Lackthereof is the solo musical identity of Menomena's Danny Seim, but don't call it a side project: Seim had been producing self-released albums under the alias for years by the time he linked with Brent Knopf and Justin Harris to form Menomena. Seim put out six of them from 1998 to 2002, and in 2004, he released one through a label with the Christian the Christian LP. That was the same year he first performed live under the Lackthereof name as well, recruiting friends such as Viva Voce's Kevin and Anita Robinson to back him up. Seim has recently returned to his old, prolific ways, and his two most recent albums find him taking one last stand in the low minors before jumping to Triple A on Barsuk.*
My Haunted*, a vinyl/digital release, is the second Lackthereof album to drop via FilmGuerrero, and true to the form of its predecessors, it has a home-spun, casual air to it. If you're used to Menomena's maximalist, heavily layered and sometimes abstract approach, don't expect this to sound much like it. To begin, the compositional approach is more conventional, with little-to-no involvement of crazy computer programs. The basic palette is acoustic guitar, vocals, and reverb, with Seim frequently layering his voice or slipping in a bit of percussion.
"The Columbia", a haunting and repetitive crawl through a cavernous reverb chamber, is the album's most impressive track. A stuttering acoustic guitar alternates with Seim's layered pleas to "float with me to the mouth of the Columbia." Side one closer "Both of Us" is the other standout, with ghostly wordless harmonies and an odd, stream-of-consciousness structure. Other songs are more reserved-- opener "It's Over" sounds like a demo, with a vocal line that mirrors the guitar part, while there are several offerings that are little more than good-sounding sketches. The keyboard-heavy "Century" especially feels like it needs to blow up into a massive prog conflagration.*
Your Anchor*, Seim's Barsuk debut, is much more widely available, and it rises nicely to the challenge of being Lackthereof's first high-profile release. He generates every sound on the album, from vocals to drums, and it feels like a happy medium between My Haunted and Menomena. The songs are fully fleshed, and a few are genuinely great. "Choir Practice" is especially awesome, with a hard drum beat and catchy vocal melody. Considering that the weakest part of an album by a multi-instrumentalist is very often the drums, Seim is dealing from a position of strength, and every song makes good on his abilities behind the kit.
And he's no novice on the other instruments, either. "Doomed Elephants" has a great, hooky bassline; he plays surprisingly good slide guitar on "Fire Trial"; and "Ask Permission" features a great instrumental break with jangling guitars rising over a smooth bed of Rhodes piano. The latter is one of the album's finest tracks, a confirmation that Menomena's ear for texture runs deep in all three members. Seim's vocals have a Stephin Merritt-like croak to them here-- on his closing cover of the National's "Fake Empire", he sounds like he's struggling to avoid keeling over from exhaustion. He self-harmonizes fairly well on several tracks, too, and indeed opens the album backing his own lead vocal with a hushed falsetto.
If a Menomena album feels like Seim coming over for a visit with his fellow band members, My Haunted is a little more like a postcard sent from far away-- a few thoughts strung together to form a nice but not quite satisfying reminder of a friendship. To strain the simile further, Your Anchor is like a nice, long phone call-- appeasing, but still not the same as seeing someone. Overall, the different release strategies for the two records seem appropriate: The interesting but flawed limited release is reserved for the superfan, while most indie rock fans will likely enjoy the bigger and more widely distributed record. Both, however, further demonstrate Seim's wealth of interesting ideas, showcasing two distinct sides of his creative alter-ego.
