Artist: The Sea And Cake
Title: Car Alarm
Label: Thrill Jockey
Genre: Indie
Bitrate: 184kbit av.
Time: 00:38:30
Size: 53.82 mb
Rip Date: 2008-10-18
Str Date: 2008-10-21
1. Aerial 4:18
2. A Fuller Moon 4:08
3. On A Letter 3:45
4. CMS Sequence 1:06
5. Car Alarm 3:16
6. Weekend 2:42
7. New Schools 3:33
8. Window Sills 3:43
9. Down In The City 3:25
10. Pages 3:58
11. The Staircase 2:59
12. Mirrors 1:37
Release Notes:
The exciting sound of a well-oiled band. Car Alarm is The Sea
and CakeÆs eighth full-length record. It is bracing, like the
surge of wasabe on sweet sushi, like the slap of cool water on
a diving body, like the head-rush of a rollercoaster just
leaving summit. Bracing music is most often encountered in
concert. Only the heaviest hitters have translated the live
thrill into the recording studio. Think of the great working
bands, the Charles Mingus Quintet, the John Coltrane Quartet,
the Meters or the Minutemen. For them, there was no gaping
chasm between the studio and the road; the studio was just
another stop, a gig, a continuous part of the flow of playing
and working and creating together.
Car Alarm is the sound of a well-oiled band. Heavy hitters.
Listen to the intricate intertwining strings of Sam Prekop and
Archer Prewitt and youÆll hear the frontline of a working unit
that has moved seamlessly from the stage to the studio and
back. Historically, The Sea and Cake stayed the course since
forming in Chicago in 1993, but over the last couple of years
they have pulled in even tighter, recording hot and fast on
the heels of a busy performance schedule without breaking for
other projects. The sense of trust and communication that is
key to a working band û particularly in the rhythm section,
where drummer John McEntire and bassist Eric Claridge create
their intimate alchemy û is cultivated over the long haul, by
means of an epoxy bond and preternatural antennae. Stop
working together, and those connections go dormant, hibernate;
keep on trucking, and they deepen and get sharper, allowing
the band to reach for new things, experiment freely, evolve
and develop and grow. The ground doesnÆt have to be prepared;
the canvas is already primed, ready for the first brushstroke.
The aim with Car Alarm was to follow up quickly on its
precursor, the somewhat stripped down Everybody. Prekop says
the band wanted to make a record that felt like they had never
stopped playing, a continuously limbered up ensemble that
parlayed its last tour into new material. They started working
on it right after an Australian tour in March, and finished it
after a miraculous three-month gestation. If the usual process
in pop music is to make a record and then breathe life into it
on the road, this flips that presumption on its head, starting
with a vital, pulsing set-list on disc; what heights theyÆll
take the new songs to in concert only remains to be seen.
Where in the past, The Sea and Cake has disbursed between
records to allow each member their individual pursuits û
Prekop and PrewittÆs artwork and solo projects, McEntireÆs
production at his SOMA Studio and work with Tortoise,
ClaridgeÆs alternate identity as a painter û in this case they
didnÆt disband, but dove straight into Car Alarm. The
quickness reflects a personal urgency, too, given the imminent
delivery of PrekopÆs firstborn. Thoughts of fatherhood may
lend a kind of optimistic air to the record. It has the
breezy, open, crisp sound that The Sea and Cake have spent 15
years crafting, but Car Alarm also has a palpable edge. ThatÆs
the edge of people who know each other well enough to push a
bit harder, who arenÆt worried about ruffling each otherÆs
feathers or trying something different, difficult, intuitive,
trusting. Something bracing. Here ætis.