Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
[ download ]
Although “Bugs” begins with a folksy veneer, it soon reveals itself to be much more than a wispy strum-along. Eschewing the alternative acoustics of acts like Fleet Foxes, O’Death instead opt to craft songs which make respectful nods toward the stringed music of Appalachia but whose wingspan lifts them to far loftier heights. Through a whirl of fiddle, banjo, and ukulele (in addition to more traditional rock’n'roll accompaniment), the New York City quintet showcases intricately interwoven melodies against singer Greg Jamie’s feathery vocals.
“Bugs” opens the band’s new third full-length, Outside, which was released by the Ernest Jenning Record Co. this past April. The tune is representative of the band’s ethos: very approachable yet quite clever and filled with all sorts of little surprises (a rhythmic shift here, a contrapuntal phrase there) which make it a pleasurable game of discovery for the listener. Brevity is another one of “Bugs”‘ virtues; that O’Death manage to pack so many musical ideas and textures into just over two minutes makes the song all the more impressive and amenable to repeated spins.
(53 votes, average: 8.53 out of 10)
Loading ...
Site designed and hosted by 
May 26th, 2011 at 12:17 pm
really great
May 27th, 2011 at 11:08 pm
It’s been months since a song immediately connected with me like this. Thank you.
June 2nd, 2011 at 11:33 am
O’Death elicits a secret giggle from the eight-year-old inside of me, because I went to an elementary school called O’Dea. I wish I would have been clever/melodramatic enough to call it O’Death back then.
June 2nd, 2011 at 8:47 pm
Just like PLQC, it’s incredibly rare that I listen to a song, and it grabs me from the start like this did. On OneTrack, I usually have to listen to a song a few times before I begin to learn the twists and turns of it. But with ‘Bugs’, I was a goner from the first lines. Thank you so much for providing such wonderful music for my ears.