The most immediate thing about Two Dead Cities is its instantly familiar qualities. If you’ve paid much attention to indie rock in the last decade, you’ll immediately hear the influence of the modern indie giants, Mangum, Oberst, Darnielle and everyone else I’m neglecting to mention.
Of the album’s eleven songs, “Bend Like a Flower” is the most immediately engaging track — and most obviously Neutral Milk Hotel influenced — with rushing percussion, fuzz bass and agressively strummed guitar directly out of “Holland, 1945”, but Jack Kilroy (real name Ed Rice) avoids the temptation to imitate Mangum’s instantly-recognizable vocals, instead having the confidence to put his midwestern tenor front and center. Indeed, it’s largely the vocals which push this album past being merely an homage and into some really interesting territory. He’s also not afraid to get more forceful now and then (done to great effect on “Corduroy Road”), or back himself up with only an acoustic, as on “Cottonwood” and album closer “Sand”. The album also displays a feel for oddball pop arrangements, which perhaps isn’t too surprising, as at least one track features contributions from a member of Santah, and the same area that Two Dead Cities was recorded in recently gave us World’s First Flying Machine. Taken on a larger scale, there’s nothing ground-breaking here, but Two Dead Cities accomplishes what it sets out to do with gusto.
Stream “Sand”
The album gets another huge boost from its production. Kilroy’s Facebook page states that Two Dead Cities was recorded entirely at Urbana’s Sunflower House, and its homespun qualities give it a level of fidelity that’s clean enough to give you an idea of what’s going on musically, while retaining enough fuzz and ambience to keep things from getting too clinical. Maybe it’s telling that upon putting on the album for the first time, I immediately flashed back to a brief stint with Morgan Orion’s band, mainlining peppermint tea while doing overdubs on a Tascam four-track in between living room shows. The production on Two Dead Cities screams of the Urbana that I grew up in and love, the brick sidewalks, anti-war yard signs and the faculty ghetto (that would be the state streets between Lincoln and Vine, for those not in the know) all rolled into a seamless forty-three minutes. Even something about the in lowercase MP3 tags — “jack kilroy” — makes sense in an odd way. And while I keep piling on adjectives in my attempt to put this album into words, it ultimately comes down to the fact there’s something very here about the whole affair. I can’t imagine Two Dead Cities having been made anywhere else in the world.
Two Dead Cities will see a full release in the upcoming weeks. For now, stream “Fire” and “Bend Like a Flower” over at the Bandcamp page and become a fan on Facebook for more updates.