by Weijia of Death
Sounds Like: Modest Mouse, Ugly Cassanova, Parts and Labor
Highlights: Sick Day, Bicycle Plus
Yourself and the Air may be young, but boy do they have a big sound. YATA’s guitar arrangements make seemingly tangible ripples throughout their songs, like a sonar beam blasting through the stretches of spacy beats and sparkles of tinkling vibraphone. Given such grand sounding music, YATA’s songs have much mundane subjects such as skipping school or fucking around with bicycles. It’s too easy to read deeper meaning behind their lyrics because their sound is so dynamic; and at first, it may be disappointing to realize that the lyrics are mostly to be taken at face value, however, on second thought, perhaps we don’t need a galactic war to make us feel like we are floating through space. Perhaps people’s feelings are as desensitized about songs as they are about violence in film. Perhaps a simple bicycle race in itself is an excellent adventure.
YATA has an LP and EP out and is working on a second full length album; some of their new songs are on Daytrotter Sessions and are available for download at daytrotter.com
Videos for Sick Day and Bicycle Plus.