Davis, CA Indie-pop group

A clean guitar rhythm, a catchy bass line and cheerful claps accompany the opening lines of Buildings Breeding's self-titled debut. The first national release from Mushpot Records, "Buildings Breeding," was half mixed by Aaron Prellwitz (Sun Kil Moon, Hella, Alaska!) at Tiny Telephone in San Francisco, Ca. The first track, "Stacking up Reasons," sets precedent for an album laced with bits and pieces of raw, unrestrained emotion left behind by each member of this young quartet. It's with these sentiments that these skilled musicians produced songs like "Emmawood" with Melanie Glover's comforting lilt, "Some things are meaningless burning its way in my fingers."

Chris Larsen started this project as a complete farce. He made a MySpace page for a fictional Chicago act, creating numerous songs on his own-- all written for Melanie Glover, who was overseas. Fascinated by the tunes, Glover accompanied the recordings with a tambourine. Larsen realized her rhythmic flair and promptly bought her a drum set. Since the transition from fiction to fact, this Davis, CA quartet has gained much attention, including that of Mushpot Records owner Jenn de la Vega. Buildings Breeding create dynamic soundscapes that frequently toy with depth and richness. Much like its melodic predecessors, the band controls emotional return with impressive accuracy and shows a mastery of contrasting male/female vocals. It's easy to see why Larsen made this once-fake act a reality-- Buildings Breeding was just too good to remain in the land of make believe!

When Buildings Breeding started to take themselves seriously, Larsen attempted to add Mushpot Records owner Jenn de la Vega as a MySpace friend - who initially rejected him. Larsen's persistence eventually paid off after it became financially feasible for Mushpot to mass-produce records.

Though young, the band's experience shines through the track "Beesting" where they harmonize, "Fall from a flat and special high/and it's all right." With male and female vocals superimposed onto each other, Beesting's meticulous structure suggests that the song embraces the risks and challenges involved in romance. A synthesizer plays a smooth, cosine-ish melody conjuring up the rollercoaster imagery of a typical relationship. Ending on an optimistic note, the song closes with the words "Time will know" while an electric guitar plays a hopeful melody. The overarching theme explored in Buildings Breeding's music is that of hope - even in the face of seemingly inevitable failure. In this way the album works as a spiritual map tracing the pursuit of dreams; the album, in itself, embodies the band's hopes, dreams and fearlessness of failure. The band's hard work and friendly attitude are sure to bring everything but failure.

FCC: 5, 11