Here's a good bit: Rent out the American Football house, which is now an Airbnb, and write your own album there. Here's a fun twist on that bit: Use the unique circumstances to execute a surprising aesthetic pivot.
Anamanaguchi, one of the world's foremost chiptune bands, have announced their new album Anyway today. It's a rock album with traditional rock instruments — i.e. not the video game music the band made its name on — and they wrote it in the Champaign, IL rental home pictured on the cover of twinkly, jazzy Midwest emo heroes American Football's 1999 debut album. The house can also be seen on the cover of Anyway. American Football and their label Polyvinyl — which also happens to be Anamanaguchi's label — now own the house, so securing it for a creative retreat was easy.
"Crazy sounds come from normal-looking houses," Anamanaguchi's Peter Berkman says. "We made the decision to be physically in the same room for nearly every step, writing everything as a group instead of editing and tweaking files over the internet."
Ultimately, Anamanaguchi recorded Anyway with in-the-red psych overlord Dave Fridmann (The Flaming Lips, MGMT, Sleater-Kinney) at his Tarbox Road Studios in upstate New York, straight to tape using vintage analog gear. Lead single "Darcie," out today, sounds like a '90s Weezer B-side. Berkman shared this statement on the track:
It's a thank you song. You might have somebody in your life that makes it their business to make things better for you, and a lot of times those people go unnoticed because they’re not doing it to be noticed. It’s easy to pay attention to people that make you mad–but it’s more rewarding to hype up the people that make you happy. It’s cool that we get to have songs that are about things now.
Watch director Jared Raab's "Darcie" video below.
Anyway is out 8/8 on Polyvinyl. Pre-order it here.
