Archers of Loaf | Vee Vee [Deluxe Remaster]

Merge

By DAN WEISS | February 21, 2012

4.0 Stars

In all of indie rock there's no classic lyric more apt than Archers of Loaf's "Greatest of All Time": "The underground is overcrowded." If Pavement were its Beatles, then this Chapel Hill quartet were indie's Rolling Stones, the meatier, more full-bodied counterpart you secretly liked better. Reissued last year, the debut Icky Mettle had their most celebrated pop songs ("Web in Front," "Wrong," "Plumb Line") but the follow-up Vee Vee was just as great, and thicker. The tunes are noisier and harder-rocking with ever-present melodies buried in Bob Weston's Steve Albini–toughened mix (listen for the needlepoint guitar hook under the chorus of "Harnessed in Slums"). By 1995, Eric Bachmann's hoarse voice was appealingly hideous, in the tradition of Tom Waits (a major influence). The band also spaced out a bit: the album's opening and closing tracks spotlighted wordless harmonies— in the latter case, whistled. If you peel back the clashing dissonance, you'll find that "Underdogs of Nipomo," "Fabricoh," and "Nevermind the Enemy" are some of the densest, thorniest rock (indie or otherwise) ever made. The bonus disc's four-track demos help you appreciate the incomprehensible "Nostalgia" layer by layer while restoring great B-sides ("Telepathic Traffic," "Smoking Pot in the Hot City"). What's more, there's an unreleased take on — holy shit — John Coltrane's "Equinox."

ARCHERS OF LOAF | Middle East downstairs, 472 Mass Ave, Cambridge| April 27 + 28 @ 8 pm | 18+ | $25 | 617.864.3278

Topics: CD Reviews , Music, Arts, CD reviews, More

| More

Most Popular

The Current Issue

Table of Contents

Cover Archive

Masthead | Authors | Contact us

Blogs

Where To Follow Me
Talking Politics | March 24, 2013 at 11:09 AM

Mo Takes His Turn
March 21, 2013 at 12:59 PM

[Q&A] KMFDM's Sascha Konietzko on art, Columbine and having balls
On The Download | March 18, 2013 at 3:22 PM

See this film series: The Belmont World Film Series @ Studio Cinema in Belmont
Outside The Frame | March 18, 2013 at 11:00 AM

See this film: This is Spinal Tap [with post-film talk by expert from Acoustical Society of America] @ the Coolidge
March 17, 2013 at 12:00 PM

ARTICLES BY DAN WEISS

THE MEN | NEW MOON | March 06, 2013
They're just a band, they insist; they didn't realize that a name as authoritative as the Men makes a band look, well, definitive and self-important.

TORRES | TORRES | February 26, 2013
Twenty-two-year-old Mackenzie Scott's homemade music floats somewhere between the cathedral jangle of 10,000 Maniacs and the buzzy churn of EMA.

RE-ENDTRODUCING DJ SHADOW | December 07, 2012
After a long phone conversation, the last thing I asked Josh Davis, was, if at age 40, he still had something to prove.

NICKI MINAJ | PINK FRIDAY: ROMAN RELOADED: THE RE-UP | November 27, 2012
Well, now it's official: the title of every record Nicki Minaj ever makes will include the title of every other record she's ever made.

TITUS ANDRONICUS | LOCAL BUSINESS | October 18, 2012
That intersection of punk and prog isn't new, but the prog/punk back-to-basics album is. Enter Titus Andronicus.