Thursday

POLYVINYL RELEASING ALOHA HOME ACRES ON MARCH 9, 2010

POLYVINYL RELEASING ALOHA HOME ACRES ON MARCH 9, 2010

“Like a computer geek with a romantic streak, Ohio’s Aloha straddle the line between trad songcraft and proggy virtuosity.” – Entertainment Weekly

“It’s prog without pretense, pop with a brain; every perfectly recorded note is necessary in order to propel itself into the next, leaving it impossible to focus on any particular instrument or voice without being immediately and happily drawn to another.” – Under The Radar

“The band sounds more confident than ever, and every arrangement is stripped to the bones.” – Pitchfork

“Aloha achieve neo-pop perfection, with aching vocals, shimmering arrangements, and improbably beautiful love songs.” – Alternative Press

Aloha follows the acclaimed LP Some Echoes (2006) and acoustic EP Light Works (2007) with a powerful record that shows the band unbound by past influences and boldly stepping out of the shadows. Written initially through a private band blog, Home Acres is a project three years in the making.

Home Acres pushes the tempos and dials up the guitars, with the band’s slow-burn intensity sometimes overflowing into huge moments. But even as the energy surges, Aloha casts an otherworldy glow, serving up ambience and attack with equal measure.

Album opener “Building a Fire” pairs gritty, persistent bass and drums with celestial, elusive melodies. An explosion of drums and a Peter Hook-high bass riff leads “Moonless March” into a minor-key catharsis. As the album hits its head-nodding, toe-tapping stride, you begin to realize that there’s darkness lurking under Tony Cavallario’s luminous melodies. In “White Wind,” ethereal harmonies stoke the flames as an era burns to the ground. Everywhere things seem to be slipping away, fading from view, going in and out of focus. Fuzzed-out marimbas, reverb-soaked organs and floating strings decorate wistful, chiming guitar chords while Cale Parks pounds away, powering the proceedings from behind the kit.

Lyrically, Home Acres (named for a quaint old suburb of Rochester, NY) tries to sort through the wreckage of the Great Lakes region and a way of life. Left abandoned “waiting for a getaway car that never came” in the record’s arena-rock-by-way-of-Silver Apples closer “Ruins,” we’re left to think that maybe we ought to have dreamt bigger and fought the urge to disengage. A suggestion that Aloha has taken to heart for its biggest, brightest record to date.

T.J. Lipple – Production, marimba, vibraphone, keyboards, backing vocals (Washington D.C.)

Tony Cavallario – vocals, guitar, keyboards (Boston)

Cale Parks – drums, percussion (Brooklyn)

Matthew Gengler – Bass (Cleveland)

Recorded by T.J. Lipple and Nick Anderson. Additional recording by Tony and T.J. in Rochester, NY, Arlington, VA, Jamaica Plain, MA and Wellfleet, MA. Mixed by T.J.

Home Acres Track Listing:

01. Building a Fire

02. Moonless March

03. Microviolence

04. Searchlight

05. Everything Goes My Way

06. White Wind

07. Cold Storage

08. Blackout

09. Waterwheel

10. I’m in Trouble

11. Ruins