A lot of different types of bands have come from Montreal in
recent years, but Plants and Animals may be the first that could be
mistaken for classic rock. The elements of Plants and Animals’ first
full-length record, Parc Avenue, all come from some place in the
slightly distant past—from the San Francisco acid rock of “Keep
it Real” to the Harvest boom-boom-thwack folk of the second half
of “Sea Shanty” to the Basement Tapes-gone-camping homage on the
album cover. But Plants and Animals refuse to ride the coattails of
what’s come before, and their songs happily evade the straightforward,
bland sound of an FM rock block.
Instead, songs fold in on one another, or grow mutant limbs that
sprout in haphazard directions, or travel through a series of fully
formed musical ideas without succumbing to any of them. “New Kind of
Love” grows from a simple coffeehouse folk song into a hollered Arcade
Fire anthem before lapsing into a pastoral medieval canon complete with
flutes and autoharp. The first part of “Faerie Dance” establishes a
languid, watery sound before launching into heavy guitar riffing, then
circles the wagons to reestablish its main theme under a veil of
staccato violin and piano. “À l’Orée des Bois” is a
catchy indie rock song that makes the finest use of a child’s voice
since XTC’s “Dear God.”
In short, Parc Avenue is an incredibly diverse, adventurous
record, one that is just as meat ‘n’ potatoes classic rock as it is
light, frothy folk or heavy, drugged-out prog. Although it contains
myriad guest appearances, it’s primarily the work of three musicians:
Guitarist Warren Spicer and drummer Matthew “Woody” Woodley met as
children in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the two joined forces with
Nicolas Basque at Concordia University in Montreal. “We’ve tried lots
of things musically, pushed each other, had a million beers, and lots
of life,” says Woody.
Parc Avenue was recorded slowly and carefully over two years,
and the deliberation allowed the record to achieve a finely controlled
sprawl within its carefully composed songs. “We used to be an
instrumental band,” Woody says, “and through that, we went deep into
the voices of our individual instruments, because they were the mouth.
Then we started recording what became Parc Avenue, and over two
years we tried a lot of things out, styles, singing—and what we
liked, we kept. Just like natural selection. We had the luxury of time:
no label, no deadline, just our lives and the space to experiment, to
try and err and try more.”
An EP, With/Avec, was recorded in the downtime between the
completion of Parc Avenue and its release last year; meanwhile,
the album’s lengthy process of trial and error has been an invaluable
experience for the band. “When we write music, jamming comes into play,
but everybody does that. We’re not a jam band,” Woody points out. “I
think the next album will come out of us much more quickly. We’ve
learned tons—about songwriting, how to work in the studio, what
our voice is, in a general kind it way. After this tour we’re going to
hole up in the studio. As far as new directions, I’d like to say more
pared down, but who knows what will happen once we get going.”