Globalization Meets Instrumental Rock in City of Echoes

Chicago-based rock band Pelican released the album City of Echoes last week. According to their website, Pelican has been touring domestically and internationally for several years now. Their latest album attempts to encapsulate their collective sense of place gained from roaming from club to club and from city to city in the age of globalization. While the album's monotonous melodies sometimes make the listener anxious and sometimes outright bored, according to one of the band's guitarists Laurent Schroeder-Lebec, quoted in a June 14 SF Station review, they are so on purpose to convey the album's main theme.


"City of Echoes stands for the feeling of sameness brought on by globalization. It's visiting countries and seeing slight differences through the window, only to end up at the club and feel like you didn't see anything at all, but it's also a tribute to the joy that burns inside when you reach a place and people who don't speak your language are rooting for your songs and welcoming you into their unique
environment."


The album's title track and a track entitled, "Bliss in Concrete", shift from steadily vacillating cruising rhythms to abrupt and shattering sections that serve to shock and disorient the listener. The often monotonous portions are greater than than shifting beats and seem to accentuate the globalization theme. The sameness is frustrating, yet comforting, serving to dilute the "culture shock" when it appears. The title track is available on the band's MySpace page and the "Bliss in Concrete" track is available on the intro to the band's homepage, where albums are available for sale. For a short history of Pelican and the making of its new album check out a recent Decibel cover story on the band.