Pinback - Arrive Having Eaten EP

San Diego, California's Pinback have been known to offer special tour released EPs over their career. Arrive Having Eaten was one of these EPs and it happened to be released during a 2003 tour. Pinback started out back in 1998 as a collaborative effort Armistead Burwell Smith IV and Rob Crow. I've mentioned Smith before in a previous post on another of his bands, Three Mile Pilot. Pinback had released their second full length album, Blue Screen Life in 2001 and one of the songs, "Seville", appears on this album in a slightly different version. "Anti-Hu" (a fan favorite over the years) appears here as well in a variation from the original which appeared as a B-side on the 2001 CD single, Penelope. There are only four songs on Arrive Having Eaten, but I would support all four being good and certainly something Pinback fans should check out. Those not familiar can expect indie rock with a unique bass sound and very smooth vocals, the duo simply play well off of each both instrumentally and vocally.


Pinback - "Hohum"

Sometimes it can be a little difficult picking out the guitar from bass on certain songs as Smith's playing although unique in regards to the sound he pulls from his bass guitar, is all over the fret board map at times. "Hohum" starts out with what sounds like both guitar and bass playing through each other as both Crow and Smith do wonderfully, and some simple drums setting a moderate beat. High-hat is opened during the vocal parts adding emphasis initially. Catch that little piano/keyboard break at about 0:43 in the song? Its a nice little preview for a return around the 1:37 mark were it acts to bring some charisma on top of a rolling guitar and drum part. The song is increasingly catchy at this point as the following lyrics are sung:

you forget I'm awake
I forget I'm awake
you forget I'm awake
I forget I'm awake

There is a break away from the drums that occurs before the final portion of the song. My favorite moment on the whole EP (though the intro to "Seville" is close second) is this little ending piece, both for the lyrics, "I want to breathe in blue", and the songwriting. It emotes elements of a rough seriousness yet also a softened exasperation.

You can find all of Pinback's available releases at their website and website store. I was lucky enough to catch them playing here in Cleveland about a year and half ago and I have to say their shows do not disappoint. They have a west coast tour planned for July, you can see the dates listed here at their myspace page.