Engineer'd?
Sometimes I really need a big huge song to get my blood flowing on a totally dreary day like today: 55 degrees, cloudy, strong chance of rain all day... However, remember that tonight is the big MFR CD-release show/party at the Knitting Factory. That said, I think this song by the London-based Engineers is a great fit for today: it starts off kind of slow and either dreamy or dreary (I still haven't really decided what the first sound is after dozens of listens), then it builds up with softly echoed vocals and swirling guitars, then the song breaks down at minute 5... then it comes back, with this simply enormous wall of guitars that is so good - I mean, like almost Smashing Pumpkins "Silverfuck" or "Mayonaise" good - it is nearly perfect.
Their overall sound is certainly a blend of shoegaze-y rock (I just put on Jesus & Mary Chain's Pshcyhocandy as a reference, and I can confirm that, yes, there is some of this in there), layers of symphonic rock and elements of psychedelia, think... Spritiualized, maybe? Then again there's also playful elements in many of the songs, so there's probably some Yo La Tengo in there too. Apparently their live show is pretty powerful - from some of the other songs on the album, I'd imagine this to be true - they've also taken to working with visual artists on doing live video projection at the shows to add another element to the experience.
The band itself is a four-piece: Dan McBean (guitars/keyboards), Simon Phipps (vocals/guitars), Mark Peters (guitars/vocals) and Sweeney (drums). I suppose it also helps that the band, while striving to create something with a greater depth and scope than your average rock-pop band, is also simply trying to push themselves further. As McBean says: "We want to turn the lights down, get stoned and then blow our heads off. We just want to please ourselves."
Engineers self-titled debut album was released in the UK in March on Echo, but has been slow to make its way here to our shores. Thankfully though, the album is finally coming out here June 21 - you can pre-order it from Insound or Amazon.
+ - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - +
PS: In further fun-party-news, I'm DJ-ing a late-nite set (after 2am) at MisShapes this Saturday (May 28), so come by and rock out!