Hope everyone had a good January!
Earlier this month I started digging out some albums that I hadn’t really listened to in years and got reacquainted with them, among them three albums by the ferocious Don Caballero. Though they still exist, the only remaining original member is their (admittedly brilliant) drummer, Damon Che. For a few albums, Ian Williams (currently of Battles) was on board, and those records remain some of the best music of their time. Genre tags like “post rock” or “math rock” do a better job of describing the bands that used Don Cab as an influence and, generally speaking, rounded off the edges—the knock-offs aren’t always interesting to listen to, but I think the original is still frighteningly unique.
Don Cab’s last album before breaking up in late 2000 was American Don. Fueled by acrobatic loops and fractured riffs by Williams on guitar, it also featured new member Eric Emm on bass. A collaborator with Williams in Storm & Stress, this was Emm’s only appearance on record with Don Cab but his work stands out mostly by anchoring the two musicians who sound close to becoming untethered. I hadn’t given much thought to what he was doing in the past 10 years since that breakup, but apparently he had stayed active in bands like Good Morning and doing production work with his brother as…The Brothers. Now there’s Tanlines, his latest project, this one a partnership with Jesse Cohen, formerly of Professor Murder and concurrently of Restless People. And Tanlines is what I’m here to talk about, sorry about the history lesson…
Tanlines have been playing around New York for sometime now but haven’t released much—in fact, they’ve been busy on the remix front, doing production for Telepathe and the Tough Alliance, among others. But with the recent digital release of “Real Life” and the upcoming Settings EP in early March, that will change. I’m a relatively recent convert myself, but I suggest you might enjoy their music as well. In “Real Life,” which you can hear below, the keyboards jumps out instantly but are quickly colored by that lovely gliding guitar sound. There’s more going on than appears at first glance, yet you could probably hum this song after hearing it once. (Turns out Eric is a pretty decent singer, too!) And the lyrics are simple and humble in an oddly comforting way—“You might still think I’m that way/It’s only natural/It was a past life thing/it wasn’t anything at all.” I think anyone who has generally been into DFA output these past couple years should be excited by this and ready to hear more. “Real Life” is below and be sure to enjoy the song “S.A.W.” from a recent 7” here too.
Posted by Ned Milligan
