Album Notes

If the Sea and Cake hadn’t of dabbled in the dual nether regions of drum ‘n’ bass and airport jazz, they still would lack the impact of Unlimited Symmetry, but you Sea and Cake fans out there should try it out to experience what you’ve been missing. But the first Coach and Four full length also recalls some good decisions of yore, like Jim O’Rourke’s decision to make awesome left-field rock instead continuing to leave tedious flowers on John Fahey’s grave. Then there’s Sonic Youth’s fifteen-year-plan-to-greatness, which included a switchover from serial killer head-scraping negativity to ascending pop, and more than one rave-up on Unlimited Symmetry reminds one of vintage Sister-era Youth. “Compson Eulogy” starts out in a place that could be the Burrito Bros., and then goes somewhere completely different (breezy West Coast pop?) Unlimited Symmetry looks forward as opposed to exhuming past corpses that just don’t need to be further trounced upon. The Coach and Four sit pretty in the same Memphis neighborhood as the like-minded Color Cast, though they’ve been around a little longer than their sister band. Like their contemporaries and the burgeoning Makeshift scene/label that put this release in your mitts, The Coach and Four are a refreshing jolt of blues/garage-free Memphis rock. If you like rockist Jim O’Rourke, early Sea and Cake, poppier Sonic Youth, and I guess whatever has made great indie rock great, then listen up.