Tortoise sets example for Oberlin indie hopefuls

Tortoise

TNT

Thrill Jockey

So what's up with all these ex-Obie indie bands, anyway? Let's see. Now that they're big bad rockstars and have X number of years experience behind them, Tortoise are up to no good. Their latest, TNT, annoyingly does not title its tracks, nor does it attempt to make any sort of attempt to shock the otherwise lost void of its Chicago-rooted indie scene. But it sounds good. And realistically, isn't that all that matters?

Tortoise, as you may recall from Millions Now Living Will Never Die, are a group of established men who play about three times as many instruments as there are band members. The sextet manages to compile easy listening soundtracks for everyday living, without sounding cluttered, even despite the fact that they can pack in a lap steel, vibes, keyboards and miramba in one track. Oh yeah, and guitar and bass and drums, too. Kinda makes every other sparse indie rock band look, well, sparse.

Thankfully, Thrill Jockey included a press release of TNT's song titles with the copy of the album. Thus, let it be known that the title track (Track One, for all you less fortunate) is a brilliant opener. It kind of sneaks up on you, building up from a quiet hush to a rhythm-based blur of soft guitars. But then again, the whole album is approached in that sort of fashion, in a coy, round-about sort of way.

"I Set My Face to the Hillside," otherwise known as Track Four, is more of a samba-based work, and with the cheesyness of a southwestern-slanted sip of Lipton, the band pulls off its elevator music track in shining brilliance.

John McEntire - though he never fulfilled his Aural Skills requirement and thus did not graduate - is the reason Tortoise will forever be traced back to the Oberlin indie scene. He also hails from The Sea and Cake, but does not treat either band as a side project to the other. In addition to his straight-out drumming efforts, McEntire collaborates on keyboards and drum programming for TNT, the latter of which is demonstrated with "A Simple Way to go Faster Than Light That Does Not Work," which still takes second to "In Sarah, Mencken, Christ, and Beethoven There Were Women and Men" as the longest title ever. More importantly, can you hear Christ, Sarah, Mencken or Beethoven in Track Nine? Sure, if you try hard enough. The Beethoven bit, at least.

Tortoise doesn't take their music lightly. And most of their listeners don't, either. But the beauty behind organically-rooted art rock bands like this one is that you can only listen as deeply as you want to. There's meaning there, if you look for it long enough. And in the meantime, there's tracks like "Almost Always is Nearly Enough" to fill your background, no matter what you do with the foreground.

So go out and celebrate your fellow alumni, even if they may be Connie drop-outs. What gives? No one needs a degree to create great music. You read it here first.