I can’t remember when I first encountered the faintest wisps of secondhand talk about these guys. My circle of friends once intermittently overlapped with some pretty gung-ho indie music aficionados – the kind who talk about bands that I’m pretty sure they made up half the time just to fuck with me – so it could have been through them, maybe?
But yeah, so there’s these guys. They’ve been touring with Arcade Fire lately, opening at several major gigs around the country, doing their thang. I must say, they have a moderately enjoyable sound, made interesting by the deep-dipping of the baritone lead guy. It’s different,* but I’m not necessarily in a rush to go buy up all their musics.
“Fake Empire” / The National (2007)
*Because, as I oh-so-briefly rack my brain bins, I can’t think of a comparable band – except maybe Editors? – with these sort of distinct vocals. Also note that I didn’t just know Mr. Berninger was a “baritone vocalist;” thank Allmusic for that one. To me, it just sounded “not like other stuff I’ve heard,” which is how I describe everything I hear for the first time.
the sloppy copy 