Extant for over two decades, Snowglobe has been described as a Memphis indie rock institution, with the foundation of this esteem grooved into a pair of fresh reissues. Listening to their first album, 2002’s Our Land Brains, which hit vinyl for the first time last November as a double set, and its follow-up, 2005’s Doing the Distance, also debuting on wax July 2, it’s easy to understand why folks would get behind them, or more accurately, stand facing them as they play a set of tunes; the sound is vibrant, also tough, and yet personable. The reissue of Snowglobe’s first album is out through Nine Mile Records of Austin and their second via Black & Wyatt of Memphis. Observations on both are found below.
The scoop with Snowglobe is that they formed not in Memphis but in Athens, GA in 1999 and with connections to the Elephant 6 neo-psych scene of the time. Specifically, there were ties (i.e. shared living spaces) with Elf Power and the Olivia Tremor Control. To put a fine point on it, Snowglobe aren’t an official part of the Elephant 6 Collective, as there’s no listing of them amongst the 47 acts ordered alphabetically at the E6 website, but their strain of psych-pop, regularly seasoned as it is with horns and strings, solidifies the association, nonetheless.
Circa these two albums, Snowglobe was (and appears to still be) comprised of Brad Postlethwaite, Tim Regan, Brandon Robertson, Jeff Hulett, and Nahshon Benford. On Doing the Distance, Postlethwaite and Regan play six instruments each (not including vocals), with Robertson playing five, so I’m dispensing with individual credits here, though I will note that additional hands do help out with strings and pedal steel.
I didn’t hear Snowglobe when these two records were first released (though I was aware of the band’s existence). Being introduced to both records now undeniably alters my point of view. To elaborate, I feel confident that the grade awarded to Our Land Brains below is higher than it would’ve been had I been exposed to the album in 2002.
This is due largely to perspective altered by distance, but it also helps that Snowglobe weren’t craven imitators, though it takes until the electric piano and bells ending of the debut’s opener “Waves Rolling” for this to become apparent. Of course, there are the expected stylistic maneuvers, such as the neo-music hall piano in “Beautiful,” but that cut is also the nearest Snowglobe get to the ornateness that was the specialty of the Ladybug Transistor (probably my favorite E6 band, other than Neutral Milk Hotel).
“Blue Balcony” is a melancholy piano-driven baroque pop instrumental, while later in the album, with the achy meter redlining, “Stubber” adds lyrics to essentially the same scenario. “Big City Lights” offsets the horns and strings with a little twang, but it’s not like Sneaky Pete Kleinow rolled up into the studio or anything. And as the horns progress in the song, the impact of Neutral Milk Hotel is detectable.
“Adrenaline Mother” is folky and redirects the twang toward post-All Things Must Pass early ’70s soft rock, and if “Muse” basically extends from the E6 template, the songwriting is above average. Appropriately titled, “Experiments” spans from song structure to faux-collage before fading out, adding hints of electronics, Beach Boys harmonies, and even some turntable scratching (non-disastrous, against the odds).
Late track “Playground” is a bit like a cut from deep in the sequence from an early Decemberists album (that band’s debut emerging at roughly the same time as Our Land Brains), and that’s nice, but it’s “The Song That Frustrates Us” that really rallies the emotions singalong style as it likely closed more than one of Snowglobe’s live sets.
If the passage of time has benefited Our Land Brains, it feels like an entrenched reality that Doing the Distance is the stronger of these two records, as it offers considerable growth, even as the brief opening Morricone-derived fanfare of “Theme Music (for dwight larry lizard)” is quite Ladybug-like. But as the horns stick around for “Loaded Gun,” there’s still a tilt toward what I’ll call heartland indie (rather than simply alt-country, understand).
“Comforted,” and for that matter, Doing the Distance’s finale, ”33 1/3rd,” reinforce Snowglobe’s increased handiness with non-vocal numbers. There’s also “The Boso (The Kickdown),” the album’s jangling penultimate track that’s mostly instrumental and sports some Joe Meek-ish flair. But “Comforted” also stands out for how it segues seamlessly into the terrific “Ms. June.”
On the prior record, “Dream Works” was a smidge reminiscent of the James McNew-sung numbers on Yo La Tengo’s later albums (thinking of the psych-tinged “Black Flowers” in particular, though Snowglobe is more upbeat), but the singing in “Ms. June” appealingly deepens this similarity, sounding like McNew channeling Neil Young, and that’s a fab thing to hear.
From there, “Baby” adds more twangy undercurrents and again resembles The Decemberists a bit, but it’s notable how the song’s grand sweep and its length (breaking six minutes) is more inclined toward the bright wide swath of late indie in general rather than neo-psych. Complementing this shift is the foundational sturdiness of “Master of Forgotten Worlds,” and following, “Aimless Sailor,” which hits its peak with emotional sincerity.
“Calculating Fades” begins in Beach Boys territory before going rustic, but it’s “Changes” (where the keyboards deliver unexpected flashes of pop-prog) and later in the album, “Big Machine,” that most forthrightly reinforce those E6 roots. This strengthens the sense of cohesiveness with Our Land Brains, but I dig a little more how “Regime” hints at the power pop side of mid-’90s indie. It’s the cut to put on that mixtape (or playlist) for that special someone who digs early Weezer and Teenage Fanclub.
Even with its accents of brass and Fun Trick Noisemaker-ish electronic wheedling, “Rock Song” is exactly what its title says it is, as the guitar roar gets in the neighborhood of later Hüsker Dü. Sweet. And while the rainy day orch-pop of “Sickness” can certainly be cited as a byproduct of E6’s precedent, it’s inspired enough in its construction that it doesn’t sound like a 15-year-old relic when heard for the first time in 2021. Even sweeter.
“Medium,” the record’s other six-minute excursion, starts out in the piano-based ballad zone then goes full-on arena anthemic after the drums kick in and the guitar starts wailing, only to dish a sly false ending followed by some ambient intrigue. That it’s followed by the lightheartedness of “The Boso (The Kickdown)” and the dual piano action (one cyclical, one thundering) of ”33 1/3rd” is indicative of Snowglobe’s creative strides overall.
If only one LP is in the budget, Doing the Distance wins out. But Our Land Brains is also worth the time.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
Our Land Brains
B+
Doing the Distance
A-
