2008 Woodie Awards
Sound Check
The Walkmen...Coming to a pub near you?
Richa Agarwal
Issue date: 1/21/05 Section: Arts & Features
Nothing like a Hamilton winter puts you in the mood to snuggle up and listen to a band fronted by a gentleman named Hamilton. The Walkmen are a five-piece ensemble, consisting of musicians who grew up together in Washington D.C. and currently reside in New York City. Inspired by a strong buzz surrounding the group, I picked up Bows and Arrows (2004, Record Collection) over break, and as rumored, they are quite impressive.
This is not a pop album. Not in the least. As a quick disclaimer, let me emphasize that the artists I generally review aren't "popular." Bows and Arrows is not immediately catchy and lacks the traits typically attributed to "pop" music. Yet, the boys from D.C. have appeared on the O.C. - err, contradiction perhaps? Nah, that Adam Brody has fine taste.
With that out of the way, the vague genre of "indie rock" could be used to describe them. In actuality, they're not indie - as far as labels go. Record Collection is under Warner Brothers, which is under one of the five major record labels, Warner Music Group. There's a whole RIAA family tree to be found at http://www.magnetbox.com/riaa/tree.asp. Isn't it cute how they try to be all sneaky like that? Walkmen's first full-length Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me is Gone (2002) was released on Star Time records, which is a legit independent label, home to artists, such as the French Kicks as well.
But that's okay. Even though most artists screw themselves over by signing on to major labels, at least some good music comes out of such deals. Lead singer Hamilton Leithauser hails from the "I don't have a nice voice but I can sing dammit" school with predecessors such as Bob Dylan and Isaac Brock. This is not to say such artists don't have nice voices. I mean, they're nice to me - just maybe not to those American Idol judges. But we can all agree that that show offers nothing in the way of music knowledge, right? Right. As instruments can swing the range between discordant and harmonious, so can a vocalist.
This is not a pop album. Not in the least. As a quick disclaimer, let me emphasize that the artists I generally review aren't "popular." Bows and Arrows is not immediately catchy and lacks the traits typically attributed to "pop" music. Yet, the boys from D.C. have appeared on the O.C. - err, contradiction perhaps? Nah, that Adam Brody has fine taste.
With that out of the way, the vague genre of "indie rock" could be used to describe them. In actuality, they're not indie - as far as labels go. Record Collection is under Warner Brothers, which is under one of the five major record labels, Warner Music Group. There's a whole RIAA family tree to be found at http://www.magnetbox.com/riaa/tree.asp. Isn't it cute how they try to be all sneaky like that? Walkmen's first full-length Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me is Gone (2002) was released on Star Time records, which is a legit independent label, home to artists, such as the French Kicks as well.
But that's okay. Even though most artists screw themselves over by signing on to major labels, at least some good music comes out of such deals. Lead singer Hamilton Leithauser hails from the "I don't have a nice voice but I can sing dammit" school with predecessors such as Bob Dylan and Isaac Brock. This is not to say such artists don't have nice voices. I mean, they're nice to me - just maybe not to those American Idol judges. But we can all agree that that show offers nothing in the way of music knowledge, right? Right. As instruments can swing the range between discordant and harmonious, so can a vocalist.