“…Andrew Bird’s Break It Yourself has this upbeat sort of charm to it, but dives into this murky, almost oceanic, orchestral thing he does with his loops. The recordings are so honest, that you can hear the clicking as he builds the loops at the beginning of some of the songs. He has this ability to jump from a classical violinist to a foot-stomping fiddle player, all the while staying classy as all hell.”
“Since it’s release, I’ve spent a lot of time with this album. The crispness is a sound that wanted to emulate at some on The Rattling Arcade, and I feel we’ve touched on it with “Steady Loaded People,” but especially in the single “Way of the Future,” recorded in the same session.
Grizzly Bear’s Yellow House is one of those albums that for me, changed my entire outlook on music. The songs are so strange, but still have this buried accessibility. The vagueness of the lyricism acts like free-agents, allowing the terms to stick in the mind, allowing the listener to paint their own portrait in their mind. I feel that when songs are specific as to meaning or narrative, they lose an amount of adoptability to the listener as far as ownership. Yellow House has so many dark undertones that fill out the album.
I was playing the album in the car with one of my friends and they said, “What is that? Is that guitar?” referring to Daniel Rossen’s punchy, but reverb-drenched tone. The harmonies and ambiguations of standard instrumentation paired together are so interestingly disorienting. but the voices or Daniel Rossen and Ed Droste provide safety. The dual personalities displayed in their two lead vocals brings to mind some sort of tripped out Simon and Garfunkel.
When it comes to favorite records, I cannot pick one. Though, I can pick several. In the group that I call “the greatest rock albums of all time”, lies Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. Recorded at what was yet to be called Abbey Road Studios, the album in its duration fits perfectly onto a 12″ LP, sculpted to flow from one song to the next and groups the sides in stand-alone pieces. I view this album as ideal to this respect (and perhaps in every other way). The band achieved this incredibly dark, but funky sound that they perfected when they started in that direction with “Echoes” on Meddle a few years prior.
Neil Young’s Harvest is just one of those records that has this effervescent magic to it. It has that gritty, yet groovy, chill country vibe that keeps you going to the next track. The songs range from these crisp, naked acoustic tunes to heavy pre-grunge. The songs were recorded in a number of places but it still has this cohesiveness, tying it all together.
In addition to that, the album features guests who were friends to Neil, and the result was this impeccable cross-pollination. This is something that I’ve always wanted to delve into. There is so much excellent talent in Pittsburgh, many of these people are my friends, and I thought: “If I were to convince just some of them to be a part of this, we might end up with something truly special…”
—André Costello
André Costello and the Cool Minors’ full length debut release, The Rattling Arcade is in stores now. On vinyl.
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