January 3, 2010

Best Records of 2009: #9 : An Horse / Rearrange Beds


Maybe you liked the Spinanes as much as I did?

There was something incredibly compact and pop perfect about the two piece from Olympia, WA circa most the '90s. When they vanished in the early part of this decade I ached for a new band to fill their shoes and while some came close, An Horse was the band who came the closest.

Cuddle-core with a touch sandpaper roughness mixed in, this Australian boy/girl duo makes me want to hug and bang my head all at once (Do not try this at home). Their 2009 release Rearrange Beds on Mom + Pop Records serves up 10 tracks of delicious riff-tiffic pop songs backed by heavy drum hits; a non-traditional approach to what I am still determined to call cuddle-core.

The only other band to really nail this hard meets soft combo was Rebecca and Scott from the Spinanes and again, if you liked them as much as I did, An Horse will make for a nice addition to your music collection.






2 comments:

  1. You said the magic word "Spinanes" so I had to listen.

    Wow, a guitar / drum duo with actually good songs. Totally nails what I loved about 90's "indie" pop. I'm assuming since they appeared on a Fox morning news program (I've needed more ticker with my songs) they have some hype behind them, but I can no longer tolerate the alternative rock machine so I've missed it. Is this on record? Time to investigate.

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  2. Yikes! They're touring sizeable venues in Canada right now with Tegan & Sara (uh, I hear they're nice?), but no records!!!

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