Entire Cities Hope You Never Come Home

So, after Noxious Foxes usurped my concentration, its back onto these guys - Entire Cities.

You know that we love our noise and our rock here. But rock and noise comes in many shapes and forms, and sometimes you just want to take a different tack, y'know? Besides, a true music fan should be able to appreciate things in most corners of the music world, even if the boundaries of your musical loves are quite explicitly defined.

On Easy Tiger Records, who also house the band Wildlife that we fell in love with here, Entire Cities' new LP I Hope You Never Come Home (out December 7) is a rambling folk rock record aiming for those epic climes that only large, composed, ambitious collectives can strive to reach - and in the most part succeeds. The sound is large due to both the various layers of the band's sound - due to their seven members (Canadians and their sprawling ensembles...) and juggling act of instrumentation (guitar/bass/drums/flute/saxophone/banjo/organ/harmonica/layered harmonies) - and the glossy production values, handled expertly by Harris Newman (Arcade Fire) and Heather Kirby. The beauty in many of these tracks are the sometime haunting, sometime jocular lyrics of frontman Simon Borer, ably backed by Ruhee Dewji and Tamara Lindeman, and the lingering notion that these songs, when played in a beautiful, slightly dingy pub setting (or even a Bush Hall like locale) will soar and teeter on the edge of rickety implosion in equal measures. Its the kind of roaucous country folk that will have its lyrical hooks in you whilst you also tap your feet.

Entire Cities - Track 03

This Post Has Been Poisoned By Foxes!

Let me explain that heading. I was typing about another band, Entire Cities (who I promise to get to by the end of this night!), when a new email dropped into the inbox. It was from one Justin Talbott, one half of Brooklyn's Noxious Foxes. The two piece are true to their name, doling out some truly toxic instrumental noodlings that evoke math rock at its most brutal and intense, whilst also allowing (via loop pedals and a nice dollop of scuzz) some nuance and class to enter the frame, therefore making them better than most math rock wannabes - these are stellar compositions here, not just some guys who can play their instruments well but dont knoa hook or melody if it bent them over and called them their little piggy. I was duly impressed, so dropped what I was doing and wrote this. So enjoy 'Heavenly Spectacular', a track off their forthcoming LP Legs. Ive listened to it 6 times since its come in, and Im sure itll be played a few more tonight. Also, if this floats your boat, you can grab previous effort Lovestorm here.

Oh, and by the way, Noxious Foxes voted for Caribou's Swim for album of the year - you still have two days left to vote on Round 1!

Heavenly Spectacular by noxious foxes

And if that's not enough, get a load of them live!

noxious foxes - wherever hugo, guido from justin on Vimeo.