Confession: Post-rock bores me. Yes, there is redundant beauty in the slow-building, moody melodies of definitive post-rock bands like Explosions in The Sky, Mogwai, Pelican, Mono, and even Sigur Rós, but at a certain point it is lost on me. Especially in the case of Sigur Rós, I feel as though not every track on a post-rock album needs to sound like it the soundtrack to a tragic, bittersweet film in which someone loses everything, but then realizes the true beauty of life and love at the very bleakest of moments (by the way, I am copyrighting that tagline.....).
The same goes for Toronto's own definitive post-rockers Do Make Say Think. I will admit, their music can be a good background while you clean your bedroom on a Sunday afternoon, but there is only so much I can take before feeling like I'm in a dramatic film whose plot does not progress fast enough. Will he ever put all those socks away? Is that a metaphor for the human condition? You're always left with one sock too many or one sock too little.
I rather prefer Do Make Say Think guitarist Justin Small's side project, Lullabye Arkestra, in which he plays drums and his wife Kat Taylor-Small plays bass. Beyond the obvious aw-shucks factor that they are married Toronto music scenesters who thrash together in holy matrimony, the band actually has musical merit. I suppose one could sum up Lullabye Arkestra's sound as a cross between two other prominent two-member bands, The White Stripes and Death From Above 1979. The bluesy garage rock of The White Stripes certainly is prevalent in LA's music, but so is the R&B-informed dance-punk riffage of DFA1979. However, beyond the obvious parallels to those two bands, LA also get pretty damn heavy and take cues from classic metal. The first track on recently-released album Threats/Worship, "Get Nervous," is far closer to a head-banging Judas Priest track than a comparatively candy-coated White Stripes track or a non-threateningly sexy DFA1979 track.
Furthermore, Kat's snarlish yet feminine wail contrasts well with Justin's more straightforward holler. The dual vocals blend well into the band's sound and make up for the fact that every song is a bass and drums number. Opening track "Son The Father" on Fucked Up's fabulous (and Polaris prize-winning) 2008 album The Chemistry of Common Life has the Smalls shout the chorus alongside vocalist Damian Abraham to excellent effect.
I must say, Vice Records has mildly impressed me with the release of Katie Stelmanis' Believe Me EP and now Lullabye Arkestra's Threats/Worship. Maybe those post-ironic pricks aren't so bad afterall.
