Deerhunter
Microcastle
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AMG Review of Microcastle
Heather Phares
All Music GuideThe narcotic drones and fragmented art-punk Deerhunter explored on Cryptograms made the album a love-it-or-hate-it proposition for many indie rock fans; where some heard eclectic expansiveness, others heard incohesive experiments. Microcastle, the band's first album with guitarist Whitney Petty, brings together the disparate elements that made Cryptograms fascinating and frustrating, adding a little more pop and quite a bit more studio polish (this album was recorded in a week, as opposed to the two days it took to lay down Cryptograms). Deerhunter still changes from gentle to storming at a moment's notice, as on "Microcastle" itself, which drifts along like a slow motion surf-rock ballad, then catches fire about two-thirds of the way through, and the album's middle stretch of songs is just as lulling as Cryptograms' opening suite, but a lot more melodic.
These fever-dream moments are punctuated by pop songs that are as crystal clear as they are warped. The trippy innocence of '60s psych pop is a major influence on Microcastle, especially "Little Kids"' jangly guitars and sparkling strangeness, and the acid-pop flashback "Saved by Old Times," which is slinky and mischievous enough to be a spiritual cousin of Donovan's "Season of the Witch." Bradford Cox and company get even more accessible on the bittersweet "Never Stops" and the excellent "Nothing Ever Happened," which lets zigzagging guitars and keyboards tussle over one of Microcastle's most memorable melodies. Guitarist Lockett Pundt's songs balance Cox's extremes, with "Neither of Us, Uncertainly" nodding to the album's hazier moments and "Agoraphobia" blending in with its crisper songs. When "Twilight at Carbon Lake" swells from a hallucinatory '50s slow dance ballad into a triumphant storm of guitars, Microcastle proves that Deerhunter can make music that sounds very different from what they'd done before, yet still feels of a piece with their body of work.
Deerhunter w/Times New Viking & Braids @ Lee's Palace
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Whether you call it growing up, maturing or simply learning the act of good showmanship, I have to say that the Bradford Cox that was on stage at Lee's Palace on Wednesday night was significantly different than the one that I read about from the last time Deerhunter was in town. Gone were the dresses and general audience alienation and, in its place was a charismatic and appreciative frontman...
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Deerhunter: Microcastle/Weird Era Cont. (2008)
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New Wax Atlanta's Deerhunter crafts beautifully damaged pop songs on their third full-length album Microcastle, which was just made available as a physical release (it's been on iTunes since August). The songs are roughed up with the same garage-rock aesthetic we'd come to expect from the band, but at its core, the album is more direct and contains less experimental art-noise. Cartoonish...
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Tuesday's Recommended Release(s)
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Considering how long it's been since Microcastle leaked onto the internets, I'm a little floored that it is only reaching store shelves this week. You would think they would have rushed it out, especially if they wanted to build on the strength of last year's releases Cryptograms and Fluoprescent Grey EP. But instead the label and the band held back and only know can you buy it on plastic or wax
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Deerhunter - Microcastle Review
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It was premiered live in April, leaked onto the internet in May and a MediaShare folder was pillaged for the bonus Weird Era Cont. disc (due to be released with Microcastle as a release date surprise) in August. Now it's been made available on i-Tunes, before the official, old-fashioned album launch on October the [...]
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Scared to go outside.
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Another Saturday night, and another night that I've elected to stay indoors. I would have gone out, but the lurgy I've managed to kick has still left me feeling a bit cack. Not cack in the sense of ill, more cack in the sense of tired. That could also be age, but I'll whinge about that again once I reach an age worth whinging about. In any case, what with it being so late, my beloved has dec...
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Deerhunter: Microcastle/Weird Era Cont. (2008)
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New Wax Atlanta's Deerhunter crafts beautifully damaged pop songs on their third full-length album Microcastle, which was just made available as a physical release (it's been on iTunes since August). The songs are roughed up with the same garage-rock aesthetic we'd come to expect from the band, but at its core, the album is more direct and contains less experimental art-noise. Cartoonish...
More >
Deerhunter Announce Fall Tour
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--- - |- Photo by Hisham BharoochaDeerhunter have only played one show with Nine Inch Nails so far, but Trent Reznor's productive spirit must have rubbed off on them already. The Atlanta band has added a bevy of new North American dates starting with a hometown Halloween show and carrying them into December.All of these shows are in support of the band's forthcoming new album, Microcastle, wh...
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Deerhunter Tour Now With Added Times New Viking
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--- - |- Columbus scuzz-rockers Times New Viking will share a bill with Deerhunter on all of the fall dates from the latter band that we reported yesterday, making the tour a package deal. Pylon, BARR, and Vivian Girls will open various dates of the tour, which begins in Atlanta on Halloween.Times New Viking, Deerhunter, and Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox's Atlas Sound project all have dates...
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asdfgh
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The typhoon season is throwing fits somewhere that you don't hear yourself still singing year-old songs. What release to like songs when you can not make the words out or put them in context, comforting like snuggle bunnies and beer cozies in hard rain. You think Bradford Cox's saying,So long to the days you've come to know.So you had to get there on your own to wait to grow old.You're waiting ...
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MOG it up!
year-end lists, hissy fits and asides
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I am the worst combination of commitment-phobic and obsessive-compulsive to be making lists. Unfortunately, I have time. So here goes, alphabetized and unnumbered for my own sanity.My favorite albums of 2008Deerhunter - MicrocastleFoals - AntidotesGlasvegas - GlasvegasMy other favorite albums of 2008Beach House - DevotionBlackstrap - Steal My Horses and RunCut Copy - In Ghost ColoursFriendly Fi...
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Deerhunter Announces 2009 Tour Dates
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If you like deer hunting, then you probably got to this article by mistake so sorry about that. If your a fan of the brilliant Deerhunter then welcome and good news! Brian Cox and Co have announced a huge European tour to promote their new album/s Microcastle/Weird Era Cont.
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New Deerhunter
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If you like your rock experimental and noisy, than you will love the Deerhunter...the new one, 'Microcastle' picks right up where there debut 'Cryptograms' left off...bring the fuzz
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Help Me, I Am Being Held Prisoner in a Microcastle...
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Who said nothing ever happened? I never saw it coming, waiting for something from nothing.
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Drake’s Take: New Releases 10.28.08 - 11.03.08
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It's a Drake double header this week (though not really a jumbo edition) and I must admit his choices have me a little bit puzzled. The Q-Tip release all but passed me by completely and I thought the Deerhunter record came out ages ago (I guess because it leaked sometime in June). Over on this [...]
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Deerhunter's Platts Eyott Session
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From Stereolab remixes to Halloween treats , there's been much afoot in camp Deerhunter this week. The band plays their Microcastle record release party tonight at Variety Playhouse with Pylon, Jay Reatard, and Times New Viking. If you go, you might be able to get yourself a cassette copy of the so-called Platts Eyott Session . The story: Cox recorded the session during the night of 9/15 at Stu...
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So Much Drama On Deerhunter's Blog This Weekend
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There's a story to be told here. A blogger's tale of greed and betrayal and FTP breaches. But since many of the originating URLs are now gone, it's a story that will have to play out here from the cache of our RSS reader (NewsFire , get on it).The facts were these: On Saturday Bradford posted a link to download Virtual 7" No. 4 , not realizing that anyone could access his unlocked Mediafire acc...
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Deerhunter w/Times New Viking & Braids @ Lee's Palace
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Whether you call it growing up, maturing or simply learning the act of good showmanship, I have to say that the Bradford Cox that was on stage at Lee's Palace on Wednesday night was significantly different than the one that I read about from the last time Deerhunter was in town. Gone were the dresses and general audience alienation and, in its place was a charismatic and appreciative frontman...
More >
Scared to go outside.
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Another Saturday night, and another night that I've elected to stay indoors. I would have gone out, but the lurgy I've managed to kick has still left me feeling a bit cack. Not cack in the sense of ill, more cack in the sense of tired. That could also be age, but I'll whinge about that again once I reach an age worth whinging about. In any case, what with it being so late, my beloved has dec...
More >
Deerhunter - Microcastle Review
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It was premiered live in April, leaked onto the internet in May and a MediaShare folder was pillaged for the bonus Weird Era Cont. disc (due to be released with Microcastle as a release date surprise) in August. Now it's been made available on i-Tunes, before the official, old-fashioned album launch on October the [...]
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 "Microcastle")
