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Category Archives: The Antlers

Jul 08 0 comments
Indie Music, My Bloody Valentine, Shoegaze, The Antlers

Sleep; Part 2

mbvSleep thoughts installment #2, from an early/mid-1990s Simon Reynolds interview with Kevin Shields:

“The things I experienced were quite unreal. I’ve been totally out there. I can honestly say I’ve experienced everything Aldous Huxley wrote about in The Doors Of Perception. Drugs–specifically marijuana–played their part.” Shields says a book called Hypnogogia “literally saved me and made me feel sane.” Hypnogogia is the term for that state just before sleep where you have brief surreal flashes of scenes, almost like cartoons. Reading the book (the author’s name escapes Kevin), Shields found an explanation for his insomniac habits and aesthetic preoccupations. The author makes parallels between hypnogogia and all the other extremes of the human mind, mystical and drugged. Basically, there’s a door to another type of consciousness and it’s open all the time.

“When You Sleep” is not my favorite Loveless track, but I’m glad to post it for two reasons (apart from its obvious relevance to the “sleep” series of posts I’m doing): 1. A while back I did some jiggery-pokery on the track (utlizing out of phase stereo) that brought up in the mix ever so slightly a wibbly-wobbly guitar part that had been buried; and 2. there’s a neat cover of the song by The Antlers to point out as well (see the Mockingbirds page).

My Bloody Valentine: When You Sleep

Mar 10 3 comments
Indie Music, The Antlers

The Antlers’ Hospice

The Antlers play the Metro Gallery in Baltimore, and we're all in the hospital

The Antlers play the Metro Gallery in Baltimore, and we're all in the hospital

Yet another Brooklyn group is making the pilgrimage to SXSW, but this one decided to stop in Baltimore on their way down. They’re called the Antlers and they have a new album out called Hospice.

Before the show I ran into a man, destitute, who spewed the same old story involving bus stations and bad fortune. I didn’t believe a word, but I gave him two dollars. I don’t usually. But I realized tonight that we are all in debt; we are all terminally ill. We are all living in a hospice of our own fashion. Tonight, the Metro Gallery in Baltimore, run by the most hospitable couple, served as the perfect shelter from the storm outside. People sat on the floor and talked to each other. People listened. It is my hope that people healed as well.

The Antlers seem young to me, and hopefully I didn’t insult them too much when I observed that they are “just starting out.” What I meant to say is that so much lies ahead, for me as well. But these lads are noticeably younger than me, and what’s more they’re in that time when things just click. I asked them what impressions stick with them regarding the making of Hospice. Darby Cicci (keyboards, banjo, trumpet, and a side-project called Minus Green) just grinned and blurted out how pleased he was with the record. Peter Silberman (vocals, guitars, songs, and a half dozen other instruments) cited it as a transition between solo work and a more collaborative effort, and the word that stuck was “enjoyment.” Sharing his songs and watching them form organically around him (“I never told anyone what to play”) brought him enjoyment and surprise. “It was the first project I had been involved in where, looking back, I wouldn’t change a thing.”

I’m just starting out with this record, so I carry with me only vague impressions of recovery rooms, bad breaks, dark, moldy rooms, hibernation, and a striking image of “hundreds of thousands of hospital beds, and all of them empty but mine.” Man, what I’d have given to have written that line. I don’t yet hear the rejoicing and the wonder, but I have a feeling that might be coming up soon. Their cover of Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon” seemed an odd choice but does hint toward a more fulfilled, joyous place. I also have a feeling that, as I have time to let this album circulate in my bloodstream, there may be more to come on this blog. I may be writing about some more specific hospital rooms.

The Antlers: Shiva