Appreciation

Another friend of mine Matt Cutter (”what are all of your friends named matt?”) chimes in about “TV killed the indie star”.

I don’t have a problem with indie bands getting popular. I have a problem with popularity immediately preceding a band’s nosedive toward Total Suck. If an appearance on the vomitous evening soap The OC wasn’t proof of Modest Mouse’s imminent descent into the Region of Thud, if bringing Johnny Marr into the fold wasn’t setting off any panicked klaxon horns, just listen to the new single, “Dashboard,” currently streaming from their site. Pfui. Indie darlings The Shins have released a single for their newest release, “Phantom Limb,” and if it’s any indication of what they’re serving up this time around—The Shins meets R&B?—I’ll pass. All of a sudden everyone needs to be Sufjan. Even Sufjan Stevens has worn out being Sufjan. Let it go, people. You reading me? Step away from the Sufjan.

But this is why we need the Bound Stems so badly, and why you need to go to your favorite independent music store, online service, or illegal download application and get their first full-length, “Appreciation Night.” Listen, there’s not much about it that’s startlingly new. Chicago zeitgeist cheerleading? Check. Thax Douglas outtakes? Check. Indie rock that is melodic and full of hooks while still challenging the listener with opaque lyrics and quick change-ups of rhythm and tone? Got it. But unlike Modest Mouse on their new single (even if singer/guitarist Bobby Gallivan sounds a little like Isaac Brock without the lisp), Bound Stems don’t sacrifice the challenge for a melodic payoff. They preserve challenge and melody in songs that quiver like coiled springs. Give “Western Biographic” a listen. They cook up literate vignettes of childhood without the soaring, anthemic bathos of The Arcade Fire. Their CD covers are mocked up to look like books, but don’t feel like anyone will shush you for checking this one out of the library. Bound Stems bring the rock, and they bring it with enough ingenuity to reward repeated listens.

Links:

• Dashboard: available here
• Phantom Limb: available here
• Western Biographic: available here or visit the Bound Stems website