Pajama Avenue

Zelienople | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 1, 2005)
• Original Release Date: 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Lonely Tree
• ASIN: B000ARWI94
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #532,710 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sleep Waking, September 19, 2005

By 

Mark Champion "autumnfair" (San Antonio, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pajama Avenue (Audio CD)

Chicago's Loose Thread Recordings has been quietly releasing music by a number of interesting bands and musicians for a while now, and Zelienople is by far the most intriguing of the lot. Based in Chicago (though they take their name from the neighboring Pennsylvania borough, a "Modern Place With Old Fashioned Grace"), Zelienople could write straight pop ditties if they wanted too. And that's part of the key: underlying much of this, their full-length debut, are wisps of conventional melody and structure. Like Flying Saucer Attack, they like to disguise simplicity with layers of distortion and drones galore. And like :zoviet-france:, they favor an overall organic sound and texture despite all the electricity. Not that they sound much like either FSA or the :zoviet: gang; Zelienople in fact sounds like no one else at all. At times the instruments are impossible to distinguish and the overall effect tends toward the somnambulent (PAJAMA AVENUE, indeed). Matt Christensen's voice, when he uses it, rises barely above a whisper - - sort of an extramercurial JJ Cale - - and the music is positively sheetlike. 'Back To Dangerous', for example, is a near-instrumental that to me evokes heat, haze, memory, distance and shimmering sand all at once. Suspicious? Can't say I blame you. The first track is titled 'It's Hard To Steal Cars' and its first lyric is 'Heavy on the grease . . .' And they've remade that particular track for their recent INK CD (released in Finland, of all places) retitling it 'It's STILL Hard To Steal Cars'. Yes, it's moody. Yes, it's atmospheric. Yes, it's eliptical. None of which does much to help you understand what Zelienople actually sounds like. Worth many a listen.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Meditational, September 25, 2006

By 

Peter Kaiafas "Panayotis" (Valpo, IN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pajama Avenue (Audio CD)

Zelienople is music to listen to when you need to put your life in slow-motion for a few moments. Less boring than Eno's ambient soundscapes but more dark than Sigur Ros's pretty melodies. And their live shows are even more thrilling...if only the hipsters would shut up and listen.