(photo: Ian Darken)

When I hear a band is from Athens, Georgia, I tend to put too high an expectation on them, based on my deep love and respect for a couple of outfits that came out of there some twenty years ago that you’ve probably never heard of.  No one expects lightning to strike the same place twice, really, let alone five or six times, but there must be something down there in the water that breeds creativity and musical talent.

In the case of Venice Is Sinking, it’s more likely that these folks were born with innate musical talent as opposed to contracting some water-borne mutation.  Like the best of their city’s musical brethren, Venice Is Sinking have created their own niche genre–slow core space-age Americana with orchestral pop leanings–leaving the listener wondering how they ever survived without it.  Their second album, AZAR, was recorded with Scott Stolter (Mountain Goats) in an atmosphere of uncertainty; they were pretty much convinced this would be their last album., so they worked over eight months to create the album they always wanted to make.  The result is a truly beautiful collection of wistful songs about place, time, love and longing, and one of the brightest new discoveries of  2009.  You’ll shake and shimmy along with “Okay”; you’ll shake and shiver to the ominous David Lynch soundscape of “Sun Belt”.  Venice Is Sinking, and I’m going under for the third time, and absolutely loving every drowning minute.

MP3: Venice Is Sinking “Okay”
MP3: Venice Is Sinking “Ryan’s Song”
Myspace: Venice Is Sinking
Buy: Venice Is Sinking AZAR