Antarctigo Vespucci

Soulmate Stuff (2014)

Ricky Frankel

The ultra-creative musical minds of Chris Farren and Jeff Rosenstock have come together on their next pop/indie punk venture and have created Antarctigo Vespucci's debut full-length album Soulmate Stuff. If one were to think what would happen if you mixed Fake Problems and Bomb the Music Industry! together into one record, the overall sound of Soulmate Stuff would not be far off at all. This album has the harsher sounds of Bomb the Music Industry! and some light hearted lyrics that lean more towards Fake Problems. Soulmate Stuff clearly shows that both Farren and Rosenstock are masters of the art of writing melodies most notably in the songs "I'm Giving Up On U2," and "Bang!" Interestingly though, Farren sings lead vocals in the all of the seven tracks, except he and Rosenstock briefly share them on "Guest List Spots."

In terms of the sound of the album, it's all over the place. It seems when writing this album the duo didn't want to limit what each song could sound like. Each song sounds quite different from the other. Some tracks have a bunch of different instruments (like a glockenspiel), while others only have an acoustic guitar. A majority of the songs, like "Don't Die In Yr Hometown," have very fuzzy-distorted guitars, while others like "100 Years" is the only purely acoustic guitar-based song, where as "Sometimes" is sort of a mixture of both. It is definitely worth mentioning just how awesome Casey Lee's guitar solo and fills are in "I'm Giving Up On U2" and how much Laura Stevenson's vocals add to "Sometimes." This album also is filled with a bunch of very big and catchy choruses that will easily get stuck in your head. And it is worth noting that the lyrics are quite relatable, like in one of the lines from "Bang!": Just don't fade out/Cuz all I want to do/Is ride my bike and think about sex, yeah."

Whether Antarctigo Vespucci is just a one-time musical experiment or an ongoing musical project, Chris Farren and Jeff Rosenstock have written an album that this is filled with some pretty great jams right in time for the summer. Fans of Bomb the Music Industry! and Fake Problems (or both bands for that matter) will be quite happy with Soulmate Stuff.

Note to my fellow vinyl nerds:
This album was pressed in two different color variations: half transparent purple and half hot pink (a.k.a Psychedelic Grimace) and half transparent electric blue and half cyan (a.k.a. Whale vs. Shark).