May 2011
1 post
October 2010
1 post
Original version of Heart Of Stone. Recorded in...
September 2010
2 posts
August 2010
5 posts
Upcoming Shows
The Makeout Room Saturday August 28th 3225 2nd Street San Francisco, CA 94110 with Hudson Bell
Music OMH Album Review
“Their second release on HDIF, Constellations follows the self-recorded, prickly lo-fi of 2008’s The Penguin League. They’ve come a long way since then - added a few more instruments, fine-tuned their ’60s pop sensibilities and been given a good polish - but not at the expense of what made HDIF fans fall in love with their laptop recorded debut.
The uninitiated could...
WatchRight before our second show in England we recorded this acoustic set with Brixton Sessions. At this point, we were used to playing with a full band so the performance is a little shakey -but for the most part it turned out alright.
Bearded Magazine Album Review
“Constellations quickly moves from that twinkling, bittersweet intro to more characteristically exuberant indie-pop, all jaunty pianos, jangling guitars and fey handclaps. Much like their first full-length, McKeever and co twist the dial towards the line marked ‘twee’ and then up another few notches, but when quick-fire pop songs are dispatched with such glee it’s hard not to warm to a...
Upcoming Shows
Friday 13th, August 8:00pm - Spooky Luau! “Lū’au! Zombies! Poi! Blood! More poi! Beer!”
Hawthorne House 3229 Elm Street Oakland, CA 94609 with Iji, That Blasted Hound, Dog Breath, Glass Cake Saturday 14th, August 9:00pm - Kimo’s
Kimo’s Bar & Lounge 1351 Polk St. San Francisco, CA 94109 with The 21st Century, Mark David Ashworth
July 2010
6 posts
Across The Sea
England went by in a blur of shows and people and trains and sights. Riding the double-decker buses around London, I would jump out of my seat every time we passed the London Eye. Indietracks was beautiful - I didn’t think a festival could ever feel so welcoming and friendly. On the first evening, we arrived to see Allo Darlin’ play the outdoor stage with the sun setting behind them...
WatchHere’s a short video of us performing a section of “Straight To Your Heart” at SF Popfest last month. Nice voice crack at 0:42.
We're Traveling Abroad!
That’s right, this month we’re going to be heading across the country and then across the Atlantic Ocean to perform in GREAT BRITAIN! I’m still kind of amazed that this is going to be happening - and so soon! Here are the details:
The Luminaire - Wednesday July 21st
with Allo Darlin’ and The Smittens
Brixton Jamm - Thursday July...
Couple More..
A couple more reviews here. I think the Odd Box one is my favorite so far since they weren’t in to The Penguin League that much..
Odd Box Blog
The LP is a million times better than it’s predecessor – the pop music on show here is clever and clear – the closest sister LP I can think of at the moment is the one I’ve just released by One Happy Island. Admittedly Antarctica Takes It!...
June 2010
9 posts
More Reviews
I’m Into CB
I was in love with their little lo-fi debut album The Penguin League, and thankfully their newest album Constellations doesn’t suffer from overproduction, preserving that undefinable (but probably “cute”) charm without making it sound forced. Kudos and tapping feet to these dudes.
No Fear Of Pop
Antarctica Takes It! are six incredibly young and...
Now for something from the archives. This is a...
Some Recent Reviews And Mentions
Another Form Of Relief
While it certainly retains the pop sensibilities of the first record, it’s clear that the band has grown in the past four years. Arrangements are more intricate and while at the start it seems a rather restrained affair, the song eventually cuts loose in the second half and the manic energy that popped up on the first record appears once again.
Side One: Track One
...
Rough Trade
Constellations is now available for pre-release on the Rough Trade website. They wrote up a little article about the album too! Here’s an excerpt…
…with his second album, he appears to have bought himself a microphone and perhaps even spent some time in a proper studio, because he takes the lo-fi spirit of the first record and introduces it to all the clarity and beauty...
May 2010
7 posts
We've Gone Digital!
You can now stream and download both Constellations and The Penguin League in their entirety right over here. Or, just click on the play buttons over on the right column. Enjoy!
SF Gate
In the SF Gate today, there’s a nice article about our friend Aaron and the upcoming Popfest he has been putting together. ATI is mentioned too. Check it out!
Mail Order - Monday
Ugh! Some problems with UPS so the shipment won’t arrive until Monday. Very frustrating. But I’m planning on taking mail-orders for the records then. Hopefully they actually arrive…
In the meantime, here’s a little write up about Constellations I did for HDIFTBL. After The Penguin League was released, I didn’t write any songs for an entire year. I thought about...
Shows In May
9:00 Saturday, May 22nd
Subterranean Art House 2179 Bancroft Way Berkeley CA 94704 with Glass Cake and Winnie Byrd.
8:00 Friday, May 28th
SF Popfest - Bottom Of The Hill 1122 17th St @ Missouri San Francisco CA 94107 with Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, Nodzzz, and English Singles
In Eight Days
a shipment of 1,000 copies of Constellations will be on my door. I keep listening to the album on my computer and I go back and forth about whether the songs sound good or not. Sometimes I feel proud and excited about how they’re sounding and I get up and pace around the living room. Other times, I doubt them and feel that they’re flawed and incohesive and I get up and pace around...
April 2010
3 posts
Last night,
I dreamt that I was walking the kids home from school and it was raining and I was writing a song in my head. I imagined a girl on stage because she would sing the song. The chorus went:
Hey Sandy/ understand me/ can’t you tell that I’m in love with you?
Then I woke up and I though, who’s Sandy? And are those the kind of lyrics I’d write?
March 2010
11 posts
Thanks! Pt.3
Today was the last day of funding for our Kickstarter project and I’m proud to announce that we made it! So here’s the last round of thank-yous to our supporters:
Tom, Simran, Doc Cooper, Florence, Ann-Dee, Ahblocky, Ashley, Sean, Jonathan, Kelly B, Paul, GRBrit, and Brian!
Heartache with Hard Work has a nice write up on our song, C&F.
It’s got a lot of that 60s era vim and vigor, with words that seem to stumble over themselves with how eager they are to get out into the bright spring sun. And, as always, the instruments bring the magic, with a great little bass beat, skittering piano, string, horns, and anything else you’d ever want.
Read on..
WatchTyler and Vanessa lookin’ like a couple of sweeties for the new/old James Rabbit Snowblind song.
jamesrabbit:
The music video for “Candles” from our album Snowblind.
Featuring Vanessa Waring, being wonderful.
GOOOOOOOAAALL! →
Time to get to work, dude.
MSTRNG
Today I drove to San Francisco to get Constellations mastered. The sound guy had to do quite a bit of editing because he said everything was WAY TOO LOUD and way too centered. Despite this, I think we got a good take for the album. It’s full and dynamic and now I just have to listen to it on different stereos for a few dayz.
February 2010
7 posts
“i dreamt last night that i was about to go on tour with antarctica takes it...”
– “you told me dylan had died though and not to bring it up because it was a sensitive subject. before we left we finger painted a wall using pink and yellow and blue, but it was more of high fiving the wall with our painting hands. then a hummingbird landed on my finger because i called it by...
Thanks! Pt. 2
We’ve got about a month left on Kickstarter and are only $134 shy of our $2,000 goal. So once again, here’s a big THANKS to everyone who has been a part of this!
Rodney, Randy, Joyce, Christopher, Adrienne, Robin, Melisse, Sally, Grandma, Aunt Mel, Ahblock, Danaface, Charles, Eli, Joanna, and Anna!
WatchA couple of years ago I wrote a song for a movie called Sweet Thing and I’ve been trying to record a new version for “Constellations.” It’s mostly been frustrating but today I worked something out on ukulele that might be passable. We’ll see.
ST
I’m thinking more and more about putting an eleventh song on the album. It’s an old one that I’ve been trying to re-record but it sounds way too folky and would kinda stick out among the others. I might try to cut down the instrumentation so it would sound more like the other sparser songs particularly “Bossa” and “Voices” where it’s mostly...