The Comas

There are a number of other great bands that share the Bu Hanan label with Go Machine et al., which I've been writing about for the last few days. I'll get back to them, but this is my last chance to write about the Comas as a Triangle band -- after tonight's show at the Cat's Cradle, they're relocating to New York.

Apparently, the Comas started out as a joke-country band in the 1998, but they quickly moved on to making dreamy, somewhat psychedelic pop/rock. They're pretty squarely within the "indie" genre, but I think they do it very well, with a varied sonic palate that tends towards the dark end of the spectrum.

Their most recent album, Conductor, was written in the aftermath of frontman Andy Herod's breakup with Dawson's Creek's Michelle Williams. [Review 1, 2, 3] Somehow, that got sublimated into a loose concept album with a vaguely sci-fi theme. The CD comes with a bonus DVD of a movie to accompany the music:

In order to sequence the record, I hashed out this simple story about a cartoony, Mickey Mousey, little scientist-guy falling in love with the moon, and then having it turn into an obsession and having it kind of destroy his life. It wasn't really a concept record or anything to begin with, except for the broken relationship theme that runs throughout. I called my friend Brent, who had animated our song "Tiger in the Tower," and asked him if he would be into animating an entire record. He said, "I've always wanted to do that!"

(Andy Herod, in the Independent 10-2-04)

Stills from the film are on the Comas' web site here. Good luck to 'em in NYC -- do North Carolina proud!

MP3: "The Science of Your Mind"
MP3: "The Last Transmission"
(from Conductor, Yep Roc 2004. Buy it here or download it here.)

At Amazon, you can also download "Tonight on the WB" from Conductor and "Tiger in a Tower" from 2000's A Def Needle in Tomorrow. (You'll have to be signed in for the download.)