Treble & Tremble

Earlimart | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 28, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Palm Pictures (Audio
• ASIN: B0002ZYEG4
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #144,599 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

About the Artist

Earlimart’s Treble & Tremble is a reaction to someone leaving the room without saying a word. It’s a lush, haunting affair informed by loss, but with a determined effort to let go and move on, tying clean knots from a tangle of loose ends. With numerous references to telephones, reports, conversation and music itself, Treble and Tremble is about communication and how we fail to communicate. Yet, amid the white noise, the record is also a celebration of the moments we break through.

Treble & Tremble is filled with the warm, breathy vocals and expansive arrangements that earned the band’s 2003 releases The Avenues E.P. and Everyone Down Here critical praise from journalists and peers alike. Crafted by piano-driven melodies, layered in a patchwork of guitars and strings, the finished tracks are the accomplished efforts of Espinoza’s expanding production expertise. The record’s greatest moments come in repeated listens, when the peppered distortion and crackling noise lifts to reveal striking parts inescapably missed.

Earlimart’s progression from an X- and Pixies-inspired experimental punk band to their current sound is the result of experience and process. Espinoza, raised in Fresno, CA near the tiny Central Valley town that inspired the band’s name, along with Los Angeles native and original member Ariana Murray (bass, keys), grew out of their influences and defined their own signature by years of touring and self-recording.

A one-sided conversation spoken in futility and giving up to hope, the album's first track, "Hold On Slow Down," keys punctuate swirling synths and crackling static until it falls away and re-emerges as the intrepid crescendo that opens "First Instant Last Report." "The Hidden Track" is the perfect Earlimart staple, a classic pop song that begins with layered acoustic guitar and warm vocals eventually building into an overture of keys and cellos and crashing cymbals.

Treble & Tremble was produced and recorded by Espinoza and Jim Fairchild (Grandaddy) at the band’s Ship studio, home to a collective of like-minded artists nestled in the foothills of Eagle Rock, CA. The Ship studio has also earned a reputation outside of its usual crew, hosting sessions by the Folk Implosion, the Breeders and Elliott Smith. Along with performances by Murray, contributions to the record came from Earlimart drummer David Latter, Scott McPherson (Elliott Smith) and Brian Thornell (Pine Marten).

Treble and Tremble’s soul is its second half. There’s a vintage Seventies riff that punctuates the quiet regret in witnessing the destruction of "Broke the Furniture," followed by the thunderous guitar-driven catharsis and unsettling mechanized vocals on "Unintentional Tape Manipulations." That storm yields to the beautifully fragile "Heaven Adores You," easily the most heartbreaking song the band has written to date. The suite "Tell the Truth Parts 1 & 2" is at times Lennon-esque: stark, spare and inquisitive with its bleeding heart stitched to a sleeve, a song that asks a few last, lingering questions and teeters close to resignation. Espinoza sings, "I know I’m out of reach/And all the songs are out of key," and returns, if only to remind himself, "Well I guess you just don’t know/You don’t know shit about me."

Unwavering and accepting, Espinoza closes Treble and Tremble on "It’s Okay to Think About Ending," easing in with a simple piano and vocal melody before unfolding into something understated yet gorgeous, its orchestral instrumentation delicate and offering the album’s most poignant simple request: "Take care of your heart."

Product Description

Earlimart's second full-length for Chris Blackwell's Palm Pictures, titled "Treble & Tremble," is filled with the warm vocals and expansive, orchestral rock arrangements that earned the band's 2003 releases "The Avenues" E.P. and "Everyone Down Here" critical praise from journalists and peers alike.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tremble!, October 8, 2004

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Treble & Tremble (Audio CD)

After two albums of mediocre Pixies-esque rock, Earlimart changed their sound so completely that you couldn't even tell it was the same band -- creating "Everyone Down Here," a slice of mellow, Grandaddy-esque pop. And their fourth album "Treble and Tremble" continues that trend, but refines their sound as a bittersweet, lush ode to Elliott Smith.

The sound: Gentle acoustic pop-rock with a few haunting sonic sweeps, and vocals that sound like they're singing a perpetual lullaby. "Valley People" is forty seconds of undulating experimentation, and songs like "A Bell and a Whistle" linger on as gentle, pensive spacey folk songs that sound a bit like Grandaddy B-sides.

Some songs like the gritty "Sounds" take a rock-ier edge, with a blurred bass running behind the fast guitar riffs. But then at the chorus it becomes softer, and about two thirds through it slows down into a meandering melody. The roiling "Unintentional Tape Manipulation" sounds like an album recorded in a haunted house.

A melancholy thread runs through "Treble and Tremble." Their last album didn't really have much of a unifying theme, but now Earlimart's focus seems to be on loneliness and lack of communication. It's a sign of a more mature band if their music is not only evolving, but their songwriting is as well.

Heavy stuff, and apparently was inspired by late, much-lamented musician Elliott Smith, who was a neighbor of Earlimart's Aaron Espinoza, and whom the album is dedicated to. This textured, poignant album seems even more so when you think of Smith: "I said goodbye/to my whole family/I hope they'll miss me/as much as you." Espinoza seems to be almost asking Smith -- too late -- to hang on because he cares.

And after the radical change in sound, they seem more settled and polished in this outing, possibly due to Grandaddy's Jim Fairchild. Yes, they sound like Grandaddy in their softer tracks. But they also forge their own new paths in psychedelica, such as the distorted, fuzzy, lurching rock of "Unintentional Tape Manipulation." It shows that they aren't just imitating the robot-rock sound.

Most of the softer, poppier tracks are slow, careful mixtures of piano, watery synths and acoustic guitar, occasionally with what sounds like violins and some merely okay percussion. What it has going for it is that this time is that the arrangements are more complex and layered, rather than just being guitar with a few synths sprinkled on top.

Espinoza's distant vocals sound strangely intimate, and the songs are even more complex than they were before. Okay, they're still really simple, but it's a simplicity that speaks of sad honesty rather than a lack of songwriting talent. "You found yourself/some mental health/but don't forget to write/and stay home at night..."

Earlimart hasn't sounded this good since... well, ever. "Treble and Tremble" is a moving, beautiful experience, and -- once you know about Smith and Espinoza's friendship -- a bittersweet one. For anyone who has loved, and lost, and thought back on both.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing, October 2, 2004

By 

Meg Wallace (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Treble & Tremble (Audio CD)

This album is, as the other review says, truly haunting and beautiful. Most of the time, I have to play a new album for awhile to really love it. From the first play, Treble and Tremble grabbed me and I've not taken it out of my cd player since. If you're a fan of Elliott Smith and the like, I highly recommend picking this up!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pastoral indie pop at its finest, October 8, 2004

By 

thucydides "john" (san lorenzo, ca usa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Treble & Tremble (Audio CD)

First off I loved Everyone Down Here (Earlimarts last record). It is far more experimental than their latest offering, Treble and Tremble. On this one Earlimart are playing it safe and delving more into texture rather than loading tracks down with Grandaddyesque whirs and clicks. The record eventually settles down into one beautiful sigh. I read some reviews from other magazines and they trashed it for lack of originality..Really? t Earlimart are stylistically similar to Dios, Grandaddy, Pinback, and The Shins. They are not the Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev, or The Beach Boys..I did read a few of the reviews and laughed. Frthermore with Aaron Espinoza's vocals coming out as a subtle whisper he does share some similarities with Elliot Smith..Is that a bad thing? It could be worse his vocals could mimic Justin Timberlake or Dee Snyder..Bottom line: The music is FRIGGING Beautiful..Standout tracks: First Instant Last Report, The Hidden Track, All They Ever Do Is Talk, A Bell and a Whistle, and Heaven Adores You. The lone exception is the dated Lynard Skynard mating with Neal Young on Broke the Furniture. I think I've heard that guitar hook somewhere before. Like in a gazillion other classic rock tracks. One bad song, hmmm just buy it.