In which Chris and Christine take a break from discussing baseball (”I just traded for Huston Street!” “Nobody puts MaEl in a corner!”) to co-review the new record from The Sea and Cake.
Christine: Ah, Chicago–the backdrop for High Fidelity, the home to many a wayward and wandering Thrill Jockey, the Windy City with the miserable winters. I think that Sam Prekop spent a lot of this past one rearranging his old records, because The Sea and Cake’s new album, Everybody, takes many cues from the 1970s.
Like its predecessors, the record is filled with the light, melty singing of Sam “Butter” Prekop, drizzled with a little Archer “Syrup” Prewitt on gee-tar, and steeped in the light-yet-interesting jazzy instrumental arrangements at which The Sea and Cake excel. But in the midst of this tasty musical pancake breakfast, there are also moments of guitar and bass that seem straight out of Fleetwood Mac or Steely Dan.
Chris: Too right, C. By their own admission, TSAC looked back to The Kinks as an influence on this album. Ahh, “But which iteration of The Kinks?” then becomes the question. Sam’s words prompted me to g’head and download 1971’s Muswell Hillbillies which is a far back as eMusic goes in their catalog. That’s the point I’ve gotten to…ButtahPre’s hinted influences now carry as much weight with me, as a fan, as his mad songcrafting skills. I mean, with the recent purchase of Nassau, my TSAC collection is complete so what else is a completist like myself supposed to do?
Oh, and now is as good a time as any to proclaim that “Crossing Line” is one of my faves on Everybody. The fact that Sam integrates “simma’ down” as a lyric (@ the 1:10 mark) into a short, sweet, hand-clapping ditty clinches it.
On breakfast: I put forward that McEntire on drums is the flapjacks in our TSAC breakfast analogy. Would that leave bass player Claridge to be the fresh fruit topping…or is that whipped cream?
Christine: Chris, I can’t believe you know the exact time of “Crossing Line” where Butter says “simma down”… you are not only a TSAC completist, but an obsessive… aaaaand you’re wrong. It actually happens at the 1:06 mark.
Anyway, back to the rest of your points. I think Claridge would have to be fruit, because whipped cream *and* syrup? it would be too much. And me, I like to get allll my sugar from one source. I mean, ever since I saw Archer Prewitt last fall in Cambridge I’ve toyed with the idea of naming my firstborn after him… so I figure a little faithfulness to Arch Sr. is in order. But I digress.
The more I listen to this album, the more I like it. It’s not as effusive as some of the tracks from their earlier discography that remain my all-time favorites (I’m thinking “Showboat Angel” from the s/t and both versions of “To the Author” from the Glass EP), but it IS evocative. Instead of directly copying those 70s sounds we talked about, it weaves them into–no, wait, weaving’s a terrible, trite analogy (remember the time the Pitchfork reviewer said the Silversun Pickups were really good at constructing “aural shrouds,” whatever the fuck that means? ugh). Weaving involves a lot of tearful banging around on a loom while waiting for Ulysses to come home from the war–you know, kinda emo. This album is less like a tapestry and more like a souffle–light, fluffy, and damned if they didn’t do a great job folding in those earlier influences. Against the airy backdrop that’s typical of TSAC, those soft-classic-rock guitar sounds really pop.
Chris: Oh man, when I try to talk the uninitiated about TSAC they really can’t get past the light’n'breezy aspect to the effusiveness of which you speak. I generally try a couple of times to explain “these guys are dynamic, mannn” and then walk away in frustration. What you say about the ‘pop’ also checks out with me. From Oui to One Bedroom and now onto Everybody TSAC have honed their craft, while inching ever-closer to putting out a mainstream-able product.
Prekop also said in the label copy for the album that they knew they were making an “important album” when in the studio. Read into that what you will, but for my money it means that they are intending this album to take them to the next level (which, to me doesn’t mean Wilco’esque levels. Just, you know, a nice uptick in visibility.) Realistic expectations are, after all, the path to happiness - just ask Oakland A’s fans.
4 Comments »
Thanks, Deej!
Well. That Huston Street trade is looking more craptacular by the second.
st00pid ulnar nerve.
Don’t you pretty much run the risk of injury if you trade for ANY of the A’s? Stop picking on my “boyfriend”!
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Comment by hotshotrobot — May 13, 2007 @ 12:21 pm
Weaving involves a lot of tearful banging around on a loom while waiting for Ulysses to come home from the war–you know, kinda emo.
That’s some gold right there.