Antlers' "Hospice" gets Best New Music tag from Pfork

And it's well-deserved. Maybe next time they come through town there'll be more than three people in the bar?

The Antlers - Cafe Bourbon St., 3-26

Depending on their subject matter, concept albums have the potential to alienate listeners. Even the term “concept album” sounds a bit pretentious. But the truly great ones transcend story-line, using the thematic material to communicate ideas, questions, truths, emotions--or all of the above--common to the human experience. In other words, you don’t need to be a deaf, dumb and blind pinball champion to appreciate the Who’s Tommy.

The Antlers’ new album, Hospice, uses a fractured relationship between a hospice worker and a young, terminally ill girl (Sylvia) to muse about mortality and all its repercussions--loss, loneliness, anger, empathy, guilt and the like. Singer/songwriter Peter Silberman, whose lyrical and compositional maturity belie his age (23), switches vantage points throughout the album, allowing glimpses into each character’s inner workings.

Complicating matters--in a good way, it turns out--is the patient’s condition. She apparently has cancer, but it’s her mental illness and the resulting nightmares and visions that make the relationship so antagonistic and heartbreaking. In the liner notes, Silberman explains (in character of the hospice worker, it seems) that “something makes her sting, and something makes her want to kill. It made her crawl under that house, and stick her head under the stove.”

The Antlers punctuate the interactions with huge swells of sound that wouldn’t be out of place on a Sigur Ros record, and subdued sections anchored by a gingerly tapped piano or lightly strummed acoustic guitar along with shimmery, atmospheric synth textures (see “Kettering”). It’s in those quiet portions that Silberman employs his greatest attribute--a beautiful, alabaster falsetto that’s more hushed than Jeff Buckley but less wispy than Antony and the Johnsons.

Ah yes, but this is supposed to be a live review, right? The Antlers did, in fact, play Cafe Bourbon Street last Thursday as a three-piece, though few were there to see it. (Our Cat Philip, however, did not open the show, to my disappointment. Bourbon Street’s website is notoriously inaccurate. Get on the ball, Bobo!) The mostly empty bar lent the show a vibe that was more flat than intimate, and the band hasn’t completely figured out how to replicate Hospice live yet. The climaxes were even more powerful when heard at arm’s length, but the subtleties weren’t quite as subtle. And I missed the acoustic.

The hardest thing, Silberman sings on “Wake,” is “letting people in.” He wisely jumped that hurdle with the Antlers, beginning Hospice as a solo project and gradually adding contributions from others until the Antlers became a real band, not just a nom de plume. It’s a potent combination on record, but the band needs some more road-testing to match that chemistry onstage.

Still, despite those shortcomings and an incredibly short set, I’m glad I ventured out. I particularly enjoyed “Shiva,” as well as the sheer epic-ness of “Atrophy,” with its desperate coda: “Someone, oh anyone, tell me how to stop this. She’s screaming, expiring, and I’m her only witness.” Haunting, but really pretty.

So yes, the Antlers are worth seeing live, but more importantly, go pick up or download Hospice. And when you do, listen from beginning to end. It’s a concept album that demands and rewards your attention.

Photos from the show
mp3: The Antlers - Two
mp3: The Antlers - Bear
The Antlers WOXY Session

2009

That's the Antlers, a Brooklyn band that played Cafe Bourbon St. last Thursday. The Antlers' newest album, Hospice, is one of a handful of albums I've been pretty impressed by so far this year. The super-short live set didn't quite live up to the record (review coming soon), but I still found a lot to enjoy, and I'd be surprised if the other (very few) barflies in attendance didn't, as well.

Other than Hospice, here's a quick rundown of some other stuff I've been enjoying in 2009, in no particular order. (Some of these came out last year, just never got around to them; so much for listening to less music this year...)

Kurt Vile - God is Saying This to You...
U2 - No Line on the Horizon
The Lost Revival - To Hell With Them All
Bonnie "Prince" Billy - Beware
Justin Townes Earle - Midnight at the Movies
Vetiver - Tight Knit
Elvis Perkins in Dearland - Elvis Perkins in Dearland
Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
Frontier Ruckus - The Orion Songbook
M. Ward - Hold Time
Southeast Engine - From the Forest to the Sea
RTFO Bandwagon - Dums Will Survive
Fol Chen - Part I: John Shade, Your Fortune's Made
Andrew Bird - Noble Beast
Bon Iver - Blood Bank
Gemma Hayes - Hollow of Morning
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion