Rubblebucket

Been streaming this album (Omega La La) a lot the last few days after hearing the very Stereolab-esque "Triangular Daisies" at the coffee shop. On the one hand it's extremely typical of kind of everything I hear these days - chilled out, chorus-ed, swinging hard for "wistfulness" and "communitarian" as vibes - with a nice throwback to Go! Team horns and funk rhythm guitar and the like. I think the melodies and hooks are pretty passable though, e.g. on "Came Out Of A Lady." Anyone seen them live or anything?

Well. "Stereolab-esque" might be a stretch, the overall sound isn't really that, but there's something about the vocals...

Also I really like the way the chorus works on "Breatherz (Young As Clouds)" (yikes, what a title), the backing vocal whoosh/rise giving way to an oh-ah-oh-oh thing straight outta chart pop (Til The World Ends, Roar etc.). The thick sonic fog that I hear on basically every "ILM top album of 2012" indie record is here draped around something fundamentally leaner and "live"-er, but I don't mean to privilege one over the other. Still I wonder if there's some reckoning ahead, where all of these bands are going to suddenly, and without agreeing on it beforehand, strip this whooshiness away on their second and third albums, and become unabashed bubblegum rock-pop bands (or, in some cases, Tullycraft twee indie).

I have seen them live. They're a blast there.

Recorded, I like them. More specifically I like their vibe, their DIY/colorful/artsy aesthetic, and that they're unafraid of combining several sounds into something that's fun and catchy, not annoying, and with no trace of irony. In other words, they're all in on their sort of hipster/hippie/afro/dancey/pop thing, they pull it off well and seem to have lots of goofy fun with it. I like that.