Frozen Letter

by Spider Bags

Overview

Growth is often incremental and on the surface, the Spider Bags don't sound as if they've changed much on their fourth album, Frozen Letter, even though it marks their debut on a new (and bigger) label, Merge Records, and their first effort since guitarist Gregg Levy moved from full-time to part-time status with the group, appearing on just four of the album's eight tunes. But give it a couple of spins and Frozen Letter does sound tighter, more ambitious, and more mature than the band's earlier work, with less of a focus on bad behavior and more observational material that suggests Dan McGee and his bandmates are doing less drinking and more thinking lately. While the first half of the album is devoted to short, garage-inclined bursts like "Japanese Vacation" (smart and swaggering, with some fine, clean picking from frontman McGee) and "Summer of '79" (a nervy rant against classic rock that asks the question "Why do you wanna be a Rolling Stone?/Why do you think your daddy is the King of Rock & Roll?"), the album closes out with four tunes that all run over five minutes, and "Coffin Car" and "Walking Bubble" both manage to sound simple but contemplative, the latter dominated by acoustic guitars and a dour vocal, while the former feels impressionistic and just a bit artful, full of shimmering tremolo, ambient electronics, and thick organ patches alongside guitar figures that grow bigger and noisier as the melody moves forward. The extended pieces that close out the album make Frozen Letter less immediately engaging than 2012's Shake My Head, but if this set isn't much of a party, it confirms the bandmembers are getting smarter and more creative, and while early in their career Spider Bags didn't seem like a band that would welcome maturity, these songs show they're growing into it in their own slightly sloppy way. ~ Mark Deming

Product Details

Release Date:	08/05/2014
Label:	MERGE RECORDS
UPC:	0673855052113

Tracks

1. Back With You Again in the World
2. Japanese Vacation
3. Chem Trails
4. Summer of '79
5. Coffin Car
6. Walking Bubble
7. We Got Problems
8. Eyes of Death

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Spider Bags   Primary Artist
Gregg Levy   Guitar (Electric Baritone),Guitar (Electric),Metal Objects
Mac McCaughan   Guitar (Electric)
Dan McGee   Vocals,Guitar (Acoustic),Guitar (Electric)
John Wesley Coleman III   Vocals
Clarque Blomquist   Organ,Guitar (Electric),Guitar (12 String)
Rock Forbes   Drums,Percussion
Steve Oliva   Bass,Vocals,Guitar (Acoustic),Guitar (Electric)
Ben Riseling   Saxophone
Cordon McGee   Vocals
Ric Palau   Guitar (Electric)

Technical Credits

Spider Bags   Composer
Jeff Lipton   Mastering
Dan McGee   Design,Producer
John Wesley Coleman III   Composer
Wesley Wolfe   Mixing,Engineer,Producer
Jeremy M. Lange   Photography
Steve Oliva   Design
Maria Rice   Mastering Assistant
Steven Walls   Artwork