Two Albums Just In Time To Hibernate To

It’s finally gotten cold enough to see yourself exhale smog here in L.A., and New York has been kind enough to get the earmuffs ready and blanket the early cool nights with some fire-side pop.
The Department of Eagles are Grizzly Bear’s Daniel Rossen and Fred Nicolaus, two friends who met in an NYU dorm (natch.) It took The Department of Eagles four years to build In Ear Park, an album title that references a childhood L.A. destination of Rossen’s who dedicated the album to his late father. The duo channels the acoustic-bent tenderness of McCartney during, Golden Slumbers or Blackbird at its best and sounds like, well, Grizzly Bear at it its worst. The pace of the LP is often tectonic, but ultimately rewarding, giving Rossen’s ghostly double-tracked voice to take hold over sweeping tactically placed movements. Take Phantom Other which treads along quietly for three minutes before giving way to a 90-second cantor to the tape. The Department doesn’t quite have the same knack for singles the way McCartney did, but In Ear Park is a satisfying, hearty listen that’s worth repeating.
In contrast, the School of Seven Bell’s debut Ghostly release, Alpinisms, leads off with iamundernodisguise which has already proven its cache as a single after getting edit treatment from Prefuse 73 in last year's Class of 73 Bells. The School has been aptly named, because Alpinisms is a record that hums with the glow of Alejandra and Claudia Dehaza’s siren-calm vocals and Benjamin Curtis’ shoegaze drone. Imagine what would happen if the Brazilian Girls and Talkie Walkie Air got together and smoked opium in Kashmir (not precluding that that hasn’t happened yet) and you’re approaching the School’s frequency. They'll also draw some comparisons to Department of Eagles label-mate Blonde Redhead; School of Seven Bells and Blonde Redhead toured together in the fall of last year.

Listen to Department of Eagles, School of Seven Bells, and the other bands I name-checked below.

Listen to Phantom Other (zshare) by Department of Eagles.
Listen to iamundernodisguise (zshare) by School of Seven Bells.
Listen to The Class of 73 Bells (zshare) by Prefuse 73

Other links:
School of Seven Bells Myspace
Department of Eagles Official Website
4ad Official Website
Ghostly International Official Website