Sometimes some band blasts you from the past, and you have no choice but to investigate their discography. Few weeks ago, that happened to me when I found out about White Denim whose 2011 record D I have decided to review for this weeks throwback, although their debut Workout Holidayalso knocked me off my feet.
D, as all of their other albums, is a melting pot of rock-accepting genres such as progressive, psychedelic, experimental, blues, boogie, jazz, punk and garage. These are just some of the parameters in the coordinate system of White Denim's third studio album. Most of the time, White Denim sound like they live in the 60s, as If The Beatles and The Beach Boys have packed their bags and took off to Andes to create new music. Along the way, they have smoked some good South American grass, or maybe even consumed something Carlos Castaneda described in his books, and then casually decided to play instruments and throw an ad hoc jam session.
With that being said, the final result could not have been bad. Psychedelic-progressive elements with the ambient of Andes take you through characteristic oniric melodies that seldomly wake up in a heavy rock and garage punk. Yet, D was not created by The Beatles, The Beach Boys, or The Stones. It was a product of killer Texan band whose sonic chainsaw do not let listener end up feeling like their soundscapes are ever going to be prosaic. Even though they sound retro, their strongest asset is their innovation.
Surprisingly enough, D was not recognized as one of the best releases of 2011, no matter how iconic It's Him and Keys were. These singles perfectly represented an album spared from oscillations and tensions to be hip. People often exaggerate with "the biggest little bands", but I truly believe I have found myself a new favorite little band. I hope this throwback finds you desperate for some good old experimental-progressive-psychedelic rock.
