Ignore the numerics that tend to overshadow all things Pitchfork, and Ian Cohen’s review of Tentacles, accurately illustrates why three out of four L.A. bloggers prefer Crystal Antlers. “Antlers are a heavy and especially loud psych-punk band, but they lack the outsider cachet of metal or noise; their psychedelia is more shaggy than dreamy and they’re not stone-rock enough to sidle up next to, say, Black Mountain or Comets on Fire.”
But it’s about more than how artfully Crystal Antlers resist rote classification, there’s a crude order to their hieroglyphic chaos. They’re like a punk jam band–were such a thing possible. Tentacles is a good album, but one that only offers a fraction of the awesomeness the Long Beach six-piece regularly evince in their live show. I’d say more, but I’m on deadline writing a profile of the band’s percussionist, Sexual Chocolate. Crystal Antlers are about to embark on a massive world tour with Cold War Kids. Jax has the dates. See them if you can–one day, they will be as big as Randy Watson.
See Also: Agit Reader Interviews Crystal Antlers
Download:
MP3: Crystal Antlers-“Andrew”
MP3: Crystal Antlers-“A Thousand Eyes”
Buy: Crystal Antlers-Tentacles
