The Features have deflected enough false starts and dead-ends to kill most groups. Absorbed in full, it’s quite the litany of misfortune: at least two unreleased full-length albums to close out the ’90s; a pair of fruitless label dalliances; the departure of three band members. It’s oddly fitting, then, that the Features’ new LP is a self-titled affair. And apparently they’re also late-bloomers, given the measurable bump in song quality and musicianship that propels The Features (Serpents & Snakes/BMG). With its four members now well into their 30s, the band sounds like it’s just now coming into its own. Singer/guitarist Matthew Pelham, keyboardist Mark Bond, bassist Roger Dabbs and drummer Rollum Haas will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new Features feature.
Rollum: Part of my adherence to these is my stubborn resistance to recording/instrument technology, but I also think they have qualities that are inimitable by digital recorders. Limitations can be a good thing, and a lot of people don’t have the ability to exercise restraint or get overwhelmed with the seemingly limitless options that digital recording offers.
I’m by no means opposed to digital recording, and plenty of records I love were made only using software, but I’ll always have a fondness for four-tracks. They’re cheap, readily available, sound good, can be physically manipulated, cassettes will likely be made for a while (prisons use them because it’s much harder to make a shiv out of one than a CD or LP), and they encourage a type of creativity that digital recording doesn’t.
Video after the jump.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxNoZoQRaYE
