Pockets

Apr
16
posted by tommy

My first worry for Sydney band Pockets was that their name had almost certainly been taken by another band somewhere else on God’s green earth, and we were about to see a battle play out on similar proportions to the One Direction vs One Direction conflict which has deeply affected us all. My fears proved unfounded however, as Pockets have since broken up. A new set of fears then arose, derived from my worry that I’m only now listening to the goodworks of a band that I’ll plainly never hear live. Yes, there are other incarnations of the same band members (see the Mountains) and I’ve seen them play way back when, but I want to see these songs played live. Why world, why?

If you couldn’t already tell, I think Pockets are really, really good. There’s a strength of musicianship that transcends the ability to play music that’s popular here and now. These are songs you could come back to in years and still appreciate the craftsmanship of even after the fact, when trends and styles have come and gone. To give you some idea of what you’re about to to listen to, the recipe is something like the following:

  • 1 part Real Estate
  • 2 parst Silversun Pickups
  • 1 part Copeland (ca. 2004)
  • 1 part I Heart Hiroshima

It’s not as black and white as that and there’s a whole lot of exclusive influence tumbled in with the rest but that’s what I’m hearing, that’s what I’m feeling. Below are my two favourite tracks from the record. The sun-soaked vocal harmonies in ‘Caretaker’ are pleasing, wrapped around a guitar melody that’s reclining on a bed of doo-wops. ‘Telescopes’ starts with some rare lone wolf vocals from Trevor Davis (which the record could easily have had more of) and concludes with a guitar part to delight any lo-fi, post-rock officianado. If you don’t have any money to spare, worry not, you need make no greater offering than the thirty seconds it’ll take you to click this link and hit the ‘Free Download’ button.




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