Just Discovered: Oberhofer

February 25, 2010

I love my subscription to Paste Magazine, not only because it’s a great read, but also for the sampler CD they include with every magazine that features some new music.  I usually just pop it in my car’s cd player and keep it on repeat for times when I don’t have my iPod with me.  On average I’d say there’s about 10 artists included in each CD that I haven’t heard of, and with usually 2 or 3 of those sticking out to me.  And every now and there’s one that intrigues me enough to do some research and find out more about that artist.  On the Issue 59 (Dec ’09/Jan ’10) sampler, buried all the way at the very end is a track from a group called Oberhofer called “Away FRM U” that immediately stood out to me.  When I first heard the song, and the vocals came in I assumed it was a new project of Frog Eyes frontman (and Swan Lake member) Carey Mercer.  But then I thought, wait no, this isn’t nearly weird enough.

Turns out Oberhofer isn’t really a band as much as it is just 19 year old Brad Oberhofer.  Originally from Tacoma, Washington but now based in Brooklyn (of course), Oberhofer is another one of those bedroom artist that records his own stuff and hopes the internet can help him along.  So far, so good.  The guy has been showing up all over the blogosphere recently, and Paste Magazine included another one of his songs as part of the Issue 60 Sampler bonus tracks.  As I said, his voice certainly compares to Carey Mercer and Spencer Krug of Frog Eyes/Swan Lake/Wolf Parade/Sunset Rubdown fame.  Those are British Columbia based groups so I’m sure there’s a bit of influence from those guys considering Tacoma’s close proximity to BC, and musically you can hear a little bit of that.  I would, however, compare Oberhofer quirks and sweetness a little more with another Canadian band, Islands (although not from BC).  His stuff is absolutely infectious and it’s been stuck in my head for weeks.  What’s also cool is that he’s giving away his 7 song EP for free!  Originally, if you signed up for his e-mail list you were sent to a link where you could download it, but after some technical difficulties, he ended up just providing this link via his myspace page.  So go there, and grab the EP.  It’s free…what do you have to lose?  I can’t wait to hear more stuff out of this guy and I’m betting he’ll be blowing up the indie world sooner rather than later.

[“Away FRM U” – o0Oo0Oo]

[“o0Oo0Oo” – o0Oo0Oo]

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Shearwater – The Golden Archipelago

February 23, 2010

Followers of Jonathan Meiburg’s career to this point can certainly attest to his knack for theatrics, from his work in the Austin, Texas folk-rock group Okkervil River to his latest release, The Golden Archipelago, which is the most recent in a series of concept albums by his Shearwater project.  Although, with Meiburg’s official departure from Okkervil River as of a couple years ago to focus 100% on Shearwater, project is no longer an appropriate descriptor for the band.  Initially founded in 2001 along with his Okkervil River co-founder, Will Sheff, as an avenue for the pair to create quieter songs with increased instrumentation, Shearwater became more and more Meiburg’s baby as years went on.  It all came together in 2008 with the band’s breakout album, Rook, an epic masterpiece that placed the group on the same pedestal as their sister band and emphasized Meiburg’s flare for grandiosity in his tunes maybe even Okkervil River couldn’t match.

The Golden Archipelago continues on the theme of man’s impact and ongoing relationship with this earth that was prevalent in the groups previous two albums, this time focusing on island life, something Meiburg can draw influence from considering his experience taking part in a travel fellowship shortly after his undergraduate days that sent him to numerous islands across the globe to study remote cultures and communities.  Meiburg has a graduate degree in geology specializing in ornithology (hence the band name), so there’s no surprise his music features such an ethereal feel and contains so much imagery of the natural world.  His education certainly plays a part in the intelligence of the music and Meiburg does admit he worries “that people think they’re getting a dissertation instead of just a record.”  To which I respond: Why can’t it be both?  However, that’s not to say the music can’t stand on it’s own, because it most certainly does, but it’s nice to have some muscle backing it up when the listener wants to delve a little deeper.

Musically, The Golden Archipelago still contains the bombast and triumph that Rook perfected so well, but doesn’t quite match the abundance of climactic moments found throughout Rook.  The grandiose is sustained more throughout the songs of TGA rather than the building crescendos leading into crashes of grandeur that characterized it’s predecessor.  It only hurts the music in that the songs aren’t quite as memorable as songs past, and don’t contain the amount of immediate hooks to grasp the listener.  There are moments of that in The Golden Archipelago, such as songs “Black Eyes” and the excellent “Castaways” (which I wish was longer…only complaint), but for the most part, the songs create a more atmospheric feel, which is just as good, but maybe not as instantly accessible to the casual listener.  So in the end, The Golden Archipelago doesn’t have as many standout tracks as Rook, but might actually work better as a complete album.  The musicianship, especially from percussionist Thor Harris (and yes, he looks just like you would picture a Thor to look like), and Meiburg’s soaring vocals create another gorgeous and epic listen that rewards anyone willing to travel along with Meiburg on his ambitious journey.

[“Castaways” – The Golden Archipelago]

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Yeasayer – Odd Blood

February 21, 2010

Deciding which albums I choose to review here on A Round of Sound is not necessarily an arbitrary process.  Rarely will I give a review to an album I don’t like, but I do save some negative reviews for those albums that I found more disappointing than horrible.  I’m usually not going to review a so-so album that really offers nothing spectacular to talk about.  There can be an amazing album that I won’t review because really whatever needs to be said about it has most likely already been said, and I can’t come up with anything new to say.  Basically, it’s all about talking points.  If an album speaks to me in a way that offers up some talking points, I’ll try to give it a review.  Trust me, with Yeasayer’s Odd Blood, there’s pleny to talk about.

Yeasayer first hit the scene with 2007’s excellent All Hour Cymbals, an album full of worldly influences ranging from African drum beats to a little bit middle eastern flare.  The first taste of what to expect on Yeasayer’s sophomore release came back last Fall when the band released lead single “Ambling Alp” which was an indication that Yeasayer was ready to release a pop album.  The Brooklyn based group’s first album drew poor man’s Animal Collective comparisons, and while it took AC 9 albums to venture into pop, Yeasayer decided to go ahead and take the plunge on Odd Blood.  The results, while mixed, are positive overall.

Sonically, Odd Blood is much bigger than All Hour Cymbals with a more polished production and “everything but the kitchen sink” songwriting techniques.  Opener “The Children” features distorted vocals with a driving back beat full of electronic manipulations to create enough intrigue that keeps the vocals from being distracting before giving way to the aforementioned “Ambling Alp” which is the album’s best song, perfectly combining the group’s world music style with their pop ambitions.  The couple songs that follow continue down this path but employ an unexpected twist with a bit of 80s style.  It works to near perfection, especially on the excellent “Madder Red” which probably hasn’t gotten released as a single to this point because of it’s songwriting similarity to “Ambling Alp” which opened the door for “O.N.E.” to be the latest single released from the disc.  By the time “O.N.E” closes out the front side of the record, Odd Blood has evolved almost into a dance album, and the second half of the disc only exemplifies this notion, especially on “Rome” whose intro immediately conjures up images of Christopher Walken dancing in that Fatboy Slim video.

It’s no stretch to say that Odd Blood is quite front-loaded, with the most memorable moments all coming in the first five songs.  It certainly has its missteps on side two especially with the five minute “Love Me Girl” which struggles to find an identity and comes across as a bit of a  jumbled mess and plainly just doesn’t do it for me.  With more upbeat songs comes more uplifting lyrics so I suppose I’ll forgive some of the cheese found throughout the songs but hearing stuff like “Don’t give up on me, and I won’t give up on you” or “You’re stuck in my mind all the time” isn’t very creative and really isn’t saying much of anything.  Likewise, while catchy and easy to remember telling us to “Stick up for yourself, son” doesn’t really come across as inspiring as Yeasayer may have hoped.  So, it’s not all perfect, but then again the 2nd half of All Hour Cymbals wasn’t nearly as strong as the first, but overall it still ended up as a fine album.  All in all, Odd Blood can’t quite match the excellence of their debut as this one just doesn’t quite have that epic feel to it that All Hour Cymbals had, but there’s no doubt Yeasayer had a vision when they set out to create Odd Blood, and I think as a whole they accomplished those goals and pushed aside any notion of a possible sophomore slump, son.

[“Ambling Alp” – Odd Blood]

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