PureVolume

A rousing and inventive six-piece band from Austin, Texas, Sound Team is simply too unusual to nutshell in a sentence. But since that doesn't stop both relatives and critics from insisting Bill Baird do so, he sometimes takes a shot.

"The way I describe it is, we're basically a bunch of people who are into electronic music trying to play a Motown song," says Baird, who co-founded the band with Matt Oliver. Asked to name some of his favorite songwriters, Oliver's response suggests a similar dichotomy: he cites not just Harry Nilsson and Ray Davies, but also Kraftwerk's Ralf and Florian.

"Sound Team? It's like naming your band, 'We are a band,'" one fan wisecracked on the group's Myspace page. But these six musiciansOliver (lead vocals, guitars, keyboards, songwriting), Baird (bass, backing vocals, songwriting), his younger brother Michael (synthesizers), Sam Sanford (guitars), Gabe Pearlman (keyboards) and Jordon R. Johns (drums)really are a team, and more than just a band: they're a gang, they're a family, they're a collective, all dedicated to adventurous autonomous creation. Most of them are also involved in video or visual art, talents that carry over to the band's web site and live show; Sanford, who makes his living as a painter, designed MOVIE MONSTER's booklet and CD cover, based on Super 8 footage Bill Baird shot in New York City. The record, produced by the band itself with Mike McCarthy (Spoon, And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead), was recorded mostly at their own Big Orange studio, which is in a former 7" vinyl pressing plant just east of downtown Austin.

MOVIE MONSTER, Sound Team's first proper full-length CD and Capitol debut, celebrates that tension with 11 songs that never fail to find a perfect alchemy of weirdness and directness, of melodic zing and rhythmic clang, of smart narrative songwriting and joyful abstract noise. An underground favorite thanks to self-issued releases, fans on MP3 blogs and live shows with the likes of Arcade Fire and the Walkmen, Sound Team already feel completely formed. From the oddly satisfying tease of the 73-second album opener "Get Out" to the layered hooks of "Born to Please" to the haunted buzzing of the title track, MOVIE MONSTER is an unnervingly accomplished record: epic, deeply textured, and catchy-as-can-be, when catchy is what it wants to be. [READ MORE]



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