Premature Evaluation: Handsome Furs - Plague Park
It's about time Dan Boeckner sidestepped the growing shadow cast by Spencer Krug. A couple years ago after Apologies To The Queen Mary made Wolf Parade indie stars, Krug went even further through the roof with his solo project, Sunset Rubdown, which (so far) has culminated beautifully in the full-band Shut Up I Am Dreaming. Leaving no side-project unturned, he cozied (again) to Spencer Krug for Frog Eyes' live/recorded material. (You can hear his bejeweled keyboarding on the forthcoming Tears Of The Valedictorian.) Canadian rockers like to travel in packs, right? You go and ask New Pornographers, while we remind you that Krug and Mercer upped the 'super' quotient further when they joined hands with Destroyer's Dan Bejar to make Swan Lake. (You all know this, but it's so much more dramatic when it's spelled out!)
Krug's always seemed Bowie to Boeckner's Iggy, so what to do with that line of thought when both Iggy and Bowie are back? According to a Pitchfork interview that other Wolf Parade vocalist was busy listening to Sunn 0))) and digging into Finnish folklore. In true Grimm fashion, he said Plague Park, the debut album from his Handsome Furs project, got its named from a park in the center of Helsinki where a number of victims of the plague are buried (Wonder if he's heard 1349?). So, has the man behind "This Heart's On Fire" donned a cape and hood and de-tuned his gee-tar? No, not at all. These nine songs approximate earlier Pink Mountaintops, another spin-off from another Canadian 'super group,' Black Mountain. (Seriously, what's with semi-solo Vancouver dudes evoking that hazy Super 8 shag-run feel?)
But this isn't some lonesome dude: Boeckner, handling guitar, voice, and keyboards, is joined by his fiancé, the writer Alexei Perry. She takes care of the drum-machine programming and keys and snarls attractively in the band photos. Elsewhere, he's the more visible of the two, though, largely because it's his great voice leaking all over the nine tracks; she seems to bring an almost hip-hop/IDM percussive style to the session. (Interesting fact: They not only have a band together, they also have a kid.)
The best songs ("What We Had," "Handsome Furs Hate This City," "Dumb Animals" and its feedbacking center) sound like starts to the best road trips imaginable or the ends to hardcore cabin fever— fuzzy and creaking with paranoid small-town/big-town "Let's Move To The Country" restlessness. Boeckner's always been a bottle of energy (the guy shakes when WP performs live), so it's arresting hearing him append the natural caffeine to ragged, low fidelity, homegrown beats (as well as swirling swells of hiss and distorted thumps). Handsome Family + Psychedelic Furs? = Handsome Furs? Actually, sort of … Or, at least more than Handsome Boy Modeling School + Psychedelic Furs. Though, again…
It's too early to make big-ass claims, but these songs sound rather ... timeless. Though, truthfully, it's difficult telling time when you're locked in a tiny hotel room with the shades drawn, which is where we are now, trying hard as we can to absorb this album as quickly as possible in its proper environs. Pass the beer nuts, please.
P.S. The constant Wolf Parade references are annoying but we need to get one more out of our system: Can you have a major Wolf Parade solo project without snakes? Krug has his Snakes Got A Leg and ensuing series of "Snakes Got A Leg" songs. Here, Boeckner offers the dewy ballad anthem, "Snakes On The Ladder." (Another question: What's the sound in the background? shooting stars?).
Plague Park is out 5/22 on Sub Pop.
Posted at 2:43 PM in Premature Evaluation
Tags: Handsome Furs | Wolf Parade
Wow, I read thru that entire thing and have NO idea what band you are talking about. I think I got an album title, but artist? Who?
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Yeah...I have no idea who he's talking about either.
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I was just about to say the exact same thing. It's a little presumptuous to think we have an encyclopedic knowledge of the works and lives of Dan Boeckner and Spencer Krug.
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Dan > Spencer
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It's the band Handsome Furs. And yes, this album is incredible.
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Haha, I had no idea what band this was about either. Relatively well-written, but mighty presumptuous.
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This is so typical - when you promote these new Canadian bands, do you consider what actual Canadians are listening to?
Where's the love for the Joel Plaskett Emergency? He's got a new album out next week, and his last several have all been classics.
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Yeah, Ashtray Rock is going to be great.
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"This is so typical - when you promote these new Canadian bands, do you consider what actual Canadians are listening to" - talk about presumptions........I'm a canadian and happen to love the Handsome Furs new disc.
As for Joel Plasket, he's a poor mans Ted Leo.......
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this record is insanely good. It's way better than anything Sunset Rubdown has done. Very very very awesome stuff.
When will we hear new Wolf Parade, though!?
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I really love Dumb Animals, but feel the other songs i heard lacked that inherent desperation that came so naturally in that track. One bad thing is that pretty much all 9 tracks have been leaked. Which I think will hurt album sales. I don't think they were going to do Arcade Fire numbers, but I do thnk this could have been the Carnvas of 2007
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Probably would have helped if we mentioned that the band's called Handsome Furs somewhere in the first two paragraphs, eh? Sorry! Fixed.
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ahem, I have encyclopedic knowledge of dan and spencer. seriously.
dan>spencer? Maybe...with this album i think it's pretty even. They are both incredible.
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I'd also like to add that the sound at the end of Radio's Hot Sun sounds strangely just like a hair dryer...
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I prefer Dan over Spencer simply for Atlas Strategic, and now Handsome Furs. Not to mention most of my favourite Wolf Parade songs were penned by him. And he's also not crazy, nor does he have a disgusting mustache.
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so does anyone want to post a link of this cuz i love wolf parade and after sunset rubdown thought spencer was much better, but with what you all are saying makes this sound amazing and i cant dl anything here at school
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I'm pretty sure all the bands in question get named in the first paragraph.
[I still wish I could understand the appeal of Wolf Parade. I want to like them for their connection to Bejar alone, but it's not enough. And wow was I ever disappointed when they came to play Philly.]
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Hmm...I have heard of people not being impressed with Wolf parade before, I'm tempted to say it's a physical disorder but...
yeah i'm kidding it all lies in whether or not you like/love/hate their two voices. And if you like synth-y, distorted guitars. Besides that it's straight up indie rock/pop
p.s., I have heard some live recordings, sometimes dan sucks, but god I want to see them so bad
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Dan was really fun and awesome live when I saw WP.
Anyway, "Cannot Get it Started" is awesome.
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FUCK THESE PEOPLE. if any of you have any sense of musical decency, you will rise up and destroy every copy of this abomination of music. the "dumb animals" video made me want to gouge out my own corneas with a spork. thats five minutes of my life i will never see again. i hope that fucking pee wee herman look-alike and his snarling wiry-haired goblin of a girlfriend die a thousand horrible, horrible deaths. STOP SPURTING JIZZUM OVER EVERY MUSICAL NOTE THAT CANADA PRODUCES. MOST OF IT IS OVERHYPED OGRE PUSS LIKE THIS FILTH.
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yeesh. mellow....mellow. gonna have yourself an indie-rock heart attack if you aren't careful, man.
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People with opinions that explosive shouldn't be allowed caps lock...for their sake.
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iam i the only one who likes sunset rubdown waaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy more than this?
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Amazing album. Sunset Rubdown > Handsome Furs > Wolf Parade > Swan Lake > Frog Eyes. Problem solved & hands down.
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Yeah. I have to agree with the Spencer Krug promoters. The man is a musical genius, and wildly original. It's no attack on Dan to say that Spencer is better. Krug writes music as if he has lived alone on a deserted island all his life and has only ever heard people talk about what music sounds like, and now he is finally on dry land and is whole-heartedly making masterpieces unaware of the fact that they sound nothing like regular music.
If you don't believe me listen to Sunset Rubdown's "Swimming". Genius.
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I don't think it's really fair to compare the music dan makes to what spencer does. They are so completely and utterly different and amazing in their own right. Plague Park is incredible. I really love 'The Radio's Hot Sun', mostly for the acoustic guitar...and i have loved 'Dumb Animals' from when Dan would play it at Wolf Parade shows..love the album version though...the album comes out May 22nd!
speaking of canadians, everyone needs to get the new miracle fortress album 'five roses' out sometime in May...
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I don't think it's really fair to compare the music dan makes to what spencer does. They are so completely and utterly different and amazing in their own right. Plague Park is incredible. I really love 'The Radio's Hot Sun', mostly for the acoustic guitar...and i have loved 'Dumb Animals' from when Dan would play it at Wolf Parade shows..love the album version though...the album comes out May 22nd!
speaking of canadians, everyone needs to get the new miracle fortress album 'five roses' out sometime in May...
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Umm I like Sunset Rubdown. I also like this Handsome Furs record. Why do I have to decide which one is better?
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um...because this is the internet, that's why!!!
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does every premature evaluation get 86%?!?!?!?!?!?!
can i get an 87 or 82
when is wolf parade going to do a new album?
ah well, i'll just enjoy these side projects!
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yeah its kinda weird how we always have to compare, but i'd like to say, that, ahem:
wolf parade>sunset rubdown>swan lake>handsome furs>frog eyes
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man, I love frog eyes.
Just felt like someone needed to stick up for them.
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so this album is a very pleasant surprise...i think it's way better than Sunset Rubdown's full-length. And this is coming from a guy that prefers the Spencer sung tunes on Apologies to the Queen Mary. How aweome is the new Wolf Parade gonna be?!
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