The shuffler: Brian Aubert, singer-guitarist of
Silversun Pickups. The L.A. quartet began to build up a healthy buzz around its
buzzy indie rock before it had released an album, but few of its early
followers could have predicted how well things would go for the band in 2007.
Propelled by the singles "Lazy Eye" and "Well Thought Out Twinkles," 2006's Carnavas turned the Pickups into a
household name on the alt-rock circuit, and now they're pushing a third track,
"Little Lover's So Polite." The band is currently taking a breather following
nearly two years of touring and writing songs for its sophomore album.
Sparklehorse, "Dreamt For Light Years In The
Belly Of A Mountain"
Brian Aubert: This is the title track of the newest
record—this is the ending of the record, and it's a 10-minute spooky
instrumental. I love their old records—I love all their records, but
particularly It's A Wonderful Life. That record just ruled so much—it was kind
of like a band's band. I kind of assumed it was a massive record, because
everybody I knew was so into it, but I realized nobody really knows who they
are. This song is really cool. At first, I was kind of hesitant about this
record, but it really, really grew on me in the van when we were on tour. I
remember falling asleep with my laptop on, and I kind of had a weird dream to
this song. I saw Mark Linkous and Sparklehorse here in Los Angeles, where they
did a live score to this movie The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari—it's an old German
Expressionist film. It kind of sounds like this—really cool.
The A.V. Club: Do you remember anything about
the dream?
BA: No, I wish I did. I kind of feel like it was just
remembering seeing the film score. It was this film festival, and it was a
small amphitheater outside—it was summer at night in L.A., before it got
too hot, kind of nice and cool, and it was this huge black-and-white film with
Mark Linkous and this other guy up in the corner, just scoring with these
theremin sounds, stuff like that. I think I just dreamed about that night
again. I kind of woke up in a daze—it's a long song. It kind of made me
fall in love with the record and Sparklehorse again. I think the reason I was
hesitant about the record and not into it as much is because it was
Sparklehorse, and I loved the other one so much. Almost because he was Sparklehorse,
I was giving it a hard time—and when I woke up out of that haze, I was
like, "You know what? It's Sparklehorse, man! Why am I fighting with you?"
[Laughs.]