The Antlers outdo the hipster crowd with Burst Apart

The Antlers: not hipsters or lumberjacks

Readers1 may have figured out by now that I'm not a big fan of hipsters or hip. Every time I listen to something by a Brooklyn band these days, I brace myself for the usual cascade of disappointment, bewilderment and rage. So much of the Williamsburg scene seems like empty posturing and hapless harmonizing.

So I was surprised to find that I really enjoy Brooklyn-based The Antlers' new record, Burst Apart. I've only listened a few times through but haven't been able to pull myself away.

The trio -- singer guitarist Peter Silberman, drummer Michael Lerner and keyboardist, etc, Darby Cicci -- has put together a really terrific album of atmospheric songs composed of everything from reverberating guitar chords to shimmering electro-key effects, longing trumpet calls and dance beat drums, churning through a lot of different sounds but never straying far from a key aesthetic that seems all their own. 

It's a sound that is ahead and of what is the cutting edge in indie rock, a new intersection of shoegaze moodiness with a worldly instrumental approach that has put the guitars behind in the mix (usually, anyway). The new goal is to reach listeners in a different way that doesn't require beating on their eardrums quite so hard.  Bands are not just trying new ways to saw the air with sonic attack (though, I do love that sort of thing). You can hear the exploration of new territory. Not all those experiments have worked, but I think The Antlers have found some interesting new places for rock today.

The Antlers seem to me to have accomplished what other indie bands have been unable to do. They've reached me on an emotional level I don't find in bands with a similar approach like Deerhunter or Grizzly Bear (despite names that sound like they were pulled from an episode of Grizzly Adams, these are not bands of bearded lumberjacks, believe it or not). I don't feel that the band is striking a pose. Silberman's vocals are immediate and intimate. The songs are inventive. They are a band that is making music, not atmosphere.

Who knows? My appreciation could very well be because I'm just finally catching up to the sound -- I really liked Deerhunter's "Helicopter," but found a lot of the rest of Halcyon Digest sort of dull. Maybe I'm just in a good mood. Or maybe The Antlers really are just better. I suspect the latter is true. This is a band capable of much more competent songwriting and playing than a lot of others I've heard. And they've succeeded in record in Burst Apart. At least that's what it sounds like after a few repeat spins today.



Footnote:
1. By readers I mean the dozen or so human beings, the 100s of spambots and the scores more who land looking for images of Taylor Swift