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HOT OFF THE PRESS (#10) - Fight Bite & Department of Eagles
It’s Wednesday, and that means it’s time for Nick Courtright’s weekly first glance at music discovered in the last seven days, whether it be just-released, just-leaked, or some long-lost gem that has remained under the radar. Click here for other recent editions of Hot Off the Press, featuring acts such as of Montreal, Vivian Girls, Bodies of Water, White Denim, Conor Oberst, The Walkmen, The Bug, Lackthereof, and Grizzly Bear.
Department of Eagles – In Ear Park
To be released October 7 on 4AD
Report Card: B-
It’s not hard to get excited about the potential behind Department of Eagles. After all, the band’s frontman is none other than Daniel Rossen, Grizzly Bear extraordinaire, and of late it’s seemed that anything Grizzly Bear touches turns to gold. And while the deeper-voiced Ed Droste is perhaps Grizzly Bear’s most recognizable member, Rossen is a big reason for the band’s Midas-touch, as he sings lead regularly, and got the ball rolling on the band’s assault on the most-anticipated-album lists with his stirring “While You Wait for the Others,” the first post-Yellow House track the band released. And if that wasn’t enough, Rossen’s cover of Jo Jo’s “Too Little Too Late,” a mostly terrible song in its original incarnation, kicks ass. So yeah, it’s easy to get excited about Department of Eagles, where presumably Rossen would be able to differentiate himself from his Bear brothers, not to mention giving the music world another class A release.
So imagine my disappointment when I found out that In Ear Park is only good, but not great. Sure enough, it features Rossen’s trademark pipes, along with his usual drenching of reverb, but many of the charms associated with that style begin to wear thin by the album’s halfway point. Also, the album features a number of missteps in taste and consistency—the collection, recorded over the last several years with Rossen’s college roommate Fred Nicolaus, clearly lacks the quality control found with Grizzly Bear. For examples of this, look no further than the somewhat revolting album title, a track called “Herring Bone” (where apparently herringbone is supposed to elicit a singalong), and the album’s fourth song, “Teenager,” which while a nice Beatles/Pink Floyd-esque redux, seems ghastly and out of place amidst all the chamber pop.
These criticisms aren’t meant to obscure the fact that there are excellent moments on the record, and for the first three tracks, including notable single “No One Does It Like You,” it sounds as if a wonderful record is at hand. But while the ups can be pretty spectacular, In Ear Park is ultimately done in by its questionable revision—one almost gets the feeling that Rossen and Nicolaus felt rushed to get this out while the hype is high—and general unevenness, not to mention the fact that Rossen’s voice, without the benefit of regular harmonizing vocals or Droste acting as a strong counterpoint, can become a bit tiresome. What all this really comes down to is the fact that Department of Eagles is a great curiosity for Grizzly Bear fans, and a decent album for everyone else, with the saddest shame of all being that if In Ear Park were condensed to EP length, it probably would have been pretty damn fine.
Listen to songs by Department of Eagles here.
Fight Bite – Emerald Eyes
To be released on October 28 by themselves.
Report Card: A-
When the first hint of sound started radiating from the mostly useless Texas town of Denton that a nice little dreampop band was afoot, the internet (minus the apparently lethargic Pitchfork Media) leapt at the opportunity to promote them—of course, who doesn’t like a small-town underdog, especially when that small town has already delivered us White Denim? And so it was with Fight Bite, a two-piece whose first widely available song, “Swissex Lover,” was so shiny and soft and sleek that everyone was abuzz for more—could this be, they wanted to know, another Beach House, another band that makes music so effortlessly that it lowers the blood pressure of day traders just to be in its presence? That was the hope, and even though the second and third tracks they released didn’t sound nearly as hot as “Swissex Lover,” the album as a whole is quite nice, and sufficiently establishes Fight Bite as a band destined to be successful outside of Texas.
While the band name Fight Bite may conjure up images of Mike Tyson, crazed look in his eyes, with a chunk of Evander Holyfield’s ear in his mouth, the music Leanne Macomber and Jeff Louis make couldn’t be further from that image. If anything, the image that’s brought up is one of Tyson and Holyfield walking through a garden of daisies, perhaps holding hands. Macomber’s cooing and the gauzy production make each song feel homey, and you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone offended by this music. But that’s not to say Fight Bite is boring, because the subtle curvatures of their songs are such that most cynics will be reeled in by multiple listens. Also, not only are the songs themselves pretty little universes, but the album has a pleasant and intuitive flow to it—when one track ends and the next track begins, it is as if it there were no other way the songs could be presented. This perhaps is why those second and third songs released (“The Accident” and “Emerald Eyes”) fell a bit flat—you had to hear them in the context of the record, because in that context, as with most all of the tracks on Emerald Eyes, they are pretty much darling.
Listen to songs by Fight Bite here.