Cut of the Day: Log Across The Washer, "When the Ghosts Come to Give us our Invitation" (Self-Released)

Time to fess up to something that could get me blacklisted here in my hometown: I never have liked And And And all that much. I sincerely get the appeal of our 2011 Best New Band, but it has yet to strike a real chord within me.

That said, I also confess to be fairly surprised that I've been so enamored with the solo work of that band's former co-leader Tyler Keene. His project, Log Across The Washer, has a amorphous quality and an adherence to lo-fi recording techniques that sends prickles of joy through my spine.

Take this track, for example. Despite its title, it is no Halloween-themed monster mash. The song (found on a two-track digital single free for download from the LATW site) rattles like a washing machine that keeps slipping in and out of alignment. The drums feel like they are going to spill over into a heap even as they try to keep a beat. It's a nice warning for that point midway through the song when it sounds as if the kit has started to fall apart and the players is trying desperately to keep some noise going.

The rest of the instrumentation follows that same path of devolution. It starts with a steadiness garage pop groove that smears into disarray over which Keene wails the song's title behind a curtain of reverb. Not creepy enough to put the fear into young trick-or-treaters, but ghostly enough to keep the goosebumps on your skin.