Plants & Animals are Growing with La La Land

"We're Plants and Animals 'cause we make music that's honest like a dog drinking water or a tree falling on a car and we do it with nothing but two guitars and a drum kit so we're not trying to fool anyone." - Warren Spicer.


Canadian indie rockers Plants and Animals dropped the second full length this spring (4/20) called La La Land.  Self-described as post-classic rock, described by the Montreal Mirror as a "folk-jazz-digital-improv trio," the sound of La La Land brings to mind the spacey acid deserts of the Meat Puppets, and some of the more lyric/melodic moments in the Modest Mouse/Cymbals Eat Guitars vein.  There is an air of the exotic, as on "Kon Tiki," and the American Southwest creeps in on some guitar leads that leave you feeling like you're standing on the floor of Monument Valley, as the album cover may hint.  Infectious riffing keeps this approaching ethereality on the ground, and also this cohesive  albums flows extremely well (the transition from "Swinging Bells" to "American Idol" is clutch). 

There is something spiritual in the echoing spaces of this album, but if it's church, it's peyote church.  Not to say its all that serious.  In reference to the intro track "Tom Cruz," they explain, "it was December, pre-Christmas, so we fuelled the session with rum and cokes. They made us feel like Tom Cruise. It gave us killer smiles and made our enemies wither." 

Humor and power, MIDI instruments and analog warmth, La La Land is delicious study in contradiction.  Sounds about right, right?

La La Land Zip