May 5, 2006 | Posted by j.p. at 10:49 AM

Blastoff!

The Age of Rockets - An Ocean Away

Hangovers and soft IDM-ish indie have a long history with me. From rubbing my temples while listening to a Dntel 12" Mark discovered during a rainy vinyl shopping trip in Boston, to washing off a nasty headache in an empty New England apartment listening to Postal Service remixes. Today's head-nasty is brought to you by delicious homemade margaritas (recipe at food.for-robots.com once I track it down), and music to soothe the beast comes via the Age of Rockets.

With a name like Age of Rockets, you'd expect the band to sound like it does. Nerdy, melodic, lamenting, sweet and yearning. The urge to compare them to the Postal Service is almost undeniable, but the ablum firmly holds its ground, and is anything but a genre-clone. The NYC-based group is led by Andrew Futral, and was formed almost spontaneously out of the emotional and literal collapse of his previous group. The Drive Home is the first album to come out of this project, and draws on the work of some of his favorite contemporary influences; which groups influenced his music should be self-evident upon listening. Apparently, the won the John Lennon Songwriting Contest in the pop category in 2005, which gave them the inertia required to help album materialize.

They're off recording currently, so no shows on the horizon as of yet, but in the meantime you can listen to and download the whole album FOR FREE at eMusic (trial signup required), or preview and download the LP at iTunes. Or do the normal thing and walk to your local CD store. Happy 5th!!

Comments

Amen, Friday really is for dancing!

Posted by: at May 5, 2006 1:46 PM

"gave them the inertia to..."

???

Posted by: RaJ at May 5, 2006 10:21 PM

Good song.

Posted by: John at May 6, 2006 4:36 AM

Track 9
pdg

the album best with one straitght thru listen

Posted by: susan dansky at May 6, 2006 6:29 PM

We live in an age where our most cherished mediums have been broken to pieces by technology and variety. Though there is little hope to move beyond this obstruction, one must give their respect to those who at least make the smallest attempt. The Age of Rockets embraces it's limitations, doesn't bother to clean up the sploches of fecal matter that are it's influences, and continues to ride the wave of a muffled Ben Gibbard side project. Flashes of electronica will never hide poor songwriting, and this becomes all too obvious halfway through the first listen. It's almost sad, but if you look closely enough at any of the bands promotional photos, you can see how badly stained lead singer/songwriter Andrew Futrals pants are from having a rather involved wet dream of what his life and work would be like if he could tap into the percieved pain of Radiohead's Thom Yorke; It's really quite difficult to imagine anything more contrived. I recomend this to all the little girls and boys who ride the waves of love and despair without ever leaving their house, and to those who have just noticed their first little emo pube staring them straight in their tear-filled eyes.

Posted by: SisterPlex at July 2, 2006 3:59 PM

"doesn't bother to clean up the sploches of fecal matter that are it's influences"

did you really expect to enjoy a band whose influences you hate?

that being said I have heard most of this CD and think it is pretty good for a first release. Only one or two real misses.

Posted by: Toby at January 5, 2007 5:34 PM

I found these guys via myspace, and now I'm the top listener on last.FM. The Drive Home is a fantastic LP, but it was recorded solely by Andrew, Saul and Bess were added later. However, they all worked (and hard!) on Hannah, the newest album, that I think we can all agree is a straight slap in the face to people like SisterPlex, who think that because they sound remotely like someone else they obviously have no passion for the music they make. Hannah incorporates real-drums (Or a really kick-ass drum machine), as well as a string section, while keeping the electronica feel. In short, it's amazing.

Posted by: Jarrett-rah at April 15, 2008 8:25 PM
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