Spoiler alert! The new Midlake record is not from the band that you grew to love with The Trials Of Van Occupanther. With each successive album, the members of Midlake transformed, foregrounding a different favorite section of their record collections. Now comes Antiphon (ATO), which announces itself with an opening title track that rocks harder and more insistently than anything in the group’s prior catalog. Midlake again sounds like a new band. And, this time it is: It’s Midlake’s first since the departure of principal singer/songwriter Tim Smith, its first with guitarist Eric Pulido stepping into those lead roles, its first with former touring members Jesse Chandler (keyboards, flute) and Joey McClellan (guitars) officially joining drummer Mackenzie Smith, multi-instrumentalist Paul Alexander and guitarist Eric Nichelson. Chandler and Nichelson will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Midlake feature.
Chandler: Woody Allen is without a doubt my favorite film director. I have seen all of his movies multiple times, and read all of his books and plays, and I adore all of it. Sure some of the films are better than others, but you have to respect the guy’s incredible work ethic. To be pushing 80 and still churning out a quality piece of work each year is quite remarkable. I just love the simplicity and straightforward style of his films. Probably my favorite of his would be Zelig, which is an amazing take on human social nature.
Video after the jump.
