Black Before Red reviewed
Black Before Red
Belgrave To Kings Circle
(I Eat)
Austin house band finally get a lineup together for their first album, a pastoral, indie ode to The Kinks and The Shins.
Black Before Red, who have apparently been a training ground for future members of Okkervil River, arrive on Belgrave To Kings Circle already broken in. But instead of the “distressed” look places like Abercrombie and The Gap give jeans and ball caps, tracks like “Bossa Nova #7” sound as if they were recorded on the basement couch, free of agitation’s rips and tears. Marc Ferrino’s voice is what’ll gather the Shins clouds, but subtle rhythmic touches (the tambourine on the ebullient “Teenage America,” panning the drums to a single channel on “Matagorda”) give Black Before Red some leeway in case they end up making your wife drag out Garden State by the time the record’s over. The hidden source of this, however, is the individual members’ versatility and being able to switch instruments. By tilting the feel of each successive track just so, Black Before Red reinvent themselves on the fly and, at the very least, should slow the Okkervil kids next time they send a casting agent over.
— Steve Forstneger
Click here to download “Matagorda.”
