The Soft Pack, “C’Mon”
I first came across The Soft Pack when they were called The Muslims. There was a considerable amount of buzz behind the band when they released their first EP in March 2009. I did not listen much to their music, maybe a song here and there. It was not my thing at the time, and I did not take too much interest. This changed when I started listening to the famous Rhino Records compilation Nuggets: Original Artifacts from the First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968. Nuggets is a wonderful collection of garage rock pioneers. I could not stop listening to it for a couple of weeks. The music in this collection has a pathos that is remarkable in it’s stark resignation and paradoxical optimism. They really don’t give shit, but they don’t care because living is all they need. Since the collection is from such a specific time period, every band seems to be united in this one voice. When I came across The Muslims EP again, I felt there was a very obvious and deep connection to the 60’s garage on Nuggets. I was both impressed and hooked.
The Muslims became The Soft Pack, because they got too much shit from audiences. I really wish they would have kept their original name, but I can understand how hard it would be to play a small club in say Birmingham, Alabama where a big man named Bo is constantly yelling racial epithets at you. With the new name came a new album, which was released this month. The first single off this album is “C’mon,” and it fits nicely within the sound they created as The Muslims: jangly garage rock with deadpan vocals. The production is much cleaner on this single than their previous work. I think this is a negative development. What made their earlier work so engrossing was the fact that it literally sounded like they recorded it in a garage. The rawness also had a sense of uninhabited expression, which I think is the most attractive element of garage rock in general. You pick up a guitar and just start yelling into a mic about how your job sucks and your girlfriend is a slut. It’s the white middle-class blues. “C’Mon” feels like it was made by The Muslims after they decided to settle down. It’s smart and interesting, but it lacks the vitality of their earlier work.
I don’t necessarily think the band has mellowed. I think it has more to do with the production of the song than the band’s playing. I have seen The Soft Pack twice in the last year. Each time they were pretty damn impressive. The first time I saw them was when they opened for Friendly Fires in San Francisco, and I was just blown away by their power on stage. It was just drums, guitar, and bass, but they blasted the audience, all 50 of them. I think The Soft Pack is an important band, but I do think the may have taken a side step with their first LP. I am hoping they head back into the garage.
Efterklang, “Modern Drift”
I came across this track on my favorite place to find random new music, WeAreHunted. They often have a lot of European bands that never get much play over here in the indie scenes. WeAreHunted is basically like a huge forum of music geeks from around the world picking cool tracks. There are a lot of horrible songs, but you will find a great song every time you go through the list. I found this track a couple months ago, and I have been listening to it ever since.
Efterklang is a indie pop band from Denmark, but they sound like they came from the Swedish pop scene. Soft vocals and delicate guitar lines swirl together like the stripes of a candy cane. The end result is quite sweet. “Modern Drift” is the first song off their new album Magic Chairs, which comes out next week on 4AD. The song is modest and flows without any destination in mind. It does not really go anywhere, but that does not matter much because the ride is smooth and serene.
I think my favorite part of the song is the tension in the guitar line that plays counterpoint to the vocal melody in the pre-chorus. It is this small detail that demonstrates the craftsmanship of the songwriting. The song may not go anywhere, but it is a beautiful thing that one can spend time with over and over again. It feels like a moment frozen in time, glazed over with a protective seal of pop sheen to keep it from losing its shine.
Lali Puna, “Remember”
Another song I came across while making my way through the jungle of WeAreHunted is Lali Puna’s “Remember.” At first, I was only moderately interested in this song, but like the best songs it keeps creeping back into your head, filling mundane moments with a sweet melody only half remembered. I did not know where the song in my head came from until I stumbled across “Remember” in one of my new music playlists.
Lali Puna hails from Germany and “Remember” will be on their new album Our Inventions, which is due out in April. “Remember” is a lot like Efterklang’s “Modern Drift” in that the song does not move towards or away from anything. A mood is created and the song wallows in it. The emotional center of the song is the vocal refrain of “Will you remember… Me?” and it is pretty effective in expressing a certain sense of loss and longing. The accompaniment of the song is composed mostly of loops, which blend together well so the song does not come across as overly contrived or sterile.
This song, along with a majority of European indie pop, demonstrates the beauty in simple melodies and lyrics. It is interesting how the American indie scene has not yet fully tapped into this type of chillpop that Swedish bands have nearly perfected. There does seem to be an emotional distance in this type of music that a lot of American bands have a hard time pulling-off. I get the feeling most of these euro indie bands do not take themselves or their music that seriously, and perhaps this is where the difference lies.
-Daniel Wipert
