Music I Found Through MusicBanter - Pt. 2/5
The Olivia Tremor Control – Molecules
I’ve never been one to accurately assign the correct genre to the correct band, and I don’t intend to try now, but I once saw OTC described on some pretentious music blog as “quasi-psychedelic experimental electro-acoustic classic pop.” Many reviewers have called OTC the bastard child of the Beach Boys and Brian Eno. I don’t know how accurate either of these descriptions really are, and I know that the members of OTC pride themselves on being difficult to categorize (and therefore, difficult to pigeon-hole), but my favorite way to describe them is through an anecdote.
Once upon a work day I was playing Black Foliage (I spend a lot of time in the greatly coveted Back Room at my job, packing and unpacking boxes and rarely speaking to anyone, so I have complete control over what music is being played at any given time) and a coworker walked in and after a few moments asked about the song. “Is it supposed to sound like that?” I said that yes, it was. She responded “Oh, I thought the speakers had broken again.”
Listening to Black Foliage was one of the first times I remember noticing a distinct difference between listening to the album on speakers or through headphones. Each is its own experience; you pick up on different features and seemingly hidden or strategically placed bits in each track depending on how you’re hearing it. That’s not to say that one way is better than the other, mind you, just apparently different. All the more reason to listen to the album repeatedly, I suppose.
OTC is also one of the first bands whose songs had melodies and textures that would stick with me rather than lyrics. I tend to judge how much I like a band based on how much I like their lyrics, so having an interesting horn riff or kazoo solo stuck in my head instead of an interesting stanza days after initially listening to a song was a new experience for me.
The Olivia Tremor Control are one of the more "obscure" and certainly most innovative bands that I have in my music collection, and through listening to them I later began exploring the Elephant 6 Recording Company, which turned me on to bands such as of Montreal, Neutral Milk Hotel, Circulatory System, Elf Power and The Apples in Stereo.
The first song I heard:
Current Favorite Song:
Current Favorite Album: Black Foliage
Another artist Molecules introduced me to: Guided By Voices