Results tagged “deerhunter”

OMG Fun Fun Fun Fest is getting closer and closer, and, with that, it's important to get an itty bit of knowledge on the stacked roster the two-day pile o' awesomeness has to offer. This week, we're checking out a couple notable if somewhat underexposed acts, acts that help ensure that this year's Fest will be the best yet, for serious. Atlas Sound is the solo brainchild of Deerhunter man-about-town Bradford Cox, while Broadcast have come to us all the way from England to delight us with some dour electro-art-pop.

Extreme emo experimentalism on the left, post-punk prom ballads on the right.

Emo's outdoors was packed last night for a double bill of noise rock featuring Matador's Times New Viking and Bradford Cox's Deerhunter. Both bands have garnered tons of praise in '08, and Deerhunter's latest album, Microcastle, is already appearing on a slew of year-end lists.

Okay, Deerhunter, Deerhunter, Deerhunter. Where oh where do we begin to discuss such a spectacular, unclassifiable, confounding, excellent, inexplicable act? Do we begin with Bradford Cox, the impossibly lanky (read: lanky like crazy lanky) frontman? The frontman who maintains what quite likely is music's most accidentally inflammatory blog, and who puts his ever-honest foot into his mouth on a regular basis? The frontman who has been known to wear sundresses while performing, and is prone to bouts of both joy and breakdown? The frontman who is amazingly generous to his fans, and who is so prolific that he wrote three whole albums this year? Or do we begin with those albums themselves, two of which were released under the Deerhunter name? That Microcastle is practically unquestionable in its quality, and seems likely to find itself near the top of many best-of lists? Or that its companion album, Weird Era Cont., a supposed toss-in, is pretty fine itself? Or do we discuss the very good band, beyond its idiosyncratic lead singer? Or should we just cut the questions altogether and just say we circled this date on the calendar three months ago?

This Canadian trio have made what might one of the most perfect records of 2008 with Come Into My House, and album inspired equally by Janet Jackson, Sufjan Stevens and Arthur Russell. Utilizing charmingly off-kilter vocal harmonies, thick bass lines and brash instrumentation (not to mention the bassoon solos, esoteric time signatures, and Cher-inspired warble-effect vocals), No Kids have crafted one of the most interesting albums we've heard in a long while. The band earned a grant from the Canadian government to work on the record, and brought in an additional 9 musicians to bring the cinematic landscapes they hear in their minds to life. Although tracks like "The Beaches are Closed" smack of '90s R&B (think Usher reminiscing about a girl who dressed sexy at a party, forcing him to sing to a rain-soaked window to his own reflection later that night), it doesn't at all stink of irony. Gorgeous strings layered over the crackling drum machine and the sweet harmonies sing praises to a genre often deemed joke-worthy, demonstrating the elegance inherent therein. "Bluster in the Air" employs a muted horn section ripped straight from a smoky jazz bar, "I Love the Weekend" is a love letter to Brazilian pop and jazz master Dom Um Romão, and "Neighbor's Party" kind of reminds us of Sufjan, but in the way that Sufjan reminds us of the Cure's unabashed pop musings, such as "Close to Me." There's really not enough time to fully describe what to expect out of this one, you'll have to try it for yourself.