The JAGJAGUWAR label is quickly becoming a favorite of mine. What with releases by Black Mountain, Ladyhawk and Okkervil River among others. A new edition to their catologue is The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse. Upon reading write ups on the band, I was excited (to say the least) to see them described as Beach Boys harmony's backed by Spiritualized with Roy Orbison-esque lead vocals. Spread a psychadelic canvas all around that sucker and that is The Besnard Lakes.
To my surprise their first track has patent fucking Beach Boys harmonies. If you could copyright an idea, the Surf's Up boys would be expecting a royalty check in the mail and deservingly so. Harmonies aside, the band's compositions alternate between heavily drenched feedback and the whimsical. Some of the tracks seem to go to some pretty dark places musically but the band always manages to keep a bright light shing to find their way back on home.
So where does a band like this come from? Canada of course. What's more they are actually huge Orbison fans (get him a stamp please) and got into him by way of David Lynch's use of the Roysters music (the Spanish version of Crying in Mullholland Drive is a must listen). No doubt unless 10 or so most excellent albums are released by the end of this year, this one will be making its' way into the Top 10 of 2007 list (the only other one I got there at the moment is The Good, The Bad & The Queen which I have become addicted to).
One request before we get to the music, if you like what you hear please purchase the album from your local retail record seller or straight from the horse's mouth at Jagjaguwar's mail order site. Oh and if you get the cahnce check these guys out live. I hear they kick ass.
Disaster where you can just taste the harmony.
This has been brought to you as the third addition to our Thumbs Up for 2007 series.
2 comments:
I gotta chime in here -- Besnard Lakes are incredible. I grabbed 7/8ths of that record from eMusic before leaving for Austin a few weeks ago. Therefore, the jams were in my head as we rolled in for SxSW. Luckily, we got to the Filter day party in time to see them kill through some of that record -- sans all the foofy production (which, I do like on the record - but, I dug the muscle they displayed live). That is one amazing band. I just tried to order their back catalog (1 full length, a 7", and a 10") but most of it is backordered! xxx, Matthew
Matthew - did they perform any covers during their set? i'd be curious to know what they would play.
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