Up a Tree

Tree Wave
Tree Wave @ MySpace

I was a touch disappointed that I had not heard of Tree Wave until a local festival in late March. Even if partially mitigated by the fact that they seem to have been on a sort of hiatus for a few years there, this is an act that I think I should have known about. Now, to get to to the actually music. Similar in set-up to Crystal Castles in the sense that the duo relies on 8-bit nostalgia and sounds to build their songs, vocalist Lauren Grey prefers a smoother, more subtle and non-digitized lyrical style. I think a more apt comparison is to say that Tree Wave is Stereolab for the electro age. Unlike Crystal Castles, Tree Wave goes for a smoothed out style with maintaining the glitchy fun of current electro acts like Dan Deacon. Moreover, some songs are built around a live playing of a game where the moves are translated into sound giving the act a serious organic feel.
2008 looks like the year Tree Wave might actually break out of Dallas some, playing at SXSW this year and beginning to line up a few shows here and there. While they only have a short 3-song ep out, the music is worth it. I plan on catching as many shows as I can now.