Lansing-Dreiden-The Incomplete Triangle:Album Of The Year?

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Listening to The Dividing Island right now... Reminds me a LOT of Not Drowning, Waving.

LOL Thomas (Chris Barrus), Wednesday, 17 May 2006 13:05 (seventeen years ago) link

entertainment weekly called the new album "yacht-rocky"

scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 17 May 2006 13:41 (seventeen years ago) link

new album is bummer to the max

kevin barking (arghargh), Wednesday, 17 May 2006 16:36 (seventeen years ago) link

"Derivative to the point of originality," says Zach Baron in Village Voice piece about live show. I'm not satisfied with that analysis, but I think there is some truth to it.

Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Thursday, 25 May 2006 01:54 (seventeen years ago) link

Both assertions in the whole sentence are cryptic: "Derivative to the point of originality, their music made Reagan-era familiar sonics strange."

Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Thursday, 25 May 2006 02:21 (seventeen years ago) link


L-D Section II Tour Dates
6/9 Washington, DC @ Black Cat (w/ !!!)
6/10 Philadelphia, PA @ Transit (w/ !!!)
6/19 Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey (SOLD OUT)
6/20 Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge (w/ The Black Angels)
6/22 San Francisco, CA @ The Independent (w/ The Black Angels)
6/24 Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour (w/ The Black Angels)
6/30 New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom (w/ Grizzly Bear)

scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 25 May 2006 17:04 (seventeen years ago) link

The Dividing Island is pretty interesting, as in they don't quite sound like anyone else right now. I find the production and the use of effects somewhat obscure the impact of the songs. Gratuitous use of reverb, perhaps? I need to listen more.

But after two listens, none of the melodies or arrangements stick with me. I can't really remember anything about the album. This could very well be one of those slow growers, but I have a feeling that the overall hazy aura that surrounds these tracks might be detracting from the songs.

But still, tons of ambition. Which really counts for something these days. And not that Sufjan Stevens/Clap Your Hands Say Yeah parade rock ambition. This is the ambition you heard in Prefab Sprout and China Crisis records.

Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Thursday, 25 May 2006 17:32 (seventeen years ago) link

it's a weird record. and one that is hard to get a handle on. you can bring up every 80's synth act in the world, but there is still something indescribable about the mood of the thing. it is strangely muffled at times. almost dubby. but that's not it either! i think i'll listen again now.

scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 25 May 2006 18:09 (seventeen years ago) link

i shall listen too, scottie

cutty (mcutt), Thursday, 25 May 2006 18:13 (seventeen years ago) link

it's funny, i got the new scott walker album and i "get" that record more than this one. i mean, if you have listened to tilt enough times, or even climate of hunter, you can kinda see what he is aiming for, even if it is difficult to explain sometimes. this record, i don't know what it's aiming for at times! and it's not difficult to listen to. i was never very good at math. all the songs are about geometry.

scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 25 May 2006 18:13 (seventeen years ago) link

the third track, "a line you can cross", is truly fucking bizarre

cutty (mcutt), Thursday, 25 May 2006 18:24 (seventeen years ago) link

production very similar to hounds of love, also

cutty (mcutt), Thursday, 25 May 2006 18:24 (seventeen years ago) link

they have a video for a line you can cross on the kemado site, but i can't get it to work. i gotta go try the other computer.

scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 25 May 2006 19:26 (seventeen years ago) link

i can't get it to work on lansing-dreiden's website either. they probably use some futuristic version of quicktime that i am too slow to know about.

scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 25 May 2006 19:28 (seventeen years ago) link

i hope the live show is good!

chaki (chaki), Thursday, 25 May 2006 19:30 (seventeen years ago) link

i don't think they actually play their own music live. i think they get other people to do it:



"The Dividing Island is Lansing-Dreiden's second full-length album, just recently released May 9th on Kemado Records. Live, L-D Section II are astonishing and refreshing, especially with their new line up bringing hints of shoegazed synth pop struts with new lead singers Sect and Ion. L-D Section I, a 9-pc band that performed Lansing-Dreiden's music in a live setting had sold-out shows in New York, Seattle, and Austin. This will also mark the debut of L-D Section II playing in selected cities."

scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 25 May 2006 22:17 (seventeen years ago) link

I think it dwarfs the first album a bit, maturity-wise.

Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Thursday, 25 May 2006 22:42 (seventeen years ago) link

this band is weirder than I thought, i guess...I still haven't heard the new one, but the first one is quite good. the vocals sound like the Hollies!

kyle (akmonday), Thursday, 25 May 2006 22:43 (seventeen years ago) link

drugs don't do this justice

yours fondly, harshaw. (mrgn), Thursday, 25 May 2006 22:48 (seventeen years ago) link

"i don't think they actually play their own music live. i think they get other people to do it:"

well, duh, i finally actually read the voice live review that tim linked to. looks cool. and i like that review.

scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 26 May 2006 14:55 (seventeen years ago) link

omg i am getting matos fired from emusic.com for slandering me in print one year ago this is an outrage.

Chris Ott (Chris Ott), Friday, 26 May 2006 15:37 (seventeen years ago) link

Look: I emailed these kids before that review ran and offered them the opportunity to back up their bullshit. I wasn't going to put that out there without giving them a fair shake, a chance to prove they understood the iconography they were hiding behind. Because it could have been a very deft and decadent little niche of dead-tech minimalist nihilism, if that gets you off...

All they had to say for themselves was "Please don't be mean to us, we're just trying to have fun!" They're limp liberal-arts kids looking for fame, as childish and childlike as Len. But they've been to school and been around enough to know the easiest road to a reputation: courting overzealous tossbags with ambiguity and obfuscation. Lansing-Dreiden continue to build the biggest, whitest slate for pseuds to write spiraling academic architecture - the fait accompli that buttresses the band's naive thievery of thoughts and forms they don't even completely understand. They might as well have called their album P-KKt3.

Chris Ott (Chris Ott), Friday, 26 May 2006 15:57 (seventeen years ago) link

So, what are these thoughts, forms, and iconography that they don't understand and hide behind?

Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Friday, 26 May 2006 16:00 (seventeen years ago) link

P-KKt3

that would be a good title too!

kyle (akmonday), Friday, 26 May 2006 16:07 (seventeen years ago) link

"for pseuds to write spiraling academic architecture"

the pitchfork reviews are the only ones that read like that though.


"They're limp liberal-arts kids looking for fame"

aren't they already successful designers? and every one of their actions as musicmakers leads me to believe that fame is the last thing on their minds.

scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 26 May 2006 16:18 (seventeen years ago) link

"Fame" does not mean "on Pop Idol," Scott - you can be famous in large and small ways, and for a variety of things. It's a question of wanting a reputation - "Famous for..." - and it's clear - to me, anyway - that they want to be considered an Arty, Detached, Intellectual, Informed band, like the bands they idolize. They're asking you to cement that reputation, to make it for them, because their retiring, Who-Can-Say? gags, by definition, can't speak for themselves, and they know self-promotion is gauche.

Chris Ott (Chris Ott), Friday, 26 May 2006 16:28 (seventeen years ago) link

Why can't they be judged purely on the merits of their music? I could care less about whether or not they're designers, or assholes, or whatever. The last thing I would ever want to do is hear what Brian Wilson thinks about anything other than music, and even more specifically his own music. But he makes great songs.

I don't know if this is a good record or not. It's not really my stylistic bag, but the clips on AMG sounded nice. Maybe it falls apart on closer inspection, but at the very least the songs are pretty lovely compositions (if emphemerally so).

I understand that this kind of music is Ott's turf and I can understand wanting to defend it, but I think there's something to be said for competent, interesting music, no matter how derivative, no matter how boring / pretentious the creators.

polyphonic (polyphonic), Friday, 26 May 2006 16:37 (seventeen years ago) link

"an Arty, Detached, Intellectual, Informed band, like the bands they idolize."

maybe that's just what they are though. i take their word for it. they put out a newspaper, they design stuff, they make cool music. i don't think they are frauds. looks like they are having fun AND actually doing stuff! frauds are usually kinda lazy.

scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 26 May 2006 16:40 (seventeen years ago) link

"I understand that this kind of music is Ott's turf"

it's definitely my turf! if i had turf. and i say thumbs up. i confess, i don't know what ott's turf is. but he is hung up on indie cred or something, and that's just silly. and, yeah, the extra-musical stuff really doesn't affect me. i'm aware of it, cuz i've read stuff, but it's not what i think about when i play the songs.

scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 26 May 2006 16:42 (seventeen years ago) link

I sense a coming turf war, with bodies in the wake.

polyphonic (polyphonic), Friday, 26 May 2006 16:48 (seventeen years ago) link

Your position strikes me as Rockism Case Study Numero Uno, Chris. Ignore the musical triumphs because the group is not authentic enough and their songs do not have enough relevant content.

Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Friday, 26 May 2006 16:53 (seventeen years ago) link

It feels to me like there's this wordplay in your review. You write some of their compositions off, for example, as "academic run-throughs." The use of the term "academic' strikes me as a sort of smokescreen. In the context of trying to paint them as *art school poseurs* or whatever, it's convenient for you to use the term "academic" against them. Naturally, the intent was not just to reinforce your argument about their allegedly (pretentious/shallow) *art school* approach, but to characterize the compositions themselves as "academic," i.e., as merely rote genre exercises. All I can say is that I am not convinced by this criticism.

Similarly, you use the adjective "lifeless" to describe their songs, which I find convenient given some of the stylistic attributes of the music (i.e., New Wave as cold, robotic, etc.). Again, though, the description is meant as a criticism of the QUALITY of the music, and unless you are criticizing the New Wave/New Wave Revivalism aesthetic of coldness/roboticism/etc. in general (i.e., Nick Heyward's vocals sucked because they were too LIFELESS), I'm not sure why the criticism is particularly relevant to Lansing-Dreiden.

This is the entirety of your critique in that review apart from an accusation of "grotesque orchestrations," of which you do not cite an example.

Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Friday, 26 May 2006 18:26 (seventeen years ago) link

CHRIS, YOU SERIOUSLY READ LIKE YOU'RE INSANE.

chaki (chaki), Saturday, 27 May 2006 01:11 (seventeen years ago) link

four weeks pass...
LIVE BAND KILLED IT. GO SEE THEM!

¨ˆ¨ˆ¨ˆ¨ˆ¨ˆ¨ˆ (chaki), Monday, 26 June 2006 16:22 (seventeen years ago) link

i heard they were bad live. but I want to see them regardless b/c their "section II" set up sounds both horrifying and intriguing at the same time

kevin barking (arghargh), Monday, 26 June 2006 17:01 (seventeen years ago) link

they were radd

¨ˆ¨ˆ¨ˆ¨ˆ¨ˆ¨ˆ (chaki), Monday, 26 June 2006 17:07 (seventeen years ago) link

You wouldn't expect anything less, really.

Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 26 June 2006 17:10 (seventeen years ago) link

i just read above comments in thread. that review by chris is so annoyingly hypocritical. he's acting like all the things he's accusing them of being. that said, they are pretentious and kind of dicks in person, but that first album was and is one of my favorites albums. Just have to look beyond who they are as people. i think you should too chris

kevin barking (arghargh), Monday, 26 June 2006 17:18 (seventeen years ago) link

the band members i met were super nice!!

¨ˆ¨ˆ¨ˆ¨ˆ¨ˆ¨ˆ (chaki), Monday, 26 June 2006 17:53 (seventeen years ago) link

just saw them live and it wasn't great but it wasn't bad

kevin barking (arghargh), Sunday, 2 July 2006 13:41 (seventeen years ago) link

two months pass...
just got this e-mail:


Hey All,

We are doing a show as part of the "Starbucks Salon" series tomorrow at
7pm. The show is free. Here is the info:

L-D Section II - 7pm
Starbucks Salon
76 Greene St.
FREE

Hope you can come!

L-D

scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 8 September 2006 17:18 (seventeen years ago) link

love this band, hate them live though


what to do

()()()---()()() (internet), Friday, 8 September 2006 17:28 (seventeen years ago) link

WHATEVS THAT BASS PLAYER KICK ASS

chaki (chaki), Friday, 8 September 2006 20:08 (seventeen years ago) link

one month passes...
WHAT IS THIS CD THEY SPEAK OF????:


Just a quick reminder about our show at Hiro Ballroom tonight...

Also wanted to mention that we'll have copies of our new CD 'D.I. by
D.D.' available at the show.

Hope you all can make it!

scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 19 October 2006 13:01 (seventeen years ago) link

ITS A REMIX CD

chaki (chaki), Thursday, 19 October 2006 14:12 (seventeen years ago) link

wasn't sold when I got promos of some of their first stuff, but the tracks I've been hearing lately are amazing.

Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Thursday, 19 October 2006 14:15 (seventeen years ago) link

Is Incomplete Tiangle out of print now? I can't seem to find it, except used.

R_S (RSLaRue), Thursday, 19 October 2006 14:19 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm not just posting because I am bored. I'm actually interested in buying this, based on what I've heard from it.

R_S (RSLaRue), Thursday, 19 October 2006 15:35 (seventeen years ago) link

Well I bought Dividing Line and don't like it that much so far, but I think I would like Incomplete Triangle more. This is okay though.

R_S (RSLaRue), Thursday, 19 October 2006 19:30 (seventeen years ago) link

IT much better than DI

chaki (chaki), Thursday, 19 October 2006 19:41 (seventeen years ago) link

i had forgotten how good this is. been listening on repeat. some of the solo stuff is pretty great too; the way it veers from byrds to severed heads and has this rotating cast of ilm vetted assists - drab majesty, tamaryn, sky ferreira - sorta becoming obsessed tbh. would buy some LD physical ephemera but that seems impossible now

Vapor waif (uptown churl), Tuesday, 1 June 2021 17:39 (two years ago) link

elbrecht is incredibly talented. love the new presentable corpse record

diamonddave85​​ (diamonddave85), Tuesday, 1 June 2021 22:10 (two years ago) link

Yeah. The “run and hide” / “fading memory” one two punch is gutting me rn.

And “words never fail to fail” from the debut is the best julee cruise/blue Nile crossover I didn’t know I absolutely needed

Vapor waif (uptown churl), Tuesday, 1 June 2021 23:18 (two years ago) link


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