Cuz lemme tell ya, I sure as shit haven’t.
Something about this band comes off as completely and wholly elusive. Stylistically swervin’ back and forth from lo-fi wierdness to smooth britpop, like the proverbial drunk driver speeding down the proverbial Indie Boulevard, OTC seems to want to throw you off the scent. After all, all the best musicians make it a habit to keep you on your toes.
Take a listen to ” I Have Been Floated”. A solid piece of poppy goodness with willowy vocals and drifty guitars. Once it settles in from the opening four bars with the frankenstein organ, strings kick in and soothe the savage beast into an eloquent number with lots of breaks in the rythm, allowing for every piece of instrumentation a place in the spotlight.
Okay, so we’ve got our frame of reference now. So let’s take a look at “The Great Release”, which clocks in at under a minute, as a big dirty amalgam of dissonant, crappy sounding acoustics and aimless whistling. One could hardly call it music. Seems more like some goofy kids got a hold of dad’s acoustic and went to town on the four track.
So what happens between these songs? What makes these two songs from the same band tie together? Musical experimentation? Absolutely nothing? I think both of these answers could be the right ones for one reason or another.
On Indie Boulevard, there are thousands of alleys and back avenues that break up the big picture of things. You’ve got your Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s and your Strokes’s, which stand in the windows of the big buildings lining the street, out in the open for all to see, and then you have your Jandeks and your Daniel Johnstons, all the oddball shit obscured from the public eye, lurking around in some dirty alley somewhere. Only the adventurous or just plain sociopathic dare venture there. OTC however, seems to have one foot in the gutter and one hand in the window.
In the song “Mystery”, everything just barely hangs together, with pianos and trumpets and other miscellaneous sounds bouncing off each other in a raggedy shuffle, some often hitting dissonant notes before settling back down into some semblance of a beat or melody. And yet, they get away with it. It goes off without a hitch. You’re probably tapping your foot or trying to pick out words to sing along. Ah, such is the nature of obscure indiepop.
Since the recording of their album “Music From The Unrealized Film Script, Dusk At Cubist Castle” Olivia Tremor Control’s four members split up into two different groups, The Sunshine Fix and Circulatory System, Spreading their little fragments out even farther, the veritable bottle shattered against the pavement.
Being of such a curious nature, it can be hard to place something like this. And having broken off into two new projects, it makes me wonder if OTC is just gonna keep expanding until they vanish, or if maybe these fragments will come back around and assemble themselves in a fashion I could recognize.
Either way, something that elusive always gets a hold on you.
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October 30th, 2006 at 8:30 am
Nice article Owen…I love your writing style, it’s always so interesting to read. I dig these guys! The “dirty alley” link had me rollin:lol: Where the hell did you find that?!?!
October 31st, 2006 at 12:10 am
That dirty alley is bad news
October 31st, 2006 at 9:56 am
Great article. I don’t mean to brag or boast… but I am proud to say that I did see Olivia Tremor Control in like the spring of ‘99. I wasn’t that familiar with them at the time, but I went due to the NMH connection. It was great. It was one of the best shows. They floored the place with a destructive version of “A Peculiar Noise Called ‘Train Director’”
November 2nd, 2006 at 11:57 am
I generally don’t venture down Indie Boulevard because I get turned off by a lot of the street dwellers there, but I’m feeling these guys. Nice piece Owen - I always like getting turned onto something new.