Calla

Slint is one of the first really "out there" bands I ever got into. I used to work at a record store in high school, and this guy named Dwight who was friends with the owner [and with the Blue Meanies, I later found out] would always come in and jokingly harass me for whatever pop-punk CD I had on the stereo at the time. His tastes ran the gamut, from Devo to Samhain, Bauhaus to the Dead Milkmen. One day he came in as I was playing a two-song single by a band called Slint. I can't even recall how I got the CD, but I had it, and I liked it, even though it was far beyond anything I had ever listened to before. Dwight convinced me to buy the band's two full lengths, and I loved them.

So what's the point of all of that? Well, I've heard people say this new Calla CD sounds like Slint, and they're wrong. This sounds nothing like Slint. What it *does* sound like is the For Carnation [Brian McMahon from Slint's newer band], with it's subdued pop melodies placed within eerie rhythms. Singer Aurelio sounds almost identical to McMahon's whisper of a voice heard on the For Carnation's self-titled disc. The notes seem to slither out of his mouth as the words slowly fall off of his tongue. It's hypnotic, to a point.

I suppose another good musical reference point would be take Engine Down's "Demure" album, slow it down drastically, and take out any possible chance of "rock" coming through in the mix. Calla seems content with their 10 tracks of barely audible slowcore, and if they're happy with it, I guess I must learn to understand.

Until then, I'm going back to my Slint records.

MP3s
Strangler
Astral
Monument