| The Plastic Constellations: The Song Remains the Same |
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| Written by Steve McPherson | |
| Thursday, April 17, 2008 at 09:36 AM | |
 (l-r) Roske, Mader, Scharenbroich, and Allen - Photo by Stacy Schwarz There are fourth graders who have never known a world without The Plastic Constellations. Ten-year-olds, people: Kids who can walk and talk and read—some of them at a sixth- or seventh-grade level—and download songs illegally from the internet who have grown up secure in the knowledge that TPC is TCB—taking care of business. Where will the children go for their adrenaline shot of stuttering, crashing, anthemic post-punk? Who's going to rock them to sleep now that Jeff Allen, Aaron Mader, Jordan Roske, and Matt Scharenbroich are going on indefinite hiatus? Stream "Phantom Canyon" from We Appreciate You below: A couple of weeks ago, I sat down with the boys from TPC around drummer Scharenbroich's kitchen table. We talked about it all: Their decision to (kind of) call it quits, the songwriting and recording process behind their (perhaps) last album, We Appreciate You, their plans for the future, and all the amazing things they've done and seen in the past twelve and a half years (fine: there are seventh graders who've et cetera et cetera—even more impressive). And not one second of it was actually recorded. Stupid technology.  TPC's 2006 tours, courtesy of Alison Allen But as the van rolled on, so did life at home. Now, Allen, Roske, and Scharenbroich are all married, with Mader soon to follow, and Allen and his wife Alison are expecting their first child. The prospect of getting ready for months and months of touring following the release of the next album seemed daunting to say the least, and so last spring they decided it was time for a change. They hunkered down to write songs and rehearse before heading back to record with Joe Mabbott at Hideaway Studios, always with the intention of making an album that was more than the next one—it was one that might very well be the last one. Reluctant to shut the door completely, they're calling this a hiatus, but, as with any relationship, it's hard to tell if a break is really a harbinger of a TPC-less future. There aren't many bands in their mid-20s that can boast over a decade of experience, but despite their extended tenure on the scene in the Twin Cities, none of them (save for Mader, who makes beats for Doomtree and other rap artists under the name Lazerbeak) have other musical projects. We talked about the weirdness of that, of the feeling that this band is who they are in some fundamental way—Aaron from TPC or Jeff from The Plastics. That mentality has always been a cornerstone of the music they've made; they've become well-known for using the collective "we" far more than the singular "I" in their music. But on We Appreciate You a note of desperation has leaked into that all-together-now mentality—the band is simply desperate to include as many people as they can in this last great bear-hug of a record before they exit the stage. Before you hear a note of the new record, that much is apparent in the cover art.  "I haven't had any food and I've had three beers," singer/guitarist Jeff Allen confesses to me when we all reconvene after their Electric Fetus in-store to do a kind of re-interview, "so I'm buzzed enough to make some pretentious connections: A point that I was thinking about making but didn't [last time] is that the art plays into the 'we' thing a lot more on this record. Because this is the first time that we've been saying 'we' and it hasn't been the four of us, and I know that sounds so pretentious, but we've met so many people and made so many friends on the road, and it felt like everybody was going through the same stuff and trying to achieve the same goals. So it felt like the 'we' this time was about everyone that we had met. And when Matt came up with idea, it was just perfect."The "idea" was basically to have people submit photos of themselves for Scharenbroich (who's done the art for the past several albums) to illustrate and put on the cover. "The record art was conceived on a long drive," he says, "when we were trying to figure out what we were going to do with this huge summary [of a] record. And we knew we were going to name it We Appreciate You, which is such a broad stroke, you know? We asked people to submit their photos and contribute. Because, ultimately, the experience of being in this band has been this insane amount of traveling and meeting new people and growing into this gigantic, nationwide web of experiences and awesome things that have happened. And the cover is a visualization of that. So be a part of this thing with us because you've been huge for us. We want to give back because we appreciate you. You let us stay on your floor, so be a part of this record." The band got the royal artistic treatment as well, with each member getting his own spirit animal. "I know 'Beak definitely wanted his dragon," says bassist Jordan Roske. "That's just whatever. Were you adamant about your bald eagle?" he asks, turning to Allen. "I was not adamant. Tell us about the koalas," he fires back. "I have no idea," Roske replies. "I said just pick something. I think Matt just said koalas and I said, 'Yup! Sounds good.'" "I don't know why Matt got a duck-billed platypus," concludes Allen. They're also represented on the CD itself in a kind of coat-of-arms created for them by the guys at Hardland/Heartland, a design team who even managed to get one of the album's best songs named after them. "A wrench for Jordan," explains Mader. "The pie chart at the bottom—which I never got until just recently—is for Jeff," who makes his living off of spreadsheets and charts. Scharenbroich is represented by a pencil, fittingly, and Mader? "'Beak is the sword," says Roske. "Like if we were medieval warriors," Allen says, "this would represent our clan." If Crusades found them gearing up for an assault on the world, girding themselves with chainmail and swords for a quest of epic proportions, then We Appreciate You is the return to the Shire, with all the accompanying revelry in their deeds and a desire to share their stories. And so Mader's obsession with warriors and conflict is confined to a triptych of songs that straddles the middle of the album: "Perched on a Porch," "Flames and Rain," and "Disastrophe." Bookended by the more down-to-earth openers and closers, Mader is free to battle his demons (or dragons) in these tracks, which feel like a recounting and amplification of Crusades. Likewise, "Black Market Pandas," with its shout-outs to North Carolina, North Dakota, Manitoba, and others harks back to Mazatlan's "East Cleveland." The music, as well, is a consolidation of the titanic rockery of Crusades and the more playfully pop moments of Mazatlan. After twelve-plus years in the game, one thing that TPC are exceedingly good at is writing a TPC song, with Mader and Allen locking their horns on sixteenth note harmony guitar workouts that teeter and sometimes fall into prog territory. Meanwhile, Scharenbroich thrashes his kit with press rolls before stopping on a dime and slamming hard into a brutal backbeat while Roske lends toothy support on bass. To all this they've added subtle studio touches like keyboards, percussion, and whistling that will only begin to stand out after multiple listens.  Allen at SxSW - Photo by Steve McPherson "Crusades didn't get super-awesome until we came home after the first tour or the second tour [when] you play these songs and people are into them and they know them," says singer/guitarist Aaron Mader. "It's weird to go out and playing an entire new album that no one's really heard." Out of sympathy for their fans and their own sense of what makes a kickass show ("I know that when I go to a show, I don't want to hear new shit that I haven't heard," Mader says), their set at the CD release show at First Avenue will be more old than new, not to mention including a few surprises that I'm not allowed to talk about. Anyone who's been to one knows these guys take their release shows seriously, even if they never take themselves seriously, and it's sure to be a memorable night. It's not until I really start thinking about what's going to happen on Saturday night that it all starts to get to me a little. I'll confess: I've written no fewer than five articles about The Plastic Constellations since I first started writing about music in 2005, which is a lot of articles about one band. Despite their hungover state, I watched them slay a modest crowd under a green-and-white-striped tent at South by Southwest this year. I took ridiculous photos of them shooting three-pointers and attempting dunks in the freezing cold for a cover story for Pulse when Crusades came out. I drunkenly sang along to every word when they played Joe Mabbott's and my co-birthday party at Joe's old studio space. I hung out with them in New York the week when all their gear was stolen at CMJ. And the very first time I saw them at the Triple Rock in 2005, I was simply jealous. My band—and my dreams of rock stardom—had ended in 2004 with not a bang, but a whimper, playing what would turn out to be our last show in front of four people in an unfamiliar bar in western Massachusetts. And here was a band just coming into their own, playing music so fiercely full of life that it couldn't help but pull you in. They blitzed the stage at the Triple Rock that night, overflowing with dreams and desires, and I was pissed because it wasn't me. But their gig on Saturday night, if it turns out to be their last, won't be by accident. They'll be going out on top, with their eyes wide open and faces forward, except for those moments when they'll be looking at each other, the joy of the night tempered, but not dampened, by the tiny knots in their stomachs that tell them, "This might be it." Stream "So Many Friends" from We Appreciate You below: Most reviews of We Appreciate You will inevitably focus on the album's closing track, "So Many Friends." For one thing, it's unlike any other Plastic Constellations song, built around handclaps, acoustic guitar, and a cooing hook that gives way to horns and a farewell-for-now chorus that promises, "With so many friends / we're bound to last till the end / we're bound to start it again." But with its message of unity and tireless work against the odds, it's also easy to see it as the ultimate TPC song, in more ways than one. Last song, last album. But really, it's just the song they've always sung, finally given form, voice, and a place, fittingly, at the end. COMING UP: The Plastic Constellations CD Release Show for We Appreciate You. With Doomtree, The Millionth Word, and Shoe Shiners. Saturday, April 19. First Avenue. 6 pm. $6. 18+. |
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| Last Updated: Thursday, April 17, 2008 at 05:41 PM |
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