New Sea & Cake - I wish they'd return to grass roots!

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The new Sea & Cake album is another extension of the loungier sound they birthed around the time of "Oui".

How I long for the days of the tighter, punchier S&C. The last great album they did was Sam Prekop's first solo album (essentially a S&C LP). This new smoothed out sound has not lessened my love for the group, but jeez, John McEntire must be wanting to bust out on those tubs and they are running the risk of becoming a major snooze fest!

― Rikard Fortworth, Thursday, 8 March 2007 23:26 (nineteen years ago)

That's funny, it reminds me more of their early stuff than the last few albums. It seems much more stripped down and rock oriented than anything they've done in the last five years or so.

― Moodles, Friday, 9 March 2007 04:10 (nineteen years ago)

more music that sounds like oui please

― lfam, Friday, 9 March 2007 07:43 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, I'd say that this new one is their most "band" sounding record in a long while. Lots of cool guitar interplay, buoyant rhythm section, etc. Even some Afrobeat influence creeping in at points. I think it sounds cool. It might not be a return to "The Biz" but it's not quite as chilly as some of the other albums. Though I dig the chilly stuff too.

― tylerw, Friday, 9 March 2007 15:45 (nineteen years ago)

if i see this on vinyl i will definitely get it. i really like oui and the fawn. i wasn't so keen on one bedroom when i bought it. i should probably put it on now, i might like it more. i am clueless about the earlier stuff. and the solo stuff. i loved the fawn so much that i was always afraid if i got an earlier album or a solo prekop/prewitt album that i would almost surely be disappointed. weird, huh!!?? and i still have never heard shrimp boat.

― scott seward, Friday, 9 March 2007 16:15 (nineteen years ago)

I really didn't like One Room, so never bothered to check out the rest, don't know if I missed anything

― baaderonixx, Friday, 9 March 2007 16:16 (nineteen years ago)

yeah, you did! the fawn and oui are awesome.

― scott seward, Friday, 9 March 2007 16:18 (nineteen years ago)

But from what I heard One Room was basically Oui - mk2. No?

― baaderonixx, Friday, 9 March 2007 16:23 (nineteen years ago)

oui was just better. in my very own humble opinion. a dream of a record.

― scott seward, Friday, 9 March 2007 16:25 (nineteen years ago)

oui and the fawn are pinnacles of 1990s chicago 'jazzy' music

― lfam, Friday, 9 March 2007 17:24 (nineteen years ago)

oui and one room I haven't listened to much, they kind of wash over me. I liked them enough I guess but they aren't the debut album, which is what I really wish they'd sound like again. that album is so fun

― akm, Friday, 9 March 2007 17:28 (nineteen years ago)

I kind of lost track of these guys around the time Sam Prekop put out his first solo record, but The Fawn and The Biz are both pretty great. I really liked both records but never really heard anything else but Sam Prekops first solo record which didn't really catch with me. These things have not hit my CD player probably since y2k, so it might be time to pull them out of the box. I also had a Tarwater song in my head yesterday, which is another band I associate from that same time period.

― earlnash, Friday, 9 March 2007 23:50 (nineteen years ago)

The last great album they did was Sam Prekop's first solo album (essentially a S&C LP)

Not really, b/c it has the superior Josh Abrams on bass and the arguably superior - or at least very different - Chad Taylor on drums.

One Bedroom had two or three songs I liked and the rest were snoozers. The Sound and Vision cover is fun. The last Sam Prekop album I felt the same way about - a few great tracks and the rest boring. That whole Chicago circle/blob of musicians seems to be in a rut, but I did really like the last Rob Mazurek thing I picked up (Sao Paolo Underground).

― Hurting 2, Friday, 9 March 2007 23:57 (nineteen years ago)

My favorite is Oui - it wins Moodles' mellow LP award. I liked One Bedroom for the most part, but felt that some of the songs were weighted with too many electronics. I was hoping the new album would fall somewhere in between these two, but it is quite different. Still good though...

In some ways the last Sam Prekop album was more like what I was hoping for with the new one.

― Moodles, Saturday, 10 March 2007 00:18 (nineteen years ago)

I actually think the new one is the greatest San Francisco rock album since Quicksilver or Moby Grape. Singing is just like Colin Blunstone--I don't think I understand half of what he's singing except the catch phrases like "too strong, I don't think so." The contrasts between sections strike me as near-brilliant. I really like it.

― whisperineddhurt, Monday, 12 March 2007 13:45 (nineteen years ago)

wtf? really? it sounds like moby grape??? okay, this i wasn't expecting. i would have bought it just for more shiny electro-samba beatz.

― scott seward, Monday, 12 March 2007 13:50 (nineteen years ago)

Never heard Moby Grape -- they really sound like Sea & Cake?

― Mark Rich@rdson, Monday, 12 March 2007 15:59 (nineteen years ago)

No! or not previously anyway.

― scott seward, Monday, 12 March 2007 16:01 (nineteen years ago)

the new sea and cake album doesn't sound anything like moby grape or quicksilver messenger service ffs! it sounds like a mid-period sea and cake rec w/ 'cleaner' production and less synthy-electro wibble - none of the songs strike me as that memorable, so far, but the sea and cake are sort've like the ultimate 'grower' band for me, anyhoo.

― Ward Fowler, Monday, 12 March 2007 16:07 (nineteen years ago)

what the hell was edd talking about then?

― scott seward, Monday, 12 March 2007 16:14 (nineteen years ago)

you guys. that record is stone psychedelic masterpiece! the way the big droney post-folkie guitar part meshes with big cooled-out guitar chords and the way the drums drive like the fabled 'frisco fogged-in super-soul psychedelic ballroom style...this is prime psychedelia almost like they don't make any more. so it chugs along like this, elegantly modulating, no vocals, no solos, some cool ultra-high guitar sounds in the background. very much like what moby grape pioneered on that first album. i mean it is like forty fucking years later so it ain't gonna be the same exact sound or production values, but it is exactly the same sort of thing. the bassline is like that whole frisco tradition of "imitating spades" like the duck dunn-ism of what the bass man laying down. then suddenly, a big mystic-o vocal move! and just gorgeous, inhibited chord changes that really get cosmically beautiful. just astounding, purely beautiful music that skip spence would drool over if he were still hyperventilating. then, back into that grape-esque guitar interplay and a different, ironically poppy rock beat, some "la las" and everybody is cooled out, still soulful, still tripping. obviously somewhat television, too, and many other bands you could name. also like the byrds, too--that total control of the materials at hand, and the controlled beauty of it and the rigor. you know me, there isn't anything all that new under the sun. out may 8, i think. i've really been enjoying it, best pop record i've heard in ages.

― whisperineddhurt, Monday, 12 March 2007 17:54 (nineteen years ago)

The intro to "Up in Crutches" reminds me a lot of Hall & Oates "Kiss on My List," same chords I think.

― Mark Rich@rdson, Monday, 12 March 2007 18:13 (nineteen years ago)

well, edd has sold me. that's for sure.

― scott seward, Monday, 12 March 2007 18:21 (nineteen years ago)

What's the official release date? I will get it from emusic for sure based on that rec (though I'm wondering if Edd is familiar with all the other S&C records?)

― Hurting 2, Monday, 12 March 2007 19:07 (nineteen years ago)

I don't think I understand half of what he's singing except the catch phrases like "too strong, I don't think so."

Like this describes like ALL Sam Prekop singing, for example. "Ah Ah/Be slow/Moonlight/Ba ba baba bah dada/oooohh"

― Hurting 2, Monday, 12 March 2007 19:09 (nineteen years ago)

I need to hear this more but to me it sounds like their best record since the Fawn.

― Mark Rich@rdson, Monday, 12 March 2007 19:14 (nineteen years ago)

The arrangements are really nice, with the interlocking guitar lines, the song structures … I wasn't wowed by this one until I really listened on a good system. Excellent.

― Brakhage, Thursday, 15 March 2007 16:04 (nineteen years ago)

I had no idea Oui was so vaunted. I like that record, but I've always thought The Fawn and The Biz were the band's high-water marks.

― jaymc, Thursday, 15 March 2007 16:10 (nineteen years ago)

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