Released 17 months after Everybody, a mere blink of an eye for this group of Renaissance men, Car Alarm represents an attempt by the Sea and Cake to be a working band -- for what may be the last time, what with family obligations to place among the vast array of outside interests. The album was written in a burst just after returning from an Australian tour, and recorded in a fairly quick span as well. The results seem to have refreshed this band of post-rock stalwarts, who may never need (or desire) a radical shift in sound, but should have already easily fallen prey to laziness -- an album where the adjective "workmanlike" becomes an insult rather than a compliment. Their brisk, efficient indie rock hasn't changed radically, but the insertion of an instrumental here and an electronics-heavy track there makes for needed counterpoint. The individual members of the quartet are still nearly telepathic in their group interplay; John McEntire's drums set the tone for each song while Eric Claridge's bass anchors the lower register, and the twin guitars of Sam Prekop and Archer Prewitt scope out the higher frequencies.
It may have only taken three months to hammer out their eighth album in the studio but The Sea and Cake's latest dessert could have firmed up a little longer before it was cast into the seas of production. Despite being sociable to the last strum, nobody wants soggy cake at a party.
More >
The Sea and Cake have been recording together for 15 long years, taking breaks between albums to allow members to delve into their other projects, which range from solo albums to artwork to playing with well-known post-rock bands like Tortoise. Car Alarm , the band's seventh full-length effort, represents their first departure from this long-standing approach — not only did the band not break b.
More >
As its title might suggest, the Sea & Cake's new video for "Weekend" arrives right on time for each of our individual weekends. It comes from their forthcoming eighth album Car Alarm, which follows last year's Everybody. The clip opens with a kid flipping into a body of water then trails a pack of teens outside the house (and its numbing video games) to a bike ride, candy (stealing, eating), gi...
More >
"May the days be aimless. Let the seasons drift. Do not advance the action according to a plan." So go the early words of Don DeLillo's masterful postmodernist novel White Noise. But the desire could easily apply to both The...
More >
The Sea & Cake's eighth album Car Alarm is out 10/21 via Thrill Jockey. A couple weeks ago, we posted the sun-kissed summertime video for electro-infused "Weekend." In this week's Drop, we debuted Car Alarm's expansive, affecting title track and asked S&C founder/frontman Sam Prekop about the song's shuffling lyricism as well as the pointlessness of actual car alarms: "Car alarms do not work. M...
More >
Hey remember The Sea and Cake? Yeah we do too and are happy that they are still making music. They had an album out last year called Everybody and are looking to make more of a comeback with Car Alarm due later this month. 'Weekend' is the new single off that album and Tim Sutton [...]
More >
There are so many moments on their new album where The Sea and Cake sound exactly like they have before, but it'd almost be worrying if they'd gone done anything different; they've built a career out of making those chilled, breezy ballads for ages now
More >
It may have only taken three months to hammer out their eighth album in the studio but The Sea and Cake's latest dessert could have firmed up a little longer before it was cast into the seas of production. Despite being sociable to the last strum, nobody wants soggy cake at a party.
More >
The Sea and Cake have been recording together for 15 long years, taking breaks between albums to allow members to delve into their other projects, which range from solo albums to artwork to playing with well-known post-rock bands like Tortoise. Car Alarm , the band's seventh full-length effort, represents their first departure from this long-standing approach — not only did the band not break b.
More >
I previously wrote about Weekend which is the best The Sea and Cake song on Car Alarm. New album...
More >
Though intrinsically shape shifting, the genre once labeled post-rock in part defines the horizons of Chicago's contemporary music scene. Its waxing instrumental contours contain more original releases and collaborative inspiration than perhaps even the foundational blues and jazz that laid the... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit the MCMB website for full links, free music, great vide...
More >
Thrill Jockey adds some local flavor to new releases Tuesday this week with new albums out today from Pit er Pat and The Sea and Cake . For more of what's in stores today, check out the Filter Blog .
More >
© 2006-2009 Mog Inc. All Rights Reserved
 "Car Alarm")
