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February 09, 2007

Frog Eyes Bulge Again

photo by Devon Banks

Carey Mercer and Frog Eyes are spoken of in hushed tones these days as some sort of godfather to the promising mid 00's crop of Canadian art stars. Seems like too easy an observation to me. I mean there are definitely sonic similarities to the Krug bands, Wolf Parade and Sunset Rubdown, but uh, Spence is in Frog Eyes too, so I'm not sure you can even call that an influence, so much as a direct connection. As Arcade Fire slips further into their (totally good but) pretty straightforward new sound, that discounts them as Mercer disciples. Who else? Islands? New Pornographers? Please. If there's any unequivocal thing to be said about 'Eyes it's that they are distinctive. So let's pound some iron into that "godfather" narrative's coffin, shall we?

On May 1st, Absolutely Kosher releases the iconoclast's new opus Tears of the Valedictorian. A couple songs have popped up, and I'm still chewing them over. Early thoughts...

Frog Eyes - "Idle Songs"

Mercer constructs his songs in a completely counter intuitive way. He starts with the huge cathartic climax, all instruments bashing at once, his voice straining and convulsing, then he extends that peak for minutes instead of seconds. Carey makes you anticipate the quiet moments, when the exhausting density fades and you're left with just a beautiful keyboard tone or more often, just his astounding voice. It's a direct inversion of the build to a chorus rock structure to which we're accustomed, and yeah, it's sound pretty fuckin' weird.

Here, in Valedictorian's opening remarks, Mercer's psycho whisper is actually semi-restrained in the midst of the maelstrom but the dynamic is the same. When the bottom drops out this time, though, he just shuffles his feet repeating "idle song, oh, idle song, da duh." It's like he's mocking writers who can't be bothered to be so dense, or us for needing things to calm down (be idle) before we can "get it." Then, just to prove he's on another plane entirely comes this ridiculously awesome guitar solo, a few seconds of the usual buoy bobbing melody, and then nothing but a steady EKG pulse for the remainder of its time. At this point, he can turn it on or off, or casually deconstruct the pile-up, giving us pieces on a whim.

Frog Eyes - "Bushels"

Pitchfork put up another track, "Bushels," a day or so ago. I've been listening to it obsessively, trying to compare it to the previous Daytrotter session. Its epic ten minute length is full of peaks and valleys, insane guitar textures and lovely Spencer Krug keyboard melodies. I'll give it to you now for ease, but I'm nowhere near absorbing it enough to say anything of substance. Let me take a rain check on that, maybe meet back here next week? You know I'm good for it...

Also:

Frog Eyes - "Caravan Breakers" (Daytrotter Session)

I raved about this one on more than one occasion last year and am prepared to flip shit again when the studio version surfaces. Consider that a warning.

Full tracklist and Frog Eyes tour dates for those who dare to continue.

// Frog Eyes - the Folded Palm buy
// Frog Eyes - website
// Frog Eyes - MySpace

Posted by Jeff Klingman at February 9, 2007 12:08 PM

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Posted by: James at February 15, 2007 10:34 AM

Posted by: Jeff K at February 15, 2007 06:00 PM

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