In the mood for something mathy?

Shout-out to my roommate Jon Mabb for sweating this band after he took a trip to Vermont and ended up meeting these guys through a mutual friend.

They’re called A Great Big Pile of Leaves.  If you’re a fan of Minus the Bear or Portugal. The Man, then this is going to be right up your alley.  Their new album, Have You Seen My Prefrontal Cortex, is being released on June 22nd – and to the best of my knowledge, they recorded it all themselves!

I’m more than just a little impressed with the quality of the production on this record.  The instruments are ambient, light and airy (but extremely technical).  I feel like studio engineers try to find clean, spongy guitar tones or crisp snare hits like this for years.  I’m almost obsessed with the sound the band captured on this record.  As an interesting contrast to the sometimes-hectic musicianship, the vocals are soothing and a little sleepy.  The songwriting is complicated and engaging even when the songs are plodding at a slow pace.  There are giant swells and just-as-epic lulls, making for a very textured and filling piece of art.  All told, this might be the summer evening album to get you through the next three sweltering months.

Here’s a stream of my favorite song on the album (so far), “A Few Screws Loose”

**Update: I set up a new twitter account for the blog. Follow @DailyRiffage**