Surrounded gives me a boner, no lies.

Swoon, in all its fuzzy goodness, is a total step up from Carnavas, IMO.

I heard the first single from Swoon the other day on the radio.... sounded really, really good to me... this is really starting to feel like a band I could seriously get into...

I still can't get into Swoon at all :(

for me i loved carnavas when it came out. after giving it some time to rest and going back through, it didnt seem as good. i mean its a good album but nothing that amazing. swoon i only gave 1 spin and it didnt seem like they grew from album a to b.

I'm liking Swoon more and more every time I listen to it. It's got a kick that was rarely present on Carnavas.

I used to think Silversun Pickups was nothing special.

Then i listened to Carnavas actually the whole way through and knew it was really something special. I haven't gotten to Swoon yet though.

The firt single off of Swoon sounds better then 94% of Carnavas/

well i downloaded Carnavas today. they have a pretty good style going for them, but some of the songs on there were kind of meh

I gotta find a good record store near here... I haven't felt this much anticipation about buying music from a new band in a long, long time... its time to get out of my no new artists in years rut...

They were at Rasputin yesterday in Berkeley for their album release. Didn't have time to wait in line so instead cut over to Amoeba and picked up some stuff- including Swoon. Haven't given it a proper listen yet, but it's coming...

Gotta get out to a decent record store this weekend and get some of their stuff... tonight I am too consumed by my new Australian music!

They are quite good, I like their first album more than their second one.
Quite a grungy throwback!

I've given Carnavas several listens now... am i missing something? Save for a couple of tracks its quite a generic, uninspiring album.

i concur
i used to like them till i found some new music thanks to this place!

The first few times i listened to Swoon i was a bit indifferent but it's really starting to grow on me now. Subsitution is almost perfect indie-pop, loving it :D.

They're gathering a fair bit of exposure in Aus at the moment, I can't turn on the radio without hearing them mentioned. And the Sydney Morning Herald just did a piece on them.

Got both their CDs yesterday... can`t wait to listen to them both... their new to me and thats pretty exciting.... I'd like to start expanding my list of bands again... been kinda poor in recent months but thats mostly taken care of.... its time to get back into finding new bands again!

Swoon is slowly starting to grow on me. There is just something honest about this band. They are ripping off many bands but there is just something about them. Their fuzzy almost shoegaze guitar sound is at odds with the cutesy vocals and Pop sensibilitys that I have to like. Carnavas is still a great album though. Maybe it's because the band don't try to hard to be different yet still have their own identity?

Um, does this band really deserve two pages of replies? I seem to forgotten about them a while ago...:\

Obviously yes.

In that case I might be convinced to download their latest...

ignore this statement from me^

after a few replays, i really enjoy the album, there isn't a song on there i don't like

I'm absolutely addicted to Carnavas... its been in the car for days and I can't and literally won't take it out of the CD player... There is not a single dud track on it and its fast becoming one of those great cover to cover type albums that I always remember so well...

Was also VERY impressed by Swoon upon my first listen to it, but due to my addiction to Carnavas, I haven't given it the attention it deserves... I must get around to rectifying that situation...

They're awesome.

After playing Swoon alot recently I have decided its an incredibly good album, and a fine progression from their debut! Love the way it makes its transitions form quiet and lulling to full blown loud and powerful... the playing is really tight and often quite ferocious, the lyrics and wel thought out and sung with passion... basically this band has everything I was looking for and they serve it up in such a way that I can't stop playing their albums... they're awesome. Call me a fan!

Gave them a chance to take my ears for a ride. They failed. [sorry]

maybe next time, Silversun, eh?

Anybody who hasn't heard their EP Pikul should check it out as well, it's got some good moments.

Definatly. Kissing Families, The Fuzz, Creation Lake and ...All The Go Inbetweens are just amazing. It's a lot mellower compared to Carnavas and Swoon, and with 7 tracks it's pretty long for an EP :D

I went to a CD place yesterday and was going to buy Silversun's newest, but they didn't have it.

I ended up getting Foo Fighters: In Your Honor.

They had some Silversun CD's, but none to my liking. I might get one next time.

I wouldn't go that far. Ok they do sound average and middle-of-the-road on record. But seeing them live is a different experience altogether, they certainly dont suck live. And coincidentially the last time i saw Foos live the support band was Silversun Pickups!

What a dream gig that would be for me, Foo Fighters supported by the Silversun Pickups, man I'd be in seventh heaven... wouldn't be able to come down for weeks!

Sorry I forgot to mention that Nine Inch Nails were sandwiched in between them. It was an outdoor show 2 years ago in Dublin, fantastic. Nobody knew who Silversun Pickups were before the gig, i'd only read about them in music mags but i hadn't heard any of their music. But i was very much a fan by the end of their set, along with a lot of other people, and bought i Carnavas a few days later. The only thing i can really remember about their set though was Chris playing like a mad lunatic behind the drumkit, arms and hair flying everywhere!

Man, I shoulda been there...let me know next time a lineup like that is playing there... I got alot of frequent flyer miles leftover from my days going between Australia and the US... :-)

God this "Panic Switch" song is incredible. I don't care how late to this bus I am, this is the best thing I've heard in awhile.

A little late 90's alt though, sounds like Veruca Salt meets, Smashing Pumpkins and Republica.

I recently downloaded the album and it on my must listen list along with a tidal wave of new releases by Bird and the Bee, the Bad Plus, Finale, Isis, MIDIval PunditZ, Passion Pit, Bat For Lashes, Metric, Animal Collective, Phoenix, School of Seven Bells and a half dozen other new albums that I've purchased but I'm not quite up to speed on because of lack of listening time.

I quened up my digital copy of the Silversun Pickups album to get quick and dirty second listen, last night. Silversun sounds like more of a dream pop guitar band in the manner of My Bloody Valentine than a textbook grunge.

At first, I had a hard time figuring out the gender of the singer. There is a female in the band but she plays bass and doesn't sing.

The Silversuns aren't afraid to use state of the art studio techniques that give them an polished, expansive and hypnotic sound. By the way, their first album Canavas (2006) has a higher rating by the critics at AMG than the current release Swoon. I've read that the Silversun Pickups have a very large following in the hometown of LA.

The spring/summer release season has been a cornicopia of unexpected and exotic delights for fans of indie and electronica music. I probably won't catch up with most of the new spring/summer music releases until the frost is on the pumpkin. It's a good problem to have, because the major labels of corporate rock are melting down financially while the indie labels are turning a modest profit by patiently developing a whole new crop of great bands who will be around long after shelf date expires on the can of Black Eyed Peas.

I really love the dreamy swirling sorta sound to their music, the interplay between words and music also adds to the dreamy texture of their sound.... something which quite endears them to me... i like to get lost in music.... and both Carnavas and Swoon allow me this luxury...

Yeah, I kinda' ended up with close to the same formula. They're good, but at the same time... meh'.

The first song (something about twinkles) was too smashing pumpkins for me, but this song panic switch, it sounds like a time where the world was bigger to me. Where there were more mysteries out there and so for me, it gives me this sense that you can still discover new things.

My kickball team tells me I'm a crochiety old man, and in many regards I can see how that is, but music like this is from a time in my life when I wasn't as bitter, and somehow it makes me feel better about myself. It also gives the song a ****ing huge pass.

Otherwise I'd agree with you.

So, I was thinking of checking them Silversun Pickups out. If I like shoegaze, are they even considered a shoegaze band at all? If so, how much so are they? I am not sure if that question makes much sense or not but I think you will get it.

I wouldn't really call them a shoegaze band but the shoegaze influences certainly come though in their music, their frontman Brian Aubert is a huge My Bloody Valentine fan. They're just a kick-ass indie/alternative band in the vein of the Smashing Pumpkins, Pixies and MBV. If you like shoegaze im sure you'll dig them :)