Trans Am - "Triangular Pyramid" (mp3)
I was telling Mat about the new Trans Am album the other night because I want him to get it and get hyped up to go with me to their show at the Black Cat next month, but also because he's the person that got me into Trans Am in the first place. I haven't investigated their back catalog too deeply, nothing since Red Line, and I don't know if anything they do will ever match the rush of the best stuff on Surrender To The Night, but it's nice to hear a new album really returning to their strengths, after the somewhat off-putting bits I heard off their last couple albums. Not too much overt retro aesthetic or weird semi-ironic concepts, and only a little of the singing that almost never seems necessary on their records, just some really good instrumental jams, each with its own distinct sound. At their worst, Trans Am are kind of like a proto-LCD Soundsystem, showing off their record collections in a winking, self-deprecating way. At their best, their ideas and musicianship make you ignore all the subtext and just enjoy the hell out of listening to them play, at least if you're like me and really get off on stuff like drum fills and synth tones.
The fact that Sex Change feels like such a 'classic Trans Am' album is kind of odd, though, considering that, according to the spiel about the album on the Thrill Jockey site, they really went out of their way to abandon their traditional writing and recording methods and stand-by instruments and force themselves out of their comfort zone. But maybe it makes sense, then, that it's almost like a pure distillation of their tastes and skills as musicians. I liked the tasty little acoustic guitar bits on Red Line a lot, so it's no surprise that the slow jam at the end of Sex Change, "Triangular Pyramid," is a highlight for me (the chords kinda remind me of "Lee #2" too, which helps). But what really kills me is the last minute or so of the record, when it kind of gets filtered down into these pings of sound, like the whole band has been reduced to this fading signal that sound like a haze of guitar with occasional snare drum pops in the background, really beautiful stuff.
I was telling Mat about the new Trans Am album the other night because I want him to get it and get hyped up to go with me to their show at the Black Cat next month, but also because he's the person that got me into Trans Am in the first place. I haven't investigated their back catalog too deeply, nothing since Red Line, and I don't know if anything they do will ever match the rush of the best stuff on Surrender To The Night, but it's nice to hear a new album really returning to their strengths, after the somewhat off-putting bits I heard off their last couple albums. Not too much overt retro aesthetic or weird semi-ironic concepts, and only a little of the singing that almost never seems necessary on their records, just some really good instrumental jams, each with its own distinct sound. At their worst, Trans Am are kind of like a proto-LCD Soundsystem, showing off their record collections in a winking, self-deprecating way. At their best, their ideas and musicianship make you ignore all the subtext and just enjoy the hell out of listening to them play, at least if you're like me and really get off on stuff like drum fills and synth tones.
The fact that Sex Change feels like such a 'classic Trans Am' album is kind of odd, though, considering that, according to the spiel about the album on the Thrill Jockey site, they really went out of their way to abandon their traditional writing and recording methods and stand-by instruments and force themselves out of their comfort zone. But maybe it makes sense, then, that it's almost like a pure distillation of their tastes and skills as musicians. I liked the tasty little acoustic guitar bits on Red Line a lot, so it's no surprise that the slow jam at the end of Sex Change, "Triangular Pyramid," is a highlight for me (the chords kinda remind me of "Lee #2" too, which helps). But what really kills me is the last minute or so of the record, when it kind of gets filtered down into these pings of sound, like the whole band has been reduced to this fading signal that sound like a haze of guitar with occasional snare drum pops in the background, really beautiful stuff.
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on Monday, March 19, 2007 at 11:22 PM.
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The bookends of Sex Change are awesome... I got lost in the middle but it came back at the end...
Only once through it thus far...
Thanks for the reminder!
ps. Redline was not my favorite, by any means.