Shadowy indie rock

After a pair of self-released EPs and a 2006 full-length, The Great Compromise on Post Records, this Florida indie rock band has fully embraced the Internet distribution paradigm. Their latest EP, Lie to Me, is available for free on their new website, along with photos, lyrics, blogs and the assorted ephemera of twenty-first century marketing. If you like what you hear, you can send the band a donation. Kingsbury’s latest music is moody, guitar-and-studio-production rock that’s filled with hushed secrets.

The instrumental “Ocarina Mountaintop” opens with funereal organ chords upon which echoing piano notes fall like heavy raindrops. “Back in the Orange Grove” suggests something less than sunny occurred amongst the citrus, with the lyrics (But I’ll never go back in the orange grove / My last lonely home back in the orange grove / Oh mother you can let go / The rose garden will continue to grow) sung in a whispery, confessional voice, accompanied by piano, bass, synthesized percussion and dramatically flanged keyboard notes. “As I See It” is similarly sparse and introverted in tone, but the lyric is a three-minute wonder-wander from selfishness and pessimism to pragmatic optimism. What starts as a child’s self-centered tantrum transforms into an adult world of possibilities.

“Lie to Me” opens with a lyric borrowed from “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide But Me and My Monkey,” but unlike the amped-up bell-ringing rock of the Beatles’ tune, Kingsbury remains cool, with jazzy cymbal work and atmospheric electric guitars. The EP closes with “Holy War,” featuring a short lyric decrying war in the name of God, backed by a guitar, bass and drum track that builds hypnotically across its six minutes. The band likens itselves to Calla, Low, Sigur Ros, and Mogwai, but you can also hear neo-psych/post-punk sounds of 1980s bands like the Neats and Feelies. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Holy War
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