JAILL
TRAPS (SUB POP)
When Jaill nonchalantly stepped into the room with 2010's "That's How We Burn", the group had already turned out a small catalog of self-recorded and self-released albums and EPs.
Sub Pop first heard the band on an LP bought through the mail, the cover still hot from the Kinko's copier.
And as that record (2009's There's No Sky (Oh My My)) demonstrated, Jaill's Vinnie Kircher is equally comfortable crafting songs that either amble up slyly, or tumble out pell mell, with lyrics that betray his English major background.
SPIN said of That's How We Burn, "What elevates their [Sub Pop] debut beyond your average twee-punk rager is the gentle psych dabblings: extra delay on a guitar solo, an errant oh-ahh-ooh,' a dubby Panda Bear flourish, and the swirling noise that murmurs through the background of the cheerful nake Shakes.'" Recorded throughout 2011 in Kircher's crummy, poorly lit basement, with minimal gear and a control room of thrift store afghans, and mixed at NY's Rare Book Room by Nicolas Vernhes, Jaill's latest mangled masterpiece is entitled Traps.
An acerbic exercise in both humility and aggression that transcends the humble environment of its creation, Traps finds the Milwaukee-based psych-pop three-piece confronting a malfunctioning universe with an inventive, lean and, dare we say, excellent 11-song album.