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It’s interesting that White Denim, a band that’s already joined the vanguard of recent Austin attention-grabbers (Shearwater, Harlem, Black Joe Lewis, et al.), has yet to see a physical release of their music supported with even a modicum of distribution in their home state. That’s set to change on October 20th, when Downtown Music will finally release Fits, the band’s second (third if you count their UK debut Workout Holiday) and most adventurous LP domestically. Actually, adventurous is an understatement: it’s head-spinning how much they pack into Fits' economical 37 minutes. The record is a short but dense blast of moody, psychedelic soul that careens from hard-edged funk and breezy soul to straight up psych rock with flourishes of jazz and dub, and manages it all without feeling directionless or schizophrenic. The trio is incredibly tight, and the song structures and time changes are so fascinating that you have to occasionally stop and ask yourself, how the hell are they doing this? However they conjured it up, Fits is an excellent, occasionally face-melting rock album that deserves to be played loudly and often by many more people than are currently familiar with it.
Spectral Evidence, the first album from The Distant Seconds, begins well enough. “Disembalmed” is a gorgeous and all-too-brief mood piece that floats on a nervous undercurrent of buzzing guitars; however, the bulk of the record that follows proves to be a pleasant but ephemeral listening experience. The band’s sound has been compared to Spoon repeatedly in reviews, and Austin’s most famous utensils do in fact cast a long shadow over the record - uncomfortably so during certain passages in which Distant Seconds liberally crib a few of Spoon’s trademark moves. That said, Spectral Evidence does demonstrate some promise outside of the minute-long preamble, despite the fact that the band has a tough time distinguishing themselves from their influences. A handful of tracks, especially “Build Your Own Los Angeles,” prove that the quartet has enough tricks up its sleeve to produce something more satisfying. According to their MySpace, two new recordings will see the light of day before the year is out. Here’s hoping that they’ll continue to explore and experiment to create something that makes good on that promise.
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You can order the "Fits" LP, CD, or MP3 from Full Time Hobby, White Denim's UK label in the mean time. And yes, the album will melt your face off.
The Distant Seconds are one of the most under-appreciated bands in Austin right now. Yes, they're influenced by Spoon, but Matt's songs are orders of magnitude better than you're giving them credit for.
But hey, thanks for telling us (yet again) how much Austinist loves White Denim! Yay!
White Denim definitely needs more recognition.
It seems more likely that Spoon and the Distant Seconds share some common influences than Distant Seconds having a heavy Spoon influence; to this listener, their songs are too good and don't betray the kind of me-tooism suggested in the review and all too common in Austin bands.
This White Denim? Never heard of them. But I might suggest that the answer to "how the hell are they" doing odd time signatures and structures involves.....counting?
D.Am-
Agreed. I guess my thought was that -- living in Austin and playing in Austin -- it'd be hard to have some vague similar sound compared to Spoon and not be influenced by them vs being influenced by similar influences?
Either way, you make the most salient point here: The Distant Seconds' songs are too good.