I have an interview up today over at Austin Sound with Bill Baird that you should check out. It was conducted via Google Chat, which means it’s a little confusing and 100% ridiculous, but who wants to do interviews at Spider House anyway. I’m still working on a Flash version that will depict more accurately the timing of the entire thing. More to come.

In other news, the new Sunset album The Glowing City (which we posted tracks from last month) is due out next week on Autobus.

I don’t think I can stress to you enough how good this album is. From start to finish (a grand total of about 18 songs), it clamors with the oddities of Bill Baird, but is considerably more pop-oriented (and accessible to the average listener) than Sunset’s earlier release this year, Bright Blue Dream. Leading off the album, “Zombies” sets the tone for what is to come, crafting a patchwork percussion rhythm dressed up with pianos and vocal chants (”Zombies… Zombies”) while Baird’s near-whisper vocals churn up some oddly optimistic lyrics: “Dance, like Sandy said / if your heart isn’t dancing you might as well be dead” (well, optimistic at least given the context - a song called ‘Zombies’). The glow of Bright Blue Dream finds its way into some of the lyrical references too, such as “Your life is a sitcom staring you / with candle-lit television eyes.” The jury is still out on whether or not this is a direct reference to your mom telling you that watching to much tv will turn you into a Zombie, but maybe you can piece together the clues in that interview I told you about.

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Not but a few months after the release of Bright Blue Dream, Sunset are back in July with a new album called The Glowing City. According to the label (Autobus), the new album is…

…equal parts seamless song cycle and singles collection. Songs about reflection, failure, exhaustion of life and circumstance, join with pop sensibilities in a beautifully tragicomic fashion. Essentially two albums worth of material on one disc, this album makes it all available directly and emphasizes Bill Baird’s song cycle approach…

Baird has a way of combining catchy melodies typical of pop music with inventive experimentation with instruments and effects. The band’s rhythms tend to take on lives of their own, which can be at times melancholy and at others chilling. Combined with everything from guitars and horns to strings and organs, and of course Baird’s unmistakable voice, Sunset makes for an enjoying (if a little disturbing) listen. This album, so far (I only got it a couple days ago), lives up to my high expectations. Expect a full review soon, but for now, have a taste with “When Perfect Flames Expire.”

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Dreams are nothing like albums. Between the time we put head to pillow and the time we wake up to start whatever monotony the day has in store, we completely submit our consciousness to the will of our imagination. Dreams are highly introspective, at least in my experience. Both people close to me and people that I thought I’d forgotten long ago run amuck in my subconscious; what little “plot” I can discern from them is usually related to the things that are stressful in my life. And what’s more, you don’t have a choice! You’re asleep, and whatever dreams you get are the ones you’re stuck with. Ever tried to coerce your subconscious into a sex-dream? Doesn’t work, does it?

But albums, on the other hand, albums are almost none of these things, especially from the listening perspective (which, unless you’re Bill Baird, means you and me). Listening to an album is looking in on the consciously created artistic work of another, and it’s by your choice alone. But then there’s Bright Blue Dream. When an album drags you in with haunted vocals and harsh rhythms, keeps you at its mercy through 14-minute guitar explorations, and then releases you after an hour or so like a mid-afternoon nap, then you can’t help but feeling like maybe, just maybe, you were dreaming.

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