{"id":759,"date":"2009-03-06T11:53:57","date_gmt":"2009-03-06T16:53:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hightwo.com\/ht\/?p=759"},"modified":"2009-03-06T11:53:57","modified_gmt":"2009-03-06T16:53:57","slug":"stylus-review-ht003","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/stylus-review-ht003\/","title":{"rendered":"Review – A Cricket in Times Square"},"content":{"rendered":"
Author:\u00a0Kyle McConaghy<\/div>\n
Source: Stylus
\nlink to this article<\/a>
\n\u00a0<\/div>\n
\n

Toying with post-rock formats, buckets of reverb, multiple guitar influences, 80s British vocals, and primitive production trickery, A Cricket In Times Square has harnessed a slick, yet roughhewn sound that will appeal to fans of The Smiths, Slint, Galaxie 500, and The Stone Roses, alike. Each song sounds as if it were recorded by that kid in your neighborhood who was a wizard with his Tascam 4-track. But the raw, rounded production bodes well with the subdued primal nature of the instruments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Taking a name derived from one of those sophisticated children\u2019s books filed between a Roald Dahl novel and a collection of Shel Silverstein poetry, AciTS curiously sidesteps the connotations of their name by combining raucous guitar scrapes and screams that saturate a warm, surrounding atmosphere. The group sounds as if they were being played from one side of a gymnasium, with the condenser mic on the other, allowing the instruments to soak in the sound of the spaciousness. Violent, fuzzed-out guitar vibrato battles an airy Joey Santiago one-string rift in the dizzying, \u201c5 1\/2-minute Hallway\u201d, while squealing guitar licks and gritty rhythm guitar create the musical backdrop for \u201cEverything But Medicines\u201d. These types of impressive, hyperactive guitar licks cover much of the album.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But because of that cement wall reverb, the guitar work\u2014though just as distorted and crazy-played as the following\u2014never nears the dominant, guitar ferocity of a Ronson or Branca. The D.C. natives instead aspire and attain a sexy sound by suppressing the presence of the guitar in the final mix. The crisp drumming on a hollow-sounding kit\u2014which recalls the tremendous Walkmen percussionist, Matt Barrick\u2014along with Michael Tyler\u2019s suave vocals, add a tamed, delicate side to the band\u2019s overall sound.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With a singing voice somewhere along the lines of Robert Smith, Ian McColloch and Mest\u2019s Tony Lavado, Tyler delivers smooth, closet Brit-intonated melodies. His presence comes in varying degrees, sometimes lying low in the mix, melting nicely into the backing ensembles, while in other songs, his melodies are mixed loud enough to be a worthy focal point. Amidst the chugging, lo-fi rhythm guitar of \u201cCareless\u201d, Tyler\u2019s buttery vocals are underlined by an increasing anxiousness as the backing track recycles a single chord progression throughout its five minute running time. He closes the album, sweetly and somberly in \u201cOutliving Your Shadow\u201d. Like Morrissey on downers, singing from the bottom of a well, Tyler nicely complements the track\u2019s timbre of the watery, guitar arpeggios.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Perhaps just as vital as Tyler\u2019s melodies and the unique guitar production, ACiTS reminds us of the value of warm, analog recordings and reaffirm what commonly held true in the seventies\u2014you can create a great album with less than 8 songs and 45 minutes of play time. The album\u2019s directness and the dazzling musical content combine for an impressive debut release.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n


\n<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author:\u00a0Kyle McConaghy Source: Stylus link to this article \u00a0 Toying with post-rock formats, buckets of reverb, multiple guitar influences, 80s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_eb_attr":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[56,47,64,50,60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-cricket-in-times-square","category-artists","category-ht003","category-releases","category-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","acf":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":486,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/a-cricket-in-times-square-st\/","url_meta":{"origin":759,"position":0},"title":"A Cricket in Times Square – s\/t","author":"admin","date":"November 3, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"A Cricket in Times Square A Cricket in Times Square 2004 Cd, Mp3 Download","rel":"","context":"In "A Cricket in Times Square"","block_context":{"text":"A Cricket in Times Square","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/category\/a-cricket-in-times-square\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"A Cricket in Times Square - s\/t ","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/09\/ht003-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":754,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/magnet-review-ht003\/","url_meta":{"origin":759,"position":1},"title":"Review – A Cricket in Times Squate","author":"admin","date":"March 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Author: Matthew Fritch Source: MAGNET Jan\/Feb 2005 This Seattle band\u2014named after a children's book (if you can get over Death Cab for Cutie, you can surely give Cricket a break)\u2014leaves no guitar-effects pedal untouched on its debut. Coupled with smothered-in-the-fog vocals, Cricket could easily fall in with the shoegaze ranks;\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A Cricket in Times Square"","block_context":{"text":"A Cricket in Times Square","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/category\/a-cricket-in-times-square\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":114,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/ht003\/","url_meta":{"origin":759,"position":2},"title":"A Cricket in Times Square: A Cricket in Times Square","author":"Daniel Piotrowski","date":"November 14, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"[download#8#nohits] [download#8#image] 5\u00bd-minute hallway(6:11) mourning son (5:00) everything known about medicines (3:42) blood from heaven (4:34) outliving your shadow (12:37) Release Date: November 2, 2004 All compositions \u00a92004 A Cricket in Times Square. Recorded February\u2014July 2003 at WMUC Studios. Recorded and mixed by Sam Chintha, Matt Welch, and ACITS. Mastered\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A Cricket in Times Square"","block_context":{"text":"A Cricket in Times Square","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/category\/a-cricket-in-times-square\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"A Cricket in Times Square - s\/t ","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/09\/ht003.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":763,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/splendid-review-ht003\/","url_meta":{"origin":759,"position":3},"title":"Review – A Cricket in Times Square","author":"admin","date":"March 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Author: Amir Karim Nezar Source: Splendid Magazine Link to this article It's not unusual for a band to be indebted to groundbreaking acts like Galaxie 500, Sonic Youth, and Slowdive -- but the band that escapes the shadow of such towering influences is a rare treat indeed. A Cricket in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A Cricket in Times Square"","block_context":{"text":"A Cricket in Times Square","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/category\/a-cricket-in-times-square\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":756,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/pitchfork-review-ht003\/","url_meta":{"origin":759,"position":4},"title":"Review – A Cricket In Times Square","author":"admin","date":"March 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Author:\u00a0Chris Dahlen Source: Pitchfork Media\u00a0 link to this article\u00a0Rating:\u00a07.6 The best way to act like a caveman is to live deep inside a cave, which is where A Cricket in Times Square have landed: their garage-rock guitars are run through shoegazer pedals and effects and magnified until they sound not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A Cricket in Times Square"","block_context":{"text":"A Cricket in Times Square","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/category\/a-cricket-in-times-square\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":761,"url":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/exclaim-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":759,"position":5},"title":"Review – A Cricket in Times Square","author":"admin","date":"March 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Author: Cam Lindsay Source: Exclaim.ca link to this article\u00a0 A Cricket In Times Square obviously aren\u2019t worried about wearing their influences on their sleeves and nicking ideas from trendy genres. Their amalgamation of fuzzbox garage rock, muddled shoegazing and drugged-out hypnotic psych is as blatant as my description, but they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A Cricket in Times Square"","block_context":{"text":"A Cricket in Times Square","link":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/category\/a-cricket-in-times-square\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hightwo.net\/two\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}