As if Spencer Krug needs another side project (Sunset Rubdown, Wolf Parade, Swan Lake, and formerly Frog Eyes), he has decided to spend the sliver of free time he has developing a solo-act called Moonface. This past April, I purchased a limited edition 7” two song EP titled Introducing Moonface (well technically the name is Aagoo Records Presents: A David Horvitz Picture Disc with Sunset Rubdown: Introducing Moonface, invoking images of a Hollywood film’s opening credits), thinking all along that it was just stubs of never-produced Sunset Rubdown songs. However, when news broke that Krug has a one-sided 12” EP coming out in January, humorously named Dreamland EP: Marimba and Shit-Drums, I began to look at that 7” in a new light.

I guess clues that this was a different project was there all along. For one, the songs are incredibly simple and performed only by Krug with some help by Rubdown percussionist Camilla Wynne Ingr. And if that wasn’t enough, the credits on the insert state “Sunset Rubdown is, on these recordings, Moonface and no others”. However, in my defense, I thought this was just another cryptic phrase which the band likes to throw around all the time in their lyrics.

Side A consists of the song “Coming to at Dawn”, a simple ballad featuring only a piano-vocal pairing by Krug. Although completely stripped down, the song still encompasses aspects that I like about Krug’s full-band music. One of the most noticeable is his ability to masterfully control the volume and tempo, allowing them both to ebb and flow throughout the piece in order to highlight the phrasing of the vocals. When Krug crescendos, it is to solidly emphasize lines such as “just from the power / of you refusing to believe it can not happen”, however while decrescendoing, he hides and protects others like “of course you wanted everything cold / but when you opened the door all the flower petals fold”. Now with any of Krug’s lyrics, the meaning seems to be secondary to the musicality of the words. He’s not the first to do this (Thom Yorke explained this same method to NPR a while back), but he is certainly one of the best, with this track being one of hist best examples.

As for the B-side “Insane Love Is Awakening”, Krug opts for his instrument du jour, the electric guitar. Most likely recorded before any sort of serious dabblings into constructing Dragonslayer, you can tell that he is still in the process of becoming comfortable with the instrument. The whole song seems like it is being tentatively played, with most of the awkwardness stemming from a sense of hesitation before guitar intros — much like how a trumpet soloist in a junior high band is unsure about wanting to enter in on “Smoke On the Water”.

As for what the Dreamland EP will be, we can only speculate and ask questions. Will he be a multi-instrumentalist or just to stick to Marimba and Shit-Drums (whatever the hell that is)? Any guest performers? Are the songs going to be broken into parts, much like the first s/t Sunset Rubdown EP? Whatever the album is, it’s likely we’ll have to wait until January to find out as, no promo copies are being distributed (sorry leakers). Let the countdown begin…

Here’s the Sunset Rubdown version of “Coming to at Dawn” played at a show I caught over the summer in Austin as well as the original Moonface version. If you need mp3s, use Dirpy!

Tags: David Horvitz, Moonface, Spencer Krug, Sunset Rubdown

This entry was posted on Monday, November 23rd, 2009 at 11:47 am and is filed under Album Reviews, Musical Musings, Youtube Finds. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.