When Jaill nonchalantly stepped into the room with 2010’s That’s
How We Burn, the group had already turned out a small catalog of
self-recorded and self-released albums and EPs. Sub Pop first heard
the band on an LP bought through the mail, the cover still hot from the
Kinko’s copier. And as that record (2009’s There’s No Sky (Oh My My))
demonstrated, Jaill’s Vinnie Kircher is equally comfortable crafting songs
that either amble up slyly, or tumble out pell mell, with lyrics that betray
his English major background. SPIN said of That’s How We Burn, “What
elevates their [Sub Pop] debut beyond your average twee-punk rager is
the gentle psych dabblings: extra delay on a guitar solo, an errant
‘ooh-ahh-ooh,’ a dubby Panda Bear flourish, and the swirling noise that
murmurs through the background of the cheerful ‘Snake Shakes.’”
Recorded throughout 2011 in Kircher’s crummy, poorly lit basement,
with minimal gear and a control room of thrift store afghans, and mixed
at NY’s Rare Book Room by Nicolas Vernhes, Jaill’s latest mangled
masterpiece is entitled Traps. An acerbic exercise in both humility and
aggression that transcends the humble environment of its creation, Traps
finds the Milwaukee-based psych-pop three-piece confronting a
malfunctioning universe with an inventive, lean and, dare we say, excellent
11-song album
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