Today, I’ll try and clean house a little bit with an album I’ve been meaning to talk aobut for over a month. Stars of Track and Field are an indie rock band out of Portland, whose first full length Centuries Before Love and War can be found on iTunes right now, or can be purchased at an old fashioned store in early 2007.
I reviewed this song, the best on the record, back in my big Antarctica post last month, saying “This song is a drenching burst of 90s-inspired rock, with just enough of the shoegaze mentality to keep it unique.” After hearing the rest of it, I think that’s a fair description of the whole record. It doesn’t have too many songs that leap out at you, but has a ton of great, swirling guitar riffs, and a nice sense of how to play with the loud/soft dynamic.
There are quite a fewother songs along those lines that I considered posting (good ones to check out on iTunes if you just want to buy a couple would be “Real Time,” “U.S. Mile 5,” or “Say Hello”), but I thought it might be worth letting you hear something with a little change of pace.
Fantastic
We’re dealing here with the same basic themes and style, but this runs a lot closer to the Belle and Sebastian motif that immediately jumps to mind when you hear the band’s name. Add in some soft and warm guitars and a few light electronic beats, and you’ve got yourself a perfect song for curling up in a big blanket on a cold October evening.
They’ve got a bunch of shows with the Twilight Singers coming up in the next month. Unfortunately, I’ll be out of town when they come through Boston, but you can see all the tour dates on their myspace page.