MP3: Irving - Death In The Garden, Blood On The Flowers

Hailing from LA, Irving are an indie rock band who are kind of unique in lacking a frontman/woman. Instead vocal and songwriting duties are shared by the whole band, and on their new record, Death In The Garden, Blood On The Flowers, the results are pretty great. It's the bands second full length after 2002's Good Morning Beautiful (they've also released a couple of EPs), and the single from it, Situation, has apparently been getting a fair bit of airplay on the American version of MTV2. The band have opened for The Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene and various other indie notables, and seem to be getting quite a bit of a attention.

So how do they sound? They use a lot of Beach Boys style vocal harmonies, and mix them with a pretty great knack for melody and some Death Cab/Modest Mouse style indie songwriting. I've only give it a few listens so far, but its got a very summery sound to it (production is shared by Phil Ek- known for his work with Modest Mouse/The Shins and Grandaddy's Jim Fairchild) and i'm pretty sure its going to be a big grower. Other comparisons floating around that i've heard include The Shins, Beulah and The Decemberists.


They also remind me of the midwest's Koufax, whose 2003 album Social Life (on Vagrant), I was a big fan of. It's something to do with those nice 60s pop harmonies. Irving's new record is definitely worth a listen, so if you like the songs, be a good human being and click here to buy it. Otherwise it comes out in American record stores this coming Tuesday.

The bands official site has some more music, tour dates, etc. Enjoy.

Irving - I'll Write the Song, You Sing For Me - MP3
Irving - Situation - MP3