Math can seem ugly, there's no doubt about it. As some of you will know from having done your Ph.D. in number theory and others from having frustratingly grappled with long division in grade school, an intractable problem can appear as an otherworldly and chaotic mess. Yet it is exactly that sort of problem that, when solved, is most beautiful - suddenly, inexplicably grasped by our mind as an organized whole. The same can be said of the Wooden Stars, whose music displays an almost ugly precision and technicality that is also, when heard more deeply, the source of its surpassing beauty. Listen to the individual parts (guitars thoroughly intertwined, vocal harmonies constantly fluctuating, as bizarre as they are persistent, etc.) and you will be impressed, though perhaps left cold; but back up, take a broader listen, and something else will emerge: a simple, sour loveliness, the only route to which involves a good deal of difficulty.
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Posted by Jordan at April 25, 2007 5:05 PMAs it happens, I was listening to "Cigarette Girl" last night (which I'm pretty sure I got from this site a while ago), offkilter and enjoying it immensely, wondering why I had never gone and found more by Wooden Stars. I hadn't listened to that song for months. And suddenly, I have more.
Posted by: aerin at April 26, 2007 9:17 AMIt's so incredibly insistent & earnest. Thank you.
Posted by: Sean at April 26, 2007 4:44 PMThese are not the same Wooden Stars that backed Julie Doiron, yes?
Posted by: bdr at April 27, 2007 2:00 PMThe very same.
Posted by: Jordan at April 27, 2007 2:58 PMThis is the 1st album by them since the one with Julie Doiron in 1999. Coming out in the USA on May 8th, came out in Canada in April. The whole album is really great.
Posted by: sadp at May 1, 2007 3:17 PM