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Let the Summer of Sound Team Begin

Sound Team makes a push to define the summer of 2006, at least musically.
Sound Team makes a push to define the summer of 2006, at least musically.

Every summer has that album: one that defines the season while hearkening back to the mysteries and epiphanies of summers past. This year's incarnation may well be the work of a band called Sound Team.

Like fellow Texas bands Spoon, Voxtrot and And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, Sound Team possesses a do-it-yourself ethos that has helped transform run-of-the-mill indie-rock into a meatier, more inventive and experimental genre. Sound Team’s self-released debut EP, Work, won the affection of many critics last year, and a full-length big-label follow-up has attracted anxious anticipation from fans who fear a shift to a more commercial sound.

No worries there. Though producer Mike McCarthy polishes up the band’s fuzzy rough edges, the forthcoming Movie Monster sounds both danceable and dark, with sharp melodies residing amid layers of atypical arrangements -- each song a little sonic collage. “Born to Please” ranks atop the list of songs most likely to take hold, and it’s likely to survive dozens of spins without getting tired. At least until autumn comes around again.

Listen to yesterday's 'Song of the Day.'

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David Brown
David Browne is a contributing editor of Rolling Stone and the author of Goodbye 20th Century: A Biography of Sonic Youth and Dream Brother: The Lives and Music of Jeff and Tim Buckley. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The New Republic, Spin and other outlets. He is currently at work on Fire and Rain, a book that will track the lives and careers of The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, James Taylor and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young during the pivotal year of 1970.