Dorks And Losers

If North Car­olina had any hope of a prayer of being rec­og­nized as a breed­ing ground for good indie bands, then the Annu­als might be the sign that Tar Heel res­i­dents were wait­ing for.

The band released their debut album Be He Me in 2006 and will soon release their sopho­more album later this year, but not before releas­ing yet another EP to sati­ate the pal­lets of their many fans. Adam Baker leads the six-piece out­fit (that also includes Kenny Flo­rence, Mike Robin­son, Zach Oden, Anna Spence, and Nick Rad­ford), and if Wet Zoo is indica­tive of their new musi­cal direc­tion, then might make Great Lake Swim­mers jealous.

Wet Zoo is split between Annu­als tracks (first three) and Sun­fold (an Annuals-based side project) tracks (last two). From a musi­cal stand­point, the two bands make sur­pris­ingly con­trast­ing works, at least from lis­ten­ing to Wet Zoo.

The EP opens with “Sore” (down­load here), a song that starts calmly and tries to stay that way, but has moments of intense expres­sion. “Around Your Neck” fol­lows, and instantly gives the band its well-deserved coun­try cred with the right blend of crowd par­tic­i­pa­tion (clap­ping and shout­ing) and twang. The emo­tive “Just Stay In” picks up where “Sore” left off, to caress and soothe hearts in true bal­lad style.

The final two tracks come from an Annu­als side-project called Sun­fold. Flo­rence takes the lead for the group that uti­lizes more of the Be He Me stylings. Fans of Mute Math might like “Between The Worlds” with its casual ser­e­nades and laid-back melodies. “Water­ing Pail” takes a dif­fer­ent approach as it man­i­cally glides through a cou­ple of gen­res, start­ing with rock and end­ing with quasi-blues.

Wet Zoo is an inter­est­ing release that com­bines two sep­a­rate musi­cal approaches. One starts with a change-up from its pre­vi­ous works. The other ends with another change-up from that, includ­ing a lead vocal­ist switch. The result, despite hav­ing basi­cally the same band line-up in both groups, is a pleas­ant lis­ten of excep­tional cre­ativ­ity and talent.

[photo via Autumn De Wilde]

[photo via Sneak Attack Media]
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Track list:

Annu­als

1. Sore
2. Around Your Neck
3. Just Stay In

Sun­fold

4. Between The Worlds
5. Water­ing Pail

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