Track Listing

01 One Last Final Push
02 The Guest
03 A Place Called LA (mp3)
04 Speck of Dust
05 That's a Good Question
06 The Hallway
07 What is That?
08 Busted Bell
09 You Know Me
10 Wrong Directions

They Shoot Horses Don't They

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? clearly state their intentions on “One Last Final Push” – the opening salvo of sophomore album Pick Up Sticks. Amidst an engaging racket, vocalist/guitarist Nut Brown cries, “We go on marching forward; Through all the silent faces; Sing! This noise! This drum! Well, here we come!”

While often likened to a marching band, the six-member group actually shares a greater affinity with a nomadic, conquering horde. They’ve preyed upon unsuspecting crowds throughout North America over the course of several sprawling tours. At first glance, any of their frenetic live shows could easily be mistaken for a cult indoctrination. Time and again, their brand of tilt-a-whirl art-pop has transformed audience members into reveling, cavorting true believers.

Founded in Vancouver, British Columbia in 2003, the embryonic They Shoot Horses consisted of Brown and drummer Julia. When Brown happened upon a series of sharp, punchy tones near the bridge of his six-string, he was reminded of horn bursts and inspiration took hold. A recruitment drive saw trombonist Pietro and saxophonist Ryan added to the fold, along with Robb on bass and Chris on keyboards. Melding oompah and folk with sonic experimentation akin to The Residents, Captain Beefheart and Pere Ubu, They Shoot Horses forged an idiosyncratic sound tailor-made for live performance. An unholy combination of madcap menace and big top bombast allowed their shows to assume the form of carnivalesque spectacles. An eponymous EP and debut full-length, Boo Hoo Hoo Boo, perfectly captured the crowd-pleasing, eccentric immediacy of their formative work.

In turn, Pick Up Sticks sees They Shoot Horses moving away from their circus sound. Granted, the new album still boasts the band’s signature cacophony of regimental drums, jittery guitars, swirling keyboards and clattering horns. While the instrumentation remains constant, its implementation has changed dramatically. Where the band once assembled formidable walls of sound, they now craft songs of rich and varied texture. If ever there was a mould for They Shoot Horses’ oddball songwriting, the band made sure to irreparably break it for this album.

Produced by Colin Stewart (Pretty Girls Make Graves, Black Mountain), Pick Up Sticks captures ten transfixing transmissions that could have either been beamed from outer space or unearthed in a time capsule from a lost age. A frantic beat, organ grinder melody and caterwauled chorus conspire to put a listener through the wringer on “A Place Called La.” Forlorn “Speck of Dust” finds the band mining melancholy while “What Is That?” flirts with sunshine pop. The audacious “Busted Bell” shoehorns an entire album’s worth of ideas into a single sprawling song. A spirit of experimentation and invention permeates the proceedings, making for a dizzying listening experience composed of expansive atmospherics and ever-shifting rhythms and dynamics.