Raleigh
The Essex Green
Kings–If Belle & Sebastian did not exist, The Essex Green’s latest, Cannibal Sea, would be consuming about 37 megabytes of every hipster-lite’s iPod right now. As is, though, The Essex Green is seen as a second-wave band fascinated by the ’60s sound of Phil Spector sonority and British folk pleasantry, the self-conscious B-sides to the Glasgow band that brought that sound back to kids back in the first place. But that’s a gross underestimation of Cannibal Sea, the best, most urgent record this Brooklyn trio has ever made: Sure, most of the melodies sparkle and shine over spry backbeats, tremolo guitars and mellifluous keys, but the edge of the ’80s adds a needed nervous twitch to these recordings. “Rabbit” is a rotten-at-the-core folk ballad, and “The Pride” unfurls in swells that simultaneously recall The White Album and a decade of veiled post-rock. Destructionairre–Utah!’s Eddie Pellino and friends–opens around 10 p.m. –Grayson Currin
