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Back when I used to regularly do my Mix Tape Monday feature before everything went to hell I wrote up a piece on these guys’ previous two albums that I had discovered and how much I dug their sound. Well after a long hiatus after “There’s a Fire”, they have returned with the release of “Secrets Are Sinister”, released in November last year. In their prior albums they weren’t really necessarily the most eccentric band and pretty much stayed on track with the epic sound-scapes of rock and roll, making them not really an “indie” sounding band but great nonetheless, and always a great guilty pleasure of mine.
In “There’s a Fire” they definitely changed their sound a little bit and went for a more focused ‘indie’ kind of sound (which didn’t really work as well) whereas on the prior record they pretty much just turned the distortion up to 11 and rocked it out. I think the time period probably had a lot to do with it as for the first one they probably just went for what they wanted, but around the time of “There’s a Fire” was when the indie-music boom of the mid-2000s was going on so the next record went in more that direction. They did both fairly well, but I have to admit I kind of preferred the more shameless melodic rock tone of the first album “The Strangest Things”, and I think that has really made a comeback on this album to great results. “There’s a Fire” was an alright record, but this is what these guys do best IMO.
The first song, “Sirens in the Deep Sea”, starts out similarly to the last album in sound (maybe as a misdirection), but I really perked my ears way up when the high gain super distortion guitars jumped in at about the 17 second mark. Oh hello face melting guitars. Now it is not really hard edge stuff, this is very melodic indie-pop kind of sounding stuff, but it is done really well. They drop a dancy-rock track next with “No Direction”, and return to the more thumping power-pop on “Satellites”. Other standouts are “Eyes Like Headlights”, which kind of harkens back to “Tidalwave”, which is one of the songs I posted last year when talking about them. The first half of the album has a little more rock flavor to it than the second half. “No I Don’t Dare” has a cool, dark, brooding Cure kind of sound to it. “It’s True” is a slow driving ballad kind of song that these guys do really well, and is very Jimmy Eat World-ish (think “Hear You Me” or some such ballad). The second half of the album strays further into the slower indie-pop ballads that would feel right at home soundtracking the OC or Grey’s Anatomy or something, but I don’t really mean that in a bad way (for the record, fuck Grey’s Anatomy). “Shining Hours” starts out with the same vibe, but gives us an awesome face melt towards the end as they put on the rock. The title track closes out this great disc with more of the same good stuff. This disc is really an ultimate guilty pleasure listen to put on in those moments where you just want some good shit that doesn’t love the smell of its own farts.
They have a sound that is certainly recognizable to me as following along from their prior albums, so if you know or enjoy those, you are in good territory here and this is a good pickup. The mold is not broken here, but that is just fine with me as I like what they have going and am glad to see them back in the mix. I always really wanted to see these guys live but unfortunately they didn’t come to Chicago until after I had moved. The new album is really good and I really recommend it. As I said, it isn’t really “indie” in the sense of most stuff pimped on the blogosphere out there, but I am a guy who loves some basic good stuff once in a while to balance out the indie madness we live in. This is a perfect record for that and I’m glad these guys are back.
They will be descending on Austin (hopefully as will I) for SXSW in a couple months so be on the lookout for them there. BUT in addition to that they are playing the following upcoming shows, so go see them and make me jealous I still haven’t seen them live after all this time:
01/16/2009 09:00 PM Atlanta, GA The Earl Restaurant and Bar
01/17/2009 08:30 PM Chapel Hill, NC Local 506
01/18/2009 09:30 PM Washington, DC DC9 Nightclub
01/22/2009 08:00 PM Philadelphia, PA Johnny Brenda’s
01/23/2009 08:00 PM Baltimore, MD The Ottobar
01/24/2009 09:00 PM Allston, MA Great Scott
03/08/2009 08:00 AM Brooklyn, NY Music Hall of Williamsburg
03/10/2009 08:00 PM New Haven, CT Toad’s Place
03/11/2009 08:00 PM Northampton, MA Pearl Street
03/13/2009 08:00 PM Portland, ME Port City Music Hall
