By Ross Pedersen

For an outfit like The Antlers, who gained popularity at an alarming rate with their first release on Frenchkiss Records, 2009’s Hospice, I would imagine that the pressure to deliver with a seriously good follow-up is pretty high. Luckily for us, the Antlers have risen to the challenge beautifully with their new album Burst Apart.

Burst Apart has a lot going for it. While most of the songs aren’t particularly exciting individually, taken as a whole, they provide contextual relevance. The instrumentation throughout the record has a cool, messy feel to it, tying it together. The lyrics, while sometimes difficult to decipher through Peter Silberman’s falsetto, are well-written and are peppered with figurative language. In the album’s closer, “Putting the Dog To Sleep,” Silberman howls out the line “My trust in you is a dog with a broken leg/ Tendons too torn to beg for you to let me back in.” The metaphor might be a little over the top, but it certainly paints a painfully vivid picture, and it had what I assumed was the desired affect on me. Through it’s cohesion, instrumentation, and lyrics, Burst Apart proves itself to be a great record.

My personal favorite of the album is the track “Every Night my Teeth Are Falling Out.” The track opens with Silberman dropping a soothing vocal line and wastes no time building to a powerful and jammin’ climax, driven by a catchy little guitar riff. This song stands out from others on the album because it deviates from the somewhat formulaic layering of the other tracks. The lack of diversity is about the only complaint I have about the record: after a while, you will find yourself starting to expect a slow, quiet start used as a base, with more complex and dynamic guitar and synthesizer lines to be laid on top. This formula makes for some great tracks, but it’s the songs that break the trend that shine for me.

Overall, Burst Apart is a great listen. Writing a second album with this much power is a testament to Silberman’s songwriting abilities. It’s that talent that makes The Antlers a group worth following.

MP3: The Antlers – “Every Night My Teeth Are Falling Out”
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Buy: The Antlers – Burst Apart

MP3: The Antlers – “Every Night My Teeth Are Falling Out”
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Pre-Order: The Antlers – Burst Apart (Frenchkiss, May 10th)

By Jeff Kollath

One of the recurring themes throughout the Poster Tube series is the artistic collaboration, and the boys at Animal Canon in Madison are no different. If you are a Project Runway fan, you know how poorly a collaboration can go – sniping, bickering, passive aggression, and in the end, throwing the weak link under the bus to save face. So, it was incredibly refreshing to sit down with John Soat, one-third of Animal Canon’s design team and learn not only about the firm’s design process, but also how a true artistic collaboration can succeed and thrive.

Soat, Matt Riley, and Mike Williams, all three Wisconsin natives, met while earning their MFAs from UW-Madison. Even creating their name was a shared experience, with Animal Canon a combination of (and improvement upon) Animal Pi and Mammal Cannon. About their name, all agreed that dropping the second “n” from “cannon” made all the difference, changing the name from mechanical to organic and open-ended. Despite having a strong desire to create art with a purpose and meaning, the printmaking classes at the UW were always full, so they invested all the equipment and taught themselves the finer points of creation. Soat noted that the beginning was a comedy of errors, wasting materials because they did not how to use everything, but they eventually figured it out and first produced a collective print last fall. Their Megafaun print for 2009′s Forward Music Festival (a Muzzle of Bees Showcase, no less) was featured here and has become one of Animal Canon’s most indelible works. A free-flowing, brightly colored print highlights design elements from all three artists. Soat noted that on this very first poster the group discovered that by combining their styles – both illustrative and typographic – they could create something better than they could individually. “It’s almost like we’re in a band. They are no limits when we work together,” Soat noted, “we provide inspiration and help each other break through.”

If Soat had to choose just one work to represent Animal Canon, it would be their poster for the Antlers. A simple, but elegant piece inspired by an old medical illustration, the Antlers poster is the perfect mix of understated artwork and proper, if not spot-on typography. Soat said the juxtaposition between the stark bones and the beautiful flowers was intentional, a perfect balance of death and warmth, sadness and sweetness. For many artists, typography is an afterthought – the image is what draws people to the poster, after all – but Animal Canon puts equal weight and time into both the imagery and typography. The craftsmanship on this poster, Megafaun, and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros are clear examples to the precise nature of the firm’s work, and a forebear of what’s to come in the future.

The last six weeks have seen Animal Canon host a very well-received show of their work at Project Lodge in Madison, but also Riley and Williams’ departure from Madison, having moved to South Korea to teach English for a year. Riley noted, “Animal Canon is not over with, we just won’t be producing nearly as fast as the last year. We are hoping to design what we can from Asia and to also get into some freelance work and different mediums to show some of our breadth.” Soat has moved the studio to an old helicopter hangar on a farm near Janesville that, interestingly enough, housed the helicopter in which Stevie Ray Vaughan lost his life in back in 1990, and hopes to establish something for when Riley and Williams return. Here’s hoping they keep it going as we still haven’t seen the best that Animal Canon has to offer.

Giveaway: Animal Canon is about to launch their brand new website and to celebrate they are going to offer up a copy of the ANTLERS poster shown above. Just leave a comment answering the following question (in honor of that dropped “n”):  “What would you like to shoot out of a cannon and why?” After you enter the contest, check out their site, buy something nice for someone nice, and check out another special contest.

By Jon Stone | @jwstone

Last Saturday night, after a long day in the sun at Lollapalooza, I walked the six or so city blocks from where I was staying in Chicago to the House of Blues for the pre-Lolla appearance of The Antlers and The National. The House of Blues, notorious for its Vegas-esque swank and commercialized kitsch is situated on one of the prettiest corners of Chicago, right across the river from Dearborn and Wacker and at the foot of the Wilco-famous Marina Towers. It’s quite a beautiful place to be out walking especially on a clear summer night.

The show didn’t start until 11pm, and after being deer-tagged incorrectly, they wouldn’t let me up to my balcony seat until I went back (twice) to get the right wristband on. The main room at the House of Blues (there is a “back porch” room too) has a mid-sized foor area with two balconies that are mostly standing room only. I wasn’t down in the pit, but from my position on the first balcony, I seemed to be looking directly down on the stage. So, for all its over-the-top “we-are-the-rock-&-roll venue” posturing, I have to say that there isn’t really a bad seat in the house (of blues).

The venue sounds really great too, so they myst be doing something right. It was the first thing I noticed when The Antlers took the stage and fired into “Kettering” from last years’ Hospice. I saw them in the Spring and was still pretty on the fence then about whether or not I thought they have the staying-power they are going to need to last. After Saturday’s performance, I’m beginning to think that, indeed, they do.

Maybe it’s been touring with the National that has launched these guys into a new level, but something felt different on Saturday than it had earlier in the year. It wasn’t that the quality of their sound had improved, necessarily. In fact, lead-man Peter Silberman had a rasp in voice when he shot for some of his stratospheric high notes that can only be the indication of touring nearly incessantly for the last two years. Rather, there was certain confidence in their performance. Hospice is a thematically heavy record – one that might lend it self to timidity, or airlessness after so many nightly performed repetitions. Saturday night, though, the music seemed fresh. The highs and lows of “Sylvia” and the story of “Two” both made the goose bumps rise and when that kind of internalization occurs, I know that (at least for me) a band is onto something special.

Again, I can’t help but think about this band’s future. Albums like Hospice are brilliant but risky because of their cohesive “concept.” The songs hang together so well; they pick up on one another’s lyrics and emotion and in a lot of ways rely on each other for the full emotional impact. But this can be frustrating for some folks. The girl I stood next to said she had seen The Antlers play several times, but the songs all kind of blurred together. I can empathize with this sentiment. I think what needs to follow for this band – to push things to the next level, so to speak – is a record that packs the same kind of emotional impact as Hospice, but does so in a way that single songs can stand on their own and survive in the wild as distinct entities. The National’s “Mr. November,” for example, is a brilliant closer for the band’s record Alligator, but it also works anthemically for the band’s diverse live sets which contain songs across the National’s catalog. Pull that off, Antlers, and I think you’re here to stay.

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A few brief words about the National’s set that followed. I’ve seen them play now four times and save for that first performance – which initiated me into complete and utter fandom — the House of Blues was the best I’ve ever seen them. Matt Barninger seemed in an especially good mood and the band joked their way through most of the set announcing several songs by saying, “Alright, this is our party song.” Like he would the next day at Lolla, Richard Reed Parry joined them onstage for all of the songs from High Violet. He was barefoot and all smiles and very different than the crazed, costume-wearing member of Arcade Fire that I would see the next night.

The song that stuck out for me at both this show and the one that would follow the next day was “Apartment Story” from Boxer. It’s a simple tune but has that great, classic-U2ish chorus (“Tired and wired we ruin too easy” and the line “we’ll stay inside till somebody finds us, do whatever the TV tells us… so worry not, all things are well, we’ll be alright, we have our looks and perfume on..” I love the imagery here and the rare positivity followed immediately with irony.” This is why The National is an amazing band. Four times isn’t enough. I can’t wait to see them again.

Here’s the setlist for the evening:

Runaway / Afraid of Everyone / Brainy / Mistaken for Strangers / Anyone’s Ghost / Bloodbuzz Ohio / Squalor Victoria / Available / Conversation 16 / Sorrow / Apartment Story / Abel / England / Fake Empire / (encore) Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks / Secret Meeting / Mr. November / Terrible Love

Buy: The Antlers – Hospice
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Buy: The National — High Violet

By Jon Stone | @jwstone

Champaign-Urbana had a busy Record Store Day on Saturday, with all-day band and dj action at Champaign’s Exile on Main St and Urbana’s Parasol Records, as well as a variety of other performances and events around town (I took my kids to see one of my local favorites, Elsinore, who were playing a rare all-ages show — one of FOUR they played Saturday — at the Champaign Public Library). It was a great day for music.

I was looking forward to the Antlers visit to the Canopy Club to end off the day’s festivities, but unsure, really, of what to expect. The Antlers played our Pygmalion festival* last year on a packed bill that they shared with a conglomerate of disparate bill-mates and from at least one report (I wasn’t there) the show didn’t really take off. Also, even though their debut record Hospice was a huge favorite among critics last year (MofB’s own Ryan M. names it as his 9th favorite record of 2009), I didn’t fall in love with it. Don’t get me wrong, I like the record as a friend. We just haven’t settled down together or anything.

My reservations about the record are few. I think it does an amazing job building and maintaining a dialectical aesthetic of desolation and beauty — as I was explaining to my friend, it’s not a record about losing your girlfriend, its a record about LOSING your girlfriend. It does so in a lush, wall-of-sound way that makes that despair beautiful and crisp even as it breaks your heart. But, for me, the record doesn’t have enough dynamic oomph–it’s there in the music, it’s just not there in the mix (if that makes sense). It doesn’t up-shift.  Even when, in Kettering — the albums flagship song — when the drums and wall kick in, the volume doesn’t explode. It maintains it’s whisper. I suppose this may be the very reason people love it so much.  Also, there is a circular nature to the melodies on Hospice that while perhaps intentional sometimes wear out their welcome for me.

I hoped that the live show would break out of at least that first reservation and I wasn’t disappointed. The Antlers start out hushed, as you might expect, but when they kick it up — usually due to drummer Michael Learner’s tight and concise-if-devastating hammering — it really gets kicked up. As I’ve indicated I’m a sucker for big dynamic shifts, so live, when Kettering moves into that late-song crescendo, it really does blast. That made me happy.

The Antlers are a tough band to categorize. They don’t really fit comfortably in any contemporary guitar-rock niche, but as I listened Saturday night it occurred to me that the band is more akin to electronic acts like M83 or what you might call “hybird” semi-electronic bands like The Sea and Cake or Sigur Ros. I got a similar vibe from openers Phantogram — whom I pegged as strange tourmates at first. It turns out, though, that they complement each other well. In other words, this was more than just your standard guitar band fare. The Antlers build that sound carefully as a close-to-the-stage view revealed what must have been 20 separate pedals and sound boxes both at foot and on hand between lead man Peter Silberman and keyboardist Darbi Cicci. There is some sonic craftsmanship happening on stage at an Antlers show.

Something too should be said Silberman’s voice. It is the centerpiece of the band and it has a kind of classic sound to it. I may be the only person to have ever thought this, but there were parts of the show last night that sounded downright English New Wave to me — like I could have been at a late 80s Cure or Depeche Mode show (and, believe me, that’s a compliment). Silberman’s voice soars and is reminiscent, to me, of Martin Gore’s (who sang the best DM tracks). Something about Silberman’s voice isn’t quite there yet, though. On the way out my friend nailed it when he said, “Man, he’s got pipes — but its like he hasn’t quite learned how to use the gas pedal yet.”

My one big hope for the night was that the band would be able to maintain the emotional tenor of the record which, given its nature as a record about cancer and death, seemed nearly too much to ask. It seems as though such heavy subject matter would get to be too much to bear and recreate night after night and the band would resort to irony or to phoned-in performance. Incredibly, the Antlers didn’t disappoint here. The show was intense and maintained an emotional honesty that can’t be easy to pull off. In addition, they played a new song — “never before heard by anyone” they announced. That made for some happy fans.

Check out this free EP from the band titled New York Hospitals and tell us what you thought if you caught the band here or elsewhere (at last night’s Madison show, for example).

Buy: The Antlers – Hospice

*Pygmalion organizers announced last week that the legendary Roky Erickson will headline this year’s fest backed by album collaborators Okkervil River. A good portion of the always-amazing full line-up will be announced in about a week. We’ll keep you posted.

Two of our favorite bands have April dates scheduled at the High Noon Saloon in Madison. The Antlers, whose 2009 release, Hospice, was one of our top ten albums of last year will play on Sunday, April 18th at 8pm. Tickets are $12 with Phantogram opening.

The Antlers will be opening for The National on the east coast. Those dates along with the rest of their tour can be found here.

Horse Feathers are no strangers to this site or to playing Madison. Having released two albums we absolutely adored, they’re back in town on Wednesday, April 21st. Tickets are $10 in advance and $12 day of show. Look for their new album, Thistled Spring the day before (April 20th) on Kill Rock Stars.

Buy: The Antlers | Horse Feathers