The Dodos's Visiter Receives An 8.5 from Pitchfork

Download: The Dodos - "Fools"

We've been fans of The Dodos since the old Sliver Magazine days, though we may have not done enough to hype them up at the time. That said, I'm sure any band will take a initial B+ rating (for their self-released debut album Beware of the Maniacs, back when the San Franciscan duo was known as Dodo Bird) and then an upgrade to this writer's Top Ten of 2006. I suppose if they were ever a time to emit a Stephen Colbert-style "I called it! Woo!", it would be now (even if doing so would be ostentatious).

Many things have happened for Messrs. Meric Long and Logan Kroeber, not the least of which included being signed to Frenchkiss on the strength of Maniacs, an album which manage to combine the psych-folk experimentation of Animal Collective with Beatles-esque love songs, virtuoso finger-picking, sing-songy melodies, and Kroeber's relentlessly skillful percussion (previous experience in a prog-metal band will do that for ya). It was only a matter of time before buzz around the band built. And build it did, with the bloggers (including ourselves) going kookoo for alt-primitivist cocoa puffs--the video for Visiter's single, "Fools" (an MP3 of which you can find at the top of the post) certainly didn't hurt either.

This past Tuesday, all that momentum built to the release of their second proper album, Visiter. Pitchfork, the indie-media giant, gave the release an 8.5, calling it a record that "reveals the celebratory acoustics of Led Zeppelin III or a more song-oriented take on tourmates Akron/Family."

Read the rest here.

About Maniacs, I wrote that "the second half of Beware of the Maniacs has plenty of songs that show Dodo Bird's potential for growth, the reason being that they display a greater amount of sonic variety." While there will be a more in-depth review posted sometime next week, I can definitely say that Visiter definitely takes advantage of the opportunity to expand on the previous record's soundscapes. Also, that Visiter is unquestionably one of the best records of the year.

Which is a good thing, because I really wasn't looking forward to eating my own hat.

Visiter is out now.

The Dodos MySpace Page

(Jonathan Graef)