Three Imaginary Girls - Team Love

Brought To You By Nebraskafish

Cory Banks — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 03:35:15 +0000

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000UGG35U/?tag=wwwthreeimagi-20

Schizophrenia
noun

A long-term mental disorder of a type involving a breakdown in the relation between thought, emotion, and behavior, leading to faulty perception, inappropriate actions and feelings, withdrawal from reality and personal relationships into fantasy and delusion, and a sense of mental fragmentation.

(In general use) A mentality or approach characterized by inconsistent or contradictory elements.

Schizophrenic isn't typically a good word to throw at an album, is it? The term gives off a negative vibe at first, describing a lack of cohesiveness that would turn most people off. Nothing is worse than a band that can't make up its mind.

But schizophrenic is the only one that sticks to Capgun Coup's debut LP, and they apparently welcome it. Their PR copy makes a point of the act's variety of influences -- indie pop, avant garde noise, nerd rap -- while pointing out how the band members are so unfamiliar with the acts to which the press would compare them. Which is fine, because no one really likes to be compared and because the album eventually proves itself to be full of compelling hooks and infinite energy. But damn if it doesn't take a while.

A large chunk of the album's near-hour of play time consists of little vignettes of sound and samples, from the albums opening track that samples a JFK speech to the goofy guitar noodling that rides out the end of "Adorable Doorsteps." Capgun Coup love to play with sound collage, just like any number of indie bands who want to to sound experimental, but these pieces don't add anything to the work itself. They're filler, something to skip to get to the next bit.

It's frustrating that it takes three tracks to get to the first fully formed song, "Social Security Number." A lone, faraway drum set kicks off, followed by droning bass that signals the crescendo Greg Elsasser's vocals bring. Beneath the shouting and buzz, a simple hook emerges that momentarily holds the chaos together, but things fall apart in a shower of art school collage and ambiguity. Which is fine, and pretty interesting for the first few spins, but Capgun Coup is capable of so much more. The chilly, meditative "Time" is a welcome change from the tape machine wankery found earlier, and the point when the album hits its stride.

Manic tendencies can work -- See The Cure's entire oeuvre -- but Brought To You By Nebraskafish often feels like it's being pulled in multiple directions at once. The aggressive fuzz spilling out of "Uh Huh" doesn't mesh with the flirty "Adorable Doorsteps" or the doo-wap drama of "My Tears Cure Cancer." What's more disconcerting is that, individually, most of the songs are fantastic. Putting them side by side, however, leads to aural whiplash. An album of songs like "Fucked," the standout guitar-pop track here, would be welcome, but as it stands, Capgun Coup's artistic brand of ADHD keeps pulling the listener by the ear from one end of the spectrum to the other. It's a fun but disorientating ride.

Schizophrenic is the only word that describes their sound, but it totally works.

Norah Jones gets Bright Eyed

Jon Harthun — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 15:27:21 +0000

Well, now it just got a little cooler to like Norah Jones. Or at least her side-project, El Madmo.

Bottom of Barrels

Erik Gonzalez — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 07:00:00 +0000

9.1

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000F3AJSK/wwwthreeimagi-20

tilly06jun.jpg

One of the silly questions I tend to ask myself when I listen to an album for the first time is "hey, do they sound like they had fun when they made this?" I'm not really sure how I can quantify this feeling, but sometimes you can just tell from the energy and looseness of the music that you just know that they must have had a great time in the studio when they put music to tape (or hard drive). Tilly & the Wall clearly have fun. It's obvious. If you can't feel it when you listen to Bottom of Barrels then you've probably had some sort of horrifying fun-removing accident that makes you think the Muppets are dumb and that bunnies in the park are verminous pests. Tilly & the Wall's first album, Wild Like Children was one of the most underrated albums of 2004, sneaking in as the first album released on Conor Oberst's imprint Team Love Records. Bottom of Barrels takes off from the Wild Like Children launching pad and expands their sound even further, maturing in song-writing and production create an album that will hopefully not go so woefully unnoticed.

If there's one thing you notice about Tilly & the Wall right off the bat, it is their percussion. Honestly, they sound like they've hired a team of tap dancers, floor stompers and spoon players to make as much noise as possible with the end result being some of the most remarkable "drumming" you'll hear. (It's not far from the truth: they actually have a tap dancer, Jamie Williams and no real drummer. Take that Spinal Tap curse!). The album opens with Neely and Kianna shouting off the time and breaking into the infectious melody and beat of "Rainbows in the Dark", a song full of horns, guitar, piano and pretty much everything short of the sink. The intertwined vocals from Neely and Kianna are equally haunting and sweet as they sing about the gift of a fat-lipped grin. Derek Pressnall takes the reigns in "Urgency" that is one of the tightest rock songs that Tilly & the Wall have done, sounding like a lo-fi New Pornographers. The real growth of the band is apparent on "Bad Education," a song that, whether they meant to or not, captures the mood of the Pedro Almodóvar movie of the same name, mixing Spanish guitar and horns with the flamenco beats from the feet of Jamie. The song is a joy to hear, enthralling and original as Neely and Kianna's vocals capture the mood set up the music perfectly.

Bottom of Barrels also takes it's time on some splendid slower songs like "Lost Girls" and "Love Song" that are more bare than anything the band has done. You can hear the cross-pollination with fellow Omahans Bright Eyes on these tracks, especially "Love Song" where Derek sings Oh pretty love/don't worry/with me you don't need a place to hide/so just sit real still/and the light will flood in over the hills. The foot-stomping is gone, but the raw emotion of the songs expand what you expect from Tilly & the Wall. However, the interlude quickly makes way to more thundering songs like "Sing Songs Along," with what might be the signature Tilly sound: thumping percussion, back and forth vocals from Neely, Kianna and Derek and infectious melodies. "Black & Blue" takes this sound and adds a little more edge to it as Neely and Kianna sing a love song imploring I want to know everything about you/so let's drive through the night. The vocal melodies on "Black & Blue" are more mature and complex than previous efforts and it pays off.

They finish Bottom of Barrels with musical experiments that jump from genre to genre. "Brave Day" actually features a real drum kit and has much more of a folksy, Americana feel and proves that Tilly & the Wall can exist quite well outside of their potentially novelty percussion. "The Freest Man" is an electronic song similar to the sound of Bright Eyes' Digital Ash in a Digital Urn or Wild Like Children's "A Perfect Fit", telling the story of a friend with some problems as they sing but this boy I know, he is pure of soul/he just gets lost sometimes in his chemicals (author's note: Conor?) The album closes with the lighter-raising "Coughing Colors," a, well, power-ballad driven by Derek's vocals over piano.

Tilly & the Wall seem to be able to straddle multiple genres and master them all with ease. Bottom of Barrels shows a remarkable amount of musical maturity for only the second album from the band. They don't seem to be afraid to take chances with their sound and don't miss a step along the way. If anything, Tilly & the Wall know how to make an album that captures the energy they have when they record it, and with that, they have something that many bands never figure out how to do.

Tilly & the Wall know how to make an album that captures the energy they have when they record it, and with that, they have something that many bands never figure out how to do.