Everything All The Time (Sub Pop)
By Dan Maloney

The animal moniker in indie rock band names is becoming as cliché as eyeliner in a emo/hardcore band’s mystique. The bandwagon is chock-full of frogs, mouses, snakes, unicorns, and shall we not forget horses. Now enter new Sub Pop band Band of Horses (ex-Carrisa’s Wierd) to the picture, with their release, “Everything All The Time.” The record could be an audio collage of most of your favorite indie rock bands of the last few years. Take the jangly pop of the Shins and Modest Mouse, nasally-reverberated vocals of My Morning Jacket, light folky cooing of Iron and Wine, and anthem-esque song structure of Built to Spill and you will get a clear picture of what Band of Horses is all about. It is no surprise that a label like Sub Pop would release a record like “Everything All the Time,” because Band of Horses covers most bases of indie rock/pop that is a label staple for Sub Pop and a sure indie appeal.

The record opens with the shoegazingly expansive track, “First Song.” Syrupy fender guitar tones swirl in a trance as frontman Benjamin Bridwell’s echoed vocals chime in like a transmission from another planet. The whole track creates a pixie-like /Alice in Wonderland feel that continues with other tracks like “Our Swords,” and “The Funeral.” “Our Swords,” resembles the bass-heavy work of Pinback, but here is used in a drone effect. “The Funeral,” utilizes a circling music box melody that builds to a climax into a fist-pounding anthem of disenchantment and despair. Bridwell confirms this grief in the lines, “At every occasion, I’ll be ready for a funeral.” The Horses show their pop colors on tracks like, “The Great Salt Lake,” and “Weed Party.” Both songs venture into bouncy pop territory with the former, “Weed Party,” sounding like the perfect soundtrack to chugging beers at a summertime porch party. “The Great Salt Lake,” is a mid-tempo morsel, that is as driving as it is catchy.

The soft and acoustic side of Horses is represented on tracks, “Part One,” “I Go To The Barn Cus I Like The,” and album closer “St. Augustine.” All of these songs could fit nicely in Sam Beam’s songbook, sans the huge compulsive use of reverb. In all songs the vocals are in the front balanced lightly with nickel-wound, plucked acoustic accompaniment.

The Band Of Horses strengths rely in mood and repetition. Most of the songs soar through murky fields of doubt and self-affirmation, and musically into pounding rockers and laid-back burners. The band structures its songs in a repetitious way of relaying the same riff over and over, helping enhance the feel of the songs. The song formula isn’t complex, allowing the songs to swim inside your head effectively. Bridwell’s screeching falsetto that can sometimes pinch instead of sooth. Band of Horses is not showcasing dramatically new concepts to the indie genre, but rather embracing concepts you have already grown to love.