Sunset Rubdown, 'Dragonslayer' (Jagjaguwar)
Lupine side project sprawls with renewed intensity.
By Josh Modell 06.08.09 9:53 AM
Wolf Parade's songwriters keep busy in the off-season -- Dan Boeckner sexes it up with wife Alexei Perry in Handsome Furs, and Spencer Krug helms Sunset Rubdown, whose third full-length is slightly looser and more pleasantly rickety than Wolf Parade, but definitely close to the den. That means more grandiose wordplay and bent indie rock from one of the genre's finest voices. Video game rhythms power the incredible "You Go On Ahead (Trumpet Trumpet II)," while "Nightingale/December Song" gets future-folky, and a skittish new-wave lean drives the Interpol-ish "Idiot Heart." Krug clearly takes Sunset Rubdown every bit as seriously as his day job.
LISTEN: Sunset Rubdown, "Idiot Heart" (DOWNLOAD MP3)
I think it's far beyond time to point out that Sunset Rubdown is its own goddamn entity. They have four albums and a handful of EPs. This surpasses the discography of Wolf Parade. Wolf Parade is a wonderful band, certainly. But Sunset Rubdown is not Wolf Parade, and it certainly isn't Handsome Furs.
All I'm asking is that next time you want to write a Sunset Rubdown review, why don't you make it about Sunset Rubdown, not about Wolf Parade or Handsome Furs. I mean, if you had to mention another band in this review, perhaps you should have gone with Swan Lake. The fifth track on Dragonslayer, Paper Lace, is also the second track on Swan Lake's Enemy Mine, because motherfuckers Spencer Krug can do that because he is his own goddamn entity in Indie, and not tied down to one band or another.
In closing, fuck yourself, Spin. Josh Modell, go write for a publication that doesn't suck its own dick.
Amen Karey. I dedicated my whole first paragraph to your point. Read it here:
http://welistenforyou.blogspot.com/2009/06/review-sunset-rubdown-dragons...
Got something to say?