The second record from Stamen & Pistils is a diagonal step into new sonic terrain. On 2005’s End of The Sweet Parade, the band built a soundscape that was largely reliant upon density for texture, with lyrical themes focused on the follies of youth, as well as passionate reactions to love and loss. But now, the band’s follow-up, Towns, sees them stripping that sonic and lyrical method down to the barest elements. The sound is refined, yet gritty, while maintaining a sparse, but textured, space throughout. Their expanded lineup now includes drummer/percussionist John Masters, whose contributions add to the organic presence in the music’s dialogue between man and machine.
At times, Towns approaches a dark, broken, Southern Gothic aesthetic, but without explicitly pursuing that specific sound. This is reflected more in the moods and lyrical content, albeit in a non-traditional form. This new sound is comprised of beat-up, vintage reedy wind instruments, keys, guitars, and vocals, all recorded and played through futuristic tools. The record time-travels through inhabited spaces — both actual and imagined — exploring an emotional relationship between the metropolis and the more private realms of rural expanses in a unique fashion.
Hailing from Washington D.C., Stamen & Pistils have built a sound atypical of what is commonly expected from this city. Acoustic based folk-pop, filled out with programmed beats and synths form a sort of controlled chaos. Influenced as much by the future as by anachronism, Stamen & Pistils aim to create something new and sincerely their own: a highly textured sonic pallet of fuzzy deconstructed pop.
Towns features beautiful backing vocals by Carol Bui and Mikal Evans (Gypsy Eyes, Revival); additional production and mixdown by T.J. Lipple (Aloha); and mastered by Devin Ocampo (Mary Timony, Medications) for Silver Sonya Studios. Including members of Metropolitan, Person, and Radel Esca, the band has shared the stage with such notable acts as Akron/Family, The Dirty Projectors, Beach House, Telepathe, Asobi Seksu, The Blow, Dear Nora, and more.
SELECTED PRESS FOR TOWNS
"Stamen & Pistils = Neutral Milk Hotel + Animal Collective + electronic folk-indie noise
“Stamen & Pistils pack a violent and forceful punch of dark electro-pop with an indie rock twist and top it all off with a sprinkling of folk flavor. Towns is an intriguing release by a talented artist." –Jeremy C. Wilkins, SLUG MAG
“Like old favorite Hannah Marcus (though less haunting), Stamen & Pistils cobble together something of a workable balance [of folk & electronic sounds], replete with delicate melodies and surprising turns.”- Paper Thin Walls
"This is hardly a pop record, but it's an absolute joy to hear. There's
a fine art to making non-commercial music easy listening fodder.
Stamen & Pistils have mastered this dramatically. Towns is suitable
for pushing a trolley around numbered aisles while still hinting at
the potential for a Natural Born Killers style incident. I can't fault
it. --Tom Lee, Treble Zine
“It’s apparent that De Leon could make a career on the neo-folk circuit, if only he and his bandmates could resist marring his pretty ballads with shards of noise. But “Towns” is distinctive exactly because they can’t.” -- Mark Jenkins, Washington Post
“Try to imagine the drama of Morrissey, without his Oscar Wilde impersonation, melding into the fastidious pop sensibility of The Church, mixed with the open-ended idea of electronica, which allows for a scattershot landscape of sound and experiment.” -- Left of the Dial
“Who wouldn’t be proud of their music scene when it boasts such up-and-comers and luminaries in waiting as Stamen & Pistils.” - Smother.net
SELECTED PRESS FOR END OF THE SWEET PARADE
"For a city that has long fostered a reputation as a musical hotbed, Washington DC hasn't produced anything the least bit surprising in ages -- until now. Lovely and lovable seemingly in spite of itself, End of the Sweet Parade is a wispy, hotwired collection of nouveau-folk bedroom pop that wavers between shambolic Mangum-like rancor and gorgeous laptop-abetted mellifluousness. "Sleep for the Bells"'s cryptic crawl is at once caustic and serene, the beautiful bastard spawn of a fervent secret affair between Boards of Canada and Olivia Tremor Control. Insightful beyond its early years and brimming with blissful sorrow, End of the Sweet Parade is clearly only the beginning for the talented duo."-- Jason Jackowiak, SPLENDID
"[I]t seems like Stamen & Pistils is fighting against the "everything that can be done has already been done" mentality with this.release, and its incredibly refreshing to hear a new point of view on music in general."—Nick Cox, The New Scheme
".appealingly dense. Titles such as "Penny Farthing Fair" give some idea of this duo's folkie core, but not of what happens next. Drones, bangs and whooshes mingle with the multitracked harmonies, creating both stylistic friction and a formidable sense of space. .it is richly textured and consistently inventive.-- Mark Jenkins, Washington Post
Human loves gentle unfolding blooms and the savage thorns and pricks hidden beneath form the staple inspiration for the groups lyrics. On Handpainted Characters, over the strummed acoustic guitars and lo-fi drumming, the singer laments that his lover wants too much from him in a voice that seems weary with the knowledge that in human affairs it was ever thus. The self-explanatory Friction (pt 1 & 2) uses a backdrop of glitch samples, with a spiders web of guitar harmonics over the top"--Nick Southgate, The Wire
".a bizarre group, altogether unconventional and jarring to the ears. But that's exactly why they're so interesting. If Animal Collective were remixed or Hood played up the quirk factor a little more, it would sound something like this."--Jeff Terich, Treblezine
".Stamen and Pistils show greater interest in the deconstructive side of contemporary pop (more aggressively so than, say, Wilco)."--Justin Cober-Lake, Stylus
"Done in a breathless half an hour, the sweet acoustics and electro-pop flourishes of this sort-of EP definitely make Stamen & Pistils ones that more adventurous Stars fans may want to keep an ear out for. With an impressive indie warbling leading the guitar and electronic beats through their journeys, it is in the balance between the beats and more traditional music that Stamen & Pistils find their triumph."--Chris Whibbs, Exclaim!
".Stamen & Pistils’ recent full length “End of the Sweet Parade” is captivating in its gloom. In some ways, this DC duo is on par with indie-darlings Animal Collective or Devendra Banhart–folk music at heart that is twisted and warped into something far more interesting and challenging. But while Banhart and Animal Collective rely on more organic instrumentation to achieve their innovation, Stamen & Pistils look toward electronic drums, blips, white noise, and other samples to push at folk’s tattered edges."--Chris Connelly, OnTap
"They have taken the best parts of Arcade Fire and Postal Service, mixed them with a beat-up guitar they stole from a homeless guy and threw it all into "End of the Sweet Parade." Stamen and Pistils is a great band with so much going on under the guise of a simple song that you can't help but listen to them again.I could listen to this all day.--Modern Fix
End of the Sweet Parade is very well-produced and beautifully lain out. The best songs on the album are “Handpainted Characters” and “Peonies and Dahlia Petals”, which both feel like they could go on forever, in the best possible way.--Kirsten Schofield, Bejeezus
"Electro indie rock takes a new experimental turn with this band. This was a hard band to compare directly to others because they are making original and intriguing music."--MP, Impact Press
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