"Bad Date" Available As A Free Download At Pitchfork
On Talk Normal's sophomore LP Sunshine,
out this fall on Joyful Noise Recordings, the Brooklyn duo unveil songs
that sparkle with melody and dissonance. Jarring rhythms and
feedback-drenched guitar tones lace Sunshine's nine surprisingly
songful tunes - creating a sound informed by their predecessors (Cocteau Twins, Velvet Underground, Laurie Anderson & Creatures), but strikingly new. Pitchfork is running a premiere of "Bad Date" from Sunshine. The track is available as a download to post and share.
After
years of friendship, Sarah Register and Andrya Ambro's Talk Normal
first emerged on the NYC music scene in 2007, initially releasing
demos, cassettes and their Secret Cog vinyl EP. Following the 2009 release of their debut album Sugarland on Rare Book Room Records (recorded and mixed by Nicolas Vernhes), Talk Normal released a handful of 7"s (including a split 7" with Thurston Moore on Nathan Howdeshell from The Gossip's Fast Weapons Records) and shared the stage with the likes of Sonic Youth, Wire, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Zola Jesus.
In the three years since Sugarland,
Talk Normal have refined their noisy vigor into the diverse batch of
songs found on Sunshine. Tracks like "Bad Date", "Cover", and
"Hurricane" carry almost a meditative emotional energy, where others
like "Sunshine" and "Shot This Time" err on the side of explosive
driving rock. Plus dance-y "XO", narrative noisers "Lone General" and
"Baby, Your Heart's Too Big", and standout vocal harmonies on "Hot
Water Burns". Produced by the band, Sunshine was recorded in 2011 by Christina Files
at Vacation Island Studios in Brooklyn NY and Echo Canyon West in
Hoboken NJ (Files also contributed to production). Allen Farmello mixed
at The Snow Farm in Brooklyn NY. Written over the course of years,
culminating in frequent jumps from studio to studio, and with the band
going on two month-long tours mid-process (!) this album is laced with
a sense of urgency and jubilation unique to the path it traveled into
reality.
Unlike traditional noisy-rock, Talk Normal's Sunshine
is steeped in melody, albeit unconventional melody. Sweet-sounding
female vocals are present throughout, sometimes as sung lyrics and
sometimes as instruments themselves. Ambro & Register's combined
voices often volley back and forth, each providing equal contributions
to vocals, lyrics, and instrumentation - meticulously orchestrating not
only the arrangements, but also the tonality of each collected sound.
As Pitchfork describes: "(their) vocals can handle
both desperate screech and matter-of-fact detachment somewhere between
Karen O and Kim Gordon." Combined with Register's flowing, nearly-drony
riffs and Ambro's finely choreographed beats, the end result is a
natural sonic cohesion. Maybe not the sunshine you're used to, but rays
within which you'll want to bask.
Sunshine Track List:
1. Lone General
2. XO
3. Bad Date
4. Sunshine
5. Hot Water Burns
6. Shot This Time
7. Cover
8. Baby Your Hearts Too Big
9. Hurricane
Upcoming NYC Shows:
*July
18 @ McCarren Park's Summer Screen movie 'Raising Arizona' w/ Tim
Harrington (from Les Savy Fav) & Dustin Wong (of Ponytail) http://summerscreen.org/
*August 16 @ 285 Kent w/ Deep Time (formerly Yellow Fever) -- http://toddpnyc.com/
A full U.S. tour is planned in support of the release. Dates and more info to be announced shortly.
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