ARTiST : Burnside Project
ALBUM : The Finest Example is You
LABEL : Bar/None Records
GENRE : Indie
ENCODER : Lame 3.90 / APS
QUALiTY : VBRkbps / 44.1kHz / Joint-Stereo
RELEASE : Oct-10-2005
STREET : Oct-18-2005
SOURCE : CDDA
TYPE : Album
PLAYTIME : 45:22 min
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+ TRACK LiSTiNG +
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[#] [Track Name] [Time]
01. signs of perfection 03:51
02. and so it goes 03:41
03. get better soon 03:27
04. our surprise decision 03:31
05. just drop off 03:52
06. another way 04:36
07. an easy sell 03:55
08. one to one 04:19
09. cynical weathers 03:56
10. start again 04:00
11. what's said was spoken 06:14
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+ RELEASE iNFORMATiON +
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http://www.burnsidemusic.com/
THis kinda sounds like Postal Service/Dntel at times.
Burnside Project return with their second album, The Finest
Example Is You, produced by the band and mixed by Pau Mahajan
(The Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs and TV on the Radio).
The network, the circuits, the streams, the harmonies is the
Burnside Project's recording debut as a flesh-and-blood band,
and it couldn't have come at a better time. Now that
'80s-influenced dance music has become the cutting-edge sound
of the moment, Richard Jankivich and fellow
multi-instrumentalist Gerald Hammill, who are joined on stage
by keyboardist Paul Searing, have reshaped some of those
vintage beats for their own disquieting purposes. "Cut and
pasted and recut and refucked with" is how one critic put it.
But they've ditched the overarching irony, the
tongue-in-cheek/deadpan-chic attitude of the "electro" scene,
for a collection of midnight confessions from a dark corner of
the dance floor. The Burnside album is almost cinematic in
scope, or at least indie-cinematic, evoking the kind of
skittering drum-n-bass rhythms that jacked up the tension in
Darren Aronofsky's Pi.
Richard, who had toiled in Midwestern indie-rock bands during
the early '90s, wanted the CD to be the result of a
collaborative process, even though he had originally conceived
The Burnside Project as a solitary endeavor.
"When I moved to New York in '96, I made a conscious effort to
rediscover electronic music and I explored the new sounds of
the times: drum-n-bass, trip hop, turntablism, hip hop and
IDM. Around '99, looking for a creative outlet, I made a
decision NOT to create another indie rock band with the
traditional foursome format of drums, bass, guitar and voice.
I really wanted to fuse different styles deliberately, even if
they clashed."
But, by early 2001, Richard realized he could benefit from
"the intervention of other people." When Gerald Hammill, a
webzine contributor and employee of uber-indie record store
Other Music, came to one of Richard's shows, he got more than
just the story he was planning to write. Richard realized he'd
found a truly kindred spirit and invited Gerald to join him in
the studio. It helped, of course, that Gerald was already a
guitarist, keyboard player, a veteran of several indie bands,
and a deejay with a serious record collection.
Richard recalls, "When Gerald came over and we played around,
it seemed clear that he was the perfect match for evolving
Burnside."
"After our first meeting, I thought we really clicked well,"
Gerald confirms. "I contributed a lot more than I had
anticipated. Early on, we developed a trust in each other's
taste and we were constantly bouncing ideas back and forth.
Next thing you know, I'm a full-fledged member."
"In May 2001," Richard explains, "Gerald and I decided to
record some new material, and we invited friends from other
bands to stop by and add some stuff. In exchange, we filled
their bellies with pretzels and beer."
Probably the key figure in these sessions is Shannon McArdle
of the Mendoza Line, who lent her beautiful, haunting, and
sometimes twangy vocals to five of the songs. Another key
contributor was Hub Moore, whose baritone voice clings to some
of these tracks like molasses on a cold day.
These studio-mates, had more in common with the Burnside
Project than just an affinity for pretzels and beer. The
Mendoza Line -- whose guitarist, Pete Hoffman, also joins
Shannon on this disc -- have been working their own
world-weary changes on the Replacements-to-Pavement canon,
while solo artist Hub Moore's soft, melancholy vocals have
been an important component on the soundtracks to Hal
Hartley's excellent American indie movies. In addition, Ray
Ketchum of Elk City co-produced and remixed two of the tunes,
and also did a bit of drumming. . Bar/None owner-operator
Glenn Morrow swears he's the executive producer of this thing
and even contributes some of his own guitar stylings, thereby
setting a new standard for label involvement
"The record really evolved over the course of a year," says
Gerald. "We probably spent as much time experimenting with
sounds and reconstructing arrangements on the computer as we
did recording the basic tracks. The album is totally
unrecognizable from the early mixes, but we were able to take
the songs where we wanted them to go."
"The album was influenced greatly by American authors and
filmmakers who spun stories of paranoia, insanity, and the
general breakdown of the American mind," Richard continues.
"Each song in some way deals with feelings of disillusionment
and, particularly, insane paranoia..There's a strong
undercurrent of that old 'man co-existing with machines'
theme, but I think the lyrics state all of this much better
than I can."
Inside the package are liner notes that amplify and underscore
the themes of the record. This purple American prose comes
courtesy of well-known author Rick Moody, who chose to write
under the nom de plume of Tyrone Duffy. "The liner notes are
the most wonderful thing in the world to me," Richard
confesses. "Tyrone took the album and wrote an actual response
piece based on the songs and the lyrics. If you read along
while listening to the album, you'll find his textual analysis
adding to and reacting to the songs themselves."
With the recent addition of Paul Searing as fulltime
keyboardist, the Burnside Project will continue to expand and
experiment, taking its show well beyond the borders of
Brooklyn and Manhattan. Check in with www.burnsidemusic. for
upcoming dates. You might also hear their songs on MTV's The
Real World and Road Rules. And you're guaranteed to find
Burnside's songs lodged firmly in your own imagination. The
networks, the circuits, the streams, the harmonies isutterly
original, very emotional, sometimes funny, and more than a
little disturbing. Plus it has a good beat and you can dance
to it.
Burnside Project has a video for "Cue the Pulse," directed by
Jake Hensberry, available now for viewing at
www.burnsidemusic.com. It's a technical marvel set to a
terrific track, a dazzling eyeful of nonstop smooching on New
York City sidewalks that we hope lovers everywhere will watch
and emulate on the streets where they live. There's also a
gig-by-gig tour diary penned by Burnside mastermind Richard
Jankovich plus news about upcoming dates.