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LOTD
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Tin-Tin:
Self-Titled
Warning: Contents under pressure may explode when opened. Those words should be on an advisory sticker to be placed on every copy of this album so that each prospective listener will be warned before adding it to their shopping cart, be it online or at your local record store. As a matter of fact, it might be awhile before this album is available at Media Play or Circuit City because ::tin tin:: won't get the commercial distribution that they need if they remain onboard as the flagship artists of the Los Angeles-based label Sao Bento Music. You might be able to find it at the Amoeba Music in Hollywood, but it's doubtful that many people in Hell-A are down with this brand of post-rock. In a city that historically has been obsessed with the "Cock-Rock" of Guns N' Roses and "Funk-Metal" of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the music of ::tin tin:: might be deemed as "too cerebral" for those snorting cocaine off the nipples of crack-whores; but they have a strong enough following in their own camp. That sticker will definitely come in handy when someone who listens to this album wonders how they went from hearing the gentle sounds of a meticulous guitar to having their ears pummeled by crashing guitars and the pulverizing pulse of the drums. Thankfully, this type of confusion only happens once or twice throughout each song, but it is those few times that some kind of warning would be helpful. While this album is certainly not a record for all occasions, you need to know about it, even if you typically disregard the relevance of bands that sound like Tortoise and June of 44. This record does not differ greatly from the work of the aforementioned bands, but one important note of interest is that not every song on this album falls into the same genre of those bands. The forefathers that inspire ::tin tin:: have become dangerously obsessed with making their music so that every journalist out there must scour through a thesaurus in order to find fifty or so synonyms for "spacey" and "ethereal." For those who are so goddamn sick of doing that already, ::tin tin:: is a blessing. Certainly, you will find a plethora of other prog-rock bands out there that have songs that last for about eight minutes a piece, and this band does very little to change that formula. However, it is the "very little" that they do that separates them from the rest. Most of the songs on this album use the minimalist "start and finish" approach along with the sonic tohu-bohu during the majority of the interim, but it will come as a surprise how many times you'll turn your head to see if your television has been turned on even if no one else is around to have done it. You'll cock your head to see if your cell phone is ringing in another room. You'll then go to the kitchen because you thought you heard your microwave beeping even though you know you did not turn it on in the first place. These small differences seem insignificant and they might just be, but in this writer's case, ::tin tin:: has turned a conventionally functioning man into a wandering paranoid with a case of Attention Deficit-Hyperactive Disorder that no prescribed dose of Ritalin or Adderall will mitigate. Not every song on this album has that effect, but the one that does not, "Reeling From," is prone to make the world nostalgic for Hum's third LP You'd Prefer an Astronaut, which was engineered by the same Keith Kleversley who was at the boards for ::tin tin::. This song remains the only truly "accessible" song out of the eight, but the aficionados of post-rock will beg to differ. One topic that we can all agree upon is that the vocals on this album, while they are generally inaudible, somehow take away from the music itself. The music is clearly the focal point of the song, and the lyrics appear to be thrown together at the eleventh hour; so it is uncertain why they are there in the first place. This record is not short on substance, and the trio personifies the idea of the Gestalt, so the only logical explanation is that ::tin tin:: is trying to distance itself from being billed as a Prog-Rock act. This is an unfortunate predicament, because their future will perhaps be determined by their lack of consideration for this hindrance in their art. It is also possible that because they live in the jam-band-friendly town of Boulder, CO they do not want to be asked to play an opening slot at the next String Cheese Incident concert. Either way, ::tin tin:: achieves a remarkable success with their debut and should be commended for doing so. One final note is that hearing this album is not enough to appreciate this band, as the drums are compressed throughout most of it. Sean Merrell might be disappointed by the attenuation of his drums but knowing this one fact right now is enough incentive to see this band live in concert should their tour stop in your town. The difference between listening to this record and seeing these expert musicians in concert is that the album might thoroughly entertain you for an hour, but experiencing their live performance is by far a more memorable experience. Regardless of whether or not they are touring near you, this is not an album to snub.
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