With a patient picking, Streaking in Tongues invites us into the bucolic string play of “Everyone Who Ever Cared,” one of the cornerstone tracks of their new record Live from Lockdown, but this instrumental charisma is only the tip of the iceberg for what this LP has in store for listeners. Tracks like the imaginative and emotionally-charged “Little Big Questions” and sonically evocative “Kindergarten Daze” lure us into a false sense of security with their melodic wiles before ultimately turning us over to the churn of a melancholic harmony that seems to embody the very feeling of getting older and reminiscing over youth.
URL: http://www.streakingintongues.com/
“Kindergarten Prayer #3,” as it’s presented to the listener in Live from Lockdown, is stylized like a specifically lo-fi tribute to Sonic Youth, but its inherent noise acts as a direct segue for us to connect our intimacy with that of the players. Emotion is everywhere we look and listen in this album, and even when it feels like we’re about to take a turn towards the familiar, Streaking in Tongues makes it perfectly clear that they’re not interested in reliving the past in this live record – truthfully, they’re doing the exact opposite.
“Farewell OCD (You Pesky Bastard)” is a little more lyrically accessible than the plain-spoken “When It Comes to Dreaming” is, but neither of these tracks sports the kind of stinging poetic value that “Boy in a Garbage Bag” does. In their live incarnations, the songs that make up this LP are progressive in tone and style, allowing for each track to flow into the next as if they were always meant to be heard in a single sitting. They’re not at Madison Square Garden or Red Rocks, but Streaking in Tongues are definitely feeding off of a different energy in this performance than they have in the standard recording sessions they’ve shared with us to date. “See Me See Me” sets the mood right out of the gate while the mid-LP “Kindergarten Prayer #2” ushers us into the second act of the album like a critical turning point in a major motion picture. The cinematic vibe is off the charts, and that’s not usually the case with indie records like this one.
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In extended tracks “I Was a Fool Before You Were Born,” “Field of Pineapples” and the more moderate “Young Again,” we get a full-circle look at the multidimensionality of Streaking in Tongues without ever veering off of a consistent artistic trajectory, and if you’ve heard any of these three tracks beforehand, you know what an impressive feat that is in itself. Songs like “Kindergarten Prayer #1” don’t require us to know a lot about its creators to feel their pain, and particularly the deep-rooted kinship they’re born of, and for the music culture we live in nowadays, that’s nothing to scoff at.
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All in all, Live from Lockdown is a sterling effort from a duo that has been raising an eyebrow or two with every LP they’re stuck their name on. They keep raising the bar for themselves and their scene, and on that end, this latest offering is no different than their past successes have been.
Jodi Marxbury