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Twin Town High (vol. 8) |
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The Great Depression- Music for grownups, by the grownups
Thursday 08 April @ 13:25:42 |
 By Keith Pille
The Great Depression have a lot on their collective minds: the human condition; the interactions between the different layers of the human mind, the current singles-driven state of the music industry; traffic conditions between Minneapolis and Madison; the limitations placed on a person by a given location and set of circumstances; the cohesive flow of their newest album, Unconscious Pilot; the music-consumption habits of America's future bomber pilots, and so on.
But there is one thing that they emphatically aren't thinking about at all: rocking your socks off. Singer/guitarist Todd Casper is very up-front about this: “We're not particularly rock inspired... none of us are listening to Strokes albums and trying to keep up with it all.”
Instead, The Great Depression are after bigger game. When asked what he was hoping to achieve with the new record, Casper replied, “transcendence.” And while the tone of his voice was mildly joking, the look on his face made it abundantly clear that he was just speaking his mind. Moreover, after a few sessions listening to the album, it becomes more and more apparent that he and his bandmates (Brent Sigmeth, Tom Cranley, Chadwick Nelson, Avedis Manoogian, and Bryan Hanna; and we'll dispense with the traditional pairing of name and instrument, because The Great Depression evince great pride at being multi-instrumentalists and pulling the old switcheroo in the studio when someone has a good idea) have succeeded.
Unconscious Pilot is a special album, ethereal and hypnotic. Upon completing my first listen to it, I was left with the odd-but-pleasant feeling of having just awakened from a deep sleep, with a head full of information (the band, by the way, maintains that this is pretty much what they were shooting for; and this effect explains their glee with the fact that Pilot is currently in very heavy rotation on the US Air Force Academy's student radio station... Unconscious pilot, indeed). Song after song features layers of sound that fit together perfectly, each leaving enough space to let the others remain distinct while adding up to a gauzily wonderful whole; and the moods and atmospheres of the songs flow almost seamlessly into each other, creating something that feels a lot more like a unified piece of music than a collection of sort-of-related singles.
This is what happens when a collection of serious, established musicians who have been around the block several times decide to make the record they want to make,and the hell with making it big. When asked, Nelson grew very animated: “So much of music now is based on 'What's your single?' And ok, it's great to have a good single, but what sort of ride are you going to take on this record? Where's it taking you? Is it just a collection of songs with parts and harmonies and interesting sounds, or is it an actual fucking ride? That's what we try to do: involve them from hitting play until it's done. There are some very delicate moments on this album. It's all about dynamics.”
This sort of thinking isn't really what the current major label system looks to reward; if you want proof, go rent the Wilco documentary I Am Trying to Break Your Heart and watch some suits from Reprise piss all over a record that has a lot in common with Pilot. But the members of the Great Depression, all past thirty and well beyond the my-band's-gotta-make-it-so-I-can-quit-my-day-job-or-I'll-die phase, have decided that they're not even remotely interested in making music with the idea of luring a major label. It's about art, not finding the payday. Cranley says, “We don't want to be the hardest working band in show business, letting people rip on us and our name constantly, and all working really shitty jobs so that we can live for our art. It doesn't work that way.”
This decision left the Great Depression free to mine the rich vein of musical ideas gestating in their heads, and their conditions for such mining couldn't have been better.
As Hanna explains, “This is probably one of the most blessed group of people as far as band goes, in terms of resources... Brent was the main engineer at Pachyderm, so we always had access to Pachyderm.. I'm the main engineer and co-owner of the Terrarium recording studios. So we have two professional world-class studios at our disposal to do whatever the hell we want. We're fucking blessed. We get to do whatever we want- but we work really hard to get it.”
Unlimited time at Pachyderm and Terrarium would be a glorious thing, something that most Twin Cities bands would happily shotgun their mothers for. But while there are a lot of bands around here who could do some jaw-dropping work with such blank-check access, I don't think there are very many at all who have the combination of maturity, musical vision, and raw intelligence to put together something like Unconscious Pilot. Being a great band is one thing... Being a great band that stays together long enough to develop this sort of perspective is something else entirely.
Casper mentioned in passing that he felt that “Writing and recording music is a very gratifying experience, when it works.” He must be a very gratified man right now.
The Great Depression are playing Friday, April 9th at the Triple Rock Social Club with the Hang Ups and the Violettes (21+); and Saturday, April 10th at the Bryant-Lake Bowl with Redstart (all ages).
Download and mp3 of the Great Depression's song Violent Goodbyes.
You can find out more about the Great Dpression on their official website.
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