Quantcast

Call for Music Critics and Music Bloggers

Music
cover art

Aarktica

Matchless Years

(Darla; US: 13 Oct 2007; UK: Unavailable)

In Greenpoint, Brooklyn there’s a bar called Matchless which sits adjacent to the hipster haven, McKarren Park. Over the past few years this once dilapidated neighborhood has seen a significant migration of young artists and musicians—bringing up the property value and driving the polish immigrants mad. One of the youngster’s preferred watering holes happens to be Matchless and one of these transplant musicians happens to be Jon DeRosa, the experimental songwriter behind Aarktica. DeRosa has written his most recent opus about this fabled bar and the surrounding areas which he has recently called his home. By recruiting some of indie rock’s more accredited musicians (such as Gretta Cohn of Cursive on cello) Matchless Years has more of a traditional approach compared to Aarktica’s previous experiments in post-rock. DeRosa’s lazy baritone is slightly similar to The National’s Matt Berninger, or dare I say it, Morrissey. However, DeRosa’s morose tunes are not able to capture one’s attention as his barroom memories and jilted love lyrics add to the buzzkill of his sappy sad instrumentals. Perhaps DeRosa should focus more on the shoegaze pop of “Seventy Jane” which sits alone atop a heap of mediocre quasi-post rock tunes.

Rating:

Joe is a freelance writer who focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. His work has been published at AOL Music, Staten Island Advance, NYDailyNews.com, and SIDump.com. One semester away from mastering J-School over at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, Joe lives in a pastoral abode out on Staten Island where he enjoys the solitude and the whiskey.


Tagged as: aarktica
Related Articles
30 Nov 2009
Glacially beautiful guitar-drone outfit serves up the perfect pinnacle to its career to date.
1 Mar 2005
The latest album from multi-instrumentalist Jon DeRosa, a record of drone-pop with free jazz aspirations, is more an enigma than an experience.
Comments
Now on PopMatters
Call for Music Critics and Music Bloggers (Announcements) [Tue, 3:00 pm]
Bone and Bell Release Second EP (Mixed Media) [Tue, 10:00 am]
Cannes 2012: Day 9 - 'Student' + 'In the Fog' (Notes from the Road) [Tue, 9:00 am]
The 10 Greatest Aspects of the 'Star Wars' Franchise (Short Ends and Leader) [Tue, 8:00 am]
Devil May Cry: HD Collection (Reviews) [Tue, 6:45 am]
The Walkmen: Heaven (Reviews) [Tue, 2:00 am]
  1. The Top 10 Overplayed Songs You Hate by Artists You Love (Sound Affects)
  2. Tea with 'Sherlock': Investigating the Investigators (Features)
  3. Sunk? This 'Battleship' Stunk! (Short Ends and Leader)
  4. Tenacious D: Rize of the Fenix (Reviews)
  5. Top Ten Lost Midwest Punk Singles (Sound Affects)
  6. Like 'Doom', In Heels (Moving Pixels)
  7. 10 Pieces of Cinematic Art That Require Revisiting (Short Ends and Leader)
  8. Punk Rock's Pet Sounds: An Interview with Bomb the Music Industry! (Features)
  9. She's a Rainbow: A Tribute to Donna Summer (Features)
  10. Counterbalance No. 82: U2's 'Achtung Baby' (Sound Affects)
  11. 'Albatross': A Not-So-Weighty Coming-of-Age Meets Mid-Life-Crisis Film (Reviews)
  12. Counterbalance No. 83: The Stooges' 'Fun House' (Sound Affects)
  13. We Will Avenge Them Or… Be Avenged?: The Individual in the US Experience (Features)
  14. The Queen and Her Crayons: An Interview With Donna Summer (Features)
  15. The Best Canadian Records of the Year? The Fun Agony of Voting for the Polaris Prize Long List (Sound Affects)
  16. Killer Mike: R.A.P. Music (Reviews)
  17. Flash Points: Mommy's Breast, Marriage Equality and Why Chipotle Is King (Features)
  18. Sherlock Holmes, Dirk Gently and the Case of the Eccentric Detective (Columns)
  19. Sergio Leone: Something to Do with Death (Columns)
  20. Early Summer 2012 New Music Playlist (Mixed Media)
  21. The 10 Greatest Aspects of the 'Star Wars' Franchise (Short Ends and Leader)
  22. In Support of Supports (Moving Pixels)
  23. Flash Points: Chicks, Sluts and Facebook (Features)
  24. In Defense Of... Rock Radio: A Force in Popular Culture (Columns)
  25. The Cult: Choice of Weapon (Reviews)
  26. Garbage: Not Your Kind of People (Reviews)
  27. Saint Etienne: Words and Music (Reviews)
  28. Willie Nelson: Heroes (Reviews)
  29. 'People's Pornography': The Mundanities of Pornography and Surveillance Culture (Reviews)
  30. Feeling '80s Spirit: Post-Hardcore Punk for the Plastic Generation (Columns)
PM Picks
Music Archive
Announcements

© 1999-2012 PopMatters.com. All rights reserved.
PopMatters.com™ and PopMatters™ are trademarks
of PopMatters Media, Inc.

PopMatters is wholly independently owned and operated.
PopMatters is a member of BUZZMEDIA Music, MOG and Guardian Select.