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Twin Town High (vol. 8) |
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Trans Am
Wednesday 05 June @ 10:33:24 |
 By Celeste Tabora and Paul Christensen
As a brand of automobile, the Trans Am has been on the decline since the 1970’s, becoming something of a nostalgia piece for aging hipsters. Trans Am-the-band, on the other hand, has seen its popularity rise steadily since its formation seven years ago, thanks to its clever fusion of punk and Krautrock. And while the band’s fortunes have been quite the opposite of its namesake’s, the two stand united by a characteristically American attitude that values both innovation and nostalgia.
Nathan, Sebastian, and Phil (Trans Am-the-band) have just released their latest recording “TA” on Thrill Jockey Records. The band began recording in May 2001 at its own facility, National Recording Studio in Washington DC. They spent six months on the project, first creating demos of the freshly composed music, and then tracking the final versions of the songs.
Near the end of production the band decided to let engineer Jonathan Kreinik have a go at mixing the album. The result differs somewhat from their past recordings. Though the trademark Trans AM guitar twang and tweakage, rumbling bass, and euphonic drumming still form the basis for the tracks here, “TA” contains far more keyboards than previous releases. Also notable is the way a type of dance-party music called “Funk Carioca” (which the band caught wind of while living it up in Rio de Janeiro) has been fused with Trans Am’s usual rough-and-tumble rock sound.
But the most evident change to the Trans Am formula on “TA” is the use of vocals. In the past the band used real human vocals on only a handful of tracks, preferring instead to employ creepy-cool robot vocals produced with synthesizers. On “TA” the human voice seems to have become a dominant factor, with all three members contributing performances.
Trans Am’s live show has the trio set up as unpretentiously, looking like your average men-next-door. The equipment on stage triples the members in number: there’s the regular rock trio of guitar, drums, bass; but added to that are three synthesizers, a drum machine, and other pieces of music making equipment that are unnamable by the common music fan. Trans Am’s live show is consistently exceptional, due largely to their seamless performance. Their songs often start with a simple pattern, a drumbeat or a simple melody on the keyboard, and then gradually build to the force one expects of a live rock show. But Trans Am knows how to take its time and build a mood, as opposed to simply reaching a dramatic climax and then ending. And they’ll often thin out their layering of musical elements, bringing it back to that simple beat or melody that the song began with and hanging on to it until it dissolves into the next song.
The mood that Trans Am creates is supported by the body language that exists between the members of the group. Although the music can be quite dark, the band members keep nodding their heads to the grooves, conveying the idea that their music doesn’t require constant brooding. The catchiness of the sound in no way compromises the seriousness or integrity of the music, however, and it is the mix of high concept and visceral rock presentation that makes the band so appealing.
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