeste Heule's accordion and musical saw accompaniment registered as weird, not trad. Expensive Vomit was like the greatBright Eyes album Conor Oberst was too pretty and Dylan-besotted to make, with that same sense of the cooler people in a Midwestern town gathering to make expressive noise, and its premature appreciation of mortality never undercut its raucousness.
Last year, SITA relocated from Madison to Minneapolis, added new guitarist Kyle Sobczak, and got goofy. Really goofy - Kozel finished a recent set at the 7th St. Entry fully pantsless (nope, no undies either). And the band's third album, Great Vacation!, has a similar commando feel. "Y.M.C.A. (No Not That One)" substitutes choral gargling for a solo, while elsewhere Kozel's voice has grown less declamatory and more whimsical. When he sings about "floating in space and sipping on juice made from a powder" to the strum of ukulele, there's an air of self-amused slackerdom that invites you in to pass out on its couch.
Death still peeks around the corner, but its current aims are absurd. Take "Maria's Ghost" - maybe you could write a serious song about a BDSM foray ending in death, but not with a quirky accordion and Dixieland horn solo. The story behind "You Can Stay But There Won't Be Pancakes" is explained by its alternate title, "Last Kiss On A Sinking Ship." And on "The Very Next Day I Died," a skinned knee, a first love, a good job, a happy marriage, a country home, spoiled kids, divorce, and being buried alive each kill Kozel within a day - and then he has to wait in line to get into heaven. A-
- Keith Harris, The A.V. Club, Madison
Sleeping in the Aviary, who I have written about at some length before, have a new album, Great Vacation!, out on November 30th. Due to me pre-ordering it immensely quickly and the people at the label (Science of Sound) being very nice, I received it a couple of days ago.
The first thing that struck me about the album was the giant increase in production value, unlike the last two it can't be described as lo-fi in any way, shape or form. It originally worried me that they might have lost the rough, roguish charm I loved them for, but luckily Sleeping in the Aviary aren't one of those awful bands whose only talent is being recorded terribly.
Musically, they've moved away from the Folk-Punk aesthetic of Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel and closer towards a softer, surfier one. There is still the odd distorted guitar, but sadly singer Elliot Kozel has generally refrained from screaming and there is nothing that even compares to Gas Mask Blues.
There are many genuinely great songs on Great Vacation!, some of my personal favorites being immensely the fun You Don't Have to Drive, Axes Ground Looth Tooth (in which the token girl, accordionist Celeste Heule, has a fantastic official lead vocal debut) and Last Kiss on a Sinking Ship, for which they made their first ever music video (which I really like) and combines a daft premise with touching lyrics about getting it awwn.
I must admit that I'm slightly upset about the lack of punky material, and I do think it has resulted in 2 or 3 dud songs, but I guess they have moved on creatively. There are some fantastic new things going on, such as the slide guitar on Maria's Ghost, the weird aesthetics of the softer sounding ballads (that they've borrowed from Elliot's brilliant side project she is so beautiful/she is so blonde) and also the Blondie-esque, falsettoed last track.
Another thing I would have liked is more songs sung by Celeste, her voice is really lovely and reminds me of whoever it is that sometimes sings with Casiotone for the Painfully Alone. On this brilliant, freely downloadable thing (it includes earlier versions of some songs), I heard her singing the fantastic song Deep Sea, which really should have made it onto the album.
Anyway, despite my quibbles, I do like Great Vacation! quite a lot. I would have liked a repeat of the last album, but that would never of have happened and I would complain about their lack of innovation anyway. My love of EVIACH has made me judge Great Vacation! very harshly.
Great Vacation! is a solid effort, but if you only have £10 to spare, buy Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel right away.
- Music Blogs Suck
I was going to do a post on Sleeping in the Aviary regardless of what they sounded like because the picture that came with their songs just happened to feature a pack of demented looking Mr. Beans ready to commit some serious crimes. The picture is just scary and hilarious at the same time.
Thankfully, along with this rather creepy photograph came a couple of good songs that happen to be rather well played indie pop with just the right dose of brashness and inability thrown in for good measure.
Think a little drunk Elephant Six collective and you might be on the right track.
- The POP! Stereo
Sometimes, when the winter Wisconsin sky is just a little too gray, and the cold seeps through three layers of clothing before my boot hits the sidewalk, and the two-block walk to my car chills like camping at Valley Forge, I'll cue up "Pet Sounds" on the iPod just to remember summer, just to remind myself that there are riverfront patios and Pilsners and Cubs games at Miller Park at the end of this godforsaken brrr.
"Great Vacation!" exclaims Sleeping in the Aviary's third album from its Ralph Steadman beach postcard cover, released, of all months, in frigid November. You might use the latest from Madison's favorite Minneapolins the same way I use "Pet Sounds," provided that you spent your summer accidentally killing your lover with a ball gag or drowning on a cruise ship.
Yep, SITA are cracking jokes before you even crack the CD's spine. And it turns out that laughter warms you up even faster than "Wouldn't It Be Nice."
The beach? I don't think SITA get past their local "Y.M.C.A.," and a scuba lesson that ends in visions of a girl "sucking the poison out," if you get my drift (in case you don't, the band helpfully adds a giggle at the end of the track). All those cheery island beats and go-go melodies are power-pop fake bake on the pale, insecure, inwardly furious and outwardly violent bodies that batshit brilliant singer-songwriter Elliott Kozel knows best. Summer doesn't get any more November than this.
Three proper albums and a couple side-projects in, it's clear that Kozel is one of the most original and ingenious songwriters in music right now -- not local music, not indie label music, MUSIC, period. Love gone very, very wrong is his great theme, and his greatness lies in the absurd kinds of "wrong" he keeps coming up with. A blowjob joke after scuba diving or a "Last Kiss on a Sinking Ship" are happily ever after compared to "Maria's Ghost," the catchiest S&M song since the Velvet Underground. Poor Maria forgets her safety word, "and now she's deaaaaaaad," croons Kozel while a trumpet and accordion chuckle behind him. In case you feel too bad for that guy who finds his soul mate just as his boat goes all Titanic on him, SITA send them both off to Davy Jones' locker with a chorus of gargling.
Some listeners have a hard time appreciating just how clever SITA are because of these sick puppy punchlines, or, even more so, because of the raw, high-speed aggression that characterizes much of their best work. Me, I like Kozel pitched as close to all-out mania as I can get him, like his punk-greaser scrawling love notes with a switchblade in "Blacked Out Fun," or the joyriding teenager who steals a car and gets high just on flooring the gas on "You Don't Have to Drive." But the uptick in production value on "Great Vacation!" -- the gargling, the background do-wops, the brass and pianos -- make this by far their most accessible album, softening the sharp edges without overwhelming Kozel's particular peculiarities. Even more impressive is the Arcade Firey boardwalk cabaret SITA build for musical saw-ist Celeste Heule's star turn on the chantey "Axes Ground Looth Tooth." We already knew that drummer Michael Sienkowski and bassist Phil Mahlstadt were brilliant solo performers, and now Heule proves she too can hang with her boys at the mic, albeit with a wistful modesty befitting the band's raccoon-capped straight man.
About the only bad thing I can say about "Great Vacation!" is that longtime Sleeping in the Aviary fans will know a lot of these concert staples by heart. Of course, owning so many instant classics in such well-polished versions, at long last, is part of the album's appeal too. In fact, it was just over a year ago that I was writing about "Maria's Ghost" and album-closing country sob "The Very Next Day I Died" in the first piece ever published on our silly little website. We haven't "rocksposed" a better band since. And we won't.
- Joey Taylor, Rocksposure.com
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Icarus Himself made one of my favorite Madison albums of 2009. Coffins was a collection of emotional indie rock that proved songwriter Nick Whetro's ability to blend storytelling and dreamy acoustic guitar.
Mexico is a startling demonstration of how much Whetro's skills have advanced since then. All five of these songs are more complex in mood and construction than his last set of tracks.
"Digging Holes" is instrumentally sparse, building on a subdued guitar riff that's punctuated by the delicate staccato of an organ chord. Whetro's vocals burst in, laden with regret about saying "horrible things, terrible things." A trumpet repeats the guitar riff, reinforcing the moment's forlorn resignation.
"Girl > Boy" is a slow march bounded by the deep tones of baritone guitar and stuttering percussion. The conflicting lines "I know what you're thinking," and "I don't know your reasons" find the song ruefully navigating what's certain and uncertain about love.
Icarus Himself is increasingly garnering attention in indie rock e-zines with national influence. Mexico is sure to push the local trio's star a lot higher.
- Rich Albertoni, The Isthmus
Icarus Himself Track Review: Girl > Boy
The perfect tonic for those on a combat high fromRed Dead Redemption, Icarus Himself's new EPMexico gives you everything the Old West couldn't: comfort, reliable weaponry, and a guaranteed payout in nuggets. Then with its other hand it delivers electronics, baritone guitars and some lines about overweight babysitters—double kill! Still, this is all to be expected when a one-man-band recruits crazies to horse up and ride with him. Since releasing Coffins last year, Nick Whetro has gone from solitary guitar adventures to a trio made of Karl Christenson on loops/keyboard and drummer Brad Kolberg, both of whom conspire to lead Icarus into the plastic age. And, believe me, plastics sound good when moulded correctly, especially when Whetro's hallucinatory caterwauling is allowed to be twisted with old Depeche Mode sounds. In fact, the only people who should be complaining are Depeche Mode themselves, who—ironically—are probably too old to notice. Either that or too busy touring the world and biding their time for the knighthood.
"Girl>Boy" is Mexico's centerpiece, though not just because it contains the most crossover potential: the bass line shadows the Jesus & Mary Chain until it's funked by a fat Casio beat, the result producing tropical delights. No, it's also Whetro's own wailed delivery that reaches its peak here, shining as he masters his custom half-howl while standing four foot back from the microphone. "I know what you're thinking / They only want what's between your legs / I lost myself today," he screeches in his best Jarvis Cocker, implying the things between his legs that everyone wants have long been painfully disconnected. In terms of bodyshock horror that's all that links "Girl>Boy" to its Aphex Twin namesake, but that shouldn't taint your enjoyment of the hip-swinging hula vibe and and cut short four minutes of fun with Icarus Himself. They've made a tongue-in-cheek, hands-down-your-trousers ode to virginity that balloons after three minutes and fades. Now that's what I call staying power.
- George Bass, CokeMachineGlow
"Mexico" review on Das Klienicum
Lofty hopes and high aspirations are the combination for anyone that wants to succeed in anything, even remotely. Even the most laid-back of people want to be noticed and praised for great works, no matter how lackadaisical in appearance they may act. And yes, that even includes Icarus Himself's Nick Whetro and his modestly humble music. Always calm and, more importantly, looking and sounding cool, Whetro's style was the kind that could flourish and eventually, develop. It's an M.O. that has lead to a reputation as one of indie's budding stars, just waiting to blossom.
His newest recording, a five-song set of spectacular music, the Mexico EP is everything anyone could have asked for and more. Sounds of folk, disguised as electro-pop, disguised as psych rock, disguised as indie rock propel the release into a strength that's never foreboding. No, instead, Whetro and his two bandmates, new drummer Brad Kolberg and baritone guitar specialist Karl Christenson, spin off as many fantastically drastic twists and modifications to thrill every sense.
There's a hint of a smooth, beach-inspired, conga/bossa nova vibe on a song like "Girl>Boy" but upon closer inspection it's nothing more than a drum loop, falsetto vocals and a humming whir in the background that make up the colors of this palette. And this is where Whetro's coolness comes into play – because he is most definitely getting into "outstanding mode" with these songs – his swagger oozes off everything and allows it to be that much stronger. Yes, the girl is always going to be on top, but maybe we can jam out and try out new sounds at the same time – it all comes off as nothing more than an exercise in futility – but at least we had fun while it lasted.
This is also the strangely older brother to the EP that preceded it, Icarus Himself. Where that release prompted a strong call for Coffins to find its proper re-release, Mexico looks to act as that same kind of tool. Only the exception lies in how marvelous all of these diverse sounds create such stunning songs. Opening with a Beirut-type of accordion riff and a booming bass that is supposed to be the substantial tuba, "Digging Holes" is the enigmatic Icarus Himself, the one that breaks out at the end to give way for the roaring trumpets, and "Seen it Coming (Mexico)" is the album's heart-stomping closer: a stone-cold burner that destroys everything in its path.
Looking back, Coffins was unfairly overlooked when it was a genuinely catchy indie rock album, a la Spoon style. Mexico affirms that there is loads of talent here and tons of skill floating about; Kolberg only adds to everything because he provides a rock steady support that is essential.
So even for all the slackers and all the poseurs out at various posts, Whetro's stuff is exceptionally serious and remarkably superb. Mexico is a bold step forward in every possible manner: it's composed, it's creative, and it's excellent. Not only does it position the next proper album on a scale of extremely great expectations (those hopes and aspirations again?) but regardless of whether he wants to admit it or not, Whetro will nail it; hopefully he can enjoy this one a bit now, it's well-earned.
- Bryan Sanchez, Delusions of Adequacy
People used to refer to Icarus Himself as the solo side project of National Beekeepers Society singer Nick Whetro. Those days are long gone: Whetro's turned his project into a talented trio and built it an identity unique from that of the slackeriffic garage band.
"Digging Holes," a song off of the band's new EP, Mexico, is just one example of how far Icarus Himself has come over the past couple of years. Plus, fans of its live shows will recognize the tune as the one they've been itching to take home.
"We've been playing it live for quite a while, and people always approach us after the show and ask if the song is on the CD we're selling [2009's Coffins]," says Karl Christenson, the National Beekeepers Society guitarist who's morphed into Icarus' loop nerd and baritone guitar guy. "It was funny because we always had to tell them no. This happened almost every night on our last tour."
On "Digging Holes," Christenson also plays the Omnichord, an electronic instrument from the 1980s that resembles one of the staples of grade-school music class: the autoharp. Its sound resembles an electronic music box or the wafting tones of distant church bells, giving the beginning of the tune an otherwordly vibe.
A few seconds later, that sound's twisting around offbeat-syncopated organ notes that ever-so-slightly recall a reggae tune, and bits of guitar lend a little bit of alt-country flavor. At one point, the Omnichord even parties as a Beirut-style Balkan brass band. But "Digging Holes" doesn't belong in any of these genres, really: It's electric -- and somewhat electronic -- pop, plain and simple.
"It was written around that bouncy [electric] organ part that runs through the whole song," Whetro explains. "Once I had that, the song practically wrote itself."
What's more, the song's eclectic, electric layers help Whetro's vocals about buried ghosts emanate, ever so spookily, from the ether. These ghosts aren't as supernatural as they are psychological, according to Whetro.
"It's mostly about my ability to screw things up with my wife (at the time the song was written, we were dating) by opening my mouth and saying stupid things that I didn't really mean," he says.
It's a theme plenty of folks can relate to, whether they've been the giver or the receiver of mean and malformed thoughts. And, thanks to some brilliant instrumentation, this song will make them ponder the topic again and again.
- Jessica Steinhoff, The Isthmus, MadTracks
"The solo outlet of National Beekeeper's Society's Nick Whetro, the duo's squawky vocals prod along their electronic pulse, synthesizing constant static in an atmospheric storm that pierces your chest. Icarus Himself are in many ways the come-down to National Beekeeper's Society's violent highs. Equal parts soothing and self deprecating, Icarus Himself lull listeners to about as much of a daze as a lightning bolt to the chest will allow."
- Examiner.com
Upon listening to Mexico - the latest EP from Madison folk-popsters Icarus Himself - it's apparent that mastermind Nick Whetro has really learned to let his songs breathe. The old cliche of "no, no, it's the notes he's not playing" is a tired one, but it really holds its ground here. What's even weirder is that Whetro has basically added a full band to what was once a solo endeavor, and the results still sound way more minimal. When pushed up against 2009's more singer-songwriter oriented Coffins, Whetro's haunting vocal delivery sounds a bit more soulful and less forced this time around as he sparsely colors in the tiny arrangements of watery guitar, lo-fi keyboards, and low-key rhythms of tunes like "Digging Holes" and "Half Ton Load." In fact, on some tunes, Whetro only sings on every other measure, allowing his lyrics to be a vehicle for the progression rather than the other way around.
Jentri Colello - another Madison singer-songwriter - joins forces with Whetro over the Casio-disco pulse of "Half Ton Load," the EP's most infectious cut. Collelo's ethereal voice and feathery choruses give his tortured howling a soft place to land. Also, multi-instrumentalist Karl Christenson (who played with Whetro in the late National Beekeepers Society) brings his own subtle wizardry to the table, foregoing bass and opting to rumble out some baritone guitar instead. The volcanic closer "Seen It Coming (Mexico)"is a quiet killer, erupting from its delicate finger-picked chorus into an explosion of crashing drums and rippling guitar as Whetro cries out, "You're my Mexico!" Sure, Mexico tumbles into darker dives than its predecessor, but it may be Whetro's penchant for the morose and his leaning toward incorporating lo-fi electronics that help split him off of his over-orchestrated neo-folk peers.
- Joel Shanahan, The Onion A.V. Club, Madison
Icarus Himself is a two piece from the lake filled land of Madison, WI. Their new EP Mexico comes out today on Science of Sound. It's a ghostly sounding record, pockmarked with empty spaces. Stray drum machines and keyboards wonder through big washes of reverb-heavy guitar chords. I may be projecting, but it sounds like a band absentmindedly playing music while they think back on the defining moments of their lives. It could be the sound of heartbreak in a small town or a silent prayer for something as beautiful as it was in a memory. It could be the soundtrack to a dream or it could just be the sound of a thousand thoughts jammed into five songs.
- Tough Customer // Wire
Before the release party for Icarus Himself's excellent new EP, "Mexico," I thought you could put Led Zeppelin behind singer/songwriter Nick Whetro and his songs would still shrink from any pretense of grandeur. "All my life I've been digging holes ... Sometimes I say terrible things that I know," Whetro sings on EP opener "Digging Holes," which is a pretty good metaphor for how Whetro works musically. He's a burrower, not an excavator, not a builder of castles in the sky. Show him a picture of a happy family, he'll eyeball the faded scar on the little girl's knee and scratch at it until a subcutaneous 2-minute dirge wafts out.
Whetro's scope doesn't expand much on "Mexico." The EP is 10 minutes shorter than Icarus Himself's "full-length" 2009 debut, "Coffins," and even though there's more going on around Whetro -- horns, cabana beats, guitars plugged-in more often than not -- he's still painting acute miniatures from some dark isolated place. On record you can hide from a drum machine in a box of vocal distortion. That's trickier to pull off on-stage at Madison's sold-out Frequency, especially when you're on a round-robin twin bill with manic pranksters Sleeping in the Aviary. The two bands were slated to play rotating mini-sets "until one band dies." As much as I like both "Mexico" and "Coffins," I was more concerned that the energy in the room might dip every time SITA ceded the spotlight than I was for the musicians' safety.
Luckily for everyone packed into the Frequency, I'm an idiot. The new two-man band that rounds out Whetro's (former?) solo project, multi-instrumentalist Karl Christenson and drummer Brad Kolberg, took these songs out back and knocked all the computer bells and whistles right off them. (Read rest of review here).
- Joey Tayler, Rocksposure.com
Order Now: $8.00 | CD | iTunes | Digital tracks on Bandcamp
Some albums make me think of cinema while still others remind me of loosely edited anthology collections. To follow this cultural artifact metaphorical trend, the latest effort by Madison, Wisconsin'sHis and Her Vanities is a novella, a picture pretty work of hopeless anxiety. Trim as can be, The Mighty Lunge gets a lot of angst-inducing uncertainty into its 29 1/2 minutes, a testament as much to the coherent and singular thematic focus of the album as to band principals (and married duo) Ricky and Terrin Reimer's handiness with crafting compact, to-the-point-and-no-further songs.
This atmosphere of frustrated and even fearful directionless is particularly noticeable in songs like evident in songs like "Hits Like Hail," "Wait It Out," and "New Designs." In "Hits Like Hail," Reimer plaintively croons over a Clap Your Hands Say Yeah-esque background about fruitlessness and apparent impending doom, while on "Wait It Out" the narrator appears to be some sort of metaphysical refugee with no clear path down which to trod.
Lest all this sound like so much overwrought emo nonsense, the genius of the record is found in the dissonant pairing between the lyrics and the music. While Ricky Reimer's lead vocals belt out the downtrodden narratives in a way that is slightly more upbeat than you'd expect from the message being evoked, the instumental accompaniment is positively giddy. A relaxed and somewhat poppy post-punk, Mr.Reimer and bandmate Matt Ablanalp wield guitars in a manner you'd expect from on a Pixies release recorded midway through a low-grade treatment of zoloft. Simultaneously, Mrs. Reimer and drummer Sara Quigle anchor a rhythm section that brings to mind a more disciplined Sonic Youth. By and large, the album sounds upbeat even as it speaks of morose notions, though on tracks like "What it is," "Agenda," and "Fuses" (and, to a lesser extent ,"Fragments") find the rock about as dark as the rhetoric. Though, in the final analysis, not quite.
- Justin, Citizen Dick
Best Local CDs
#1 His & Her Vanities, "The Mighty Lunge"(Science of Sound) — From the nervous caffeination and slicing beats of "Hits Like Hail" to Ricky and Terrin Reimer's silvery harmonizing on "Wake Up This Day," this is fully developed and cathartic post-punk.
- Katjusa Cisar, 77 Square
The Top 10 Madison Albums of 2009, "The Mighty Lunge" at #6
- The Isthmus
Ok, so maybe His and Her Vanities aren't the most prolific artists, they've had 3 albums in the past 8 years or so and have been around for even longer, but they make catchy crunchy pop music laced with elements of the NYC garage band scene from so many moons ago and Talking Headsesque New Wave style (especially on their earlier stuff). It's hard not to get excited hearing something so refreshingly...well...retro (is early to mid 2000s retro already?) in a non-ironic way.
- Some Lost, Some Found
"Pop to be experienced through headphones, obsessively, and with the blinds half-drawn."
- Jacob Price, Delusions of Adequacy
His & Her Vanities: "Wait It Out" / Daily Ops @ Cokemachineglow.com
"His & Her Vanities: the Madison quartet with a John & Yoko temperament, minus the flashbulbs and body hair. These husband-and-wife fronted rockers steal weirdo-wedlock designs from Jack White, though Ricky and Terrin Riemer have a style of their own to flaunt, adding a crest of personalised hell to their billowing pop-rock throwovers."
His and Her Vanities: The Mighty Lunge
Madison, WI quartet, His and Her Vanities release their third album, The Mighty Lunge via the Science of Sound record label. Generally Science of Sound's bands are artsy rock bands, but His and Her Vanities break the mold. Their variety of raw, energetic pop is reminiscent of bands like the Pixies or the Apples in Stereo. The giddiness of the band can be explained by the band's core, married couple Ricky and Terrin Riemer. Married bands like Mates of State and the Rosebuds have proven that married couples make some of the most joyous music possible. His and Her Vanities is no different. The album's opening track "Hits Like Hail" is an extremely danceable track featuring Interpol-esque guitar work, if Interpol wrote in major keys. The vocals of Ricky Riemer are a combination of yowls and clumsily sung tunes similar to Doug Martsch of Built to Spill or Michael Pace from Oxford Collapse. While some tracks go more into the wall-of-sound territory, the songs never lose their pop base. That base really makes this one of the best Wisconsin albums I have heard since Boris the Sprinkler broke up.
- Adam Morgan, Surviving the Golden Age
"So what's it SOUND like on the Wisconsin scene?" I hear the guy ask the girl, and not a cymbal beat passes before she says "Wilco." Not meant as an insult, and not wrong either. Like a lot of indie music these days, Milwaukee and Madison "sound" like alt country, and damn great and diverse alt country at that: the manic gutterpunk madness of Rocksposure friends Sleeping in the Aviary; the Championship's robust backwoods rock; the folksy, homespun beauty of Wisconsin's most famous musical export of late, Bon Iver. There are plenty of noteworthy exceptions to this sweeping generality (Decibully and Brief Candles among them), but admit it: the girl's got a point ( click here and prove her wrong, you upstart Spanish techno cheesehead troubadours), and sometimes you want to shake to something other than the yankee hotel foxtrot.
Here's your palate-cleanser: His and Her Vanities, which started circa 2001 in Ricky and Terrin Riemer's Madison basement as a late-night side project to their married with children gig. A year later the Riemers founded Science of Sound to release their music, and since then their label has attracted an impressive line-up of local indie artists, including Sleeping in the Aviary. Call H&HV's third album, "The Mighty Lunge," a punk record I guess, but the Riemers, drummer Sara Quigle, and rhythm guitarist Matt Abplanalp decorate their bouncy staccato sound with melodic new wave flourishes, like the rubber band guitars bending around driving, Thermals-esque opener "Hits Like Hail." Far-off pianos chime like glimmers of hope against lead singer Ricky's cries of "When will this cyclone ever end?" on "Wait It Out," a frustrated, hair-pulling pep talk that gets drowned out in the drums and guitars tumbling downhill. It's all coming apart on "The Mighty Lunge," and while H&HV don't arrive at any world-saving epiphanies in the album's brisk 30 minutes, what you do hear hits your weary heart like a booster shot.
This is music to cope by. Ricky dodges crumbling walls and shattered windows on "What It Is," ducking behind a wall of Julian Casablancas distortion to ruminate that "there's nothing left to contemplate -- cuz here it is." On the similarly Strokesy "Fuses" all the lights go out, and Ricky can't find a good reason to change the bulbs or buy new candles, setting up the album's moodier Act III. Without really slowing down or losing focus, H&HV open up their sound in subtle ways, like Ricky's vocals resisting the lullaby guitars on "New Designs," refusing to fall back into old patterns, pressing forward on his own, mixing with the music instead of racing after it. And then, the Lunge: "This is the end of the connection," Ricky sings on "Agenda," cutting his last lifeline, dropping through the cracks towards the sire songs of his bandmates' harmonies. On the other side of the chasm is the lovely, damn near orchestral "Wake Up This Day," which finds Ricky at peaceful slumber, dreaming of a new life, but not quite ready to roll out of bed and make it happen. I imagine that in the early days of H&HV and Science of Sound, the Riemers dragged themselves through a few early mornings and late nights like this, sleepwalking down to their basement once the kids were finally tucked in, fighting the urge to crash on the couch. They're on the other side now, living the dream, and Wisconsin music is richer for it.
MadTracks: 'Hits Like Hail' by His & Her Vanities
Many parents of infants are ready to pass out -- and understandably so -- after tending to their kid all day. But when Terrin and Ricky Riemer put their baby in his crib for the evening, they didn't pass out: They started to rock out.
What began as an idea for a band around 1999 grew into a full-fledged project; His & Her Vanities, which released their first album in 2002, as well as the labelScience of Sound, which is now home to Sleeping in the Aviary, Pale Young Gentlemen, Whatfor, The Hussy, Icarus Himself and several others in addition to His & Hers.
And the left-field lo-fi they came up with wasn't the stuff of most lullabies: It was an angular post-punk soundtrack that lured plenty of local folks into the world of indie rock. Perhaps it makes sense to look to the Riemers for the next evolution of pop-music culture as well. Their song "Hits Like Hail," off of their brand-new album The Mighty Lunge, presents at least one path for musicians who want to keep the D.I.Y. ethic that built the indie movement but ditch the cliches that accompany it.
The song's "personality" emerges from themes of devastation and doubt -- and that frantic scramble to keep things from changing, even if it's time for some old walls to crumble. As the guitar loops through an addictive set of chords over and over again, making you crave the melody more rather than getting it out of your system, it reminds you of being thrown for a loop by a shocking life event, with a certain set of pictures, sounds and other memories on constant rewind-and-repeat in your head.
Despite the weighty themes the song bites into, it started simply as a simple sonic experiment, according to the Riemers. However, the addition of vocals gave it an entirely new layer of meaning.
"I began playing a couple of simple bass parts to a simple beat on a drum machine, and then Ricky went nuts layering guitars, real drums and vocals over it," says Terrin. "In general, it's about something devastating that happens, and it's eating you up inside. You're trying to keep yourself together while going through it, also becoming suspicious of other things throughout the process."
"Hail" nails the nervous energy that fuels this gnawing suspicion and uses it to create something that's both beautiful and slightly disturbing.
The song kicks off with an energetic beat suited for both jumping jacks and inspired head-bobbing, layered with a ringing guitar that slides from one octave to another with rhythmic precision. The vocals, almost shouted, pack the power of a scream but keep a lid on it as well, bottling that emotion for a few bars, then letting it rip when the chorus reaches its apex with "You can't set fire to get rid of the desire / And if you break there won't be anything to save."
It's a moment that indeed hits like hail, blasting you with shards of sound that seem icy-cool but leave a welt that burns like hell -- and keeps you coming back for more.
- Jessica Steinoff, MadTracks
A.V. Club Madison Interview w/ Ricky and Terrin
An old press photo of His And Her Vanities shows the Madison band leaping into the air, arms flailing, faces grinning, and bassist Terrin Riemer and drummer Sara Quigle sporting obvious wigs. That matched up well with the Devo-inspired spazz-outs Riemer and husband Ricky crafted before recording the band's self-titled first album. But in the five years since 2004's A Thought Process came out, HHV has laid pretty low. Between gradual spurts of writing and the occasional show, the Riemers have been busy raising their kids and building up their Science Of Sound label (which has released albums by younger local bands like Sleeping In The Aviary and Pale Young Gentlemen) and a recording studio in their basement. They're not even headlining the CD-release show this Saturday at The Frequency for their new third album, The Mighty Lunge. What Lungegives up in noisy guitar and synth squiggles, it replaces with sympathy and urgency. The second track, "Wait It Out," sums up not just the album's emotional pull, but also the overloaded, frustrating transitions of adult life: It goes for straight-up catharsis as Ricky Riemer's guitar chords scratch into Quigle's appropriately tossing-and-turning drums. Already working on more new songs and promising "no more of this five-year shit," the Riemers sat down withThe A.V. Club.
The A.V. Club: These songs seem much more emotionally direct than your previous stuff. Why do you think that is?
Ricky Riemer: It wasn't deliberate. That's what we were feeling at the time, as cheesy as it sounds. We just kind of go back and forth with the angular, more noisy stuff, I guess. We still write stuff like that, too, but we just couldn't fit it on the record. These songs are more straightforward.
Terrin Riemer: I think we just got away from quirky for a while. I don't think they're straightforward, but we're definitely less quirky, at least this time around.
AVC: Did the process of having a family make it more serious?
TR: There's lots of personal stuff in there, but I think all the songs come from a place of frustration. A lot of times that's what we get stuck on for so long, is the lyrics. Our lyrics might not make sense to other people at all, but we don't want to call a song finished just to throw words in there and finish it. It has to make sense to us. That took a long time this time.
AVC: How has running the label affected how you approach your own music?
RR: From my standpoint, I think it makes it better. Just recording people, you get to see how they play—not that I'm stealing their ideas—and different songwriting process.
TR: It's interesting how different they are, especially Sleeping In The Aviary. Those guys are really collaborative. Sometimes they get too many opinions just trying to run things past their friends, having people come over and record with them. We lock ourselves in this little cell. We don't share anything until it's completely done.
AVC: Yeah, up until now you've seemed a bit skittish about sharing new stuff.
RR: It's such a contrast between us and them, because they share everything. Which is cool. I wish I could do that. There's a benefit and a curse in having a studio, too. You can take as much time as you want. You can take too long, too
AVC: Did you find yourself revising and fussing over things a lot?
RR: "What It Is" and "Wake Up This Day" are basically the demo versions. We tried re-recording them, and the vibe changed. We always do this full-circle, loop thing. You do it, you question yourself, then you're like, "Ah, maybe we should redo it," then you come back to the beginning and it's okay.
TR: We don't do anything without a complete loop.
AVC: It seems like there's a lot about your first record that you've left behind.
RR: That record's kind of funny. That's when we first started. Terrin basically learned how to play bass on that record—
TR: While we were writing. He'd just be like, "Play something," so I'd start to play something.
RR: And I'd play drums and say, "Okay, that's gonna be a song." But the mistake was, we got really keyboard-happy. We were kind of new to the keyboards in our basement. But it is what it is.
AVC: Do you think your writing process is tighter now?
TR: I think it's just that we wrote all of these songs while completely sober. [Both laugh.]
- Scott Gordon, A.V. Club, Madison
His & Her Vanities: A seven layer cake of post-punk goodness His & Her Vanities are a Madison music staple. Even more so are the core members of the band, husband and wife Ricky and Terrin Riemer, and their basement studio/record label, Science of Sound, where the Riemer's have recorded local bands such as Icarus Himself, Pale Young Gentlemen, Sleeping in the Aviary, United Sons of Toil, and Charlemagne. The Riemer's recording experience is on full display with their third album, The Mighty Lunge.
On their 2002 self-titled debut album His & Her Vanities were more experimental, creating a record of beautiful, sonic chaos. Two years later they returned with A Thought Process, which had a more stripped down, post-rock sound in comparison to the debut but never skimped on production. The Mighty Lunge is a perfect marriage of those two albums. At times it can be a seven layered cake of post-punk goodness and the next moment you're attacked with a jagged guitar and bass beat down. With the album clocking in at just under thirty minutes it can prove to be one hell of a ride.
The album's opener, "Hits Like Hail," has a jabbing lyrical delivery that is difficult to warm up to, but His & Her Vanities aren't here to hand out hugs. That being said, this is their most personal and balanced work to date. With the song "Wait it Out" and especially on the album closer "Wake Up This Day" the band show their softer, gentler side. His & Her Vanities often garner comparisons to the Pixies, Wire, and Magazine, but on The Mighty Lunge they seem to be channeling their inner garage rocker. And while they stay true to their influences, it is a bit of a departure.
His & Her Vanities aren't trailblazers but they are damn good at what they do. As a reviewer I try to find one bit of constructive criticism for every four positive things and vice versa but with this album it proved to be impossible. It's not perfect, I'll give you that, but I couldn't help but listen to this record as a fan. A fan of not only His & Her Vanities, but of Science of Sound and their work to move the Madison music scene forward. It's bands like His & Her Vanities and people like Ricky and Terrin Riemer that keep Madison vibrant and fresh.
- Joshua James, Dane101
His & Her Vanities cross the finish line
Ricky and Terrin Riemer had never met when they each moved from Milwaukee to Madison in 1994. They eventually came to have something in common — O'Cayz Corral.
Ricky played gigs at the now-defunct music venue on East Wilson Street with his band, Transformer Lootbag. Terrin came to see his shows. A few years later, they were married and had a baby together.
Then they moved into a house northeast of Madison, in Columbus. "Our son was always a good sleeper," says Terrin. "So we would go down to the basement at night with some wine and just play music together."
Terrin played bass. At the time, Ricky would accompany her on drums. "The songs we made down there became our first record," says Ricky.
After a while, he adds, "We had enough songs to play out." His & Her Vanities was born.
This Saturday, Oct. 17, His & Her Vanities will release their third album, The Mighty Lunge, with a show at the Frequency. The CD, five years in the making, is a collection of eight well-honed indie-pop songs that showcase the Riemers' perfectionist approach to making music. "At the end it was like, 'We've got to get it done this year or it's never going to come out,'" says Terrin.
The Riemers' influence on the Madison music scene this decade has been greater than the output of their band. Ricky maintains a recording studio, Science of Sound, in the basement of their home. Science of Sound is also the name of the couple's upstart indie-rock label.
It's an enterprise they've kept small, focusing energy on a handful of their favorite local bands. For the fortunate few the Riemers embrace — bands like Sleeping in the Aviary, Pale Young Gentlemen, Whatfor and Icarus Himself — their support is extensive.
"That's the fun part of the label," says Terrin. "We've become really close friends with Sleeping in the Aviary. Booking tours and putting out records for a band that is touring — it's not living vicariously through them, but it's exciting to help somebody do what you always wondered it would be like to do."
The Riemers' band is a hobby, says Terrin. "Where we are in our lives with kids, we can't hit the road anytime soon. But it's something we can't let die. It's something we love to do."
His & Her Vanities is a quartet that also includes Sara Quigle and Matt Abplanalp. Quigle was part of an all-girl band, Sailor Harlette. Abplanalp played in Transformer Lootbag with Ricky. He also moved here from Milwaukee in the '90s. "Part of the reason we came here was to be part of the Madison music scene," says Ricky.
The new disc is 30 minutes of catchy indie-pop built on extended guitar riffs that create an impressionistic vibe. The vocals add to the ambience by frequently bleeding into the music without distinction. Single words are often spread across more than one musical bar.
The album sometimes addresses the subject of one's place in the body politic. The song "New Designs," says Terrin, "is basically saying that the only thing you can attempt to have control over in the world is your own mind."
Now that the Riemers have finished their Mighty Lunge, they're already looking forward to the next one. "We really want to have another record out within a year and a half," says Ricky. "We already have some new songs for it."
When Ricky and Terrin Riemer had their second child in 2004, the music of His & Her Vanities was put on hold. But they and their studio/label Science of Sound barely took a break, as they began to take bands such as Sleeping in the Aviary (and their various incarnations) and Pale Young Gentlemen under their wings. They must have had some opportunity, however, to take a good look around, internalizing all the events taking place in the world at large. The Mighty Lunge is a huge welcome-back for the band, although it contains onlyeight tracks and clocks in at just under thirty minutes. But that's enough time to make plenty of observations and, if you could sum up what's going on lyrically in one statement, it might be this: This place is a mess. Even the CD's cover is unsettling; with its nightmarish image of the world giving way as we try to cling to survival.
Ricky's angular, interlocking guitar lines are still the main musical feature here. There are no keyboards and, with the addition of Transformer Lootbag drummer Matt Abplanalp (Abplanalp plays guitar with H&HV in performance only), what you hear is pretty much what you'll get live. That's not to say that there isn't any savvy production going on. His & Her Vanities, and Ricky in particular, are quite sonically sophisticated, adding layers of instrumentation and vocals and building the tunes into glorious cacophony. Guitars relentlessly down-stroke in quarter-notes while the vocal lines are drawn out over the top. Though the band has been compared to Devo in the past, The Mighty Lunge sounds much more like the Strokes or Flaming Lips.
One song in particular illustrates the themes of psychological warfare, circular moods, paralysis and confusion that are reinforced throughout. "Fragments" churns along in the band's familiar, self-described post-punk/pop-rock style. It's hard to swallow everything / Without it taking over me" is typical of the observations made throughout the album. Everywhere I turn there's something / With broken parts underneath… / And if I lose my sense / I will be left in fragments. These words could apply to the warrior on the battlefield as well as the civilian at home, trying to make sense of what's going down.
"Hits Like Hail" is another highlight: It hits like hail / Driven farther than a nail / Devoured.. / You can't cut strings / When you know you're gonna sink.
"What it Is" brings the Flaming Lips to mind most strikingly, building to a rousing climax. Here, There is nothing left to contemplate / Nothing left to shatter. It's not devolution, but the feeling that we're getting the constant runaround, so, why change fuses? as the band sings in "Fuses." Or consider the confusion portrayed in "New Designs: The weight that hides behind the brace / It keeps us all in place / Misleads and makes you think that it's alright… / But no it's not. The band has really ratcheted up the lyrical content here and it pays off big time.
The real trick is how they make all of this bleakness so toe-tappingly fun. The music percolates and the melodies impart an uplifting optimism. The inside sleeve is adorned with innocuous drawings of a dragon and robot (courtesy of each of the Riemers' two kids) and there is a sense of innocence that somehow pokes through the giant mess of a situation that we've so obviously gotten into. Maybe it's summed up best in "Wait it Out."Underneath the sunlight there is darkness / Underneath the darkness there is sunlight. If we're hostages to the world's authoritarian whims and systematic cycles, maybe we can wait it out until the next glimmer of sunshine gives us that slim feeling of hope. By pointing out the futility in the status quo, The Mighty Lunge makes a strong case for resolving that the cycle must be broken.
- Rick Tvedt, Local Sounds Magazine
His And Her Vanities tumbles and screeches into cleverly bent-up pop that shows a clear love for the jarring sounds of Brainiac and Enon. Most of HHV's tunes, though, keep it a bit more sweet and catchy, not getting overly caught up in mechanical new-wave weirdness. That's especially true of the band's new third album,The Mighty Lunge. It took five years of on-and-off work to complete, mostly because band founders Ricky and Terrin Riemer were busy raising their kids and putting out other Madison artists' work through their Science Of Sound label. The wait pays off emotionally in some of the band's most direct, accessible, and warm songs to date.
- The Onion A.V. Club, Madison, WI
Order Now: $10.00 | CD | iTunes | Digital Tracks on Bandcamp
Review of "Coffins" on Rocksposure
Unlike the hothead they take their name from, it is almost impossible to get Icarus Himself riled up. In the course of the eleven songs on their sophomore record, only "Flatwoods, WV" even breaks a sweat, and that's only in the last thirty seconds. Even though there is plenty to get upset about in the first two minutes—like the narrator's grandfather forcing his mother to give his older brother up for adoption and not being told about it for nearly twenty years—Nick Whetro's voice remains deadpan over the quick strum of the guitar and click of the drums. That is "until they put pennies on her eyes" and her death breaks the hold of "nineteen years of deception, a hundred tears for a lie" and the song ends with a squawk of feedback.
Heck, that little bit of heat wouldn't even melt off more than a couple of feathers. Throughout Coffins, Whetro and Karl Christenson, who is also a partner in crime in the National Beekeepers Society, play it cool, sounding like Jeff Magnum (of acknowledged influence Neutral Milk Hotel) might if his nervous breakdown had been treated with lithium and electroshock. Even songs that start off sounding angry ("There were words spoken, those words hurt like hell") and build ("I'm trying to be patient, but only time will tell") eventually diffuse with the admission, "Sometimes I can't stand you, but that doesn't mean I don't want you around" (which is also the title).
Even though Icarus Himself is essentially Whetro's solo project, he gets plenty of help from his friends. Christenson also joins him in the live incarnation of the band, which seldom runs as smoothly as the songs on this disc, playing baritone guitar and handling the sampler and looping pedal. Fellow Beekeepers Brad Motl and Kris Hansen also contributed, as well as Elliott Kozel and Michael Sienkowski of Sleeping in the Aviary. The lyrics to "January (Tennessee)" are attributed to Whetro and Kozel, and it took me more than a minute to puzzle out why they were so familiar. The repeated lines "On the floor in Tennessee, you married me/You were bored in New Orleans, you married me," also show up in Aviary's "Pop Song," though in their case they are yelped instead of intoned, an actual pop song instead of a requiem.
It's not that Coffins is boring, not at all. It just prefers to take things easy, and that's really OK. It's a well-crafted and intriguing record that lends itself to multiple listens despite the similarity of the songs (just try telling the title track and "Precedents" apart in the first ten seconds) and the thirty minute run time. While some musicians have a hard time deciding which compositions go to the band and which to their solo venture, in Whetro's case the songs seem to sort themselves: excitable Pavement-esque rockers, Beekeepers pile; don't want to (or just can't) get that worked up, that's an Icarus. Though it appears the occasional song can go either way.
"Scars" was the standout track on the Beekeepers ambitious debut. It reappears here with its heroine Mary and her "very discerning hates in the clothes she wears and who she dates" slowed down just a bit and seeming right at home. Of course, that record came before Whetro's personality split, so it's possible she was an Icarus girl all along. If forced to choose, I guess I am too.
- Kiki Schueler, Local Sounds Magazine
Madison rocker Nick Whetro is best known as the frontman of theNational Beekeepers Society, but he's working on forging a new identity -- Icarus Himself. Whetro released Icarus's first LP, "Coffins," in April with the help of Beekeepers guitarist Karl Christenson.
Fans of the Beekeepers will recognize Whetro's dark, quirky lyrics on "Coffins," but the album showcases an entirely different musical style. Gone is the Beekeepers' messy, impulsive garage rock. "Coffins" references cleaner, more ethereal indie rock instead, emulating bands who layer acoustic guitar over electric loops and ghostly vocal harmonies. Tracks like "Pigg" and "This Means Nothing" are clear nods to Neutral Milk Hotel, kicking off with rhythmic guitar and lonely vocals, then adding sustained electric reverb and finishing with uninterrupted noisy instrumentals.
There are a few tracks that feel suspiciously like previously released National Beekeepers Society songs, however. "Scars" was, in fact, released in 2006 on the Beekeepers' self-titled debut—but this slower, more plaintive version adds new desperation to a song about a young woman struggling with self-image and societal pressure. Additionally, "Lessons from the Flood" and "Sometimes I Can't Stand You, but That Doesn't Mean I Don't Want You Around" are almost exactly like two tracks off the Beekeepers' 2008 album, "Pawn Shop Etiquette."
Despite borrowing material from his other band, Whetro produced a solid album as Icarus Himself. The tracks form a cohesive unit and maintain the wispy indie-rock style without becoming tired or formulaic.
Icarus Himself will perform at High Noon Saloon at 8:00 on August 3 before leaving Madison for a Midwest tour.
- Jacquelyn Askins, Examiner.com
Anyone familiar with the small-but-worthy music scene of Wisconsin's liberal and educational capital, Madison, likely knows Nick Whetro or at least his band, National Beekeepers Society. That particular outfit – an energetic quartet that channels Pavement's take on garage aesthetic and pairs it with Whetro's generally charming vocal delivery – certainly sounds familiar to Whetro's Icarus Himself, but its definitely not an identical project with a fresh name. Pairing with NBS guitarist Karl Christenson to create IH, Coffins is mellower, softer, and all together more rewarding than NBS in an album format – but will remind fans of Whetro's other work that he's really best heard live.
In tune with Whetro's consistent taste for garage-pop and a comfortably disheveled sound, Coffinsdoesn't require steely concentration or avid fandom, but it does feature a welcome splash of textural focus and thematic cohesion. No, this album isn't an overly simple affair. Rather, Whetro takes what he does best – freewheeling pop songs flavored with a splash of sonic whiskey – and gives them more dynamism and a wider pallet of sounds than some of his other work. Instead of just a thrusting tempo and distorted fuzz, the title-track approaches energetic rock with pastoral washes of guitar and ethereal background vocals. The more growling Flatwoods, WV drapes noise over an early-Bowie guitar lick, but gives it folky structure a-la-Neutral Milk Hotel. And the Coffins incarnation of Scars slows the song's tempo to a brooding pace, allowing delicate piano and groaning strings to highlight each moving lyric. Even better, IH's songs aren't just more varied; they also fit together cleanly and don't feel disjointed like NBS's somtimes explosive yet unmanageable tracks.
Coffins only falters briefly during its wisely succinct half-hour playtime, finding the shortest songs to be its best. But its weakest moments are not the product of overwriting or cumbersome ideas, but rather overt imitation. This Means Nothing is catchy but apes Neutral Milk Hotel so strongly its hard not to wish for In the Aeroplane Over the Sea instead. Sometimes I Can't Stand You seems suspiciously similar to NBS's People's Temple (though it is catchy), and Precedents takes too many unsuccessful liberties with its Spoon-like rhythmic production.
But even those critiques are nitpicky – Coffins is generally short, sweet, and easy to spin to a finish. On more jovial tracks like the aforementioned Precedents its easy to see why Madison loves NBS so much, though Whetro's stage-charm would make Icarus Himself at its most upbeat even easier to love. And the slower tracks on Coffins, twangy and succinct, make this disc a worthy buy even without that live flavor. Icarus Himself might not be treading any new ground not already explored by Whetro or his influences, but Coffins does this playful retreating almost perfectly.
- Michael Merline, No Ripcord
Believe it or not, the Madison, Wisc., area is a hotbed for low-fi and creative pop music. Charlemagne, Bon Iver, The Daredevil Christopher Wright and now Icarus Himself. There's nothing too flashy about the noir Western sound on "Coffins," but the instrumentation is solid, the lyrics are provocative and the arrangements are just experimental enough to keep the band one step ahead of the curve. The record grows on you, gets better each time. And with several songs under two minutes, it's easy as pie to listen to a couple times in one sitting. Mmmmm, pie.
- Jeremy Martin, WIDR's Top 5 (Kalamazoo)
Nick Whetro is not the real Icarus; let's get that straight. He was never a Crete captive, his dad wasn't Daedalus, and he certainly didn't drown in the North Aegean Sea as a result of some heated aerobatics. He has, though, lived something of a similarly colourful life (or at least knows how to eavesdrop on killers, etc.) and has done a natty job of confessing all onCoffins, one of the more out-there hyperfolk debuts to emerge from the clamour of Madison wannabes. So out-there, in fact, that he actually went ahead and self-released it before Science of Sound came knocking, keen to give him space to comfortably reinvent himself. Yes, Whetro's quaint hooks are already familiar to fans of his National Beekeepers Society mother project, and his intentions as Icarus Himself are to go to an even quainter place, combining lo-fi guitar warblings with some fucked-in-the-head narration. He's also taken other ex-National Beekeepers Society guy Karl Christenson with him, just in case his ideas get so lo-fi the studio only loans him one Dictaphone. What any of this has got to do with the plush sycamore booths we all get one day lowered into I'm not sure, but Coffins is a cool-enough debut; a nice druggy half-light between the Pink Panther bass.
If you want to get Coffins in a single sound bite, try "lost Bowie demo tape overdubbed with acid confessions." That should warm you up for Whetro's eleven-track, half-hour romp and prepare you for what first feels like alt-country experiments with a lunatic wailing at the back. But wait out and you'll be rewarded with a private aura: "Pigg" might start like any other busker template that's been dipped in Will Oldham horrors, but on second listen (or 1.5 in my case) I realised that Whetro is trying to paint something a little grander than the stuff you half-hear in a bar. "Run through the house on your knees / Oh oh oh oh oh, it hurts"...yes, get used to it; you'll be humming that badboy by sundown.
There're country sunsets and skunk solos abound on Coffins, as well as some real headscratchers that will probably click in ten months or so. Why the punk stomp of "Flatwoods, WV" gets cut short at the height of the stride is a question that only Whetro's dealer can answer, but there's plenty to sway you from some of the more bizarre edits. "35 To Life" is the clear standout for me: punchy psychedelia where the lyrics become ether, wiping your head out for one self-actualising second. "Stuck on a word as hard as start / Pickin' pockets in the dark / Times are tough for stupid lines / I hate so much I should be feelin' fine." My guess is it's a coke ode, but who's to say what deep peculiarities Coffinswill fish from your own noggin.
Between the carefree fuzzbox, harp-speckled swamp, digs at W ("Lessons From The Flood," I'm guessing—those organ chords just scream St. Louis Cathedral Choir) and psychiatric couch prattle ("I've had wet dreams about kid-eating beans" [hyphen inserted to protect decency]), Whetro goes pleasantly ballistic, ingratiating himself with your darker crannies while his guitar gently cackles. That might only make up, say, 76% of your overall listening tastes, but it's definitely a ride worth taking. Twice possibly if need be. Coffins could easily double as a springboard to something a gnat's more immediate, and with a little less heroin/self-harm between recording slots, I'd say Icarus Himself might soar.
Creating a snarky, ironic and sometimes rather noisy set of music, Icarus Himself is the project of Nick Whetro, with the help of Karl Christenson. A playful side of life, sliced in a crisp half-hour, Coffins is an even-tempered, jovial, rollicking affair. And although each song may recall one of Whetro's great indie rock bands, its cohesive wrapping never comes undone.
Without a doubt, the idiosyncratic lyrics work wonders for Whetro because it gives the music the sense of laid-back air. On "Scars," Whetro tackles the topic of self-destruction in only the way he can. With a guitar that sounds like Chris Isaak himself is playing, Christenson's baritone guitar back-drops Whetro's sharp, disdained delivery.
The album's chief highlight is "Sometimes I Can't Stand You, but That Doesn't Mean I Don't Want You Around." A whirling keyboard is felt shuffling in the background, while the muffled deliveries of the guitars echo with reverberations. And all the while, Whetro repeats the song title to close everything out. On "Coffins," the ensuing placidity is something out of Spoon's book and with those spectral vocals and odd piano-line, it only supports the cause.
Whetro's singing could certainly benefit from some more rehearsing but you can't help taking it at face value: he isn't necessarily trying to sing sweet nothings into your ear. The despair and gloom is everything onCoffins and it comes in the shape of blunt and upfront lyrics. Whether it's the pessimistic complaining, paired with stabbing guitars and thumping drums on "This Means Nothing" or the Fastball-channeling loser on "35 to Life," which finds Whetro singing, "Only mother knows…" the conveyance of depression is done in a light-hearted manner with the latter's cheery guitar interplay.
All in all, it's a promising debut in a surprising manner. "January (Tennessee)" is the album's best song and as the music progresses into an angry retort on a broken relationship, Whetro channels said emotion to create the album's best music. Everything comes crashing down and, fractured and bitten, he sings "As we lie on the mattress we abused, her mouth spits truth." It's because of this budding potential that one can look forward to the next album by Whetro, I just wonder if his tongue will remain firmly set in cheek.
Okay, so there's this guy, Nick Whetro, right? And he was in this band called National Beekeepers Society. Maybe you've heard of them. Anyway, he decides he's gonna, like, spread his wings and go solo but instead of calling himself Mr. Whetro, he calls himself Icarus Himself, which of course is doubly ironic because (a) he's not Icarus and (b) when Icaraus spread his wings, he burned and plummeted. Also, it's not just Mr. Whetro; he's helped out (significantly) by Karl Christenson.
Anyway, don't let the pretention keep you away. This is a smooth, albeit somewhat nerdy, collection of well-crafted tunes that fall somewhere between indie rock and mood rock and (ocassionally) folk.
For fans of: Beirut, Bright Eyes, Nick Drake, and maybe even Syd Barrett. I hear a lot of old Floyd in here . . . Good stuff.
- Ekko, Berkeley Place
Icarus Himself started out as a side project for the solo cravings of National Beekeepers Society frontman Nick Whetro. Mostly acoustic spiced with loops and samples and the indispensable aid of Karl Christenson Coffins is an album that feels comfortable in the vicinity of the output of Robyn Hitchcock and Syd Barrett. Hints of early seventies Bowie (Flatwoods, WV)) and dark country a la Johnny Dowd (35 To Life) this album sounds muffled and lo-fi, which is fitting for songs dealing with ennui.
Coffins can be labeled as neo-pyschedlic freak folk music. Musicians can have fun figuring out the tunings, mere mortals may have trouble digesting it and should start with a a song like Precedents, where Icarus Himself sounds like the Everly Brothers from Hell.
- Here Comes The Flood
I was in a very short lived band in High School. We would meet at my friend Max's house when his musician parents would play out and we would record with whatever equipment they didn't load into the van, which usually meant we would lay down vocals using the receiver end of a pair of headphones, use one of Max's mom's bass guitars, and an out of tune piano. The result of our piecemeal band left something to be desired. The point in regaling you with a pointless story of my yesteryear is this: If we had any talent or vision I would have liked to sound like Icarus Himself.
On "Coffins", the latest record under Nick Whetro and Karl Christenson's moniker Icarus Himself, the band picks up where they left off with their self titled EP but add a healthy dose of additional texture to their lo-fi sound. One need not look any further than the stand-out track, "Scars," which begins with minimal acoustic guitar before picking up with dusty sweeping chords a minute later. A tale of a girl driven by popular culture trends who harbors something deeper, "Scars" is as heartbreaking as it is beautiful.
I never cease to be amazed with the layers I uncover with each listen of "Coffins." I hate making comparisons but Icarus Himself do at times remind me of Neutral Milk Hotel in both sound and lyrical delivery, but those similarities wash away with repeated play when you realize the creative breadth within the band. That isn't to say NMH weren't talented but I think Whetro and Christenson are playing on a different plane. I can't sing this band's praises enough. They embody everything I enjoy about music; originality, solid songwriting, and being willing to take risks. Despite any comparisons I make, Icarus Himself have carved out their niche in the Madison music scene and they are here to keep us on our toes.
This is a plea to all of you in Madison, WI who keep flooding my mailbox with some wonderful music – keep it up. Cause now I'm going to start gushing about the latest arrival from Icarus Himself. Coffins, a fitting title by the way, comes quickly off the heels of Nick Whetro's other project, National Beekeeper's Society, and their scruffy basement blast, Pawn Shop Etiquette. Whetro is a much darker figure than his "band" would suggest, and it's nice that he can manifest it within Coffins' starched stark folds. On Coffins there's a lot of talk about January, there's a lot of pianos wallowing (I used this adjective last time) and weeping, there's a lot of abuse, both physical and mental, that would suggest that Wisconsin is a tough place to live and an easy place to fall down some blackened, but baroque, staircases. This is especially true on the title track, where Whetro chronicles Midwestern spousal disputes from the perspective of the beaten. It's rough stuff, but hopeful as it untangles into a lushly arranged end.
Listening to "Scars," a beautifully re-worked version from his debut EP, I can hear the rustic surrealism of Twin Peaks (those bellowed Badalamenti tones) matched with a twinkling music box three doors down. The sandpaper n' skin contrast shows Whetron finding his voice and his sound. Where many have compared the guy to Beirut and Neutral Milk Hotel (I'll give you the lite-psych of "This Means Nothing") but to these ears it's more Spoon-noir shuffling. The methodical, eloquent cadence he's found as a wordsmith, see "Flatwoods, WV," is a perfect foil for the highly evolved musicianship most of these Madison folkies are spending their sunless days and bleak nights mining freely.
So I have to ask, what's the main drag in Madison? This stuff needs its own column now.
- World of Wumme
Icarus Himself is the solo venture of National Beekeepers Society's Nick Whetro. With this project Whetro takes the refined distortion of the National Beekeepers and combines it with his wry and quirky vocals to make what I can only categorize as basement tape beauty.
It is the minimal nature of Icarus Himself that makes them so appealing; with a few guitars, a drum machine, and a whole lot of dissonance, Whetro has masterfully done with a couple albums what many agonize to accomplish with endless releases--which is to create something uniquely his own."
- Joshua James, Dane 101
The Hussy side is pretty damn good! No shit! "One Time" is teeth-baring and mean, tempered by the guy-girl vox, but the guitar slinging is really commendable and it's a shithouse stomper. "I Got Soul" sounds like a vintage Statics cut (pared down by a member of course) and "Snakes" maybe ventures into half-assed Drags turf (sans the bombast). An unexpectedly good side worth of Nineties-inflected two-piece garage. I like the nastier approach The Hussy take on this record than I do the poppier stuff on their 7". While that stuff wasn't bad, it sounds a little blander after listening to them kick out the jams on this.
- Terminal Boredom, Late July 2009
The Hussy and Their Unique Friends Split a 7" The Hussy, a 7 Inch Atlanta favorite from Madison, made their vinyl debut with this split with hometown oddballs Sleeping in the Aviary.
A second Madison band, Sleeping in the Aviary, is a nice suprise here, as they play cooky guitar rock for the internet humor generation. Their side of vinyl begins with "Automatic (For Krol)," which builds tension until its explosive "It's all in the boat you row" end. The second song, "Radio Wave," has a Pixies vibe to it, and it apparently tells the story of the mangled bride on the cover. Speaking of the cover, does it not look like a standard Derek Lyn Plastic cut, paste and catch a ride to Kinko's concert poster?
This Sleeping in the Aviary crew has some free songs on theirwebsite, if you do not mind navigating past lots of nightmare-inducing photos of Teri Hatcher, dogs, and puppets. They are also coming to town August to play 529 with It's Elephants.
The Hussy offered three songs from their first batch of demos I reviewed recently for their side of vinyl. "One Time", "I Got Soul", and "Snakes" sound even better on vinyl.
Every 7 Inch Atlanta favorite should do a split with a band I'm not familiar with, as that makes finding unique, new music hassle-free. If Sleeping in the Aviary is anything, it's unique. They have a barroom singalong tune called "Dick Gere," for crying out loud.
- 7 Inch Atlanta
The Hussy Side:
Bobby (The Hussy) also sent me their first single, 'One Time' from the Science of Sound... the Fistful one and this came out at nearly the same time, but technically this was conceived of earlier so it'll go down in the books as the first. Science of Sound records based in Madison, The Hussy and Sleeping the Aviary's hometown, released this black and white glossy sleeve split between the two bands. Bobby told me how he'd beena huge fan of Sleeping in the Aviary and it was pretty amazing to not only appear on this split but actually sit in on guitar for them once.
The first track on the Hussy side, 'One Time', is a more abrasive Hussy than the previously reviewed single...dirtier and raw. It practically sounds recorded live in a huge room sound, Heather and Bobby have tons more attitude here supporting each others verses and the whole thing is in danger of flying apart the entire time...completely off the rails. I think the vocals back and forth supports this great garage punk pop sound...making it even bigger, even more fun...singing along with themselves...good naturedly yelling at each other. The solo towards the end is just ridiculous, clean gated overdrive...where in between notes there's just a hint of feedback, low crunchy feedback. At the end there's all kinds of radio static, flipping around channels with lonely piano chords.... nice segue to 'I Got Soul' where the dirty guitar is still on 11, full of their sludgy distortion. The huge sound is even more cavernous, the drums heavy hitting with tons of low end. Lots of reverb...even on Bobby's vocals, when he's singing 'Yea I've got soul...yea I do.' They're referencing that electric blues history...well, at least I think they definitely have that influence poking through with pieces like the backwards blues scale on 'Snakes'. Heather takes main vocal duties while Bobby frantically keeps up this up the guitar line which breaks up in stuttered off beats when Heather bashes the snare and kick at the same time. No....We don't / we don't / even care.
Yes you do Hussy.
I have to say on this effort... that does it, I'm hooked...this dirtier sound is right on the edge of being completely in the red, it's more blown out and completely fits the garage punk sound even better.
Bobby graciously agreed to provide the track 'One Time' from this single to download. I'm also playing a bunch of stuff behind the podcast interview so you get a sense of their stuff.
The Sleeping in the Aviary side:
'Automatic'. Right away I'm getting like an At the Drive In energy, it blows up right out of the gate with up front distorted vocals. They combine that manic energy with little weezer-like distortion harmonics. The vocals 'oooooo' in harmony that match the high distorted guitar, which keeps building layers of higher and higher notes that almost become synth. There's a lot of great changes, it's impossible to keep up with the vocal pace and the constant guitar bursting into new chords and time changes. Extremely tight and catchy...there's no chorus, just an ever changing melodic assault.
'Radio Waves', the second one, begins with distorted bassline and vocals, written by Phil, who plays and sings on this one. I haven't heard someone go all out in this minimal direction since the Pixies...it's really got that energy when it blasts into the chorus. The same high hat tempo...catchy and taking chances...it all ends in unintelligible screaming with the entire thing collapsing, drum sticks and coughing like less than two minutes later.
This split is available from the Science of Sound for $5...easy on the wallet...pick one up...great pummeling tracks from both bands that will increase your heart rate.
For the podcast this week, Episode 56 (14mb-15min), Bobby and I ended up talking on the phone about Hussy's local tour, he and Heathers earlier projects, both of their singles out now, how it was working with the labels... and how Jeff Novak ended up in a picture holding a copy of their 7".
- Jason, 7 Inches
The Hussy's Army of Two
The Hussy's two-person garage-punk army is ready to seek and destroy eardrums. The ammo? Drums and guitar. And vocals.
Bobby Wegner (guitar, vocals) and Heather Sawyer (drums, vocals) have gained recognition in Madison (their hometown) and Milwaukee through their raucous live performances as well as in Europe, through the release of their latest 7″ Winter Daze (title track, below) on the Netherlands' a Fistful of Records. The six-song EP 7″ was released on Fistful back in March and in April in Madison/Milwaukee. Short blasts of songs make for one speedy and thoroughly enjoyable, energetic freak-out.
Recorded by Kyle Motor/Urban (side A) at MotorCo Studios in Madison and Ricky Riemer (side B) and mastered by Justin Perkins, Winter Dazes is slightly messy (but not sloppy), Wegner and Sawyer's shout/snarl-ed lyrics ear-blasting the trials and tribulations of drinking, loud music, summer and turkeys, sub-three-minute-style.
The band's split with Madison's Sleeping in the Aviary is a satisfying spin of both, but the Hussy dominates the wax on their side, kicking and screaming out riffage, crashing drums and those confident, alternating vocals that demand attention, right now. Snakes? Snakes! That's right. Everything gets punctuated to the utmost, and then some.
- Erin Wolf, Fan-Belt
Order Now: $10.00 | CD | iTunes | Digital tracks on Bandcamp
Despite its title—2008's Expensive Vomit In A Cheap Hotel—the second album fromSleeping In The Aviary opens up the band's tender side amid its lo-fi scars and unruly freak-outs. As always, the band deliberately leaves a lot of loose ends, as random bits of chatter and noise make their way onto the tracks—though that's not necessarily a bad thing. Earlier this year, Sleeping In The Aviary released a 7-inch with Madison garage-rock duo The Hussy featuring the blasting "Automatic," a frantic return to the Buzzcocks- and Thermals-style pop-punk of the band's 2007 album Oh, This Old Thing?
- The Onion A.V. Club, Decider, Milwaukee
The second album by Sleeping in the Aviary is a balancing act: The band has perfected the art of teetering between the frenzy of an unpolished living-room performance and the coherence of an intricately composed folk-pop song played by a group of skilled musicians. The disc revolves around the quivering vocals of Elliott Kozel, whose voice and sense of melody recall Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes at some points and an old West Band blues musician at others. In fact, the whole band sounds like they could be from another time, with instruments like the accordion, saw, and ukulele adding to the organic, porch-swinging feel.
Their sound isn't completely derivative of old-timey folk, though. Kozel shines as a folk songwriter on slower songs such as "Maybe You're the Same," but just when it seems as though the band could be pigeonholed as another folk revival project, they ramp up the intensity and add the reverberation of a heavy electric guitar chord and the feedback of a bass guitar. "Gas Mask Blues" is the most extreme example of this genre-bending, which builds from an acoustic guitar and a shaker to a full-band, driving, screaming freak-out.
- Andrea Swensson, City Pages (St. Paul/Minneapolis)
Sleeping in the Aviary found a follower in me with a sound on their 2006 debut, Oh, This Old Thing?, that reminded me of the fun, careless nature of Thermals-esque, lo-fi power-pop. Granted, the record hasn't gotten much replay out of me since I reviewed it, but my memories remain fond. While the "lo-fi" aesthetic is still here, Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel is another whole beast.
Rather than try and improve upon that aforementioned formula, SITA has just about completely abandoned it, opting for a heavily acoustic-based, playful indie folk affair that sounds like Jeff Mangum listening to a shitload of Bob Dylan before recording In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. Of course, Vomit barely even brushes the greatness of Neutral Milk Hotel's classic, but the feel is quite similar. I mean, look at the instruments used: piano; ukulele; tea kettle; accordion; saw; and "noise."
A dude named Elliott in the liner notes seems to be the main songwriter here (the Mangum of the whole thing, you could say). His voice more accurately hits notes than Mangum's, though, and never cracks in pleasingly cringeworthy fashions. Rather, it's delivered with a slight strain but still clean and free -- sort of like Conor Oberst in his more lively offerings, and when it lets loose in coarse yelping (which isn't terribly often) it makes for a fine dynamic.
It's hard to highlight standouts, but as far as that carefree nature goes, "Girl in the Ground" has it in spades. This is something SITA hasn't lost at all since This Old Thing, and that's the pure sense of absolute joy in songwriting and performing. Vomit sounds like a bunch of loosely assembled tracks recorded on the first or second take, and a band having a shitload of fun doing it. It's hard not to get some enjoyment out of hearing their enjoyment.
Sleeping in the Aviary has released another superbly solid full-length, and consequently deserve way more notice than they seem to receive. Get on it, people.
- PunkNews.org
Sleeping in the Aviary are seemingly of no danger of running out of song fodder. They made their debut last year with the lively, ramshackle Oh, This Old Thing? Frontman Elliott Kozel released a solo album of bedroom recordings as She Is So Beautiful / She Is So Blonde, and drummer Michael Sienkowski put out a winsome collection of pop songs under the name Whatfor. SITA played some shows during this time, too, and amidst all of this, they managed to put together their attempt to evade the sophomore slump. Ladies and gentlemen, behold Expensive Vomit In A Cheap Hotel.
The album solidifies SITA's position as a band to watch – and there's no need to qualify that statement with "young band" or "Midwestern band". Kozel is a versatile songwriter who has an unmistakable knack for pop melodies and an equally unmistakable aversion to pop overproduction. He likes to keep things loose and lo-fi, which suits the material well, and he has an adventurous and sometimes abrasive streak that keeps SITA's path unpredictable.
They begin with an accordion-backed folk-rocker, "Write On," that explodes into a full rock gallop on the second verse as a frustrated Kozel tries to write an ex-lover out of his heart. His similes don't always connect on the opener – "Like an empty spot in a parking lot, I get jealous thoughts wherever you are" – but his lyrics throughout the album are mostly strong. The overriding time of day that his songs convey is about 4am; the forecast is still a little hazy and a little rambunctious, but there are also clouds of regret and moments of clarity moving through.
"I got friends: some of their lives seem over!" he shouts on "Things Look Good." Seconds later, he amends that thought: "I got friends: some of their lives are over." "I'm Old" breaks out some twang to accurately tell a tale of feeling old in your twenties ("Tried to meet some girls but I just drank all their wine / Went out to see a doctor and he just told me I was fine").
Thoughts of mortality prove pesky. Sometimes relationships die but the people live. Sometimes people die but the relationship lives. Two of the best songs are ruminations on death and its effects: the shambling rocker "Everybody's Different, Everybody Dies" and the lively sing-along "Girl in the Ground." The highlights of their debut tended to be short blasts – the propulsion of the aptly titled "Pop Song" or the manic falsetto punk of "Only Son" (each under ninety seconds). Expensive Vomit is more cohesive and fully formed – but still plenty of loose fun. It's also a key release in an impressive year for tiny Madison label Science of Sound, which also put out the fine second album from Pale Young Gentlemen.
- Adam McKibbin, The Red Alert
"Their debut full-length...was a controlled chaos of warbled vocals, fast riffing, and sentiments of abjection. This year's Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel comes up with a similar thesis - but this time around, it's been filtered down to a level somewhere between post-psychotic folk music and a pre-apocalyptic drug addiction. For my money, this is a pure coclear joy."
What's the Deal: You might recognize these guys from Austinist's recent post on the best overlooked albums of 2008. You might also recognize these guys if you were at their Trophy's a month or so back with The Murdocks and Watch Out For Rockets. If you don't, then you missed a truly inspiring show. The band overcame some dodgy sound issues and impressed the crowd with their enthusiasm, and by the end of it, the singer had danced and thrashed and rocked so hard that his pants fell down around his knees. Their invigorating brand of art-folk is equally poppy and chaotic. Their most recent album, Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel, is catchier and more acoustic than their previous, Oh, This Old Thing?, which features some pretty inciting tunes leaning a little more toward a garagey punk sound.
"Pop Song" from Oh, This Old Thing? has a vintage pop sound with its simplistic, infectious nature, but it's beaming with all the energy of a punk anthem. There are some definite That Thing You Do! moments in between the distortion and loud vocals. Then, when you discover the newer "Write On", you'll likely be blow away by the no-cheese, rambunctious folk-pop that you'll be humming for the next few days.
- Austinist
Austinist's Dark Horses: The Best Overlooked Albums of 2008
Sleeping in the Aviary - Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel (Science of Sound)
They're a chaotic art-folk band that manages to pack the right amount of punk and the right amount of pop in their bag of tricks to keep things forever interesting and engaging. The group - Phil, Elliott, Michael and Celeste - are excellent at making the transition between pop acoustic songs and rowdy electric ones feel natural. Although, they don't get as much into the high-octane stuff on this one as with their previous, Oh, This Old Thing.
But honestly, if for no other reason, the very first song of the album is so strong, that it guarantees this album a spot on this year's best overlooked albums. It's called "Write On," and it's catchy, rambunctious and totally inspiring. It's full of furiously strummed acoustic guitar, an electric buzz and a chorus begging to be sung along to as you bounce around with the poppy rhythm. Mix this one with others like the echoing, somber piano tune, "You're a Party," and the Western acoustic number "Gas Mask Blues" and you've got a strong recording full of emotion, harmony and high energy. They flood their live show with even more intensity than the recordings, making that the best way to discover their music. They're also not too bad at creating lyrics that stick, like "If you have my daughter I don't know what I will do, cause I'm gonna want to hit her when she looks like you" from "Gas Mask Blues."
- William Mills, Austinist.com
Interview w/ Elliott on Free Houston Press
Interview with Elliott on The Capital Times
Album Review on Three Imaginary Girls
- CMJ New Music Report 10/20/08
Sleeping in the Aviary, "Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel" (Science of Sound)
My guess is that the titular vomit is "expensive" because these guys gorged on the sophisticated delicacies of pop songcraft while partying in the "cheap hotel" of indie noise-punk. Don't let these guys, or their album's title, fool you. On their sophomore album, Madison-based Sleeping in the Aviary has moved beyond the headlong punk abandon of their debut, crafting an impressive set of refined pop-rock songs -- replete with "la, la, la's" and "oooh-wee's!" -- even if they're still dressing them with indie noise trappings.
Kicking in with the catchy strum and catchier melody of the opener, "Write On," the band sets the tone for an album of off-kilter sing-alongs in which timeless but original melodies and chord progressions are filtered through a bleary wash of folky guitar, haunting organ and accordion, and songwriter Elliott Kozel's nasally straining whine (all necessitating the comparisons to Neutral Milk Hotel). The band proceeds to effuse this sonic wash over forms as diverse as the cluttered, seasick folk of Blonde on Blonde-era Dylan ("Things Look Good"), and the pulsing molten blues of the White Stripes ("Gas Mask Blues").
Invariably creeping through these variable soundscapes are Kozel's festering obsessions with death and decay, radium-soaked lips and people "sick to their skin." This imagery, inspired by several tragedies Kozel endured while writing the album, gives these songs a fitting, unique edge. Indeed, it takes a unique type of twenty-something to sincerely title one of his catchiest tunes "I'm Old," and to make the song entitled "You're a Party" the most depressing one on the album. Depression aside, this band has succeeded in crafting a melodic, listenable album that still retains a unique sonic and lyrical personality. Here's to hoping Elliott Kozel can resolve his issues as well as he resolves his melodies.
- John Kuroski, Elmore Magazine
"Expensive Vomit begins like Gordon Gano of the Violent Femmes leading an unplugged Arcade Fire, but it swiftly blasts into an unbridled rock rave-up worthy of the Pixies back when Black Francis was delivering demon-exercising howls."
- The Charlotte Observer
With a killer band name and an album title that not only catches your attention but is certain to elicit a chuckles every time it's spoken aloud, all Sleeping in the Aviary needed to land a spot on my current list of bands to keep an eye on was a really good follow-up to their underrated debut "Oh, This Old Thing?" Well, I'm happy to report that the Madison, Wis.-based collective has outdone themselves on "Expensive Vomit," a fantastic record that is in the running for inclusion on my year-end list of favorites.
Frontman Elliott Kozel is a witty, talented songwriter who mixes things up with the blues stomp of "Gas Mask Blues" (a tune the White Stripes wish they had written), the Replacements-leaning "Write On" and Bright Eyes-ish "Ladybug Death Song." Additional keepers include "Things Look Good," "Everybody's Different, Everybody Dies" and the sprawling (if slightly overwrought) disc closer "Windshield." I can't wait to hear what these guys come up with next.
-Jeffrey Sisk, The Daily News (McKeesport, PA)
Let it not be said that Sleeping in the Aviary doesn't know how to party.
Brutal truth: As much as you like listening to folk bands, most of those guys aren't the sort of band you'd want playing your birthday party. Earnest and meaningful and Bob Dylan-worshipping just doesn't really translate into a good-time band. They can't all be party acts, though, so fair enough.
Sleeping in the Aviary's twisted spin on folk would be the exception. The band drops its crazy, lo-fi pop mania from its debut, Oh, This Old Thing?, and settles into a folk groove for its sophomore record. Settling in isn't the same thing as settling down. The band's still as in love with mischief, big pop hooks and defying the laws of good sense, tradition and self-importance that are usually the tripod on which folk bands sit.
The raw and immediate approach that garnered the band comparisons to The Thermals is still around. It's toned down a tad, though, as SITA tackles a broader base of influences, drawing on everything from late-'90s indie pop to that sort of singer/songwriter folk that's been around forever without changing one bit. Just take it as a whiskey and speed party at the folk festival and leave it there.
Watching SITA vandalize folk pop is a good time. "Everybody's Different, Everybody Dies" tangles with the same morbid issues of mortality as a young Conor Oberst, but the act's rambunctious lo-fi production hints more at Sebadoh's role in its upbringing. Roots guitar forms the basis for "Things Look Good" and "Gas Mask Blues," but instead of twang guitar, Sleeping in the Aviary turns to shrill, in-the-red guitars that are violent and edgy in a punk sense. Anyone who remembers the band's mile-wide pop streak from Oh, This Old Thing? won't be disappointed, though pure-pop songs like "I'm Old," "Write On" and "Ladybug Death Song" hone the band's craft, as it writes longer, more intricate and all-around more mature tunes.
Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel isn't folk, per se, but it's mostly made up of bits and pieces of the genre. Sleeping in the Aviary just knows how to bang them up, bend them out of shape and make a lot of weird noise in the process. And it has a lot of fun in the process.
-Mark Morrison, Aversion
Sleeping In The Aviary wears its heart on its sleeve, combining wry, yet heartfelt lyrics with an acoustic punk aesthetic. The Madison quartet has much to lament on its sophomore effort, Expensive Vomit In A Cheap Hotel (Science Of Sound). Recording on the heels of a friend's drug overdose, a co-worker's brain aneurysm, and the hospitalization of vocalist Elliott Kozel's mother, the band faces mortality on the clanging, busker tune "Everybody's Different, Everybody Dies." Listing the circumstances under which people will meet their demise borders on morbid, but in Kozel's hands, the song becomes a meditation.
- Illinois Entertainer
- Greg Prato, All Music Guide
"...engaging, dank and irreverent energy..." - Alternative Press
The album title is fairly indicative. These are songs of caustic wit and even more corrosive loathing. The venom seems to be delivered at both the subjects of the songs and (perhaps) other band members as well. I'm not sure about that last part, but this album is tension city. Which makes for compelling listening. Sleeping in the Aviary plays a raggedy sort of rock of roll, one that dips its toe into folk and the blues before galloping back into the world of cranging guitars. Sonic tension, if you will. And like I said, it works quite well. Indeed, just about everything works here. The songs are tight, the band is just loose enough to give some room to breathe and the sound is a couple steps above demo-quality--exactly what these folks need. The easiest touchpoints would be the Brian Jonestown Massacre or the Flaming Lips (circa 1993 or so), though these folks are more anarchic and antisocial. This one sounds good from the start, and then it grows on you. Loverly, kids.
- Aiding & Abetting
AUGUSTA, GA - A little like early emo bands, especially Bright Eyes, Sleeping in the Aviary unleash a driven emotional indie rock sound right from the start of "Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel." But, more than Bright Eyes, Sleeping in the Aviary carry the flag of early- and mid-80s college rock bands such as the Violent Femmes, the Dead Milkmen and They Might Be Giants. Maybe with a little early Against Me thrown in for good acoustic measure. Catchy, danceable, quirky and noisy; the Madison, Wis., trio of Elliot Kozel, Phil Mahlstadt and Michael Sienkowski began their sing-along, intense, stripped-down style of rock in 2003 before releasing their debut, Oh, This Old Thing? in 2007. Following up with Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel, the newly formed quartet since adding Celeste Huele, continue to release out music often thought of as comparable to early New York Punk-era Talking Heads. That early Big Apple vibe gives the band a similar energy as the Velvet Underground too. Frantic, moody and slightly weird; Sleeping in the Aviary's second full-length album pushes the amalgam of screaming vocals and clangy guitar rock into fuzzy, spacey territory. Fans of the early American proto-punk sounds of such Detroit bands as the Stooges and the MC5 or Ohio-based rockers like Rocket from the Tombs will find an energetic little brother with Sleeping in the Aviary.
The opening track, "Write On," kicks off the album with a catchy, fun tune that causes toes to tap along to a very college rock sound. While "Gas Mask Blues" brings out the big guns with a clash of soft singing and wild Sonic Youth-esque noise.
The way the tracks often build from a slow contemplative melodious musing to a screaming fit redolent of any pre-90s indie band, "Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel" packs a punch while asking the listener to pack their lunch for one wild ride through what could quite possibly be the mind of a schizophrenic. Touchy, creative, sappy, eclectic, and fiercely energetic all at the same time; Sleeping in the Aviary bring together an array of sound most bands can only dream of accomplishing. Maybe that's why "You're A Party" reminds one of the Beatles, one of the few other bands in history to approach the ledge of musical creativity and step off it with confidence.
- Dino Lull, Metro Spirit
COMPACT DISCS SOLD OUT | iTunes | Digital tracks on Bandcamp
I'm embarrassed I haven't featured Pale Young Gentlemen on IndieMuse yet. They are one of the best bands making music today, and an absolute must check out if you are an Andrew Bird or Arcade Fire fan (listen to one song and you'll see the Bird reference).
Their 2008 release Black Forest (Tra La La) is a true gem. There are too many great tracks on the album to list them all here, but some of my favorites are "Coal/Ivory,""I Wasn't Worried," and "Kettle Drum (I Left A Note)."
Pale Young Gentlemen is based out of Madison, WI, and band members include Mike Reisenauer, Matt Reisenauer , Brett Randall, Beth Morgan, and Gwendolyn Miller. As a side note, I was reading The Red Alert's interview with Pale Young Gentlemen's frontman, Mike Reisenauer, and he was asked if geography has helped or hurt the band:
"I think it mostly helps us. Writers seem to think it's interesting backstory. For some reason, it's weird to them that Madison, WI exists and that people play music there."
As a midwesterner, I really appreciated that answer. The band is currently working on their third album–I'll keep you posted!
Feature on IndieMuse
I feel like this band is a good mix of everything superb "indie" has to offer. The Madison, Wisconsin band gives us sprinkles of Annuals, Beach House, and maybe even the sentimentality of Sufjan Stevens. I won't fault them at all for compiling from such a smorgasbord, because really, the way I see it, Pale Young Gentlemen are true artists, bending materials, using them to create a truly great masterpiece. It's their second release, and their craftsmanship seems to only grow more mature. The sound, orchestral and harmonious, is tender to the ears. The vocals, light, yet somber are precise and poignant. Really, this album is perfect for the winter, because it has the musical capacity- featuring piano, guitar and the fragile plucking of strings- to allow one to see the beauty in all the gruff and harsh snowstorms these months throw our way. (Science of Sound)
- Michelle Geslani, GhettoBlaster Magazine
Album Review on Broken Silence
Here's the conclusion from my review of the Pale Young Gentlemen's 2007 self-released debut: "while Pale Young Gentlemen is frontloaded and slightly naïve...there's more than enough reason to anticipate what they're capable of when they decide to get darker, older, and less gentle." I love it when bands make it easy for me: Though the concept of "growth" can border on illusory, the shady, gnarled Black Forest comes on less strong than Pale Young Gentlemen, but is ultimately a lot harder to shake than its charming, if slightly hammy predecessor.
Similar to fellow Wisconsinites Violet Femmes, PYG essentially render a normally bombastic framework in acoustic terms: For the former, it was punk; for the latter, it's orchestral pop. "We could talk for hours/ Or maybe not at all" doesn't read like much of a mission statement, but sunk within album centerpiece "Kettle Drum (I Left a Note)", it's indicative of a band learning to leave more to the imagination. Despite massive turnover amidst its ranks and less than a year removed from Pale Young Gentlemen,what distinguishes Black Forest is the patience of confident survivors, not just of their first tour, but the easy comparisons to more maudlin and forthright old world-influenced acts like Beirut.
And it's tough record to initially get a hold of with all of its novel textures-- like their self-titled, Black Forest begins with a stuttering acoustic riff suggesting hip-hop as much as folk, but "Coal/Ivory" morphs into something more expansive and majestic, replete with the keenest coal lyric this side of "Oxford Comma". Nearly every track is built off a new string instrument, from the stumbling, thumbed arpeggios that give "I Wasn't Worried" a subtle charm to the washed-out harp of "We Will Meet" to the pizzicato, agreeably bumbling chorus of "Wedding Guest". Throughout, Matthew Reisenauer's maundering vocals holds the disparate arrangements together like putty, though his lyrics are just shy of scrutability for the most part, overcast invocations of women and wine.
The light touch might still be a turnoff to some, since they're occasionally boxed in by their commitment to a sort of pop music that more archaic than Arcade-ish. "The Crook of My Good Arm" is the most obvious "rock" moment, with a vigorous tempo and a cello riff simulating the bass-- a trick also used by A.C. Newman. More surprising is how the violin jabs of "Our History" recall "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and its martial stridency: Reisenauer's cry "I was like a child/ You can't touch me!" is more of a well-earned moment of release than a cheap joke. Which is not to call these guys prudes-- it's a testament to their mastery of subtle suggestion that a line like "Bodies twist and hips crash/ Kissing thighs in between" can blend in without triggering a gag reflex.
- Ian Cohen, Pitchfork, Score 7.3
Not one lick of praise, low current hype or press release blabber readied me for the surprise I found in Pale Young Gentlemen's Black Forest (Tra La La). All the obvious aesthetics about the band's hype painted a solid-but-borrowed sound that I was already sick of (and why to this date I have yet to hear Pale Young Gentlemen's self-titled debut). And with another Andrew Bird on the horizon, well, this town ain't big enough.
For two months now I've mulled over Black Forest (Tra La La) with an unexpected depth. The first listen proved my initial speculation founded, dark, deliberately paced baroque pop guided by a velvety-smooth wordsmith. It was great then too, a little gem lost in the year-end scramble, but I never forgot it. I pulled it out, compiled it through mixes, slowly fell in love with each track as their own entity and, in short order, their full form. On repeat listens, Black Forest (Tra La La)does many things but never all at once, and is only a "grower" by default; you'll love it all at once but won't know why for a while.
Singer Mike Reisenauer is the most obvious stronghold of the band, so effortlessly does he slide into the orchestration that it's hard to imagine the guy fronting anything else. He's dramatic and takes this stuff seriously, but his ability to glide from gruff baritone to falsetto gives the surprisingly poetic and powerful Black Forest (Tra La La) a considerable amount of depth. But Reisenauer is not carrying anything and this isn't his album, and the Wisconsin-bred songwriters make the best of their sophomore effort, turning in a surefooted piece of 19th century European folk meets 21st century indie pop.
So yes, fit all your comfortably snug comparisons here; they're all probably founded. Pale Young Gentlemen never court the idea that what they're making is different and the confidence glows from the album's opening moments, where we stumble to keep pace as three-chords speed out of the speakers. With a flourish of strings, Pale Young Gentlemen are seemingly quick to play their hand, and Reisenauer is bellowing before the first verse pulls away.
Just as quickly though, the song gives us a moment to pause, breathe, and it's a neat trick, one they use sparingly and effectively. These song-specific quirks, little moments that turn every good song great, are an integral part of Black Forest (Tra La La) and what make it special, which is a tough act to sell considering Pale Young Gentleme regularly saddle into a waltz of Eastern European dance hall and modern indie rock, touching upon cabaret ballads and Victorian era folk-punk (or something) in the process. Or, rather simply: good music that works, effortlessly, and is even easier to love.
- Lewis, SputnikMusic
Album Review on Into the Hill
Album review on Dane101.com
Madison, Wisconsin's Pale Young Gentlemen caused a minor stir among pop sophisticates with a classy self-titled debut album that evoked comparisons to Andrew Bird, The Dears, and Rufus Wainwright, as well as Tin Pan Alley and Cole Porter. On Black Forest (tra la la), the Pale Young Gentlemen (and ladies, complexion and age unknown) stick to a game plan that is both similar to and different from its predecessor. On one hand, the dramatic feel of Michael Reisenauer's lyrics and vocals hang over every song; on the other, the band's approach to its sound has changed considerably. This album hits more somber notes, uses strings more, and shies away from relying on the jaunty, piano-led compositions that dominated their debut. On "Coal/Ivory," Pale Young Gentlemen seem to be drinking from the same fountain that The Arcade Fire taps from time to time; it is highly emphatic and highly enjoyable. From this we depart from overwrought Can-rock and drift all over the map. "Marvelous Design" and "The Crook of My Good Arm" are expertly composed and skip along stylishly in a Kinks vein (I cannot get over how much Reisenauer's voice reminds me of Ray Davies' at times). Black Forest (tra la la) is an understated gem full of warm but striking chamber pop that actually out-distances the debut album in just about any category you would care to name.
- David Nadelle, Skyscraper Magazine
Album Review on PunkNews.org
Boasting a moniker that could easily be used to describe the majority of the No Ripcord staff, Madison, Wisconsin's Pale Young Gentlemen is an indie band very much on the up.
When Alan Shulman reviewed its self-titled début a mere sixteen months ago, PYG was just another unsigned indie band, albeit it one with a pretty cool name and a cellist. Now, with a clutch of enthusiastic reviews and modest sales under its belt, PYG is back with a polished follow-up, an extended line-up and, crucially, the backing of Madison's hottest independent label, Science of Sound.
Like many second albums, Black Forest (Tra La La) immediately sounds like a more grown up record than its predecessor. The off-kilter indie sound remains, as do the Eastern European folk influences, but the band's sound is much richer now; alongside the distinctive cello, we are treated to violins, violas, glockenspiels, harps and horns. And mostly it pays off.
The frantic riffing of Coal/Ivory hints at a heightened sense of urgency; it's as if PYG knows that this is its moment and, accordingly, there is an audible determination not to screw it up. More established contemporaries at the quirkier end of the indie-rock canon (Tapes 'N Tapes, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!) have publicly stumbled at this stage in their careers, with costly results; a smaller band PYG might not have survived such a slip.
Fortunately, PYG remembered to write some great tunes: Marvellous Design, The Crook of My Good Arm and Kettle Drum (I Left a Note) are all worlds apart from anything on the aforementioned bands' sluggish sophomore efforts. In fact, in terms of indie-rock music based chiefly around orchestral string instruments, there's absolutely nothing in the same class as Pale Young Gentlemen in 2008.
Black Forest (Tra La La) is proof that growing up on record doesn't have to sound boring. Those looking for a sombre accompaniment for the wintry evenings ahead could do a hell of a lot worse than pick up this superb record.
-David Coleman, No Ripcord
Armed with a complete string section of cello, viola, and violin, you might assume that this orchestral pop band from Madison, WI has a slumberous, sedate sound. But beneath the sophisticated contrapuntal arrangements is a jittery rock ensemble that deftly balances restraint with raucous energy, creating a magic kind of tension. Try imagining, if you can, the early 3-piece version of Talking Heads performing with the Brodsky Quartet. Like fellow Midwesterner Andrew Bird, Pale Young Gentlemen deliver their oft-cynical lyrics in a wry vocal tone. With a sound that melds frantic momentum with minimalist understatement, melancholy with a marvelous exuberance, these folks really know how to make world-weariness fun again.
- Chris, CDBaby.com,
"Black Forest (Tra La La)" featured on CDBaby front page 12.08.08
Interview with Mike on The Red Alert
Album Review on Chromewaves
After their critically underrated, self-titled 2006 debut, the Pale Young Gentlemen have returned with a lovely vengeance. The gents perfect the wistful woes of love forlorn over a swell of violins, cementing their indie cred and making one of the most impressive bids for fame of recent memory. Led by Michael Reisenauer, you might be shocked to hear that PYG call Madison, Wisconsin "home." Reisenauer's vocals are a curious blend of Thom Yorke meets Nick Cave inflections paired with understated European-American folk-infusions. These expertly arranged bucolic concertinos balanced with a flawless amalgam of rougher eclectic influences have a sound all their own that should earn the band more than the ubiquitous one month in the blog spotlight.
- LAC, CMJ New Music Report, October 6, 2008
Album Review on HearYa
Perhaps one of the best Britrock records of 2008, a year which has seen releases from UK giants like Coldplay, Snow Patrol, Keane and Travis, comes to us special delivery from Madison, Wisconsin and the band Pale Young Gentlemen.
Why give such a geographically-confusing label to the four pale young gentlemen and three pale young ladies who crafted these 12 lush tunes? The answer lies in the group's union of endearing, melancholy melodies and gentle, pastoral soundscapes; in their sound, Pale Young Gentlemen capture the feelings that Great Britain's overcast skies and bucolic countryside tend to evoke with more clarity and certainty than any band in recent memory.
Black Forest (Tra La La) is an album that is modest in its aims, yet nearly cinematic in its execution; the band never shoots for the atmospheric hooks or spectacular crescendos produced by their contemporaries. The album is, however, gently stirring and thoroughly stunning. While each song is simple in structure and approached with a certain degree of minimalism, the group understands how to adorn their work with an unpretentious beauty.
Pale Young Gentlemen give you a sense of where they're headed musically from track one, "Coal/Ivory." The tune commences with active, rootsy guitars, fluid strings and a pulsing drum beat. Vocalist Michael Reisenauer delivers a quirky and commanding vocal turn; at times, Reisenauer's baritone approaches a quality not unlike that of Coldplay leader Chris Martin. The band's tendency toward British stylings increase exponentially in the moments Reisenauer sounds most like Martin.
"Coal/Ivory" introduces the skill and sensitivity of the three string players in the album's lineup; their playing makes the musical colors provided by violin, viola and cello a constant and often comforting presence. Whether tracks prove hearty and up-tempo or soft and sincere, the group's string arrangements are adapted to ensure the instruments prove a welcome addition to every track and never a distraction.
The record progresses forward with two of its best songs coming back-to-back: "I Wasn't Worried," relies on fingerpicked acoustic guitar and a softly pleading melody from Reisenauer, taking on the dreary feel and minimal form often embraced by Radiohead. "Marvelous Design" follows, revisiting and reviving the album's often cinematic outlook; with its interplay between rich piano chords and winding strings, the tune sounds like the accompaniment for a cold and blustery street scene, where a protagonist soldiers on, fighting both the wind and his own emotional distress.
Throughout Black Forest , the band blends in a variety of influences; with its lively string passages, gently grooving guitar/bass and percussive stomp, "Our History" feels like a Decemberists track. "We Will Meet," arguably the album's crowning achievement, sets a melody that's pure McCartney against a backdrop worthy of a stately Renaissance chamber concert, giving the track the sound of a modern-day madrigal. In fact, the band's predisposition toward structuring arrangements around acoustic guitar and strings, writing downy melodies and adding quirky accents often lends the songs on Black Forest a sort of timelessness that is refreshing in this time. That sense is most notably captured on "Goldenface, Morninglight," a ballad which is shaped by its string figures and includes an wonderful, lilting mid-section which is reprised briefly at the song's coda.
Progressive yet embracing the past, full of fit and flourish without ever sounding fanciful, Black Forest (Tra La La) is one of the most unique and glorious albums of the year. Pale Young Gentleman have truly captured what it means to be captivating and this record possesses the qualities nececssary to live long past the day in which it was recorded.
- Aarik Danielsen, Pop Matters
Album review on Stereo Subversion.
Album review on PopWreckoning.
Album review on The Daily Cardinal.
Album review on Venus Zine.
Album review on Crawdaddy!
Album review on CokeMachineGlow.
News Alert: Pale Young Gentlemen should be wildly successful.
Loyal EF readers may remember Pale Young Gentlemen as one of our very first Band of the Week subjects almost a year ago. For that particular piece, I tried my hardest to listen to their stellar self-titled debut album without interference or persuasion from outside sources, i.e. no thumbing through others' reviews in the vain hopes of instead arriving at a "pure" opinion. I failed, but not for lack of trying; I mean, just look at the gushing reviews that greeted this allegedly "unknown" band from Madison, WI.
And rightfully so, for that album was a breath of fresh air, an incredibly inspired way to introduce themselves to the broader world. The question on my mind was pretty simple then: what would they do next, and if it trumped their debut, would we even be able to tolerate the sheer mass of critical adulation that might trail in its wake?
Well, it's now a year later, and we've gotten our hands on the sophomore album, Black Forest (Tra La La) (out tomorrow) and….
Cue ominous music and hear the cacophony of lingering questions suffocate the room….is it a case of textbook sophomore slump? A retreading of familiar ground or conversely the dreaded "weird for weird's sake" (cough cough Some Loud Thunder) approach?
No, no, and no. What it is, quite simply, is an astonishingly assured and fully realized ALBUM. Not a collection of songs or singles or fragments, but a cohesive whole in which each successive song builds off of the one before - in mood, style, lyrical subject, and dynamic scope - to create a wildly cinematic and engrossing record. It's a soundtrack to a masterpiece film that hasn't been shot yet, an album that gets stronger as it progresses and with repeated listens; it's damn well near flawless and scoffs at the shadow of its predecessor.
And though the trademark of Pale Young Gentlemen's sound is intact - Michael Reisenauer's instinctual croon, lush passages of strings, dulcet backing vocals - there is just something noticeably different that separates it from their debut (not to mention most anything else you're likely to hear this year). There's a beating heart underneath all of these songs, and it demands your attention.
So let's revisit the question posed above. Black Forest (Tra La La) does in fact trump their debut, yet I haven't felt trapped by the landslide of adoring reviews. And I'm wondering….why? Overwhelm us with superlatives, spackle their names on every top 10 list, please do it, please. We need to feel that the world is still just, okay? Granted, the album isn't even out yet, but it will be interesting to see the critical reception to a band that is stretching its comfort zone, broadening their horizon, and serving up an incredible second helping.
- Ear Farm
- Amplifier Magazine - Album Review
- Black Forest (tra la la) Reviewed on OMH (UK)
- An Interview with Mike from PYG on Globecat
Madison bred Pale Young Genlemen follow up their MoB approved self-titled debut with the release of Black Forrest (Tra La La) on October 7th via Science of Sound. Listening to the new record it's hard to believe that this is the same band that we first interviewed over a year and a half ago.
If their first record was year-end worthy and critically acclaimed, Black Forrest (Tra La La) advances them past those well-earned accolades into an entirely different level of success. This record combines all the elements of world-infused sounds that is sure to make any fan of Andrew Bird or Beirut a happy listener.
I can promise you that this band will leave on their soon departing two-month tour and come back with an army of new fans.
- Muzzle of Bees
The "sophomore slump" does not apply to the Pale Young Gentlemen, with Black Forest (tra la la) - their follow-up to 2007's outstanding debut - hitting the shelves on October 7th. Their first album, a creative, kitschy collection of off-the-wall tracks with vintage sensibilities, accrued wide acclaim from critics and fans alike, and this second offering, Black Forest (tra la la), is equally as groundbreaking.
Stepping back from the raucous fun of the first album, Black Forest (tra la la) embraces the dreamy qualities of perfectly harmonized cello, violin, and viola, while lending itself to plucked strings on the guitar, pensive vocals, and a sweeping progression from first track to last. The maturation and development of this band is obvious and unmistakable; the members of Pale Young Gentlemen clearly have a vision for themselves. The most striking sign of this growth is the departure from really good "pop-rock" to a new type of music that is magnificently orchestrated but still sounds contemporary, the prime example being "Marvelous Design." "I Wasn't Worried" shows the most flashes of the first record, but the gorgeous harmonizing and sweet lyrics shows the band as a more refined, mellower version of themselves.
Now signed to Madison's Science of Sound label, the band, whose grassroots-like promotion of their first album led to astoundingly successful results, has an even wider range of exposure to their uniquely original style and sound. The 50-second instrumental "Shadows/Doorways" sounds like a snippet of a classical overture, and somehow, it works perfectly. "We Will Meet" incorporates even more musically diverse aspects while keeping up the common thread of songs that flow and undulate into one another seamlessly. This track, perhaps the best on the entire album, also boasts great lyrics and a relaxed mood. Once again, the Pale Young Gentlemen has crafted a singularly noteworthy record unlike anything else.
- Claire Schuster, Delusions of Adequacy
It seems inevitable now that any band that is even the least bit theatrical will be compared to The Decemberists. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, as Meloy and company are certainly a decent band. I find that my tolerance for elaborately instrumented stories is rather limited. It all sounds very nice and all, but is there really a need to be so over the top?
Which sounds like I'm setting up Pale Young Gentlemen for a fall. There is no way of getting around the fact that their music is theatrical, but they also manage to still sound like a band who isn't fussed about that fact. The song is still the most important element, racing onwards, with just a hint of desperation in singer Mike Reisenauer's voice. If a few extra instruments have jumped on board, the band is too busy to have noticed.
-Another Form of Relief
Making the World Safe Again for Tra-la-la-ing
I'm still shocked that the Pale Young Gentlemen come from Wisconsin, with their eclectic Eastern European instrumentation and gypsy-like theatrics. Like how is this geographically possible? It's like the same sorts of doubts people voiced when they first learned Beirut's Zach Condon was from New Mexico and not the Balkans, but hey they took to him, so now it's PYG's turn to be embraced. Seriously Who gives two craps about authenticity when the French horn and viola are being played this melodically??
The Pale Young Gentlemen's sophomore album Black Forest (Tra La La), out October 7th is even lusher, albeit a bit more subdued then their rollicking self-titled debut. The strings are especially gorgeous. The cello swells and violins sway in such an intricate way. Andrew Bird himself would be proud. They even manage to sing "tra la la" in a way that makes me totally forget Euro-trash phenomena Gunther exists. That ladies and gentlemen may be their biggest accomplishment yet.
Listen for yourself.
-Jess, So This Is What The Volume Knob's For
I love the musical and lyrical drama that Pale Young Gentlemen manage to pack into not even three minutes here. We first hear only a cello, playing a jerky line with what sounds like a mysterious rhythm until we understand that it's actually just accelerating into the right tempo for the song. Kinda fun. A crisp acoustic guitar joins in, and a violin (or maybe a viola? or both?). By the time front man Mike Reisenauer sings those not-your-typical-indie-fare opening lines--"You start to worry 'bout your health/As you reach a certain age"--this song has achieved liftoff (aided by a drum that enters with exquisite timing).
And it's really only just starting; the rest of the way, "The Crook of My Good Arm" all but explodes with melodic vigor and instrumental dexterity: the strings play rascally melodies and rhythms, a cowbell clangs at precisely the right moments, and Reisenauer, his voice vaguely processed, handles the theatrical rhyme scheme (check out the spiffy A-B-C-C-B pattern in the verse, leading into the titular phrase) with the casual authority of someone who's more interested in telling a story than simply singing. Sounding nothing like rock bands that are typically associated with the word, I'd say that Pale Young Gentlemen (a seven-person outfit that includes by the way three women) possess great swagger. This isn't "Wail on the electric guitar and scream bloody murder" swagger or "Dig my blues riff and my street cred" swagger or even "Be awed by my laptop skills" swagger--it's "We know exactly what we're doing and don't really sound like anyone else" swagger. The best kind, in other words.
The Gents were previously featured on Fingertips in Nov. 2007. "The Crook of My Good Arm" is a song from the band's second CD, Black Forest (Tra La La), which will be released next month on the Madison, Wis.-based label Science of Sound. MP3 via the band.
-Jeremy, Fingertips
Think of a small venue. You know, the kind of dimly lit place with semi-uncomfortable chairs, candles on the tables, and scattered patrons chain-smoking in between sips of their drinks. Now before you even imagine the music you'd here there, give a listen to Black Forest (Tra La La). This is the music you should be hearing in places like this, though more often than not you don't. The Madison, WI based seven-piece Pale Young Gentlemen use cellos, violins, and pianos, among other things, to create their distinct sound. And they do what they do as good as, if not better than, anyone. RATING: FOUR STARS
-James, Tastes Like Chicken
Last year, I posted on a new band out of Madison, Wisconsin by the name of Pale Young Gentlemen. Their self-titled debut was a highly-enjoyable but overlooked disc of cabaret-inspired, string-laden indie rock, that even made my year-end list last year. On October 7, the band will already be releasing its follow-up, Black Forest (Tra La La). If the last album was a night in a strange indie-rock cabaret, this album is the more mellow morning after spent listening to chamber pop. The tempo may be a little slower, but the arrangements are even better and more interesting than on their debut.
As the song "The Crook of My Good Arm" shows, they can write string parts as off-kilter as Danny Elfman and as energetic as Ra Ra Riot, and back it all up with a solid melody that makes you want to come back. I still feel as I did a year ago- this is one of the best DIY indie bands around, and one that definitely deserves more attention.
- Pablo, The Yellow Stereo
This probably isn't the first time that Brett Favre has made me look like a dick. I can't recall the other times specifically, but I'm sure I've hated on him at some other point in my life only to be rebuffed by his Everyman transcendence. I probably said something like, "this game's over, Green Bay sucks" last year right before he launched that bomb with his heels touching his own end line on the first play from scrimmage in overtime on Monday Night Football. Fuckin' Brett Favre.
I mean, literally the day after I make an off handed reference to his retirement in my track review of "Sooner Late Than Never," this motherfucker up and unretires. That review was embarrassingly obsolete before the digital ink dried. So it was with some measure of satisfaction that I heard yesterday he's being traded to the Jets, which makes my remark remains valid in spirit if not accurate to the exact letter.
Here's what else remains correct about my analysis in that piece: everything. It is a great, simple little cut from a pretty great, simple little album. I'm not sure that Michael Seinkowski has all the chutzpah of Favre's humble, rural, Wrangler-jean-sellin' juggernaut, he does seem to have dipped his goblet in that sea of effortless talent that has characterized much of the football icon's career.
Seinkowski sings, tickles the ivory, and man's the drum kit himself, but he truly excels as a composer. It's the bells, cello swells, and nervy violin ending that raise "I'm a Disgrace" above the level of a mopey confessional. And it's the careful instrumental extras like this throughout Sooner Late Than Never that belie the initial simplicity of the songwriting. On first listen this may sound like some shit you've heard a million times before, but Sooner is much too thoughtfully assembled to be a glorified covers album.
Even where the veneer of originality wears a touch thin, as on the obvious Meet the Beatles! era rip "Call That Girl," Sooner stays a good record for the same reason that it's a good record on more independent tracks, which is, simply put, because it sounds good. Seinkowski and his cobbled collective (other than the instruments manned by Seinkowski himself, virtually every other "member" of Whatfor is on loan from another Madison band) use the structure and solidity of readily familiar influences to their advantage. The wide—hell, near universal—and fertile pop confection territory settled by your early Beatles, your Kinks, and your Zombies serves as a springboard from which Seinkowski projects his, well, I'd favor the word "interpretations" over the word "inventions." That is to say, this is a springboard which doesn't encourage or allow any given artist to spring very far.
Where Whatfor does branch out they do it with a shrug and a four-count. Sooner gives the impression that Seinkowski is the kind of student of music who can roll the twelve-sided dice of his influences and write dead center into whatever band comes up. "I'm a Disgrace" actually does sound like a b-side from The Bends (1995). The verses of "I'm Not Foolin' Around" sound like good, understated early '90s alt-rock, but when it would normally be time for the coiled-spring, Alice In Chains, cat-piss-spraying chorus, we get instead a delicate bell constellation and "ooooh, aaaaah" harmonics. Every song has clear antecedents, but every one is tweaked, personalized just enough not to upset the original, accepted balance.
So no, Seinkowski's not inverting any paradigms, alright? He's not turning his influences on their head or whatever the fuck else passes for revolutionary these days. It ain't broke, he's not fixing it. What he's doing is playing music you recognize, and he's kicking no small amount of ass at it. He's sticking to basics. He's standing in the pocket and throwing strikes, Brett Favre style, and when Brett throws a touchdown pass nobody ever asks him why it looked just like on Joe Montana threw in '89. Well, actually, Jets fans might. New Yorkers are fucking ridiculous.
- Eric Sams, CokeMachineGlow
And it's girls, or that particular girl "whose only dream is to live and breath" for Michael Sienkowski, that the kooky kid behind Whatfor's maudlin dream-pop is in constant search of. Sooner Late than Never is a cyanide daisy-chain swooning and soaring full of piano led chamber music. They've got quite a scene going on in Madison, WI -- maybe you've read about it here before, but Whatfor is simply the best vintage in their wine cellar. Something tells me this crew's membership has more than one sommelier, as the velvety craft they put into their albums (see Pale Young Gentlemen) hint at aged sophistication.
But they all look young, it's the beards that throw me off, and the hours they put into the mis-en-scene of their album art and band photos suggest the tip of naivety. Not by any stretch does that mean some of the pics included in the package aren't downright beautiful, they just don't mesh well with the fanciful escapades found here. Sienkowski exhibits a remorseful misogyny (notice the juxtaposition) throughout (and especially in this song), without exactly hunting his prey. Instead he's crooning into the blood purple Wisconsin darkness (much like a hetero Rufus Wainwright on the prowl) with a competent band behind him well versed in Kinks, Beatles, and surviving soul-draining winters. He seems satisfied with the echoes. This debut is rife with the raucous but rooted in more sublime territory. In a time when I'm longing for the E6 model of color-rich psych to counter the black and white lo-fi and gutter punk, this will suffice nicely. Please keep me on the mind when the next egg hatches.
World of Wumme Album Review
Previously: Sleeping in the Aviary drummer Michael Sienkowski stored up some songs that didn't quite fit with the band's raggedy aesthetic, and the trio found some time last year to start arranging and recording them under the name Whatfor.
New: The songs on Whatfor's debut, Sooner Late Than Never, were written to work in a basic rock-trio format, driven mostly by Sienkowski's vocal melodies, which are meandering and catchy at once. At times he also slips in bits of strings, horns, and harpsichord, not to mention harmonies that teeter and swoon like a drunken barbershop quartet. Label Science of Sound will release Sooner on May 20.
Standout Track: The verses of "Home" recall a bouncing mid-tempo swagger that bands often forget about when they're reaching back to early kinds for inspiration. The chorus opens up to flutters of banjo and a sweetness that's usually there, but sometimes easy to miss, if only because Whatfor's throwbacks to '60s Brit-pop are so nervously clever and busy.
- Scott Gordon, The Onion A.V. Club 03/12/08
madison, wisconsin musician michael sienkowski (sleeping in the aviary) will next month release his first solo album, called sooner late than never, under the stage name whatfor. the album has a loose, rollicking feel to it, and only one of the twelve tracks present clock in over three minutes, which both salts the fun with a sense of urgency - wait, we're almost through? already? - and effectively guards against an over-stayed welcome.
sienkowski's delivery at times evokes john mcrea of cake; his listed influences include the kinks and, well, that's it, that's the whole list. and in some ways whatfor does have a similar kind of energy & sensibility, irreverent humor. but that's a lofty comparison to start off with. let's say for now that what whatfor's done is put together a quick, fun, impressive debut album.
- Anyone's Guess Blogspot
Whatfor (not to be confused with THIS Whatfor) was described to me as "sort of like The Kinks collaborating with Rufus Wainwright". I wasn't sure what to think of that description, but the debut album Sooner Late Than Never will be released on May 20th through Science of Sound records. I'm generally a sucker for anything Science of Sound releases-- Sleeping In The Aviary, His & Her Vanities, She Is So Beautiful/She Is So Blonde...so even if I wasn't down with The Kinks and Rufus Wainwright getting down, I was still excited to hear this album.
"Call That Girl" was an immediate standout track, possibly because I am in love with short songs. Other possibilities? It's a fucking amazing pop song. It's amazing to the degree that it makes me want to compare Whatfor to The Beatles. And you know what? I hate when bloggers compare things to The Beatles, because the 1964 Beatles are almost indistinguishable from the 1970 Beatles. But I don't know enough about The Beatles (yeah I said it!) to make that distinction. Hell, maybe this isn't like The Beatles at all*. Maybe YOU are The Beatles.
And maybe this delightful indie-pop-rock album is made for summer. Listening to it makes me feel like this, except with more volleyball. And I'd actually be good at volleyball so I'd singlehandedly kick the other team's ass. And then sharks would eat all the people I don't like. You know?
It's The Money Shot
MadTracks--'I'm A Disgrace' by Whatfor
Maybe I'm doing Whatfor a disservice by reviewing their song "I'm A Disgrace." After all, the brooding guitar and dissonant cello that define these two minutes of music are a marked departure from the rest of its debut album, Sooner Late Than Never.
I could have rewound this disc by two mere tracks and presented you with "I Want A Girl," a song that perfectly encapsulates the kind of '60s piano pop that dominates this album. You would have heard bright choral harmonies, charming piano melodies and plenty of percussion breaks -- those pregnant pauses that inflected the dawn of pop with bittersweet angst.
But enough about the track that isn't here. I picked "I'm A Disgrace" because more than any other song on the album from the local label Science of Sound, it exposes the quirky talents of Whatfor.
It opens with downtempo guitar and cold, distant vocals akin to Billy Corgan at the height of his Smashing Pumpkins glory.
Eight bars in, light percussion and splashes of piano chords kick in, steering the song away from melancholy and infinite sadness. Over the next 12 bars, the song hangs in an emotional balance, perched to lift off into brightness.
"I'm a Disgrace" never quite makes it to the sky of happiness.
By the chorus, Beth Morgan of Pale Young Gentlemen uses her cello to spread dreamy sadness, the kind Elliott Smith used to make, all over this song.
For the next minute, the verse-chorus pattern repeats. Gently hopeful verses pull the song toward lightness. A cathartic chorus envelopes the listener in comforting darkness.
It's the last thirty seconds of this track that make it memorable. Vocalist Michael Sienkowski starts repeating the mantra, "I'm A Disgrace" in dissonant, anguished tones, while Morgan's cello slowly but surely morphs into a siren. At its crescendo, the song rapidly disintegrates in a fit of emotional distress.
Whatfor is a Sleeping in the Aviary side project, another showcase for the Sienkowski's formidable talent.
Trust me, neither the track nor the album are anything close to a disgrace.
- Rich Albertoni, MadTracks
WHATFOR - Sooner Late Than Never
Score: 8/10
What is it with Wisconsin this year? Not content with producing the most acclaimed record of the year in Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago, the state seems to be developing quite the fertile independent music scene. And it's Madison rather than the much larger Milwaukee that has captured my attention.
Science of Sound is one of those close-knit community type of record labels, where all the bands seem to consist of varying combinations of the same seven or eight musicians. This isn't a criticism, it's actually quite charming, and the music speaks for itself: these guys are all pretty talented songwriters and players.
Whatfor is the brainchild of Michael Sienkowski, drummer for fellow SoS artists Sleeping In The Aviary by day, lo-fi singer-songwriter with a penchant for 60's influenced pop songs by night. To further confuse matters, Sienkowski is joined here by his SITA bandmates Elliott Kozel (guitar) and Phil Mahlstadt (bass) to flesh out his compositions, and the result is a remarkably accomplished debut that combines the classic songwriting of Ray Davies with the inventiveness of early Of Montreal.
One of Sooner Late Than Never's strengths is Sienkowski's willingness to deviate from the classic bass/drums/guitar format. Perhaps it's because he's a drummer by trade, but some of the best songs here feel like they weren't written by a guy with a battered up acoustic guitar, which is a breath of fresh air. There are flashes of cello, trombone, even harpsichord, and some of the compositions that rely most heavily on these instruments are the eventual standouts; Fast Asleep, with its longing vocal and jaunty cello riff for example, is a classic spin on the baroque-pop style. I'm Not Fooling Around probably was composed on guitar, but it deserves special mention for its beautiful harmonies and tinkling xylophone flourishes. It's probably my favourite thing here and on a debut this strong that's really saying something.
Please visit the Science of Sound website, check out Whatfor's music and support this great independent label.
David Coleman, No Ripcord
Bloody Good Question
Whatfor is a side project of Michael Sienkowski the drummer from Sleeping in the Aviary (the Devil's blog 29 May 2007) and founding member of the much lamented Eyebeams. Michael ropes in SITA bandmates Elliott Kozel (guitar) and Phil Mahlstadt (bass) and Beth Morgan of Madison's Pale Young Gentlemen on cello to help him realise his carefully crafted pop vision.
The bands debut album 'Sooner Late Than Never' was released at the end of last month and a finer set of late 60s Kinkssian tunes you'll struggle to find this side of the latest Ray Davies album. But don't for a minute think this is a retro trip down memory lane. Whatfor give their late 60s pop a thoroughly modern sheen with The Strokes like title track and 'Call That Girl' while the baroque chamber pop of 'Fast Asleep' recalls Owen Pallett 's Arcade Fire side project Final Fantasy covering Radiohead.
- The Devil Has The Best Tuna Blogspot
A Good Band You've (Probably) Never Heard Of: Whatfor
I get a lot of godawful CDs in the mail.
A lot of dudes who are in the same boat either immediately dump the discs or shamefully hock 'em to whichever used dealer will buy back promos (the number of which might be growing thanks to certain recent rulings), but I make an effort to listen to as much of the unsolicited, unknown music as I can.
I may do this because I feel guilty about poor musicians burning a significant portion of their monthly ramen budget to press and ship me their music. I may do this because I enjoy the occasional trainwreck. Mostly, though, I do this because sometimes-- not frequently, but a few times a year-- I find a bright, shining diamond amongst the trash.
The debut from Whatfor is one of those diamonds.
Sooner Late Than Never sounds like someone took the bulk of my musical diet circa 2002 and threw it in the blender; one half comes off like the Strokes' attempt at recording a sequel to Rubber Soul, the other like outtakes from Rufus Wainwright's Poses.
Check out their MySpace page or click on the Amazon MP3 Clips Widget below to sample the album.
- Jeff Reguilon, Chordstrike
Whatfor review on Wireless Bollinger
The Isthmus:
It's easy to get down when your band plays the same rooms in the same small city to the same crowd. Some acts break up or move on when the walls begin to close in. Others hunker down in the basement or a more sophisticated purpose-built studio and start recording.
Sleeping In The Aviary, the Blueheels, Droids Attack and the hip-hop duo Horton the Irrelevant & August the Creep all embraced the latter strategy last year. Their high-quality new CDs underscore how important getting your ideas down on hard disc is to musical growth.
On Oh, This Old Thing?, Sleeping In The Aviary prove that pop pulchritude and punk frenzy are always a winning combination. Whether singer Elliott Kozel is setting the hook of the too-brief "Gloworm" with his best impression of a vaudevillian warble or the whole Aviary crew are tumbling headlong through the full-scale guitar-bass-drums freakout that is "Drug Suitcase," the result is always irresistible.
Lots of acts have done the shabby-but-sweet, punky-but-accessible thing over the years. In fact, I can't drop the laser on this album without recalling how, in the late '70s, both the Swell Maps and the Only Ones wandered away from punk and New Wave to clear out a space for bands that like a full measure of melody with their madness. (More recent cognates would be Nirvana, Neutral Milk Hotel, the Strokes and clinically out-there screamer/crooner Craig Nicholls of the Vines.)
But just because Sleeping In The Aviary aren't unique doesn't mean they're not outrageously gifted. They are. I can see "Gloworm," the snotty anti-love song "Another Girl" (as in: "I'm always thinking of another girl") and the bouncy Kinks-style dance-hall vamp "Lanugo" all being embraced by the star-making U.K. indie audience.
If you like your production artfully scratchy and your pop tunes creatively messed up, Sleeping In The Aviary should cream your burn. It'll be interesting to see if their upcoming tours of the U.S. get the kind of press attention they deserve.
– Tom Laskin, The Isthmus
The Isthmus- MadTracks, "Another Girl":
If you can't get behind Sleeping In The Aviary's chaotic cause by the time the youthful trio reaches the sharp, ecstatic "Wooo!" that neatly bisects "Another Girl," you're probably an irredeemable stiff. Or maybe just an envious hater. Because this is the kind of crazed, effervescent bass-drum-guitar confection that banishes the cares of a crappy day to the small, dark room where they belong.
At just under two minutes, this track from Oh, This Old Thing? is almost too short. It gets to happy land quickly, though, and layers on just enough bird-flipping insouciance to keep you guessing about whether chief mouth Elliott Kozel is "Always thinking about another girl" because he's uncertain about love or because he's certifiably ADD.
Toothsome pop that blends equal amounts sugar of and snot? Hey, it's the best kind. More of this brand of Valentine's candy, please.
– Tom Laskin, The Isthmus, MadTracks
The Shepherd Express
Madison's Sleeping in the Aviary calls up the sound of London, circa 1978, specifically, a high-speed collision of Wire and the Buzzcocks, with echoes of the early Kinks. Their songs are short, serrated, sonic jabs, all catchy choruses and arresting hooks, powerful guitar crescendos and Anglophile accents. Oh, This Old Thing? flows dynamically with enough down-shifts from the furious punk tempo to give the ear a rest. Oh, This Old Thing? is the debut album from a band we hope to hear more from in the future.
– David Luhrssen
Carl Johns makes the kind of power pop that takes me back to a time I'm not sure ever existed. His Charlemagne project, now two albums old, cooks up music for a breezy summer drive, stuffed with wispy male/female harmonies, strummed guitars, and airily recorded drums. It evokes the indie rock of the mid-90s in hi-er fi, and the power pop of the post-punk era with modern amenities like more deeply nuanced synthesizer tones and high-quality production on a low budget. Detour Allure rings with an abundance of sharp melodies and quick tempos, arranged with a minimum of fuss. Spare flourishes of synth and special effects guitar spice up the proceedings, offering shiny accents to sometimes workmanlike compositions. "Your Scars" trips along on a nice two-step country beat and features some unexpected chord changes for its wordless middle eight. It's followed by the album's finest track, "In the Fuselage", a weirdly catchy song that earns its place in your memory with an inventive melody delivered via mellow, introverted harmonies. "Fave Unknown" takes a crunchier route, riding fuzzy bass and buzzing keyboard hooks. Though consistency of craft is one of Charlemagne's strengths, there are a few bits that don't work, like the unfortunate rhyming of "cherries," "very," "scary," and "berries" in the otherwise catchy "Pink & Silver" and the overly ponderous closer "Hello September", which ends the album with too much whimper and not enough bang. By and large, though, Charlemagne's sophomore effort is an enjoyable, if not exactly innovative, album, best served warm with a light breeze.
- Joe Tangari, Pitchfork Media
An engaging slice of summer, just in time for winter
As leader of NoahJohn, Carl Johns parlayed his odd, winsome country-folk music into four albums, a cult following and glowing reviews in Europe. For his first foray into sunnier territory, Johns launched the mostly solo Charlemagne, releasing a pleasant, self-titled album in the process. With Detour Allure, he's assembled a full band—and officially begun to overshadow the project for which he's best known. A disc of minor but immensely appealing pop confections, Detour Allure arrives awash in fizzy swirls of oohs and aahs, handclaps and boy/girl vocals. The result couldn't be more likable, and at its best (on the warm, strummy "Your Scars"), the album sounds as enduring as it is ingratiating.
- Stephen Thompson, Paste Magazine
Carl Johns, Charlemagne's leader, hails from Madison, WI, the home of pop wizard extraordinaire Butch Vig. Coincidence? You won't think so once you've heard the shimmering confections, shot through with ribbons of Americana, that make up Detour Allure. Johns played all the instruments on Charlemagne's self-titled debut, but he has assembled a crack team of musicians and vocalists (the group with whom he plays live) on this outing. He sings lead on most tracks, with Kaleen "Katydid" Enke and Tenaya "Ladybird" Darlington (the other members have cute noms de band, too) providing ethereal backup vocals. These add noticeable depth; they're especially magical on the loping "Your Scars", whose sweet "ba-da-da"s mix with chiming guitars. Each singer also gets a track of her own: Darlington sets one of her poems ("On Not Wanting a Child") to music on "Nematode", while "I Heard Something" displays Enke's talent. Both women have rich voices with dark edges, and Johns's own voice is interesting, as well -- alternately smooth and awkward. Nice as all this midtempo folk is, it's refreshing when the comparative rockers kick in near the album's end. "Fave Unknown" recalls the Beach Boys in the call-and-response structure of Johns's verses and the backup singers' refrains, while "Tell Me" is a straightforward two-note rock 'n' roll tune, complete with guitar solos and handclaps. "(We Are) Making Light" is one of the disc's most interesting cuts, a grungy midtempo dirge with preternaturally smooth monotone singing.
Detour Allure's uniform slickness is both an asset and a liability; it provides cohesiveness, but the polish shines the same way on every track. Still, Johns's songwriting is sparkling enough to prevent Detour Allure from fading into the background.
-Sarah Zachrich, Splendid
Charlemagne is Carl Johns. Detour Allure, Johns' second album, is somewhat of a departure from his debut. Whereas he sang and played everything the first time around, Detour Allure finds Carl enlisting help and ideas from others. The result is...a more focused, polished, and well-rounded batch of pop tunes. Charlemagne songs are soft and direct. Carl's songs recall classic artists from the past like The Beach Boys, Harpers Bizarre, and Big Star. While there are many differences between this disc and the first album, the most noticeable difference is the quality of the songs themselves. Detour Allure is a much more straightforward adventure. The tunes are willfully catchy and upbeat and could easily be digested by the general public. Features eleven soothing tunes including "Greyhound," "Your Scars," "I Heard Something," "Tell Me," and "Hello September." Recommended for fans of Denison Witmer. (Rating: 5+)
- Babysue.com
More than a city over which Otis Redding drew his last breaths or the location from which Butch Vig produced the crËme de la crËme of '90s super-groups like Nirvana, Madison, Wisconsin, is looking to be the home of another significant musical occurrence in the life of rock and roll. Charlemagne is a hopelessly endearing singer/songwriter who will be warming the hearts of many Madisonians through the cold Wisconsin winter.
Saturated in vibrant harmonies and driven, pop-infused sentiments, Detour Allure is destined to move Charlemagne to a larger audience. Springsteen apparently clutched onto him and held fast, featuring Charlemagneís work as intermission music for his latest tour. One can see why the Boss might bite, as the album bespeaks of a humble troubadour, but not quite the working class hero figure. Any such self-induced rambling man romanticism is discarded in favor of cynicism-stripping approachability that acts as a frank serotonin-producing slap to the soul.
- Redding Dantes, Junk Media
When last we heard from the Vanities, the Madison now-wavers were warming up the Barrymore Theatre for the red-hot Yeah Yeah Yeahs (and let me tell ya, the kids up front were diggin' 'em). They've been pretty quiet in the six months since, though, with Ricky and Terrin Riemer (the eponymous power-couple at the core of HHV) taking time off to add both another tiny Riemer to their household and a second CD to their discography.
This 10-song disc marks a confident step forward for HHV, as the band's driving, danceable rhythms and angular, Devo-esque melodies are brought into even sharper focus. In particular, Ricky's guitar leads chime, clang and roar like a symphony of metal-stamping tools, while the whole band infuse the catchy "Notapartablurb" with an extra steroid boost. And for a welcome twist, splashes of early-Pink Floyd psychedelia color the soft-toned "Field Fire".
More so than on their debut, there's a discernible sense of warmth coursing through this album. It's a subtle, largely indefinable quality, but one that strongly suggests the Vanities have come into their own.
Emmie Magazine
"…A Thought Process, marks a new His and Her Vanities; a less experimental, more comfortable song-writing entity, one that's begun to place the raw power of guitar, bass, and drums at the foreground, and glitchy electronics at the back. Every arrangement is so creative, every song a work of surprising ingenuity…" – Jared Harvey
Rick's Cafe
by Patrick Stutz
The release of His & Her Vanities' second CD, A Thought Process, should indicate to critics that the title given to them at the Madison Area Music Awards as "Best Punk Band" last March was not taken for granted.
The musical team of Ricky and Terrin Riemer returned to their basement recording studio, Science of Sound, two years ago to begin toying around with the new project. With the help of Mike Zirkel at Smart Studios and musicians Matt Abplanalp and Sara Winkelman, the couple emerged with a CD that sounds as impressive as their first release, but with more of an edge.
A Thought Process still has Vanities' post-punk feel and the quirkiness of an indie band, but the drumming and bass on this disc are much more dominant than on their previous release. From the beginning of the album, it is not difficult to hear the band's musical influences, such as vintage Devo and the Pixies, come through.
"Moving Forward", the first song on the disc, is driven by heavy drumming. The guitar is simple and extemely repetitive, and Ricky's vocal paralleling of the melody at first seems a bit annoying, but then the song really comes together. Towards the end, as the drums' intensity increases, it actually drowns out the majority of the repetition. This annoyance does not occur on any other track of the CD. From the first song, the new wave sound governs the rest of the disc, but the Vanities bring an unexpected treat missing from their first album. Beginning mid-disc, the band starts to incorporate a strong '60s psychedelic tone.
"Field Fire", for example, is the slowest song on the disc and lacks the drumming that is consistent throughout the rest of the tracks. This song maintains a very mellow vibe reminiscent of the Beatles during their drug-infused, Eastern culture phase.
The song "Auto Pilot", while not as soothing as "Field Fire", remains truer to the Vanties' sound and incorporates vocal reverbs that perpetuate the psychedelic tone. This track is actually one of the best songs on the recording and combines most of the elements the band has to offer. The weighty drumming is still present and the guitar retains its quirky patterning enough to be considered new wave.
The band's lyrics are another story. Althoguh Ricky's vocals nicely accompany the band's style, it is challenging to find anything in the lyrics that could be construed as deep or meaningful. Terrin describes the lyric-writing process as a collage of images that are written out line by line. But the lyrics are almost too puzzling to produce any underlying message. The band's real strength lies in their music-writing ability and the sense they convey that they are truly having fun producing an album together.
Even though A Thought Process is a bit hard to take the first time through, it has nothing to do with the band's talent or ability. Mainstream radio so rarely airs anything different these days that when a band that is willing to experiment and try new things does appear, it takes awhile to recognize the brilliance behind their work.
His and Her Vantiies will probably never make mainstream radio, but receive support only from independent or college stations-outlets that are usually more willing to take risks with innovative music.
core weekly
by Evan Rytlewski
Especially in the local music scene, there's something to be said for quality control. All too often, even the best local artists fall into the trap of releasing countless, indistinguishable albums, flooding an already oversaturated market and scaring away outside listeners looking to explore the local scene.
His & Her Vanities, however, are a local act that shows some restraint. Their catalogue - two full-lenths released two years apart - epitomizes a "quality over quantity" mentality, and they limit the number of shows they perform to just a few every couple of months.
Despite the band's intentionally low profile, the Vanities have cemented a dedicated local and national following, largely through word of mouth. Their self-titled debut album is widely circulated around the internet by fans of quirky rock, and the group furthered their profile with a well-received show at 2003's South by Southwest festival. Although the Vanities have few plans to promote their recently released second album, A Thought Process, the record will likely win them new listeners and create more buzz around them.
A Thought Process fine tunes the sound the Vanities mastered on their self-titled debut. Traces of Devo, Wire and Gang of Four are still tied together by pop sensibilities reminiscent of the Pixies' and the Dismemberment Plan's most accessible work, but this album has a rawer feel to it than their last one. Missing are the layered keyboards and electronics that were a strong presence on the debut, scrapped in favor of a down-to-basics guitar, drum and bass sound.
The change works well. Without the keyboards, their sound is less cluttered and more urgent, and none of the playfulness that made the first album so endearing has been sacrificed.
Like their deubt, A Thought Process was self-recorded in Science of Sound, the basement studio of guitarist/singer Ricky Riemer. Riemer primarily uses the studio to record with the Vanities and his other band, Transformer Lootbag, but the studio could become a real powerhouse in Madison's music scene. Three of the year's best local releases - the latest Vanities album, the self-titled debut of Carl Johns' pop outfit Charlemagne and alt-country sweetheart MaeRae's YesPlease - were recorded there and more should be on the way.
"I'm still reconfiguring some stuff down there now but soon I want to open up the door to more people," Riemer said.
The Vanities will celebrate the offical release of A Thought Process with a show at the High Noon Saloon Saturday, Sept. 4. Catch them now or your might have to wait a couple months before they play again.
The Austin Chronicle
Greg Beets
Madison, Wis.'s Transformer Lootbag sounds like a dangerously unbalanced Ferris wheel translated into pop music. The dexterous trio's proclivity for rapid-fire, herky-jerk dynamics conjures visions of Fugazi coupled with Akron-era Devo. They just released their eponymous debut on Science of Sound.
too much rock
His & Her Vanities s/t
Science of Sound CD 2003 -
12 tracks 34:55:00
I'll let you in on a little secret: If you want to be sure I listen to your album, tell me how you've been compared to Gang of Four, Wire, Pixies and Mission of Burma. I used to spend hours on mp3.com or rollingstone.com just searching for bands that listed the above foursome as influences or "similar artists." Why is it, then, that I haven't heard of Madison Wisconsin's His & Her Vanities before?
Now I'll let you in on another little secret: If you trick me into listening to your album by mentioning the above bands, you are, of course, destined to disappoint me. After all, critics generally refer back to those progenitors of quirky post-punk when they're unfamiliar with the more modern similarities that exist between the band in question, and its generally well- established (and derivative) peers.
His and Her Vanities, naturally, fits into the above category. They are reminiscent of any number of recent, post-punk and art-punk bands. Luckily for all (especially me), this self-titled release is far from disappointing.
The creative force of H&HV is the married duo of multi-instrumentalists Ricky and Terrin Riemer. And aside from the more-than-occasional assistance of drummer Sara Winkelman, all songs are written, realized and recorded by the couple. The sound components are simple: angular guitar, bounding (and occasionally, distorted to be abusive) bass, and snapping drums are augmented by whirring synthesizers and trading or overlapping male/female vocals. The band hasn't discovered new sounds, only ingenious ways to combine them.
Jagged vocal and instrumental lines drift in and out of phase in organic accidents, creating songs so thick that the listener has to experience the music rather than digest its parts. Climbing and falling guitar lines howl beside vocal melodies until one or both drop out to reveal the steady roll of a snare. In fact, throughout the album any instrument is likely to vanish leaving a noticeable hole. That moment of exposed winding guitar or bouncing bass serves as an introduction, forcing the listener into a different segment of the song.
It is true that in the darkest moments, such as the Ricky Riemer sung "Alfonzo," the band is truly reminiscent of Magazine and their ilk, but more often than not the distorted hectic cadence of Terrin Riemer's voice backed by disjointed electronic trickery is much more reminiscent of Le Tigre. Furthermore, in the craziest, silliest, poppiest moments, such those in "In a Culture," the band speaks more to Stereo Total.
The band's engaging musical elements are, unfortunately, seldom combined into complete songs – truly the genius of The Pixies or Mission of Burma. And because of this missing structure, their hooks and choruses aren't nearly as memorable. The band, however, chooses not to think in those terms. "Dispatch Elevation," for example, builds nicely to an expected chorus; however, the song quickly becomes vague and shifty, loosing any structured momentum that may have been built. I believe H&HV prefers its songs to be lessons in audience concentration until ultimately forcing the audience to surrender to the chaos that swirls about. My advice: trust the band to take you on their ride.
the isthmus
by Al Ritchie
Obviously, "new wave" isn't so new anymore. In fact, it's now old enough to watch itself play in a bar. But that doesn't mean its punky spirit of invention isn't still rearing its begoggled head in new and intriguing places.
One of those places is the east-side home of Madison indie-couple Ricky and Terrin Riemer, the basement of which is where His & Her Vanities was conceived and its debut CD recorded. The album traipses through everything from Sonic Youth guitars to B-52's vox to the angular rhythms of Wire. Occasionally augmented by playfully loping synthesizers, HHV's left-of-center labcoat rock immediately recalls the quirk 'n' jerk sound of '80s post-punk, yet largely maintains a modern freshness by embracing that vivifying pomo spirit of fun-fun-fun generally reserved for cutesy/spazzy Japanese bands like Cibo Matto and Buffalo Daughter.
A few of the tunes get lost in the candy-like swirl of sonic bells and whistles, but the buzzing, bratpunky "Slowage" and improbably joyful robot-rocker "52 Pickup" are among those that nail the perfect balance of melody and weirdness. And, it seems to me, that's what the best new wave music was always all about.
a common sense
by Jaques Bluett
The eponymous self-titled debut album from the Madison based quartet His and Her Vanities hit the shelves of the finest fringe record stores in the greater Midwest earlier this summer, but the full effect of this band's angular tunes has yet to be felt by the rock intelligentsia.
People use words like "punk" and "indie", "no wave" and "no core" to describe this band. I could reverse name drop similar bands like Sonic Youth, Devo, the Pixies, and the Strokes to try to persuade you to listen to the Vanities. But if you were to put all of this data into a computer and spit out all of the permutations of sounds, I don't think that the Vanities would emerge as one of the "similar artists" in the categories lovingly offered by your favorite media player. However, I could say that I like the aforementioned bands and also like the Vanities, for what that's worth. But to do so would sell this band short.
The Vanities have put their best foot forward with the first several tracks on the album. At once sexy and mechanical, "Alfonzo" starts up with rave-up beats and a loving robotic voice that tells us about "the processed king". The songs are artistic and evoke fine images, but the songs never veer toward a statement of human apocalypse, which would spoil all of the fun. Instead, the human element of the enigmatic Alfonzo ("looks on fire/with suave attire/and no strings attached/just look at the man") invites us to party. It's a confusing party – a game of Twister with Mark Mothersbaugh in a microwave – you struggle to take the keys out of your pockets, but the music invites you to stay with its beatbox that seems to be in a race to the finish with drummer Sara Winkelman. Guitarist Ricky Riemer throws musical confetti while trying to hold you down to fit you with a party hat. At the heart is Terrin Riemer's just-in-time bass explosions and many-octave vocal interplay with Ricky, which could be the revamped soundtrack to an Atari sponsored "boys against girls" dodgeball match.
"Slowage" has a much more graceful ascent, an eighteen-wheeler in low gear climbing up a steep mountain, humming with efficient engines. The tension wrought in Ricky's guitar unwinds violently in the chorus as Terrin screams out in red-shifted tones. This is a song of the celestial sphere, something too beautiful to be born from the earth. Too few songs are crafted with the appreciation for built tension and release that this song evinces.
Too nervous to stop in any one place, the songs keep changing cars, putting on fake moustaches, trying to keep a low profile. "The Shocking Truth" is a noise parade with post-punk guitar riffs screaming over the beat from a drum major that demands that you keep in step. The next songs tend to evoke more traditional indie rock tropes that are sure to keep the kids moving. If there's a complaint to be issued by this reviewer (I know you won't believe me if I just keep gushing about this band), it's that we are promised too much in the early part of the album. The tracks that follow are great pop songs with some unconventional hooks, but they can't match the intensity established in the early going. At the risk of sounding too harsh, I contend that the later tracks fall short only because of the high water mark that this band has already established.
But don't take my word for it. Check out the band's website to check for upcoming shows in your area, listen to sound clips, and purchase the album.