San Francisco's Desertshore ostensibly took their name from Nico's 1970 album, the one where she began writing her own songs and exerting more control over her sound and style. A decidedly more personal than commercial album-- with a few songs in German and one sung by her son-- Desertshore was not a hit, at least not on par with her debut or her albums with the Velvet Underground, but it continues to attract as many listeners as it repels. Similarly, Desertshore the band represents guitarist Phil Carney's first step away from sideman status, after a stint in Red House Painters and a few appearances on albums and tours by former Painters frontman Mark Kozelek. Carney favors patient, shimmery repetitions of notes that establish tone instead of melody, and the group, which also includes pianist Chris Connolly and a rotation of percussionists, trades in glacial instrumentals that echo the sepiatone reminiscences of the best Painters tracks.
Desertshore, however, do not represent a conscious attempt by Carney to escape that band's orbit; it's less a solo or even a duo project than it is a collaborative entity. Kozelek signed the band to his own Caldo Verde label and contributed to their 2010 debut, Drifting Your Majesty. Now, almost inevitably, Kozelek has more or less joined the group: On their follow-up, Drawing of Threes, he plays barely noticeable basslines and adds lyrics and vocals to six of these 10 songs. It may be as close to a Red House Painters reunion as we will get-- at least until Kozelek reconvenes the original Sun Kil Moon line-up.
As a result of Kozelek's participation, Drawing of Threes will sound deeply familiar to anyone who's heard any of the bands mentioned so far. His voice remains distinctively hollow-eyed, his vocal melodies sound as eloquently understated as ever, and the guitars ring in a darkly ruminative mood that sets Desertshore in the same 3 a.m. universe as Old Ramon and Ghosts of Great Highway. In other words, Kozelek dominates this album. Of the four instrumental tracks, only one-- the standout "Matchlight Arcana"-- exceeds the two-minute mark, while the others sound like soundtrack interstitials consigned to the album's second half. It's an odd dynamic: the guest plays the lead, the name band becomes the support. Whether that speaks to Desertshore's modesty or timidity is never quite clear.
Still, it's obvious why the musicians gravitate toward one another, not only here but on previous tours and Kozelek solo records: Their particular instruments suit each other evocatively, each bringing out something intriguing and perhaps unnoticed in the other. In that regard, Drawing is best when it casts the familiar elements in a new light. "Vernon Forrest" sets Kozelek's vocals against Connolly's sunlight-on-water piano ripples, like a demo for the vox-and-keys album you know Kozelek has in him. "Randy Quaid" is a laundry list of half-remembered summertime totems that includes "Immigrant Song" and the troubled Vacation actor and manages to rhyme "Spalding Gray" with "the Brothers Quay." It's an especially playful song for a notoriously depressive singer-songwriter, and Carney's chiming guitar evokes a specific perspective rather than a general sense of nostalgia. Crucially, it sounds more like the memory of summer than summer itself, which lends the song a bittersweet tone. Because Drawing sustains a similar mood across 10 tracks, the album sounds cohesive, if not exactly revelatory. For Kozelek, this is a not unpleasantly minor effort that allows him to stretch out a bit, but it only hints at what all Carney and Connolly can do together.
