Paper Tanks
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Paper Tanks

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This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

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"Review: Paper Floats EP"

Paper Tanks play that sort of unplugged-but-with-electricity indie-rock that's difficult to pull off. A relatively new act in town, the trio (though Paper Tanks' MySpace page lists seven contributors, including members of Long Legged Woman) is set to potentially make a name for itself. The songs here are modest, fragile little things, like moths in your hand. There's that moth-dust as well, as the production is blessedly hollow and grainy (is that you, Justin Flowers, LLWing the mixing board?), giving the tracks a wispy feel that still has meat enough to flex songwriting muscle.

"Floating" brings to mind Stephen Malkmus home in bed with the flu. "Got a Map" is more along the lines of the New Pornographers, but again with the walls stripped bare and just the one naked bulb dangling. In spite of this thinness, the buoyant melody shines through. I don't want to imply that Paper Tanks are thin, although I'm piling on metaphors that do just that. If the EP were shining with big production and buzzing power-pop, it probably wouldn't work. The sleepiness is the glue that holds it all together.

Paper Floats won't turn our music scene on its ears, but there's enough charm and grit here to make it taste just right.

-Michael Wehunt - Flagpole Magazine


"Athens' Most Underrated"

Actually, 2006 was the most amazing year in Athens history - I’ve never seen so many good shows. Producto, Don Chambers and Goat, M Coast, Venice Is Sinking, the Ginger Envelope, Mouser, the New Sound of Numbers, 63 Crayons, The Instruments, Paper Tanks, Christopher’s Liver, Titans Of Filth, Kimberley Morgan, Birds and Wire, the Visitations, and many, many more all blew my mind last year. Thanks.

- Spencer Rich - Flagpole Magazine


"POPFEST 2007"

I spent the second week of August in Athens, Georgia, attending POPFEST, sponsored by the estimable Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records. You know a music festival is worthwhile when you come home with an enormous stack of CDs, which I came to affectionately call "the brick." There were a ton of great bands I'd never heard of before, and I can say that there were only about two or three that I disliked; out of a roster of 50, that's a damn good hit ratio. I've already written up a general summary of the festival at my Optical Atlas website…the theme here is great new music that deserves wider exposure.

#1 Paper Tanks

This band's a bit difficult to write about, since I know nothing about them. They opened the first full day of POPFEST, playing an afternoon set at Little Kings, and kicking the festival off to a fine start with some compellingly unusual rock. Native to Athens, they're relatively new to the scene, having so far only self-released a CD-R EP called Paper Floats. It's always a good sign when you struggle to come up with a comparison for a band, though Pavement and Captain Beefheart alternately came to mind as I listened to their music. "Better Really No," with its intentionally dreary "la-la-la-la-la" backing vocals--like drunken pirates taunting over your shoulder after a lover's quarrel--is emotionally agonizing, but also chugs forward like a relentless steam-powered machine. The band definitely has a dreamy, psychedelic quality which appeals to us electric sailors--do check out the 6:39 unreleased song, "Almost From Golden Books," which the band has graciously provided below along with "Better Really No."


-Jeff Kuykendall, Electric Sailor
- Electric Sailor


Discography

Future Shovels (2005 Independent)
Paper Tanks (2007 Independent)
Paper Floats EP (2007 Superfluous Umlaut Records)

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