Twin Cabins
So now I know a little more about who this Twin Cabins is. I asked him a bunch of questions and he gave me a bunch of pretty good answers. Which was very kind of him.
Mark Richardson already tentatively said that this could be the year of retro. Every single year we hear people doing what’s already been done but recently there seems to be an ever present clear divide as to who does it badly and who does it well. Refreshingly there seems to be a lot of people doing it very well. Twin Cabins told me his real name was Nacho Cano, an SD native originally from Toluca, Mexico. The internets awash with crap so for now I’ll just have to say his story checks out. Like last years beautiful breakouts, Wild Nothing, somewhere along the line this guys obviously listened to Pavement and on paper there’s nothing resoundingly unique about his music yet it is deeply personal and somehow he does a pretty great job of making it his own. It’s instantly enjoyable and when you find it, you can’t help but pat yourself on the back.
It’s another example albeit a rougher one, of how people can use music from the past as a relevant vehicle for the now. Not just a nostalgia trip that will ultimately never kick in considering a lot of people listening to indie rock were not born before 1980. There’s something that makes it difficult to dismiss and easy to become addicted to, in his emails he mentioned a number of convoluted love stories being the reason that he makes music and although that’s not always clear in his lyrics these feelings of love, conflict and melancholy are rarely lost.
“Twin Cabins and most of the songs emerge from the two girls I fell in love with simultaneously in high school. They both proved to be very inspirational but with different results.”He’s a self described “Tragic Optimist” but that’s okay, it makes for a nice icing on these songs. There’s no question who he likes musically so when I wrote to him the only inspiration question I asked was how much he loves Wild Nothing (somewhat mockingly), the answer, non surprisingly was a lot. “Lonely Summer” his latest feverishly addictive and beautiful cut borrows heavily from Tatum, especially Summer Holiday. He described with vigour meeting Wild Nothing mastermind Jack Tatum and giving him his demo tape, which he seems to think he liked, and honestly I’d be surprised if he didn’t. “Laika”, a charming tale about that one dog that went into space is closely married to Beach Fossils’ track “Twelve Roses.” Yet the lyrics, the only ones that seem removed from his resounding themes are quirky and interesting enough that you don’t care. Not to mention the presence of a signature of a great indie rock song – some beautiful glistening guitar at the end… and I can hear The Walkmen in there as well.
While one thing you can take away from these assortment of tracks and EP’s is 4AD, Factory, and Slumberland records get played a lot in his house. If you were less of a dick you’d also get the feeling there’s still a constantly reverberating sense that this guy is a fan who understands his record collection to the point where he can use it to express himself, and do it brilliantly. There’s some surprisingly deep cuts amongst his work as well, Madisn is a 15 minute sweeping ambient instrumental, if he learnt to control tracks like that in an album context to break up the referencing he could unlock something pretty powerful as they are very much his own. If anything they feel loosely to me like Ryan Potts, who records and releases music under the name Aquarelle. And I doubt Twin Cabins has ever listened to that guy – a self proclaimed non musician.
When he talked of meeting Tatum he said “We talked about my music, how I got there and how he came to find his career. I am still trying. I borrow a lot of elements, for one; I play every instrument by myself, and I produce master and create everything on my own at home in San Diego.” When I asked him about Australia he let me know that he doesn’t think we all ride kangaroos and then made fun of himself for bringing up Wolf Creek, which I actually thought was pretty cool. I guess what I’m trying to say is he doesn’t come across as thinking he’s going to redefine music - more that he’s proud of this stuff and just wants to share it.
Check out his music, it’s all free and available here, you can choose to pay for it if you like and I can guarantee if you like any of the artists listed above you’ll get a lot out of it.
Get It here and hope this guy keeps making music. http://twincabins.bandcamp.com/
:D
