Ticonderoga are a three-piece band of Raleigh, NC-based multi-instrumentalists. They play guitar-based indie rock that usually gets called "shambolic," and sound kind of like my friend Lain's band. Their press release calls their music "post-rock adventurism" with "quasi-folk acoustics." This pretty much means absolutely nothing, but sometimes Ticonderoga throw in some electronics, and sometimes they rock out. On "Snakes" they rock, and it sounds pretty good. It kind of reminds me of that English band.. what were they called? Aerogramme. I bet you forgot about them, too. Someone is crooning, someone is generally playing around with some oscillating effects, and then you have some pretty accomplished riffing. It all goes off very nicely, but there isn't really anything memorable going on.
There's a song called "Fucking Around" and a song called "Flippin' Burbs," which actually sounds kind of like Radiohead, a band that does not have a song called "Flippin' Burbs." "Why Do You Suppose" is good, though — it's catchy and has a little bit of a country strut, which is nice. Come to think of it, the whole second half of The Heilig-Levine LP is quieter than the first half, and the album's closer "Chatterton" is subdued enough to make those ample Gastr del Sol comparisons apt. Anyway, this is a pretty good record that some dudes worked pretty hard on. It has a really pretentious name, though.
1. Fucking Around
2. Centipede
3. They Can Run
4. Snakes
5. 1
6. Poison Control
7. Flippin' Burbs
8. Why Do You Suppose?
9. Sparrow
10. 2
11. Country Mouse
12. Town
13. Chatterton
More about: Ticonderoga
