In the Winter, It Makes the Dead Grass Look Green

Album Review

Their second album of gloriously languorous psychedelic post-rock (with more than a little country flavor on the side via the use of pedal steel), Pedal Steel Transmission takes the guitar epicry of Built to Spill and mixes it with the glistening sheen of Japancakes to construct a fairly exceptional exercise in experimental rock. With most tracks unfolding around a loose, skeletal groove, the melodies bend and turn and end up becoming surprisingly memorable in the process. Whether breaking into the soaring choruses of "I Only Got an Hour of Sleep Last Night" or working through the three slowly percolating passages in "Sempiternal Tryst Détente," the work runs a relatively breezy 70 minutes with the ambling, unpredictable quality of the arrangements recalling the glory days of pre-grunge indie rock. Melodically askew tracks like "The Sun Bites Its Tongue" give way to Stonesy guitar workouts, with the calculated sprawl of each track becoming its defining characteristic. Big guitars, sour vocals, one pedal steel guitar, and a whole lot of creativity are all that is necessary to carry the ambitions of the set. In short, it's an album that straddles the line between post-rock and country-rock and threatens to breathe new life into both.