Surrounding Mountains

Radar Bros. | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 7, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Merge Records
• ASIN: B0000666YW
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #342,472 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

No Description Available.
Genre: Popular Music
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 7-MAY-2002

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Slow-core at its best., July 19, 2002

By 

"dresneer" (Basking Ridge, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Surrounding Mountains (Audio CD)

After 9 years, the Radar Bros have finally landed a deal with a respectable indie label, that being Merge. After two previous LPs, two EPs, and two singles, the Bros have managed to do in music with their third album that most groups fail at- retaining the same sound while changing it just enough that it doesn't sound the same to previous releases.

With the opening track "You and the Father", it is already apparent that the Bros have adopted a somewhat newer, upbeat sound with out abandoning the slow tempos that they love. The follow up is "On the Line" which all I can say about it is that the chorus is very un-Radar Bros, (it is a good song, don't worry.) By the way, the introduction to "You're Still Evil" will scare the ... out of you. It sounds like the introduction to the Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want", only with demon children singing it instead. You'll see what I mean.

Otherwise the album has the Radar Bros consistency, soothingness, and saturation of 3/3 and 3/4 measures. The albums biggest highlight goes to Mountains. First off, I think this band couldn't be any more sick of being compared to early Pink Floyd, but something about this track reminds me of Breathe in the Air from Dark Side of the Moon, particularly the piano interludes. The song excels from its rather eery sound, the out-of-time repeated lyrics, the 7/4 (7/8?) time measure, and the wonderfully placed whistling of frontman Jim Putnam.

The Radar Bros are definately not for everyone. If you're not sure whether or not to check the band out, give the EP a shot before delving into the LPs. If you are a fan of Radar Bros and loved the Singing Hatchet, by all means, why are you wasting your time reading this? Buy it already!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars scrumpdiddly-umptuous, June 8, 2002

By 

Admiral Poop (Savannah, GA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Surrounding Mountains (Audio CD)

more like a 4.7 actually. the only reason i had to deduct those oh so crucial .3 points is because of the albums lack of variety. the tempo is virtually the same on every song! there are accounting jobs that are more exciting than being the drummer for this band...maybe hes been with the group so long they just dont have the heart to get rid of him. despite the lackluster achievments in percussion the band makes up for this by writing some really beautiful songs. honest to god..there isnt a single bad track on this album. oh..please don't listen to anyone who says this band sounds like pink floyd...i would say more like grandaddy minus the synthesizers. oh and just a hint of beatles (just listen to the first track)

buy this one before getting anyof their other albums...this one is the best.

5.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps the band's best--so far, June 3, 2006

By 

John L Murphy "Fionnchú" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Surrounding Mountains (Audio CD)

I think this is their best; the sinister and often curiously skewed lyrics add more of an edge to these deceptively placid sounds, and the contrast--not played for irony but it seems genuine menace, sweet vocals softly rendered notwithstanding. This tension's deepened on this record, their third. The gaps between albums means that the trio takes its time, in-between other recording projects and commitments they have to earn a living as musicians.

The California element common to not only the Crooked Rain desert-era of Pavement but also a less keyboard-sound effects dependent southern Cal predecessor to central Cal's late Grandaddy here does not make the Radar Bros. a copycat, by no means. Rather, a thoughtful, more mature relative of these other two central Cal influences. [I would give it more like 4.5] Remember that Radar Bros. have been at this awhile, if not as long as Pavement or Grandaddy as a trio, but the musicians have previous careers in the local city's indie scene just as long as have those two more familiar (to the rest of the nation) bands.

I don't really hear the Pink Floyd comparisons, but then I am not a rabid fan of that group. This record hearkens to me more back to a twist on the singer-songwriter laid-back earlier 70s L.A. sensibility, somehow if it had missed the country-rock trend and managed to detour this for a subtler but cohesive proto-indie aesthetic. It's lulling rather than mopey, no small feat. The acoustic guitar, the layered bass, drums, and keyboard effects are all stacked carefully under the almost casual vocal style. But it's not the sound of a slacker Malkmus or Lytle. More their older cousin who used to lend them records way back in 1982?

True, the melodic consistency and measured pace of this band does create some detractors. But they manage, who knows how, to avoid the preciousness of Elliot Smith, the mimickry of Smith by the later lineup of Earlimart, the less distinctive sounds of their related predecessors the local band Acetone, and the swirling disorientation of Medicine. All of these like-minded musicians are native or adopted Angelenos--from around five miles at most away from a radius around the Radar Bros. Atwater studio-- in what's still a slightly less trendy district of true eastside (that is, east of the "river" [sic]) L.A.--and while a family tree might be drawn between them and Pavement and Grandaddy, somehow Radar Bros. pull off an original sound distinctive from all of them...even though's it's instantly familiar.

Like the aftermath of all those who fled to the desert around the time of Gram Parsons in 1973, perhaps? This is what the sounds might conjure up after the gold rush, so to speak, the needle's damage done. I too recall a few of their tunes more than once surfacing from my subconscious...days after playing this record--like the music you hear yourself creating magically and perfectly realized only in your dreams.