I finally got the new Pinback Monday evening. I’ve had it on a loop since then (with the new Radiohead and Tegan and Sara tossed in for variety). I like it a lot. But then again, I’m kind of unhealthily obsessed with that band and I’m not sure if they could disappoint me.
It was interesting being out west. I think Pinback’s probably much more popular on the west coast (they’re from San Diego) — and especially within surfing circles — than they are here. I heard their music and saw their videos in surf shops in Honolulu. That’s fairly unheard-of here.
Anyhoo, this song — “Good to Sea” — has particularly been stuck in my head all week.
Check out this video. Good stuff, though the embedding code is unavailable or else I’d just put it here.
Here’s the song sans video:
I should send you my album review for Nikki Style Magazine. I was a snarky little bitch. Hey man, at least I don’t ride around with you and tell you how much your music sucks. I only do it in print.
Bwhahah!
Actually it was a lukewarm review.
Pinback
Autumn of the Seraphs
(Touch and Go)
***
It’s been eight years since their self-titled debut, and prog-pop duo Pinback still sound the same as they did in 1999.
There are still gobs of textural pop layering on their fourth full-length release, Autumn of the Seraphs. At this point, frontman Rob Crow could crank out Songwriting Mood Aesthetics for Dummies without so much as batting an eye.
Crow and partner-in-lamina Armistead Burwell Smith IV’s slack yet aggressive chord progressions are hammered home on Autumn.
But Pinback isn’t merely phoning in a remedial rehash. Production-wise, each individual layer is more penetrating than anything that has proceeded Autumn. It’s a salad bar of crunchy guitars and velvety harmonics.
The opening strands of “Good to Sea” ebbs and flows with a beepy persistence, sounding like the long-lost love child of Nintendo’s Duck Hunt and Super Mario Bros.
But listening to Autumn of the Seraphs in one sitting, the effect is mostly colorless. The songs waffle into one another with a disorienting haze, and lead single “From Nothing to Nowhere,” notwithstanding, there isn’t really one track that will stick out in your mind.
I also want you to beat me in Scrabble. I need to be taught a lesson.
Bwahaha!
God, I’m an asshole.
lol @ Fritz.
I actually agree with your review — there aren’t any real distinctive songs. Well, except “Good to Sea” and the one whose opening sounds like a Police song.
But I appreciate the band’s consistency. And I have found that with them, if you just keep listening, the songs’ textures and personalities will make themselves known after some repetition.
Like one of those 3-D pictures you have to stare at for a while before you get it.
It’s kinda weird that way, but that’s generally how I experience their music.
I heard something good off this album on the radio last week here in Seattle. This is total, goin surfin or goin up to the ski slopes pop, thousands of miles away from Memphis