Updated NYC dates for Wildbirds & Peacedrums:
09/15 - Le poisson Rouge, New York, NY w/Deerhoof
09/16 - Cake Shop, New York, NY
09/18 - Bruar Falls, Brooklyn, NY
09/21 - Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY w/Fanfarlo
09/22 - The Bell House, Brooklyn, NY w/Fanfarlo
Here is the It's a Trap! listening group top 10 artists of the week, unique to our group:
01. Håkan Hellström
02. The Legends
03. Mew
04. Kristofer Åström
05. Fanfarlo
06. Anna Ternheim
07. The Radio Dept.
08. Phoenix
09. Jonathan Johansson
10. Red House Painters
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FanfarloI'm more than a little late to the Fanfarlo party. Only last week did I first hear about them from the Sigur Rós mailing list, months after the release of "Reservoir" and the subsequent chorus of praise from the likes of Rough Trade, NME, and Brooklyn Vegan -- praise that is well deserved. Centered around Swedish musician Simon Balthazar, the London-based songsmiths temper their Arcade Fire-like sound with Scandinavian influences, at times bringing to mind Pelle Carlberg, Loney Dear, and Burning Hearts, though their inclination towards the atmospheric and epic flesh out these influences in pleasantly unexpected ways. The only issue I run into with Fanfarlo is that they are far better on tracks like "Comets", a track that wouldn't have felt amiss on Carlberg's "In a nutshell", than on the overtly Arcade Fire-esque "Drowning men". This is not to say that "Drowning men" is a bad song, it's not (in fact it's quite good), it just taps so strongly into the "Neighborhood #1 (tunnels)" vein, without filtering the idea through Fanfarlo's obvious talents, that it feels somewhat out of place on "Reservoir". That said, "Resevoir" is a fantastic album (especially as you can download it for $1 until July 4), pushing its frenetic pop structures to their limits, driving them down adventitious avenues and back alleyways, and constantly unveiling new layers upon repeated listening.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson
