It’s weird when you test a band, give up and then they turn out to be awesome. That’s what happened with me and The Walkmen. I really didn’t enjoy their debut and more or less ignored them from that point on. But after witnessing a blistering set at the P4K festival, I downloaded You & Me and Bows & Arrows and have come away massively impressed and massively pissed at myself for having had a closed mind.
They are going to be joined by a band that I loved from word one, White Rabbits, for a couple of dates at Chicago. Due to my ignorance and a consistent run of conflicts, I have only seen both bands at festivals. I’m chomping at the bit to see both in a proper setting like Lincoln Hall. Its going to be a couple of great night’s of music.
11/10 – Schubas: That is sold out and you would probably have to sleep with someone repulsive to get into that one.
11/11 – Lincoln Hall: Tickets are still available for that so you can sleep with someone relatively attractive on that night.
Where else do you get musical and dating advice for the price of one? Oprah? Dr. Phil? Stereogum? Fuck no. Only from the creative genius that is HearYa. See you at Lincoln Hall.
White Rabbits performed “Percussion Gun” on Letterman the other night and almost made me wet my pants. Watching these dudes pound on the drums is mesmerizing. I’m dying to see them in person.
Chi-town people can catch them at Do Division Fest on May 31st.
White Rabbits just released the video for “Percussion Gun” off of their latest release, It’s Frightening.‚ They’ll be touring this summer, so check MySpace for dates.
I love Spoon so when word leaked that their frontman, Brit Daniel, was going to be producing the follow up to the White Rabbits stellar debut, I got more than a little geeked up.‚ For my money Spoon is the most consistent, if not the best, American indie band going right now.‚ As for the Rabbits, Fort Nightly registered as one of the more exciting records of 2007, uniquely flavored by its steamrolling and varied percussion, charged piano and terrifically ragged lead vocals.‚ The Rabbits perfectly wove all of these elements together to create a great record with a charming recklessness that seemed to offer up some punk characteristics.
Their new album is due out in mid-May and after one listen, it’s obvious that any review of It’s Frightening will not do it justice without acknowledging the influence that Daniel has had in the studio.‚ In fact, go no farther than the third song, “They Done Wrong/We Done Wrong” and you quickly recognize that it easily could have been lifted off Girls Can Tell.‚ The Spoon recipe is wonderfully simple and stripped down to feature jagged guitar riffs that seemingly stab at you from every direction, paired with drums pushed forward, solid keyboards and the tremendous vocals of Daniel.‚ And it is all here on this record, absent Daniel’s vocals of course.
So, what about the sum of the parts?‚ ‚ Well, this is a pretty good record, but in my opinion a little too much may have been stripped away from what made the Rabbits and Fort Nightly so interesting.‚ When the band strikes the right balance such as on “Lionesse,” it really works, but the end result lacks some of the charm and recklessness of the debut.‚ It’s Frightening fails to scale the heights of Fort Nightly. The best song on this record, “Right Where They Left,” bears the closest resemblance to its predecessor and reminds the listener what made the debut so compelling.‚ At other times, some of those Rabbit characteristics seem pasted in, almost as though they were an afterthought resulting in a lack of cohesiveness.
If you’re not familiar with White Rabbits, this is a very good record and you’ll become a fan. If like me, you are already a fan and were hoping for something groundbreaking from the combination of White Rabbits and Brit Daniel, you may find that this album falls a bit short. Assuming you temper your expectations, you’ll still enjoy the album.
White Rabbits have a new album called It’s Frightening coming out on May 19th via TBD Records (home of Radiohead and Other Lives). It was produced by Britt Daniel (Spoon), recorded by Nicholas Vernhes (Animal Collective, Deerhunter) and mixed by Mike McCarthy (Spoon, Trail of Dead). But no one likes a name dropper, so here’s [...]
