Modern Rivals: Defenestrate you (Single, 2012)

"Grupos como Vampire Weekend, Animal Collective o Yeasayer vienen a la cabeza cuando se oye por primera vez a Modern Rivals. Es inevitable al escuchar los arreglos, las texturas, los ritmos y los estupendos juegos vocales de este quinteto de Brooklyn formado por cinco amigos que tocan juntos desde el colegio. Mientras siguen con la preparando de su primer álbum, la formación nos presenta el Ep Sea Legs, disponible en descarga gratuita en su página en bandcamp y del que forma parte la canción Defenestrate You" (planetapop.com)

Mp3: Modern Rivals. Defenestrate You

Modern Rivals: Sea legs (Ep, 2012)

"I am honestly amazed that Modern Rivals, are not better known, because they are killer. Tempted as I am just to leave it at that and let you listen for yourselves, I guess I should earn my keep here and actually tell you a bit more. There are five of them: Erick, who sings and strums a guitar; Schiff (mm hm), who sings and tinkles the ivories; Mickey, who also strums a guitar; Andrew, who sings and slaps the bass; and Alex, who bangs the drums. Given that, you’d hope that they could build up some pretty lush soundscapes, and they can. Oh yes they can. They’re based out of Brooklyn and have been playing together since middle school – since I’m a Brit, I still have no idea what a middle school actually is, but I figure this basically means they’ve been playing together for some time. It certainly seems that way: they take on some pretty complex arrangements and the results are impressively tight. At times they put me in mind of fellow Brooklynites Conveyor, although where Conveyor‘s instincts lead them towards the weird, Modern Rivals tend to stick thoroughly to pop. I mean that as a compliment – their music is very, very listenable. Their latest offering, the Sea Legs EP, is a good demonstration of this approachability. At just four tracks long, it certainly doesn’t suffer from any flabbiness; not to mention the fact that “Defenstrate You” has got to be one of the best song titles of recent years. The band recorded the EP themselves, with mixing coming courtesy of none other than Chris Coady. If you don’t know Chris, he’s the production wizard behind Beach House‘s “Bloom” and “Teen Dream”, amongst about a bazillion others. The two bands don’t have much in common, admittedly, although occasionally I can’t help but think there are some parallels between the reverby organs in the background. They do remind me more forcefully of the likes of The Drums or Vampire Weekend, what with their upbeat sound, intricate percussion, shifts in tempo, and so on. They’ve been described as power-pop – a label I’m loathe to use given its usual associations, but it’s true that they do crank up the distortion at times in a way that neither of the former really do. Perhaps the closest similarity for me, though, is of Montreal: no bad thing, I hope you’ll agree. I can’t confirm either way whether they’re named after Lewis Carroll’s defence of Euclid’s Elements, but somehow that seems largely irrelevant. If you’re lucky enough to live in or near Brooklyn, they’re playing Cameo Gallery tomorrow at 10pm; if they’re anything like as tight live as they are on record, I can pretty much guarantee that’ll be an awesome show. Even if you can’t make it along, don’t despair: Sea Legs is available to download in full for free via Bandcamp. It’s criminal that it hasn’t had more attention yet, so do your bit by downloading it, loving it, and forcing it on all of your friends. They shouldn’t take much convincing once they hear it" (listenbeforeyoubuy.net)