News: Annuals Team Up with The Most Serene Republic
Annuals are preparing for a cross-country co-headlining spring tour with Canadian counterparts The Most Serene Republic. The tour will start in the Midwest on May 5 and stretch to both coasts, with Terpikhore collective and NC friends What Laura Says supporting. The band recently released their Sweet Sister EP, available now on Banter Records, and are preparing to bring their new music out on the road.
Annuals On Tour w/The Most Serene Republic, What Laura Says:
Wed May 5 – Pontiac, MI – The Pike Room at the Crofoot
Thu May 6 – Cleveland, OH – Grog Shop
Fri May 7 – Chicago, IL – The Empty Bottle
Sat May 8 – Minneapolis, MN – 400 Bar
Tue May 11 – Seattle, WA – Crocodile
Wed May 12 – Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge
Fri May 14 – San Francisco, CA – Bottom of the Hill
Sat May 15 – Los Angeles, CA – Spaceland
Sun May 16 – Phoenix, AZ – The Rhythm Room
Wed May 19 – Austin, TX – Emo’s Inside
Thu May 20 – Houston, TX – Mango’s Cafe
Fri May 21 – Denton, TX – Hailey’s
Sat May 22 – Little Rock, AR – Sticky Fingerz*
Sun May 23 – St. Louis, MO – Old Rock House
Wed May 26 – Durham, NC – Duke Gardens at Duke University#
Tue June 15 – Washington, DC – DC9
Wed June 16 – Philadelphia, PA – North Star Bar
Thu June 17 – Allston, MA – Great Scott
Fri June 18 – Brooklyn, NY – Knitting Factory
Sat June 19 – Hoboken, NJ – Maxwell’s
Sun June 20 New York, NY – The Mercury Lounge
* w/The Most Serene Republic only
# Annuals only
Review: Annuals – Sweet Sister EP
The first thing that stood out to me on this EP is how busy all the songs are. Everything is recorded very well and the musicianship is very good but there tend to be too many things going on. Every space was filled with multiple sounds or instruments. Sometimes it’s good to let the song breathe a little bit. But the melodies are catchy and there are some cool drumming elements. There is an overall sunny, cheery, upbeat tone to all the songs. They feel a little too Jason Mraz-y to me. And now I can’t get the sight of that ridiculous fedora hat out of my mind. But if that is your thing then you’ll probably enjoy this EP.
Annuals – Such Fun
Annuals third album proper, Such Fun reminds me of quite a few different bands. Primarily, there seems to be a good helping of the Magic Numbers and a bit of Conor Oberst, or Bright Eyes. However, I don’t necessarily mean this in a wholly complimentary way. Because I do like some of Magic Numbers and Mr Obersts’ stuff but I often dislike it in equal measure when it’s at its drippiest and most wistful. And although Such Fun does live up to it’s name in terms of its upbeat demeanour, with Annuals merrily bouncing their way through, there is an irritating amount of the drippy wistfulness.
There’s a bit of country and western in here too, not always a guarantor of disappointment but if you’re going to do it, do it well, unlike the gently waa-ing guitars of Always Do. The highlight of the album comes from Talking, the one song that sounds least like the rest. For me it provided a welcome break from the generic lyrics and lacklustre feel of the rest of Such Fun.
Track 10, Blue Ridge does seem to have lost the plot completely. It starts with the sound of a child crying and the sympathetic voice of vocalist Adam Baker asking “what’s wrong?” Cue a song that’s wetter than October, and the earlier question “what’s wrong?” could be answered in a vast myriad of ways…
In the words of Vince Noir, the Annuals are “about as edgy as a satsuma”. (He didn’t say that about the Annuals specifically, although I kind of imagine he would). My mum would probably like this album actually, she would say it’s “nice”. Even the names of the songs are dull, Hot Night Hounds being the only one that jumps out at me.
With a name like Such Fun, you would hope that’s an accurate description of what it is like to listen to the album. Unfortunately, Such Mediocrity would have been a title better suited to this effort.
By Mark Williams
Annuals – Wet Zoo EP
The new EP from Annuals “Wet Zoo” is a interesting take on the split EP. On the record, we get three songs from Annuals and also two songs by a strange side project called Sunfold. Sunfold is actually a band side project featuring songs written by the bands lead guitars Kenny Florence and featuring a cast of characters along the way. Let us first take the new batch of songs from Annuals. The first song is “Score” that starts off as a quite and powerful acoustic ditty. Then about two minutes in it explodes to new heights with something that sounds so epic it should be the rallying song for some sort of march. Next up we have “Around Your Neck” and it shifts gears to a punchy rock song that turns into an Arcade Fire like climax. The final song from Annuals is a touching ballad called “Just Stay In.” The band has created a song of elegant beauty. The songs touching string arrangement moves along at just the right pace and never straying away from that soft tone.
Sunfold now gets two songs here to make its mark. The songs do represent a great departure from Annuals sound as they both of them or more guitar heavy and leaning toward a more tradition rock sound. “Between The Worlds” at various times his it moments but sometimes the vocal just stray to far into the ‘annoying” side. Then the next track “Watering Pill” still contains those really high falestos that just do not sit well with me at all. The Annuals songs really struck a chord with me and clearly I am not listening to the band enough. The Sunfold songs left a little to be desired but there is some potential there for a solid pop/rock base but maybe a little more Foo Fighters and less falsettos.
By John Siwicki