By Mary Lingwall
Published on June 26, 2009 at 1:41am
With an understanding of subtlety and balance, Austin’s The Sour Notes delivers a musical style that is rarely heard in indie music today: full-bodied pop.
“[So often] you can pick out certain parts in music, and you’re like ‘yeah this is a guitar band’ or ‘this band is all about the beats,’ but one thing I think we’re trying to go for is that there is no one [defining] thing,” said Jared Boulanger, the band’s singer and songwriter.
“It’s all about the song,” he said. “There are no egos, no guitar solos or drum solos or anything. It’s just everything working together in [the most] refined way we can.”
Keyboardist Chris Page, drummer Travis Hackett and bassist Brandi Dipietro each play with a obvious passion for their art, yet never upstage each other. The creative equilibrium that sets the band apart from the vast majority of young indie musicians is paradigmatic of the foursome’s serendipitous beginnings and unwavering commitment to fusing substance with style.
A little more than one year ago, The Sour Notes was Boulanger’s solo project. But after running into old friend Page just before mutual friends introduced him to Hackett and Dipietro, Boulanger realized the right people had finally walked into his life.
In the year that these friends have been making music together, they’ve already received copious amounts of attention. But neither nerves nor egos have taken hold of their music. And with the prolific rate that these musicians release their emotionally wrought yet dance-friendly tunes, it’s a feat that they have retained a cool professionalism about their work.
The group’s debut LP The Meat of the Fruit was released in late 2008, followed in January with sophomore release Received in Bitterness. The 7-inch Never Mix, Never Worry is slated for release on July 24th. With a year of hectic recording and performing behind them, the group has already started on a third album, It’s Not Gonna Be Pretty, which should hit shelves late this summer.
But its work ethic is grounded in the silliness of friends who still practice in the laundry room of their east side home.
The sweet voice of Boulanger is tinged with a dreamy, whimsical eeriness. While he croons, Hackett, Page and Dipietro create an airy atmosphere to carry listeners away.
But not all of the group’s songs are sweet and mellow.
“Chris, even though he is very piano trained, he’s got some really, like, dirty bluesy guitar riffs in him,” Boulanger said.
Songs like Received in Bitterness’ “Holy Terror” showcase the grittier side of the band’s repertoire, while the ghostly whispers that hypnotize during the opening lines of “Your Pretty Sphinx Voice” show the emotional depth that the band has at its fingertips.
“I wrote that song when I was watching [Jean Luc Godards’s ‘Alphaville’] and just kind of fooling around with chords and stuff,” Boulanger said about the eerie “Alphaville” sample that preludes the song. “I was kind of obsessed with Anna Karina for a while … all of the lyrics in that song were about her.”
A band with a chameleon knack for taking on new genres, and yet still able to incorporate their signature style of lyrical intelligence and understated musical equilibrium, The Sour Notes is well on its way to becoming an Austin indie pop mainstay.
