It's Frightening

Recording information: Rare Book Room, Brooklyn, NY (11/2008-12/2008).
While White Rabbits are certainly not the first late-`00s band to marry percussion-happy world music to an indie rock mentality (see Vampire Weekend, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, et al.), few do it with such kitchen sink abandon as the Brooklyn band does on 2009's IT'S FRIGHTENING. "Lionesse," for example, opens Weill-sinister, builds into an electronic-indie loop with a mod-post-punk undercurrent, which within a minute gives way to a demented version of a Ben Folds riff, which in turn breaks into a maniacal mix of calliope drawl, sweet incantation, and noise, a descent into SGT. PEPPER'S-style madness. Indeed, a late-`60s Beatles spirit of experimentation within pop bounds thrives on an ever-morphing sophomore offering.