It’s flanked at one of its ends by the blissful bombast of a 20-plus person vocal chorus, and concludes some forty minutes later in the hushed strains of a wistful lullaby. Between these disparate bookends lies the staggering aesthetic expanse of Verbs-the sophomore record from acclaimed Portland, OR experimental pop collective Au-which, in its swirling depths and subtleties, is one of this year’s most satisfying surprises.

In the year’s time since last leaving off with his self-titled, beautifully accomplished debut, Au (pronounced ‘ay you’) architect Luke Wyland has made tremendous strides beyond the warmly retiring sensibilities that marked so much of Au-stepping (wisely) outward, and into the less insular confines of community. In practical terms, this mostly meant acquiring a proper band-the core of which consisting of mutual multi-instrumentalists Johnathan Sielaff and Mark Kaylor-but in a vaguer sense, it meant opening up to Portland’s considerable creative resources. Consequently, Verbs is padded out with contributions from nearly thirty collaborators, a list which includes featured vocalists Sarah Winchester (track 6; of Team Love recording artists A Weather) and Becky Dawson (tracks 2 and 4; of Ah Holly Fam’ly, Saw Whet), as well as members of Yellow Swans, Parenthetical Girls, and Evolutionary Jass Band, among many others-inadvertently resulting in a strange and singular snapshot of a very particular corner of the city’s famously sprawling musical community.

The resulting record-recorded over three days at Portland’s Type Foundry Studios and finished over a subsequent two-month period in Wyland’s own attic studio-seamlessly segues through new and unlikely ecstatic extremes with an arresting economy. Breakout Pop jams like “RR vs. D” rub shoulders comfortably with retreating meditations (”Two Seasons”, “Summer Heat”)-the record’s several distinct movements working at once with more autonomy and cohesion-with arrangements that stretch in longhand across the album’s length.

Verbs is the elated realization of those many asymmetrical pop diamonds that shone so brightly throughout Au’s artful debut (whose warm, Appalachia-informed gems found many favorable comparisons to the far-reaching likes of Arnold Dreyblatt, Animal Collective, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Grizzly Bear)-its many swift and unexpected evolutions shepherded confidently by Wyland’s competent, classically-trained hand. As surprising as it is immediate, Verbs is infused with all of the earnest and palpable joy of its creation-the delightfully enveloping whole of which demands to be heard.

Au

Tue-Aug 12- Brooklyn, NYC- Monkeytown (early and late shows)
Sun-Sep 28- Baltimore, MD- Sonar*
Mon-Sep 29- New York, NY- The Spiegeltent*
Tue-Sep 30- Middletown, CT- Wesleyan University
Thu-Oct 2- Boston, MA- Museum of Fine Arts*
Fri-Oct 3- Hanover, NH- Dartmouth College*
Sat-Oct 4- Montreal, QC- La Sala Rossa*
Mon-Oct 6- Toronto, ON- Horseshoe Tavern*
Wed-Oct 8- Chicago, IL- The Bottom Lounge*
Fri-Oct 10- Richmond, IN- Earlham College*
Sat-Oct 11- Columbus, OH- Milo Arts*
Mon-Oct 13- Omaha, NE- Slowdown+
Tue-Oct 14- Minneapolis, MN- First Avenue+
Wed-Oct 15- Milwaukee, WI- Turner Hall+
Thu-Oct 16- Bloomington, IN- Buskirk- Chumley Theater+

* = w/ The Dodos
+ = w/ Deerhoof

Au - Verbs (Aagoo)

1. All My Friends
2. Are Animals
3. Summerheat
4. RR vs. D
5. All Myself
6. Two Seasons
7. Prelude
8. The Waltz
9. Sleep

AU LINKS:

Myspace: www.myspace.com/peaofthesea

Press Materials: www.aagoo.com/verbs

Band Page: www.au-au-au.com

Label Page: www.aagoo.com

MP3: Tobacco - “Truck Sweat”

On F***ed Up Friends, his first solo album, Tobacco explores a darker, starker and altogether more badass dimension of his complex vision. With his group Black Moth Super Rainbow, Tobacco distinguished himself as a master of jagged beats, glowing melodies and pronounced tension. This time, he works alone, in rural Pennsylvania, away from conventions and interference.

As always, Tobacco recorded F***ed Up Friends using analog synths and tape machines, which gives his work a timeless distance from digital pop music at large. His tracks evoke sonar, mellotrons and deteriorating cassette tapes. His windshield-rattling beats thump hard against their technological limitations. His hooks emerge from thick ponds of distortion, which heightens their hypnotic power. His music is equally cosmopolitan and self-contained, the soundtrack for an imaginary underwater cop show, a welcome stranger anywhere in time and space.

Much of F***ed Up Friends is instrumental. Sometimes, electronically mutilated vocals do emerge. The lyrics are never “about,” but always “of.” They don’t clarify. They only make the mystery that much more enticing.

Tobacco creates unique, compelling pop from the power and constrictions of his available technology. He makes music that is at once buoyant, danceable and unmistakably eerie. He plays “lo-fi” music for high yields, and he gives his simplest constructions a powerful dramatic sweep. He makes music with suave passion, burning vitality and cinematic depth. And he never stops searching for the perfect beat.

At times, such as on the sunny celebration “Hairy Candy,” F***ed Up Friends recalls BMSR’s woozy daydreams. But, taken as a whole, it’s a much more sinister affair. This album is anxiously driven, effortlessly smooth, and unapologetically uncanny. These tracks will stick in your head like a crooked get-rich-quick scheme. “Hawker Boat” and “Dirt (featuring Aesop Rock)” strain stadium-rock grandeur through a dirty filter and serve it with rocks and salt. “Side 8 (Big Gums Version),” “Backwoods Altar” and “Get My Nails Did” slowly expose a deep menace beneath their enticing rhythms.

F***ed Up Friends defies all expectations, rocks the boombox, and casts a menacing, irresistible spell. It bleeds under a blacklight. It knows where you live.

TOBACCO

09/26 Chicago, IL Bottom Lounge *
09/27 Minneapolis, MN Triple Rock *
10/03 Purchase, NY SUNY Purchase
10/21 - 10/24 New York, NY CMJ

Tobacco
F***ed Up Friends
(Anticon)
Street date: Oct. 14, 2008

01 Street Trash
02 Truck Sweat
03 Hairy Candy
04 Hawker Boat
05 Side 8 (Big Gums
Version)
06 Yum Yum Cult
07 Berries That Burn
08 Get My Nails Did
09 Dirt (Featuring Aesop Rock)
10 Gross Magik
11 Little Pink Riding Hood
12 Backwoods Altar
13 -
14 Tape Eater
15 Pink Goo
16 Grease Wizard

TOBACCO LINKS:

MySpace: www.myspace.com/tobacco
Press materials: www.anticon.com/pr/tobacco.htm

MP3: The Physics of Meaning - “Aeroplanes and Hurricanes”

The Physics of Meaning is a chamber rock band from North Carolina, spearheaded by multi-instrumentalist songwriter Daniel Hart. Daniel is a member of St. Vincent and John Vanderslice’s band, as well as a
frequent contributor to The Polyphonic Spree.

Much in the same way that Daniel splits his time now between several different projects, Daniel split his time growing up between two passions. He started playing the violin when he was only three years old and continued to study classical music throughout his adolescence. The weeks were spent practicing Bach sonatas and partitas; Saturdays rehearsing “Peer Gynt” and “The Firebird Suite”.

But Daniel also loved plays, taking up the role of Mercutio in a high school summer Shakespeare festival, reading the work of modern greats like Sam Shepard and Samuel Beckett. At college, Daniel delved into playwriting, examining human motivation as it translates from the written word to the stage, writing his own plays and performing them with his friends.

So The Physics of Meaning is the culmination of these two influences: Daniel’s love of the violin and his love of dialogue-driven storytelling. Physics songs are narratives, character sketches, soliloquies, arguments, secret wishes and unsolved mysteries, all accompanied by strings which slide and sear and tremble and distort.
The music evokes the sweet earnestness of John Vanderslice, the technical beauty of St. Vincent, and the charging energy of the Spree, while the effects of a youth spent listening to Yes and Led Zeppelin
are also evident.

The Physics of Meaning just finished recording its fully-orchestrated second album, Snake Charmer and Destiny at the Stroke of Midnight, which is slated for release September 16th. The album was engineered
by Mark Paulson (Bowerbirds, The Rosebuds) and Alex Lazara (The Prayers and Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers), and features strings, winds, horns, harp and a choir, with help from Adam Baker (Annuals)
and Annie Clark (St. Vincent).

The Physics of Meaning
Snake Charmer and Destiny at the Stroke of Midnight
(Bu hanan / Trekky)
Street date: Sept. 16, 2008

1. In Dreams, We Discover Ourselves, Broken and Yearning
2. Destiny Reveals an Unbelievable Truth
3. No More Sleeping in the Shadows
4. Like White Blood Filling a Black Heart
5. Around the Bend
6. Why Can’t We Fall In Love Forever? (Anything Is Possible)
7. We Were Made For This World
8. Song For a Snake Charmer
9. Song For a Wishing Well (Not Everything Is Possible)
10. Aeroplanes and Hurricanes
11. Snake Charmer and Destiny at the Stroke of Midnight
12. In Dreams, We Return to Ourselves, Empty and Honest

THE PHYSICS OF MEANING LINKS:

MySpace: www.myspace.com/thephysicsofmeaning
Press materials: www.trekkyrecords.com/promophysics.html

MP3: Faunts - “M4 (Part II)”

Hauntingly beautiful and defiantly hopeful, Faunts create perfect music for the twilight hour between wake and sleep. High Expectations/Low Results, their remarkably assured debut album, and M4, their more recent EP, weave together shimmering walls of pink noise with dreamy, languorous guitar, gently-treated vocals, and swimmingly beautiful melodies.

Faunts was formed in the fall of 2000 by brothers Tim and Steven Batke and soon after, Paul Arnusch. At this point the band emerged, squinting, into the nightlight of their hometown of Edmonton, a modest-sized city in northern Canada with a healthy and thriving music scene. Not long after their inception, Faunts shared the stage with prominent Canadian bands Broken Social Scene, Stars, and Do Make Say Think. Two Canadian tours followed shortly thereafter including a show at the Popmontreal festival. Now with the addition of a third brother, Rob Batke, Faunts are heading to the West Coast for the first time ever for a short string of shows.

Steven’s guitar is at the core of Faunts’ sprawling, ethereal sound, and Tim and Joel’s keyboards add layer upon layer to the music - which makes it all the more powerful when the wall of sound drops away, leaving nothing but a sparkling echo. This is headphone music at its finest - the band is comprised of musical perfectionists, and they can most often be found in the studio tweaking, recording and mixing until each song is sculpted perfectly to define a specific mood.

Press Quotes:

[Faunts are] “driving along the same star-lit road as The Smiths’ “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out,” but these love-sick passengers are lucky enough not to get hit head-on by that double-decker bus” - Fluxblog

“Gorgeous, lush shoe-gazey indie rock…very pleasurable” - Music For Robots

“Despite the self-deprecating title, High Expectations/Low Results is an amazingly ambitious and expansive album, garnering the group comparisons to the likes of Sigur Ros and the Cure. While the record’s sound is completely Edmonton - cold, sparse, yet comforting - it’s hard to believe that the band’s combination of ambient guitar, soft drums and ethereal keys was born here rather than Montreal or Toronto” - Vue Weekly

FAUNTS

7/30/08 - Portland, OR @ Holocene (w/ Titus Andronicus)
8/01/08 - Vancouver, BC @ the Sweatshop
8/03/08 - Seattle, WA @ Sunset Tavern
8/05/08 - San Francisco, CA @ 12 Galaxies
8/06/08 - Los Angeles, CA @ Silverlake Lounge

FAUNTS LINKS:

MySpace: www.myspace.com/faunts

Band page: www.faunts.com
Press materials:friendlyfirerecordings.com/faunts.html