Forget Your Politics For a While

Mates of State

If you’ve gleaned anything from reading this space over the last year-plus it should be that I love a lot of music. Loving music in a general sense and being a genuine fan of a specific band are two totally different things though. And while loving as many bands as I do makes drawing a distinction between mere infatuation and real fandom tough sometimes, there are bands who stand out from the pack.

Mates of State ‘Re-Arrange Us’The East Haven, Connecticut-based (by way of Los Angeles, California and Lawrence, Kansas) husband-and-wife duo Mates of State, made up of Kori Gardner on vocals and keyboard instruments and Jason Hammel on vocals and drums, is one of those bands. That’s why I was souped when they (much like Kenna and his PSP campaign) popped up playing their song “For the Actor” in that cellular phone commercial last year. And it’s why I’m excited that their fifth and newest album Re-Arrange Us drops today!

I’m a sucker for keyboards and tight harmonies (which is why Mates of State appealed to me in the first place) and Re-Arrange Us is not lacking in either. But when I say “keyboards” I don’t necessarily mean “synthesizers.” The Mates aren’t a dance band or an electronic act. They play an emotionally dramatic brand of Power-Pop that draws from ’70s AM-radio, the harmonious Pop-Rock of the ’50s and ’60s (from proto-Rock-nerd Buddy Holly to girl-group-era Pop to The Beach Boys) and quirky Indie-Pop. And the ivories they tickle are usually connected to pianos of both the electric & acoustic variety, a collection of organs, and occasionally a cheap synth or two.

AqueductFans of previous Blogarhythms featurees like one-man-band Aqueduct and brother-sister-duo The Fiery Furnaces, or kitschy torch-song piano balladeer Regina Spektor should fall instantly in love with Re-Arrange Us. I’m probably as big a fan of those three acts as I am Mates of State, so you know I’m smitten. My Aqueduct fandom in particular boded well for songs like “Jigsaw,” “Help Help,” “Now,” “The Re-Arranger” and “You are Free” whose song structure, lyricism and vocal & keyboard melodies bear such a striking kinship to David Terry’s recent output that I was half expecting to hear him duetting with the Mates on them. Thinking such things has me hoping that the two groups, who happen to be labelmates on Barsuk Records, might get the bright idea to organize a tour together at some point.

The aforementioned “You are Free,” with it’s chintzy drum-machine intro and finger-snap breakdown, and the tune immediately following it, the playfully doo-woppy “Great Dane,” both stand out for their use of patches of backwards Rhodes tones to accentuate their dramatic melodies. As does string & piano-driven album closer “Lullaby Haze,” but for sounding like a Beatles/Elton John hybrid for emo kids. But more than anything else on the album it’s still the first single, a jingly tune with percolating piano, stirring strings, thundering toms and mildly psychedelic lyrics (that remind me of They Might Be Giants) called “Get Better,” which I’ve named my feel-good song of the moment, that remains my favorite cut on the album.

Mates of State “Get Better”

Whether it’s the uplifting harmonies, the roaring piano or the sentiment espoused, it never fails to make me feel better. Which is just the sort of emotional re-arranging we can all use now and then, and the very reason so many of us love music the way we do in the first place.

This entry was written by El Keter, posted on May 20, 2008 at 10:41 am, filed under Music and tagged , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

57 Comments

  1. emeyesi

    Posted May 20, 2008 at 1:51 pm
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    I’ll add in my vote for a Mates of State/Aqueduct tour.

    @ The Iron Horse would be perfect.

  2. FireBrand

    Posted May 25, 2008 at 1:21 am
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    Dude. I thought only Ira Glass and I were fans of Mates of State.

  3. El Keter

    Posted May 26, 2008 at 7:52 pm
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    Nah son, Mates of State have been an obsession of mine for a while now. I’ve been straight fiending for this new album. And it totally lived up to my expectations.

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