Skating Club

Calling a sailboat in Boston Harbor home had quite the tangible effect on Skating Club mainman Aubrey Anderson - listening to SK's self-titled debut, you can't help but paint an image of sitting on the edge of a dock, haphazardly flicking your toes over the top of the water and staring off at an end-of-summer sky. A florid comparison, yes, but Skating Club is all about mood- from the gallons of reverb on Anderson's guitars to the miles of echo on the drums - so a picture of the album's atmosphere is altogether more accurate than a simple breakdown of influences and instrumentation. At its core, Skating Club does fish in the same pool as moody bands like Low and Ida, all slow and gentle melodies with breathy vocals floated on top, but Anderson never gets lost in the melodrama or overly weepy. And while the album does have a cohesive mood, Anderson's tendency to experiment with different timbres - say, lacing a syrupy guitar with a light digital squall, or casting some roads piano plinks between his phrases-keeps things hypnotizing, rather than snooze-inducing. Skating Club is surprisingly comfortable with brevity, too - most songs clock in at around three minutes - something not generally part of the slowcore canon. But SK has a tighter grasp on pop than most in that club, too, which makes them miserable in an irresistible way. -- Nicole Keiper - CMJ Monthly (March/April 2002)

The press materials that accompany Skating Club's self-titled debut list one of the record's selling points as "This music is shy." That's a perfect summary: this trip through 10 tracks of indie-pop atmospherics is the music equivalent of the smart kid who stands in the corner at a high-school dance staring at his shoes. Singer/guitarist Aubrey Anderson (along with bassist/keyboardist Colin Rhinesmith and drummer Bruce MacFarlane) sing plaintive and desperately charming tales of awkwardness, with self-conscious lines like "I'm still scared of my own shadow," hearkening him to low-self-opinion types like Hayden and Elliott Smith. But rather than go that bare bones, Anderson and co. drape their songs in rich atmospherics, cooing over beds of ringing guitar chords and occasional chiming electric pianos. Opener "G.T.I." lopes along with a lazy, shimmering guitar until the chorus introduces a cascade of descending Rhodes piano and "la la" backing vocals; the plodding chords of 'The Hypnotist" and "Foolish" recall Sparklehorse's recent It's A Wonderful Life". Fidgety music for eternally nervous people. Tom Mallon (R.I.Y.L Sparklehorse, Hayden, Elliott Smith) - CMJ Weekly

Skating Club, which sufficiently wowed the guys in Mission of Burma to land an opening gig at one of the Burma reunion shows, has a subtle gem in its self-titled debut (on WishingTree); think a more laid-back Versus teaming up with Belle & Sebastian while Elliott Smith nods approvingly. - Fred Mills
- Blurb