The Never are the erstwhile geek rock (think Weezer) outfit of songwriters Ari Picker and Noah Smith, along with college friends Joah and Jonny Tunnell. I say “erstwhile” not just because it’s such a geeky word but because The Never’s latest LP extends well beyond geek rock to an intricately crafted multimedia project, including a 50-page illustrated storybook (featuring 40 original oil paintings by Noah himself) and a corresponding suite of songs depicting a country boy’s journey to return a nuclear bomb to the city. Word is The Never are aiming to adapt Antarctica for the stage. And, given the cinematic leanings of Ari’s latest Lost in the Trees EP, I wouldn’t be surprised if a film version follows…
Lost in the Trees
Part of the reason I’m dropping a Saturday two-fer on your ears is the overwhelming guilt of having missed the last two Saturdays. I mean, I used to be good for two posts a week and then some…take a look at me now. The other part of the reason is Ari Picker, singer/songwriter/pianist extraordinaire. His latest release as Lost in the Trees is the cinematic (in the Danny Elfman sense of the word) Time Taunts Me. It’s big and orchestral and at the same time intimate and folksy. The big and orchestral part can be attributed to the cast of fellow Berklee School of Music classical music students he convinced to breathe life into his arrangements. The intimate and folksy part is all Ari whose his whispered delivery and careful sentimentality give the whole thing a nice, soft underbelly. Big and orchestral blend with intimate and folksy to create a compelling and vaguely menacing landscape — like dark thunder clouds rolling over meticulous fields of wheat. The concept album bug seems to be spreading across everything Ari touches, when you look at where his indie pop/rock group The Never went with their latest—which leads me to Part Two of the two-fer…