Posted on: February 17, 2010 Posted by: anfnewsacct Comments: 0

The Antlers have released a second music video from their 2009 breakout album Hospice. The video for “Bear,” shot in the bleak and snowy forest of… um… Bear Mountain, features beautiful cinematography and fantastical imagery, offering a perfect visual complement to the song’s moving lyrics. Rife with metaphors, despite the video’s initial dreariness, “Bear” maintains some of the same themes of hope that we saw in the bands’ video for “Two.”

Pitchfork is hosting the premiere of the Evan Owen Dennis-directed clip right now. The Antlers just kicked off a tour with UK band Editors, which will run through the end of February. After that the band will be at SXSW, and then head out on a headlining US tour in April and May with Saratoga Springs duo Phantogram. The Antlers are also supporting The National on the June leg of their North American tour. Full dates are below.

NPR 2009’s Best Record Of 2009 So Far
http://www.npr.org/blogs/allsongs/2009/02/musings_2009_already_better_th.html?sc=nl&cc=asc-20090226

Spin – “This promising Brooklyn trio exist in an openhearted world that’s far removed from their borough’s often too-cool posturing.”

Relix – “This is art rock of the first caliber, with gorgeously morose piano and electronically driven jams that are as engaging as they are emotionally distraught.”

Alternative Press – “sparking vocal melodies and shimmering guitars en masse”

NPR’s All Songs Considered : “One of the most beautiful and moving works I’ve heard in a long, long time. Just astonishing.”

AM New York – “Hospice successfully retains its handmade feel and panoramic, gut-shuddering sound.”

Time Out New York – “truly heart-wrenching”

Tiny Mix Tapes – “Hospice is a work of rare beauty and a watershed moment in The Antlers’ career.”

Teen Vogue – “brilliant lyricism and shimmering choruses.”

Sometimes you have to put yourself first, no matter how difficult that notion seems; no matter how much time and effort you’ve already put into this one person—the person who’s reduced your very being to its absolute core. Just ask Peter Silberman, the string-pulling founder of The Antlers, a solo project that suddenly went widescreen on the self-released Hospice LP (now receiving a proper widespread pressing through Frenchkiss). The first Antlers effort to feature two key permanent players—powerhouse drummer Michael Lerner and the layer-lathering multi-instrumentalist Darby Cicci—it’s an album with a sound that’s actually as ambitious as its concept.

“Hospice came from the idea of caring for a terminal patient who’s mentally abusive to you,” says Silberman. “You don’t have the right to argue with them, either, because they’re the one who’s dying here; they’re the one that’s been dealt a wrong hand. So you take it, but you can only take so much. Eventually, you realize that this person is just destroying you.”

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 With Phantogram

Fri-Apr-16 – Columbus, OH – The Basement
Sat-Apr-17 – Urbana, IL – Canopy Club
Sun-Apr-18 – Madison, WI – High Noon Saloon
Tue-Apr-20 – Minneapolis, MN – Varsity Theatre
Wed-Apr-21 – Iowa City, IA – The Blue Moose
Thu-Apr-22 – Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall
Fri-Apr-23 – Ann Arbor, MI – Blind Pig
Wed-Apr-28 – San Diego, CA – Casbah
Fri-Apr-30 – Los Angeles, CA – Troubadour
Sat-May-01 – San Francisco, CA – Independent
Mon-May-03 – Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge
Tue-May-04 – Vancouver, BC – The Biltmore Cabaret
Wed-May-05 – Seattle, WA – Neumo’s

US Dates With The National

Wed-Jun-02 – Boston, MA – House of Blues w/The National
Thu-Jun-03 – Boston, MA – House of Blues w/The National
Fri-Jun-04 – Philadelphia, PA – Electric Factory w/The National
Sat-Jun-05 – Philadelphia, PA – Electric Factory w/The National
Sun-Jun-06 – Washington, DC – Constitution Hall w/The National
Tue-Jun-08 – Toronto, ON – Massey Hall w/The National
Wed-Jun-09 – Toronto, ON – Massey Hall w/The National
Wed-Jun-16 – New York, NY – Radio City Music Hall w/The National

http://www.myspace.com/theantlers

http://www.antlersmusic.com

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