Through a veil of snare fills and murky feedback, Preteen Weaponry stammers into existence. This umpteenth album from Oneida is meant to be listened to as one song, divided nicely into three distinct parts (or “movements” if you prefer), all recorded in the same day. It’s slow and persistent, a challenging album at best, but one of the most intelligent and primitively enjoyable releases of the year from a band who’s never received even half the credit they deserve.

Flip through the liner notes and you’ll find them bleak: a few short notes on recording and mastering, a landscape collage, and then, most importantly, album art that more closely mimics and enhances it’s encased record than any art I’ve seen in a while. Unfolded, the cover art is the picture you see above (sorry about the flash), a design apparently by Dan Schechter. Flowing forth from a cloud is a twisted knot of haze, six even lines down its side, like the fretboard of a guitar. Growing from the falling haze are mountains built of dots and lines, perfect geometry arranged in a flowing, natural pattern. The art is gorgeous in its own right.

But in many ways the music of Preteen Weaponry reflects its cover, and is even understood through it. Ebbing guitars flow throughout the album, marrying a constant canvas-like drone with sudden ripples of life that cut through the surface. At times (like “Part 3″) the music is serene, drawing up energy slowly and changing paces with great difficulty like the viscous drip of molasses; other times (like “Part 2″) specks of sounds hurl forward, guitars and synthesizers in tow. Like the cover, the music of the album is knotted up, an edified structure construed from a sonic mess: pick at its pieces and you’ll be trying in vain to untie a knot, but stop for a second and enjoy the whole and words will escape you.

Preteen Weaponry is the first of three in a triptych (or “3. transf. a. A set of three operas or pieces of music intended to be performed together” (OED), if you prefer) of upcoming releases called “Thank Your Parents”, set for the next year or so. The band asks us to “consider [Preteen Weaponry] an introduction to their forthcoming triple album Rated O.” If Preteen Weaponry is any indicator of future music from Oneida, it may only prove that the band is still hard at work doing what they do best: steadfastly making good music which, despite the fact that none of us may truly be able to fully grasp it, is quite literally the contorted quintessence of the true aims of music as an art form.

Info:

Preteen Weaponry is available now from Jagjaguwar and Oneida’s own Brah Records.

But it here.

Tunes:

Oneida - “Preteen Weaponry (Edit)” (a clip from the new album, shortened to about 5 and a half minutes)

Websites:

[official]
[myspace]

Shows (where the band is apparently playing Preteen Weaponry in its entirety):

Tues, Aug 12 – Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s
Wed, Aug 13 – Pittsburgh, PA – 31st Street Pub
Thurs, Aug 14 – Cleveland, OH – Beachland Tavern
Fri, Aug 15 – Toronto, ON – Lee’s Palace
Sat, Aug 16th – Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle
Sun, Aug 17th – Bloomington, IN – The Bluebird
Mon, Aug 18th – Nashville, TN – The End
Tues, Aug 19th – Memphis, TN – Hi-Tone
Wed, Aug 20th – Atlanta, GA – Drunken Unicorn
Thurs, Aug 21st – Winston-Salem, NC – The Wherehouse
Fri, Aug 22nd – Chapel Hill, NC – Local 506
Sat, Aug 23rd – Washington, DC – The Black Cat
Fri, Aug 29 – New York, NY – South Street Seaport