Posted on: January 8, 2009 Posted by: anfnewsacct Comments: 0

Appropriately enough, Hospice’s 10 distinct chapters resonate on debilitating sonic and lyrical levels, from the hypnotic harp and tension-ratcheting build of “Two” to the sing-or-sink choruses of “Bear” and the speaker-rattling peaks of “Sylvia,” easily one of the year’s most immediate epics. It’s here, amidst contrasting shards of ambient noise, sweeping strings and smoky horns, where The Antlers truly transcend Silberman’s singer-songwriter beginnings—a striking escalation of expectations first hinted at on 2008’s New York Hospitals EP. The progression doesn’t end there, either. In a move that could be taken as the riff-raking extension of his thorough guitar training (from the age of 6 ‘til right before college), “Atrophy” and “Wake” delve into sheets of distortion, subtle shades of soul, cicada-like effects and enough movements to fill an entire EP.

“We were going for something that’d be dense but not too complicated,” explains Silberman. “I hate the word ‘lush,’ but I guess that’s the best way of describing it. The structures are like pop songs—verse/chorus, verse/chorus—but the sound is a little more shoegaze-y or post-rocky.”

It’s about to get even more complicated, too, as The Antlers’ Technicolor-tinged trio take all of Hospice’s songs—and three previous releases—in a completely different direction, jettisoning a note-for-note rendition of the record for “a massive sound” doused in delay, reverb and unrehearsed chaos. And to think Cicci was a stage actor with a desire to drop it all for music just a few years ago.

“Hospice was the clear indication that this isn’t a singer-songwriter thing at all,” says Silberman. “Whatever we record next is going to define the three of us as a ‘band.’

He continues, “I always figured I’d be the ‘shredder’ in a group… But things somehow ended up this way.”

We wouldn’t have it any other way, either.

US TOUR DATES

12/15/09 – Bowery Ballroom – New York, NY
1/29/10 – Legends of Notre Dame – Notre Dame, IN
1/30/10 – Music – Akron, OH
2/05/10 – Brooklyn Academy of Music Opera – Brooklyn, NY*
2/08/10 – Teh Warfield – San Francisco, CA#
2/09/10 – House of Blues – San Diego, CA#
2/11/10 – Wiltern Theatre – Los Angeles, CA#
2/13/10 – Ogden Theatre – Denver, CO#
2/15/10 – Vic Theatre – Chicago, IL#
2/16/10 – Phoenix Concert Theatre – Toronto, ON#
2/18/10 – House of Blues Boston – Boston, MA#
2/19/10 – Terminal 5 – New York, NY#
2/20/10 – Trocadero – Philadelphia, PA#
2/21/10 – 9:30 CLub – Washington, DC#

* w/ Ra Ra Riot
# w/ Editors

http://www.myspace.com/theantlers

http://www.antlersmusic.com

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