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Snowden

Who? Atlanta is known better for Elephant-6 art rock than darkly dreamy dance rock, but Snowden, like E6, partake in their geographical heritage by originating partly from a bedroom operation. Jordan Jeffares (guitars/keys/vocals) began self-recording tracks out of his room before his brother, impressed with the demos, put him touch with musicians David Payne (guitar), Corinne Lee (bass, keys, vocals), Chandler Rentz (drums, vocals). Their debut full-length, Anti-Anti, may have just dropped, but the quartet have already toured with Unicorns, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and Arcade Fire.

What’s the Deal? “I try to hear your voice through the drone but I don’t,” Jeffares sings on “Filler is Wasted,” inspiring an onslaught of gorgeously chiming shoegaze fuzz. Unlike his presumed lover in the song, though, Jeffares voice soars above the hauntingly icy bass lines and chilly atmospherics. Bombs and death rays, corporate decay, and failed or failing love are just some of the bleak themes the band explore, and their album’s title track might offer the best solution to the hopelessness of it all: “I can’t be a rug, without my fashion drugs / Inebriation leads revelation.”

Fun Facts: You’d think it’d be a bad idea to name a band after a literary character who dies gruesomely, but this didn’t stop Snowden from culling their moniker from a figure in Joseph Heller’s Catch-22. And the name has suited the quartet well, as they got their demo into Jade Tree’s stereo through a six degrees of separation style ex-wife’s-cousin’s-sister’s-girlfriend’s connection. JULIA SIMON

Now Hear This: Snowden – “Anti-Anti” (Download MP3)

Talk: Are you pro-Anti-Anti? COMMENT

On the Web: snowden.info