On Friday I got to see The Antlers at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. They were out on tour behind Familiars, their first full length since Burst Apart, released June 16th in the UK via Transgressive and June 17th in the U.S. via ANTI-. It was also the first record the band engineered entirely on their own. The historic venue’s ornate balconies and roomy stage suited the record’s fuller, horn-driven arrangements well.
Peter Silberman sang and played guitar, Darby Cicci added trumpet, upright and electric bass, piano, and synths, and Michael Lerner played drums, recording and engineering the nine songs together at Antlercorp Studios, their own space in Brooklyn, with guitarist Timmy Mislock joining for two of the nine tracks. Cellist Brent Arnold, trombonist Andrew Dunn, and a handful of other guest musicians filled out the album’s fuller, more orchestral sound. Chris Coady, known for his work with Beach House and TV on the Radio, mixed the record at DNA Downtown Studios. The album also included “Doppelgänger,” “Hotel,” and “Revisited,” songs that stretched between five and eight minutes each, giving the horns and strings room to build. Familiars was their first album released through ANTI- in the U.S., after earlier records came out via Frenchkiss.
Hana Tajima directed the video for “Palace,” the album’s opening track and lead single. Her video moves through placid interiors and churning water, matching the song’s slow build toward its six minute close. During the same tour, the band also stopped for in-studio sessions at KEXP and WFUV, playing stripped-down versions of “Palace” that highlighted Silberman’s falsetto.
The Antlers had a handful of U.S. shows left on the calendar before heading to Europe later that year. The band would go on to take an extended break not long after, eventually returning with Green to Gold and, most recently, Blight.
