The songs have layered guitars peppered with ambient sounds that help set the mood with melodic vocals. There’s hints of a shoegaze influence in some of the guitar parts and the songs are equally catchy and soothing at the same time. The music is really quite mellow overall but it’s the intricate song structures that make [Actors&Actresses] stand far above the hundreds of indie rock bands out there today...
...I was surprised by how often I reached for this record in the stack for repeated listens...
...Actors and Actresses turned out to be a wonderful discovery for the label and for myself.
~ MXV, The Punk Vault - November 2009
Almost like ambient rock, shadowy drums press against the elegantly poetic vocals of Scott Bennett who also plays bass. The bleak strains of guitarist Andrew Schiller are often heard intensely twisting against a rigid yet fully capable drum kit masterfully executed and made entrancing by Dave Sumner...
...Huge leaps of artistic sonic undulation make Arrows as multidirectional as its title. The other side of this musically poignant release is that the songs come alive by a sort of rare instrumentation and care in handling that proves itself righteous over and over.
~ Chanda Jones, Short and Sweet NYC, Sept. 2009
[A&A] fill a ton of space for a trio, without ever being even remotely heavy...
...It's like huge, post-metal, but with melodic shoegaze vocals and a couple Valium after all the bong rips - slowed down, but still complex. Something that's usually "crushing" is more like "soothing," with just a few details switched around.
...Overall, it works. ~Stuart Anderson, The New Scheme
These gents are flat spitting out some heart of American goodness in the form of experimental yet retro sound waves. The moment that “Dig to China” starts echoing in, my cerebral cortex immediately flashed the cover of Failure's Fantastic Planet...
...Like most bands who dabble in this genre, there are many thought pondering moments of ambiance and aural helter skelter. “Quiet” is a track that perfectly displays this ability. By merging the spaciness of a band like Constants with the nerdy genius of Shiner or The Life And Times, they've honed a talent that, while extremely niche-based, is also insanely brilliant. ~Adam Roncaglione, Rabbit Hole Music and Publications
When you have a nine-track album you trim the fat and do what you must to get the job done...Arrows never self-indulges; never gets too pretentious for its own good. It makes a statement, then moves on to make another. This does work to the band’s advantage like in ‘Murder’. Most of the tracks on Arrows last an average of five minutes, but ‘Murder’ is the shortest non-interlude song, lasting only two. It may be short, but it feels fully fleshed out. Its potential is definitively realized by the artist...
this album is not a piece of work to be understood and appreciated instantly. It might reveal itself to the listener at a snail’s pace, but the music itself unfolds immediately...
Arrows, even with its faults, is a good album, and certainly a worthy addition to the celebrated Mylene Sheath roster ~ John Spencer, Sun On The Sand, August 2009
Kansas City’s Actors&Actresses’ latest, Arrows, is an homage to an overlooked and mostly forgotten genre, a style of music often defined as shoegazer. This swirling mix of post-punk and psychedelia emerged from Europe in the ’90s, flying so low below radar that it went unnoticed by a majority of American audiences...
...It’s easy to get lost listening to Arrows. The band relies on slow tempos and beautiful, somber melodies punctuated by haunting noises and held together by barely there vocals...
...Arrows isn’t really something that can be appreciated piecemeal. Each song on its own would seem lost when taken out of context. That’s not to say there’s a bad track on this album. There isn’t. It’s just a collection better understood in its entirety... ~ Liz Garcia, INK Magazine, June 2009
It's been 3 years since Kansas City's shoegazing 3-piece Actors&Actresses released its first EP, We Love Our Enemy. But after months of hard work the band is nearing the debut of its first full-length album, Arrows. It comes out on June 9th on Ohio label The Mylene Sheath.
Listen to the new album and you can tell it's been painstakingly crafted: The sound is icy, ambient and at times thunderous. It's experimental. Backward sounds laced throughout create an eerie vibe...
~ Sarah Benson, Ink Magazine, April 2009
If Sigur Ros gives us the sounds of glaciers grinding together, what KC's Actors & Actresses - whose moody post-rock is in some ways similar but more direct emotionally and less majestic overall - offer up is more intimate, somewhere between icebergs and ice cubes, the aural equivalent of something hard and frozen bobbing in water warmer than itself.
It's the sound of melting.
The trio's songs start with what seems like chilly restraint, a sound sometimes plodding and distant. But, as the slow riffs repeat, Andrew Schiller's guitar thickens and Scott Bennett's vocals lift into a warm falsetto. Best is the stately psychedelia of "Poverty," a seven-minute grind that seems slight at first but eventually makes you sweat.
For 25 minutes, these four tracks swell and sulk, accumulating power through the band's skillful repetition, each building to climaxes both meditative and muscular, each a mellow roar.
~ Review of We Love Our Enemy EP, Pitch Music, Feb. 06
O'Leaver's, well, you just can't beat it for its low-down, intimate vibe. You never know what you're going to get on any given evening. It could be absolute shit; it could be one of the best performances of the year. Saturday night's show was the latter.
Actors & Actresses, a three-piece that drove up from Kansas City, rifled through an amazing set of gritty, fuzzy, feedback-smeared slow-churners. Shoegazer on steroids. Someone referenced Sigur Rós... This was head-trip music. As one guy said, "I should have taken that acid before the set."
They were the first band in a long time that showed a video during a performance that actually enhanced the experience -- the collection of shots ranged from show-motion explosions to grainy b&w landscapes to atmospheric, decaying set pieces.. Well-edited and always interesting, and a perfect compliment to their sound.
And speaking of sound, the audio level also was perfect -- loud, but not painful. There was no need for earplugs. There also was no escaping its intensity, which is another thing I like about O'Leaver's...There's no place to hide in O'Leaver's. You cannot escape the music, and as a result, you're forced to pay attention...
~ Tim McMahan, Lazy I.com reviewing for the Omaha Reader
we have a new song up, it's a rough mix of the song, but worth the listen. the song title is "smoke, girls, and caffiene". also read the blog for a little history of the song. let us know what you think.
Hey there. Thanks for the add. I just created a forum last night and am trying to gather a community of musicians. Come join and post if you get a chance. Stay in touch.
