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Some songs feel as though they were created in laboratories, the results of hours of pencils scribbling on notepads and test tubes pouring into each other. Other songs feel like they were found, as if they have always existed but just required the right musical geologist to pluck them from the soil. "Stereo Tonight" by Target Market would fall into the latter category. It is the marriage of an elementary guitar riff with a complicated vocal melody floating above a rhythm section that rolls patiently like a dimly lit 3 AM subway car. The fact that an ambulance drove by the band while the song was being recorded, coincidentally blaring its sirens into the drum microphones at the exact moment that the track self-destructs into a tornado of broken strings and cracked cymbals, only solidifies the song's desire to exist. It is the song that the Velvet Underground forgot to write in 1968, the song that slipped through the cracks during 1989's Daydream Nation sessions, and the song that 2015's lo-fi buzz band will be aping.
"Stereo Tonight" is just one of the standout tracks on Target Market's sophomore album Up on the Moon, recorded in various houses and apartments in their hometown of Edwardsville, Illinois. Target Market has existed since 2003 in several incarnations with singer/guitarist Nathan Bernaix serving as its nucleus, but Up on the Moon marks the group's official transition from curious project to confident rock band with hundreds of shows under their minivan seat belts. Their previous work garnered comparisons ranging from Q and Not U to Arcade Fire, but Moon hints at classic influences: Thin Lizzy's harmonizing lead lines, Sonic Youth's transcendent instrumental passages, and Pavement's slack-guitar gymnastics (minus their disrespect for musicality).
These timeless inspirations parallel Target Market's newfound fascination with simplicity. The complex arrangements and kitchen-sink overdubs that defined the group's 2006 debut No Thrills have been eschewed in order to shine a brighter light on Bernaix's thoughtful lyrics and deliberate melodies. This isn't to say that the other members merely serve to realize their lead singer's vision. Joe Winters emulates a sped-up drum machine on album closer "Marked for Death" and multiplies into three drummers on the high-fiving climax of "Space Tourists". Andrew Mossman's buzzing steamroller bass on "Highways" is as persistant as the dotted white lines on I-55, and he creates more melody on "Killer Cars" than either of his 6-string comrades. Clayton Parker's dizzying guitar line halfway through "Lakes and Streams" builds into an intensely satisfying release, and his endless synth lines on "Highways" make for some of the record's sweetest ear candy.
Throughout Up on the Moon, Nathan Bernaix's lyrics are brimming with self-awareness and restlessness. "Killer Cars" paints a stunningully accurate portrait of twenty-something boredom ("And we're thrown into another year with nothing to do/...our words are stronger and our drinks are too"), but the album's opening couplet captures its spirit quite well: "And the comets fall at your feet/ as if they were drawn to them naturally." Sometimes things fall from the sky and land where they belong. Sometimes songs are discovered rather than invented. Sometimes ambulances drive by at the perfect time. Sometimes bands from small towns in the Midwest make timeless indie rock records, and sometimes you hear a record like Up on the Moon by Target Market and you feel like the universe has properly aligned itself, if just for 32 minutes.
Written by: Ryan Wasoba
Check out our latest RFT review from Jan 16th at Cicero's HERE
Our new record No Thrills is now available for sale through www.afternoonrecords.com!
Click to order or download it on iTunes.
Target Market
No Thrills
AR029
$10
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