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Idolator
Welcome to another edition of Track Marks, in which your Idolators perform an autopsy on the latest whisper-down-the-lane Internet-sensation of the moment. Today's entry follows a group so blog-beloved, even our cat's heard of them (our cat's really into Livejournal these days).
Artist: Annuals
Hometown: Raleigh, North Carolina
Album: Be He Me, due out Oct. 17th
First online mention (according to searches on Elbo.ws and The Hype Machine): Vinyl Mine, which notes the band's "Arcade-Fire-with-electronics" sound back on February 25th, and also kicks up the still-running discussion on the hotness of keyboardist Anna Spence, above.
The Build-Up: With the exception of a rave on The Oak Room, the blogosphere remains pretty quiet throughout the spring (though there are a few mentions of the similarly titled Band of Annuals). But then comes a July 17 post on postcore.com, claiming that Pitchfork is about to annoint Annuals as its next big phenom; indeed, the next day finds an MP3 post on the 'Fork, noting that the band sounds like "some fantasy hybrid of Animal Collective, the Arcade Fire, and Broken Social Scene."
The Dam-Break: Shortly after the Pitchfork write-up, a slew of enthusiastic endorsements appear, including more than 30 mentions of the band in August alone (wisely, label Ace-Fu posts the best three songs from the record on its Web site). Many entries compare the band to the Arcade Fire and/or the Flaming Lips, which are also mentioned at the very top of the band's recently updated press release. The leaked Annuals tracks have been lodged in Elbo.ws' Top 20 list ever since, getting an extra bump after last week's NYC shows.
Odds of Backlash: 5 to 1. The "I was there first!" group normally would turn against these guys in a manner of months, but they're likely going to keep their mouths shut for a while, in the hopes of holding an awkward conversation with Spence at Waterloo Records during next year's SXSW.
Are They Worthy? As much as we'd love to cynically attribute Annuals' success to shrewd web savvy and blogger hysterics, Be He Me is actually pretty great. It reminds us of some other grandiose alt-rock bands. If only we could remember their names.
Annuals - Brother [MP3, link expired]
Annuals - Dry Clothes [MP3, link expired]
Annuals [MySpace site]
Comments
"some fantasy hybrid of Animal Collective, the Arcade Fire, and Broken Social Scene."
About that adjective.
i think the animal collective tag is a bit misplaced. these are kids that cut their teeth on pop punk and emo and alt.rock, only to flip their shit when a buddy introduced 'em to mike patton -- really, the result is fun and strange and interesting. dry clothes is more NEW MUSIC, spawn of zorn stuff than freaky animal collective vine swinging. plus, AC would never use something as obvious as a phaser. listen to the construction of melodies and the crunch on tracks like that pitchfork biggie. it's more guitar center than thrift store. oh, and look at their first band: http://www.myspace.com/timothysweekend.
They certainly have a "thick" sound, which has its own appeal. I can see that they generate interest in their tracks by varying the texture a lot. First three voices, then one. First guitars, then a short bout with strings. This makes the structure very dynamic.
Still, I think I would more enjoy listening tracks that have less elements, but with more variation and development in each of those elements. At least then I wouldn't feel like I have ADHD just listening to it (although we all like to be easily distracted every now and then)
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