Atlas Sound & Deerhunter, 2008-2012

I guess one could say I'm in my Bradford Cox phase.  Bradford Cox is Atlas Sound and the songwriter and lead vocalist for Deerhunter.  From 2006 to 2009, iTunes was my portal to finding new music.  And in 2008, Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel came up through a search and I liked the 30 seconds of each song I heard.  Thinking it was worth a $10 risk, I spent my money on it, and found that it was indeed worth more than every penny.

Because I was coming to the end of my most of my music phases at the time, I've become highly skeptical of following a band until one album offends me.  Air comes to mind with that trend.  Just because I enjoyed this Atlas Sound album--a lot--doesn't mean I'm going to suddenly blindly follow him and purchase his albums without the high standards I had in place for his first.

So a year later, I picked up Deerhunter's Microcastle/Weird Era Continued double CD at the local library.  Although the sound was much different from Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel, I liked it.  The double CD took a while to grow on me before I liked it a lot.  And then in 2010, I had to ask, "Who is this Bradford Cox?"  So I looked up his influences and found that my taste in music is not too different from his own.

First of all, he and Stereolab collaborated on a song on each of their albums.  Below is a video of their collaboration found on Atlas Sound's Logos album.

 

Secondly, he toured with Broadcast on what I believe was their last tour before Trish Keenan left all of us prematurely.  So I'm happy to see an American mingling with these British musicians that I regard so highly.  And at this point in my life, I like Atlas Sound and Deerhunter's music more.  I feel like it's a continuation or progression of a sound starting with Stereolab, continuing with Broadcast, and now the torch is in Bradford Cox's hand.

I got into Atlas Sound and Deerhunter around the time of my daughter's birth, so I may associate his music with my early father years.  Or I may associate the music with PhD studies.  Since I'm immersed in this stage still it's hard to tell.  I'll have to update this post once my daughter grows older and I'm doing something with my life besides study and prepare my dissertation.