New Sunset Rubdown - "Up On Your Leopard, Upon The End Of Your Feral Days"
At some point it just won't make sense to refer to Sunset Rubdown as a Wolf Parade side-project -- especially when you consider Spencer Krug's Rubdown moniker is responsible for three LPs to the lupine Parade's lonely (albeit amazing) one. Granted, Sunset's first was more of a Spencer solo thing, but this fall the Rubdown releases Random Spirit Lover, just over a year after putting out one of Stereogum's favorite releases of '06, Shut Up I Am Dreaming. And the first taste? Epic, arpeggiated, with tinkling glockenspiels, a proggy jig, Spencer's madcap, cackling melodicism, and an outro that will melt every club it sees this fall. In two words: loves it. In a few more: Just may be that Spencer Krug can do no wrong.
Sunset Rubdown - Up On Your Leopard, Upon The End Of Your Feral Days" (MP3)
Random Spirit Lover is out 10/9 on Jagjaguwar. Rubdown on the road:
10/07 - Cambridge, MA @ Middle East Downstairs
10/08 - Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
10/09 - New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
10/10 - Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church
10/11 - Washington, DC @ Black Cat
10/12 - Chapel Hill, NC @ Local 506
10/13 - Atlanta, GA @ Drunken Unicorn
10/15 - Baton Rouge, LA @ Spanish Moon
10/16 - Austin, TX @ Emo’s
10/18 - Tuscon, AZ @ Solar Culture Gallery
10/19 - Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theatre
10/21 - San Francisco, CA @ Independent
10/23 - Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre
10/24- Seattle, WA @ Crocodile Cafe
10/25 - Vancouver, BC @ Plaza Club
10/26 - Victoria, BC @ Logans
10/28 - Calgary, Alberta @ Broken City
[Pic from Sunset Rubdown's gig at Mercury Lounge 5/22/06 -- one of our favorite live shows of 2006]
Posted at 10:29 AM in MP3, Tour Dates
Tags: Sunset Rubdown | Wolf Parade
I've heard the album and I have to say I don't like it. Parts of it are very....prog-rocky or something. Just something about it irritated me. Handsome Furs wasn't very good either. Hopefully this won't mean bad things for the new Wolf Parade.
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"Shut up I am dreaming" somehow crept into my list of-all time favorite albums with all those 30-40 year old classics that usually reside on the list. I've listened to it almost every day since it was released.
That being said, I can't really get into the new one, "random spit lover." It lacks the mystery, evil, and beauty of the "shut up..."
I agree with above, Handsome Furs was nothing special. Nor was Swan Lake.
"Shut up I am dreaming" really should be required listening for everyone though. I think its way better than the Wolf Parade album, but no, actually Spencer and Dan can do some wrong. They are human.
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The new album is just as good if not better than SUIAD. I was confused and unsure at first but after 5 or 6 more listens I am officially hooked.
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I like the new album, but not as much as Shut Up. I'd say RSL is more exhausting, if that's even possible.
But come on, "The Taming of the Hands that Came Back to Life" is incredible. There are a lot of good songs, but overall it just doesn't have the same effect on me.
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Random Spirir Lover is the album of the year and just as good as SUIAD if not better!
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Well, I think the new Sunset Rubdown is great. Just great. It flows as an album much better than Shut Up did. It's really dense; Krug has really gone overboard with his imagery and there's a whole lot going on sonically, and so it seemed a bit overwhelming and tough to relate to at first. But as I begin to unpack everything on repeated listens I'm fascinated.
I'd be interested to read a Premature Evaluation...
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I like how short it is, but it lacks the beauty of his last album/EP. I agree that it is an exhausting listen. Constant dissonance..which I'm sure was the whole point...but it often comes across as carelessness. I know he's got the lush ballads in him. Hopefully he's saving them all for Wolf Parade.
And my two cents on Handsome Furs -- LOVE THE ALBUM. it really shows how important dan is and that spencer doesn't reserve so much credit.
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I'm going to go out on a limb and say RSL is easily the better album. What it lacks in mystery from Shut Up it makes up for in melody. There's actually pretty tunes in this new record. I've heard Spencer be a lot of things (often at once) but until All Fires I wasn't convinced that his (albeit excellent) songs could stand on their own, and this record just confirms it. This is Mr. Krug's "songwriter" album. Anyway, I just wish he'd get into a better studio with his side projects...I know a lot of people who could do a better job, cheaper.
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okay. i posted yesterday that it wasn't too great. but after a couple listens today, my opinion has changed drastically...while the poor recording quality is frustrating and distracting, and while some of the melodies sound like they should be on either a Kansas or Yes album (or a bad horror movie soundtrack), and the dissonance can get old.....it is still an amazing album. some patience really pays off, but i still think the songs on Shut Up are superior.
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Album of the year so far, if not unltimately. What a refreshing feeling to truly be uplifted like this after having such a desire for it. So many let downs from atists with great potential, RSL raises the bar past the Moon. As an album, it's truly a remarkable peice of art. Most of these songs individually(those that don't depend so heavily on the context of the album) are among the very best of any released this year by any!
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I don't get people complaining about the production here...do people have the same copy I do? Because I hear an album leaps and bounds better than all previous SR in terms of production standards. The vocals are crisp and up front and the music really fills the speakers in every stereo/car-system I've listened to it on. It's never gonna sound like U2, but I think this is pretty solid technically.
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