Review: Pinback | Autumn Of The Seraphs [Stream]

In an interview earlier this year TV On The Radio guitarist and producer Dave Sitek discussed repetition in music and how it appeals to a deeper consciousness in humans that is tied to the human heart beat. We wish we could dig up the clip, but the point is that this primal thrum that appeals to something very basic in listeners permeates the pleasantly sculpted music of veteran San Diego indie rock concern Pinback. We permitted Pinback's widely acclaimed 2005 Touch + Go debut Summer In Abbadon to skate by unexamined save for a few tracks posted on blogs, despite developing a pronounced affinity for the band's 2003 set Offcell. This latter record accompanied us on a lot of drives in the fall of 2003, and in the intervening years we've been increasingly interested by the work of Pinback's Rob Crow, whose non-Pinback releases earlier this year have both been notable, particularly the record by the project Other Men.

Here we pick up the Pinback thread on the occasion of its new, fourth set. Autumn Of The Seraphs percolates with the band's characteristic meditative energy. Mr. Crow, cohort Armistead Burwell Smith IV and band craft clean-burning songs that convey crackling passion and earnestness, all without getting too worked up. It's a neat balancing act, accomplished in no small part by refusing to indulge in rock's typically overt muscular posturing. As we said here a week ago: where other bands would use distortion, Pinback just dials back the edge and hits you with the clean. Where most other bands would deploy the fuzz-bass liberally to make their rock points strongly, Pinback uses in many places what sounds like one of those acoustic hollow-body electric basses that were popular in underground music circa 10,000 Maniacs. The album opener "From Nothing To Nowhere" is a case in point; it's all killer and no filler, but the instrumentation is surgically efficient. The album's hypnotic high points are "Good To Sea" and "Walters," two mid tempo amblers strung across crisp beats and abetted by a gauzy field of syncopated synth tones and guitar lines. Pinback embarks on an extensive tour Tuesday, and we've posted the American dates below.

Pinback -- "From Nothing To Nowhere" [stream] -- Autumn Of The Seraphs
[buy Autumn Of The Seraphs from Touch + Go here]

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09/11 -- Lou's Records -- San Diego, CA
09/12 -- Ameoba -- Los Angeles, CA
09/13 -- Ameoba -- San Francisco, CA
09/14 -- Fingerprints -- Long Beach, CA
09/19 -- Marquee Theatre -- Tempe, AZ
09/20 -- Sunshine Theatre -- Albuquerque, NM
09/21 -- Bricktown Events Center -- Oklahoma City, OK
09/22 -- LaGrave Field -- Fort Worth, TX
09/23 -- Emo's -- Austin, TX
09/25 -- Numbers -- Houston, TX
09/26 -- House Of Blues -- New Orleans, LA
09/27 -- Club Downunder -- Tallahassee, FL
09/28 -- The Social -- Orlando, FL
09/29 -- Common Grounds -- Gainesville, FL
10/01 -- Roxy Theatre -- Atlanta, GA
10/02 -- The Orange Peel -- Asheville, NC
10/03 -- Cat's Cradle -- Carrboro, NC
10/04 -- Satellite Ballroom -- Charlottesville, VA
10/05 -- Theatre Of The Living Art -- Philadelphia, PA
10/06 -- Stone Pony -- Asbury Park, NJ
10/07 -- 9:30 Club -- Washington, DC
10/09 -- Nokia Theatre -- New York, NY
10/10 -- The Roxy -- Boston, MA
10/11 -- The Tralf -- Buffalo, NY
10/12 -- Opera House -- Toronto, ON
10/13 -- The Crofoot -- Pontiac, MI
10/14 -- Metro -- Chicago, IL
10/16 -- Pabst Theater -- Milwaukee, WI
10/17 -- Fine Line Music Cafe -- Minneapolis, MN
10/18 -- Slowdown -- Omaha, NE
10/19 -- Gothic Theater -- Englewood, CO
10/20 -- The Depot -- Salt Lake City, UT
10/22 -- Showbox -- Seattle, WA
10/24 -- Roseland Theatre -- Portland, OR
10/25 -- Bimbo's -- San Francisco, CA
10/26 -- Bimbo's -- San Francisco, CA
10/27 -- Belly Up -- Solana Beach, CA
10/28 -- Wiltern Theatre -- Los Angeles, CA
10/23 -- Viking Union -- Bellingham, WA