If he weren't so dead-set on making music that could be deemed as capital "A" art, Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox could be a very good rock star. He's outspoken, audacious, practically writes his own headlines, and is absolutely impossible to look away from when he brings his A-game ( and, occasionally, when he doesn't ). So maybe it should come as a surprise that Monomania , the Georgia quintet's sixth studio album, is their most accessible and amibitious album yet, and maybe it shouldn't. Since [...]
When Monomania was introduced to the world via a wilfully bizarre Bradford Cox-penned press release , it would seem that Deerhunter were creating something difficult with a capital ‘D’, ears were set to unlistenable as words such as ‘avant-garde’ started floating about. It was supposed to be an angular, bratty middle finger to what had gone before, a back-to-basics boot camp fleeing the structure and openness of 2010’s Halcyon Digest . The title track that was unleashed as a taster of their ‘nocturnal garage’ was all brutal fuzz and vicious feedback. Gone [...]
Bradford Cox makes it real easy to get to the heart of Monomania by putting the thesis to the album up front: "Finding the fluorescence in the junk." For all the mythos surrounding Cox and Deerhunter , their latest album is an attempt to put more distance between the spiritualism of their lyrics and the spiritualism of the music. It's a continuation of Weird Era, Cont. , the companion to their 2006 album Microcastle, where craggy guitars and distorted vocals make for what's ostensibly a dirty garage rock album but glowing on inside. As straight-ahead rock as the album [...]
Photograph by Syd Kato In the late '90s, Blinker the Star frontman Jordon Zadorozny was writing songs with Courtney Love and released his band’s third album, August Everywhere , back when Dreamworks Records still existed. Growing up, August Everywhere was one of my favourite albums. Filled with twelve tracks of melancholy pop and a guest appearance by Failure’s Ken Andrews, I’ve listened to songs like ‘Below the Sliding Doors’ and ‘All Dreamed Out’ more times than I can count. Unfortunately, my enthusiasm for the album didn’t extend to widespread worldwide love, and Blinker [...]
Lockett Pundt sans Deerhunter just might sound better.
Lotus Plaza Spooky Action at a Distance out 4/2 MP3 | CD | Vinyl | Stream A- If you’ve seen Deerhunter live, maybe you looked for ten seconds at its unassuming guitarist Lockett Pundt. Maybe you looked at him for two or three minutes if you saw them play “Desire Lines,” the Halcyon Digest centerpiece (and highlight) he wrote and sings. If you were lucky enough to see them play “Fountain [...]
With the positive reception his main band continually receives and an upcoming wedding this year, it comes as no surprise that Deerhunter guitarist and sometimes frontman Lockett Pundt found the ambition and voice to craft a dream-rock experience as rich and rewarding as Spooky Action at a Distance , his second effort as Lotus Plaza . His solo moniker’s debut, The Floodlight Collective , featured nostalgic sentiments obscured beneath hazy tones and grooves, but Pundt's own Deerhunter tunes such as “Neither of Us, Uncertainly” have always acted as stoic counterbalance to the more [...]
The second album from Lotus Plaza, the solo project for Deerhunter guitarist Lockett Pundt. April showers are bringing a big ol' bouquet of new releases, and while there's little at the top of the heap this week (stand up please, Lotus Plaza), there's a colorful array of auditory wonders that smell pretty enough to the ear. Take comfort now, my dear friends, that my Spring flower gardening metaphors are now spent for the duration. Besides the aforementioned gem from Lotus Plaza, other new blooms (whoops!) this week include ones from Bear in Heaven, Robert [...]
Lockett Pundt keeps to himself. He doesn’t do too many interviews. As a member of the ambient-punk outfit Deerhunter, his quiet personality takes a backseat to the eccentricities of frontman Bradford Cox. Stage fright is something that he’s still working on, although he’s been performing for several years. His shyness bled into the first album that he released as Lotus Plaza; you can hear it in the echo-drenched vocals that he pushed towards the back of the mix. The Floodlight Collective is a decent record, thanks to its hypnotic guitar work and lush ambient passages. But it’s impossible [...]
Paradoxically, amidst a particularly challenging recession, The Rural Alberta Advantage hasn’t faltered. Alas, economic musings of the aforementioned province may find a better place in The Globe and Mail as Paul Banwatt, Amy Cole, and Nils Edenloff only produce indie rock. Nils Edenloff, a scraggly, bearded, bright-eyed man, is responsible for the bands strained vocals that are giving Jeff Mangum a run for his money. As the only member with a distinct Albertan upbringing, Nils may appear enigmatic given that it is difficult to establish what spans a greater range - his vocals or the narrative of his hometown, Fort [...]
Lotus Plaza - The Floodlight Collective [Kranky; 2009] Rating: 2 out of 5 stars Deerhunter guitarist Lockett Pundt uses Lotus Plaza as an outlet for his ambient shoegaze experiments, much like how his band's frontman, Bradford Cox, uses Atlas Sound to satisfy his artsier tendencies. The comparisons between the two side projects of the acclaimed indie-pop outfit don't stop there; to call Lotus Plaza the 'little brother' of Atlas Sound would be an understatement. Perhaps encouraged by his spectacular contributions to Deerhunter's critically acclaimed 2008 [...]
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