Blogarhythms

So, what do you do when it’s the day before Thanksgiving and you have no family to speak of and a distinct lack of grocery money in the bank? Well, if you’re me (which I am, so I can say this with total authority) you try to relax, you tell yourself not to worry or be too bummed out about the situation, and you attempt to formulate a plan b for sharing in the holiday mirth!

The relaxation part of that is probably the most effortlessly attainable of the goals laid out in my plan since all it really requires is a bit of the old “Easy Listening” music to promote a feeling of well being. And since my aim is to carry out a “plan b” I could think of no easier a listen to ease my holiday anxieties than the appropriately named Team B. Mainly the work of Kelly Pratt, a player in both Arcade Fire and Beirut and an in-demand sessioneer, the self-titled album features contributions from LCD Soundsystem drummer Pat Mahoney, multi-instrumentalists Jon Natchez and Perrin Cloiter also of Beirut, and multi-instrumentalist Richard Reed Parry who plays with Arcade Fire and the Bell Orchestre and had a hand in Islands‘ debut album Return to the Sea.

If you’re expecting something totally Beirut-ish or Arcade Fire-esque from Team B, think again. I was caught totally off guard by the lead-off song “On My Mind,” a soulfully slick electric-piano-driven Pop tune with lite Jazz/Funk overtones a-la so many radio hits from the late ’70s and early ’80s. It’s minimal, with only multi-part harmonies, background adlibbing, finger-pops, shakers, and a primitive beatbox rhythm augmenting the percolating keys and Pratt’s whistful lead vocal before a cry-baby guitar and live drums turn the track into a full-on Indie-Rock jam. My initial response was “the rest of the album can’t possibly sound like this!” And while the album serves up a stylistically diverse collection of songs, most of them stick to a minimalist, experimental blueprint.

Team B “On My Mind”

Some of my favorite tracks on the album other than “On My Mind” are the ones–like the Michael Andrews-meets-TV On the Radio-ish “Misma,” the indie-kid Ghettotech jam “Redd’s Opus,” the New Romantical “Tons of Fun” and the proggy “No Purchase Necessary”–which make extensive use of electronic sounds, synthetic textures and laptop programming. But the melancholy acoustic-n-brass dirge “Hang Me,” and cuts like album-closer “Salad Days” and “Mystery Man” that hearken back to the early days of Rock ‘N Roll balladry, mixing twiddly guitar twang, hints of exotica, New Orleanian horn arrangements, assorted honky-tonkery and vocal performances which alternate between sea-breeze soft and melodramatic, are by no means bench-warmers.

Team B Mini-Documentary

In proper second-string fashion Team B are unsigned in any conventional sense, but in this age of internet-fueled do-it-yourselfery that isn’t stopping them from selling you their record. You can cop it directly directly from Pratt and company via their MySpace page. And I suppose if they can make their own way in the recording industry I can figure out a way to have a Thanksgiving.

After all, there’s always good music, like Team B’s, to be thankful for.