The East Coast produces many great things, including seafood and pewter and SappyFest and casual-sounding lo-fi indie rock bands and supergroups. (The supergroup thing is likely linked to a certain musical promiscuity in the region’s musicians, and to young Atlantic Canadians looking desperately for stuff to do).
The last two things in that list apply to Halifax’s Heaven for Real, which features members of Quaker Parents, Nap Eyes, Monomyth, Old & Weird and Crosss. Their songs appear tossed-off and loose, and their recordings make use of tape collage and maybe flanger pedal and other atmospheric touches and effects that lend a quality of weirdness. (“Brian Eno would be proud,” boasts the press release.) The overall sound is surfy-light and jaunty and gets close to twee but without ever fully crossing into feel-good.
Lyrics tread the line between spoken and sung, and they ramble in an abstract stream-of-consciousness way that evokes a more poetic Stephen Malkmus. Take standout track Known Steps In Directions Unknown. That’s a great title, and it appears in the chorus set to a terrific melody that’s like water bumping down rocks in a hillside stream. Then comes a jazzy, unexpected guitar breakdown, then a bloopy unexpected synth breakdown, and so on.
Fraternal twins Mark and Scott Grundy lead the group, while Nathan Doucet and Picnicface’s Cheryl Hann lead the rhythm section. They have good chemistry, and the brothers’ winding guitar and vocal lines are utterly unique and unusual. Hotel #55 shifts tempos and moves wherever it feels like, while super-laid-back I’m Sick is adventurous and almost comical. All in all, there is so much originality on offer – another East Coast specialty.
Top track: Known Steps In Directions Unknown
Heaven for Real play the Silver Dollar on Saturday (July 30). See listing.
