Just in...The Dodos: Carrier

    Hey, I'm back! Finally. Lot's of stuff going on this summer, got married and moved and went camping and all that fun stuff. So, hopefully my hiatus will not be extended any further (and hopefully I get some more readers who like to comment....but we'll focus on one achievement at a time). The Dodos have made one appearance on this blog before, with their preview album, No Color, but they do go back further than that, with two preview albums: Time to Die (2009) and Visiter (2008). It appears as if they've hit that period in their career where releasing music once a year isn't as important as touring and stuff, so they've been working the two year gap between albums for the last two. Hey, two years is hardly time to complain, as most bands these days are running three or more years in between releases. It's a shame, because the music is what's important here, not making money or anything like that... Anyway, kudos to The Dodos for keeping the music coming at a relatively steady pace. August 27th sees the release of Carrier, their fourth studio effort, this on the Polyvinyl Record Co.

    The Dodos have a really unique blend of music, semi-post punk semi-folk, African drumming-esque, part distorted lo-fi or alternative guitar and smooth melodies over top of all the oft driving layers of sound that result. Well, I must admit, this is what I know from No Color, and I haven't listened to their back albums. It appears I didn't even realize they existed when I last wrote up The Dodos, that or I didn't get in the habit yet of giving lots of information about the artist. Regardless, what I've heard from Carrier shakes things up a bit, the melodies are spot on similar, but the music is slower at times with more straight up folk sensibilities. It also sounds like they traded the distorted guitar sound for an acoustic one more than not. Speaking of guitars, their Calgary native guitarist and touring member, Christopher Reimer, died in his sleep on February 21st of 2012 due to heart complications. He was a member of the band, Women, and they released a 9 track album of his solo work, called The Chad Tape (called so because it was done up by Chad van Gaalen, which can be heard over on Bandcamp, here. You can also go to a memorial website where donations are being taken to raise money for a scholarship in his name, here. The memorial site, a.k.a. blog, that is under "Who is Chris Reimer" has postings about music and other items related to Chris Reimer.

    As a whole, Carrier isn't The Dodos best, but it is a solid addition to their rep and warrants a listen, it just feels a little too low key at times (like how the older material by The Strokes lacked energy or something). My favorite song from Carrier is probably "Confidence", because it starts slow, but finishes off with a brilliant and driving section with excellent guitar riffs. I've put that up under the 'Monthly Sample Tracks' for your listening enjoyment, but you can also hear the entire album streaming on Spotify. Yes, I've gone to the dark side, but MySpace just doesn't work well for me much anymore and it's increasingly harder to find full streams these days. That latest trend is to post a stream through Pitchfork, which is what they did, a week in advance, or First Listen, or even iTunes now. Enjoy!