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Concert Thu Mar 08 2012
Unicycle Loves You (Yes, YOU)
Just in time to usher in days of sunshine and warmer weather, local trio Unicycle Loves You conjures a collection of tracks worthy of a season of beer-soaked house parties. Their third and latest album, Failure, finds the group (singer/guitarist Jim Carroll, singer/bassist Nicole Vitale, and drummer J.T. Baker) furthering their already-established sound: dreamy boy/girl vocals buried under a blanket of jangly guitar and loopy keyboard flourishes, typically with a earworm-catchy '90s feel reminiscent of everything from Guided by Voices and Dinosaur Jr. to My Bloody Valentine. (Even their video for "Piranha" smacks of a 120 Minutes vibe.)
Whereas their second album, 2010's Mirror, Mirror, was decidedly more relaxed, tapping a space pop-meets-Belle and Sebastian vibe, new songs like the opener "Garbage Dump" and "Wow Wave Cinema" are revved up and angular. The first half of Failure focuses on the party-party, while the second half winds down into something a bit more calm bordering on dawdling. But with a track like the breathy, make-out sleepy "Brand New Pillow," it turns out that the lull is just fine.
Unicycle Loves You is playing at the SXSW Send Off Party on Saturday, March 10, at the Hideout (1354 W. Wabansia). The show features gobs of bands including Kids These Days, In Tall Buildings, Musikanto, Hollywood Holt, The Waco Brothers, Outer Minds, Cains & Abels, Redgrave, Unicycle Loves You, Football, and Paper Thick Walls, is only $10, and starts at 1 p.m. Tickets are only available at the door.