volcano! Awakens, Spews Out Piñata
By Sarah Cobarrubias in Arts & Entertainment on May 4, 2012 9:40PM
Chicago’s volcano! was mostly dormant for years (their last release was the 2008 LP Paperwork and their live performances have since been rare). But the experimental-pop trio is returning refreshed this spring with a new album, Piñata, and it's well worth the wait.
As the band name suggests, volcano!’s music is volatile and urgent—an exploration of noise driven by tense melodies, frenetic vocal rhythms, and concise yet unpredictable song structures. Take, for example, Piñata’s title track, which is at one moment a dance-inducing beat and at another moment a whirlwind of frantic and dizzying rhythms, or “Long Gone” with its fluid, shifting melody that juxtaposes buzzing bass with playful guitar plucking.
We find ourselves returning again and again to “Fighter,” the album’s dark and dramatic track led by steady, brisk drumming, shimmering synth and desperate, heart-turning vocals. We're also hooked to the perplexing “St. Mary of Nazareth,” a biblical-extraterrestrial narrative set over twinkling synth and a constant rhythmic drum beat that delivers stunning lines like:
There’s every night an alien dancing on the helipad, sending signals to the sun, waiting to hear back. And when their commander does summon them with a coded series of electromagnetic pulses, I just hope that I’m there, when your blasters engage and suspend you in air and then launch you through space.
In other volcano! news, the band is building up to the album’s release date with its Seed to Flower Thursdays project, a series on their YouTube page that features weekly videos through June 7. Each video unveils a different song off the album and offers a glimpse into the band’s inspiration. The first episode was released yesterday and features “Fighter” as well as the trio’s refined skills in dance composition.
You can also catch these crazy kids live when they perform tomorrow, Saturday night, at The Orphanage. For now, watch the careful dissection of a piñata in this video for the album’s title track:
And this video for “Fighter” from the Seed to Flower Thursdays project: