Song of the Day: "Percussion Gun," White Rabbits

This song by this Columbia, Ohio-born, New York based band came out last year, but I've only recently discovered it through the magic of iTunes (and this pretty straightforward YouTube performance video).



If you're a fan of Spoon, you'll note that the track's got that band's footprints all over it, and that's no accident: Spoon's mainman Britt Daniels produced the record.

I could prattle on, music-nerd-style, about all the elements that sound so cool: The Adam-Ant-gone-indie dual drums pounding away; the cool way that Stephen Patterson's energized and searching vocals are often just accompanied by that percussion, or by a few stark guitar or piano notes; how the handclaps drive along the instrumental bridges; the great, jagged-crystal sheen of the production; yada, yada, yada.

But if you're in a stage of restless transition (and God knows I am right now), all of those pieces are just couriers. That relentless percussive drive, the backing vocals that sigh away like spirits that refuse to let Patterson (or the listener) let go, and the insistent gothic-barrelhouse piano capture a state of tensely-gorgeous psychic chaos better than a hundred pummelling power chords or a stadium-ful of mannered rock screamers ever could. It's all of the confusion and barely-contained tension you've ever felt (or feel in this particular Now); rolled into one arresting package. And it's beautiful.

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