Mason Proper
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Tour Dates 09/24/08 Live on 107one Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, Michigan
09/25/08 CD Release Party w/The Silent Years, The Novel Citizen @ The Blind Pig (ALL AGES) Ann Arbor, Michigan 10/21/08 Dovecote Records CMJ Showcase @ Rehab New York, New York 10/31/08 Rubbles Bar w/ Those Transatlantics (18+) Mt. Pleasant, Michigan 11/01/08 Small Planet East Lansing, Michigan 11/07/08 New Horizon Winona Lake, Indiana 11/08/08 WIDR Presents Mason Proper @ Papa Pete’s w/The Mighty Narwhale Kalamazoo, Michigan 11/10/08 Black Cat w/Cloud Cult Washington DC, Washington DC 11/11/08 Bowery Ballroom w/Cloud Cult New York, New York 11/12/08 Heirloom Arts Theater w/Cloud Cult Danbury, Connecticut 11/13/08 Middle East – Downstairs w/Cloud Cult Cambridge, Massachusetts 11/15/08 Bug Jar Rochester, New York 11/22/08 The Intersection w/the Mighty Narwhale Grand Rapids, Michigan 12/13/08 The Beat Kitchen w/Everthus the Deadbeats (17+) Chicago, Illinois Discography
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Michigan’s Mason Proper make this whole Rock n’ Roll thing seem effortless. Reminiscent of the Pixies or perhaps early Spoon, and occasionally uncannily channeling Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, their ambient but crisp mid-tempo rock provides a gloomy (though never overtly depressing) soundtrack befitting the first full day of fall in the Midwest.
Released today, Mason Proper’s LP “Olly Oxen Free” is significantly less of a hard-rocker than their 2006 debut “There is a Moth in Your Chest,” but it seems to decently capture a more measured, laid-back tone – stretching out the wavelength while managing to retain the same amplitude and intensity of their previous offering.
At the start, Jonathan Visger’s ominous vocalizations have me looking over my shoulder, expecting stalkers in the form of electric-guitar-wielding apparitions. From spooky opener “Fog” and slow-ish head-bobbers “Point A to Point B” and “Lock and Key” to the progressively emerging pulse of closer “Safe For The Time Being,” the whole tone captures a tune-in-and-zone-out feel, without ever approaching the fuzziness that often defines “shoe gaze.”
It’s not an album to consume in small bites – it works best as a whole. Start at Track One and let the guitar-driven melancholy draw you in and immerse you in its murky depths. Ten songs in thirty-seven minutes may be a bit brisk, but that’s what “repeat” buttons are for.
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