The Antlers

http://themusicslut.com/2008/11/the-antlers-union-hall-the-carrying-arms/

My first proper live introduction to The Antlers came at an After The Jump CMJ event in October of last year. That autumn, I became immediately enamored with the band’s ethereal, pristine & engaging LP, In The Attic Of The Universe. There’s simply no denying that there is a certain undefined magic on that record. In fact, following a half dozen listens, it brought to mind my initial reactions upon hearing Jeff Buckley’s masterpiece, Grace, back in the mid ’90s. With The Antlers’ forthcoming opus, Hospice, just around the corner (expect a digital release in spring of ‘09), the trio has expanded and enriched their sound while maintaining their unparalleled grace. Their new material is more immediate, slightly more savage and yet equally as contagious as all of their prior collections. Last night’s set focused exclusively on Hospice (with the exception of a rousing rendition of ‘Cold War’) and it was indeed exquisite.
- The Music Slut

The undeniable highlight of the evening was The Antlers. For over a year I have followed every move that Peter and company has made, booking them several times in the meantime, and each time I see them on stage they take over my soul with their music. The set kicked off with a brand new song, my first time hearing it, and I have to say I have never been as excited about an album as I am for their next one! It's gonna be awesome! But they followed that new song up with a set of the best from what they already have, in other words songs that I could sing every word too and I did just that. It was a rocking time and I'm pretty sure whoever wasn't completely dehydrated from the back room rocked out through the whole thing.


http://poptartssucktoasted.blogspot.com/2008/04/pop-tarts-suck-toasted-awe-present_21.html
- Pop Tarts Suck Toasted

You'd be more than in the right to be leery of a band that gives away it's music for free--not just individual tracks, but entire albums. Desperation or marketing savvy? If you're as talented as Peter Silberman is, no gimmick is necessary. Even though he's decided to offer up The Antlers' latest EP In the Attic Of The Universe for free via his website, you'll feel the compulsion to pay him for enhancing the quality of your life with this record (in which case he'll gladly take your donations).

He's 21, it's his fifth album (2nd under the name Antlers), and while he plays most if it himself the sound would have you believe he's being backed by a super group made up of members of Arcade Fire and Grizzly Bear. In discussions with a friend, I compared Silberman to Sufjan Stevens without ever actually sounding like him at all; he smirked, shook his head and said, "That's the crappiest analogy I've ever heard," but after listening to "The Universe Is Going To Catch You" and "Stairs To the Attic," my friend said "Okay, I understand what you mean." I know I'm gonna catch flack for this, but It's true that's what he said... I'm not lying.... I'm not.


http://qbim.blogspot.com/2007/04/antlers-offer-up-treasures-from-attic.html - Quick Before It Melts - 4/19/07

NYC's The Antlers began as a solo folk/art project by 21 year old Peter Silberman, and now after 5 releases the act has expanded into a full band. Their nothing-short-of-gorgeous upcoming LP The Attic Of The Universe is their official debut, coming out on Fall Records on November 6th. The album was self-released earlier this year, and after 10,000+ downloads, Fall Records offered The Antlers a deal.

In the midst of re-releasing Attic and preparing an even newer album Hospice (which will come out sometime next year), Silberman has put together a free three-song EP entitled Cold War featuring two new songs as well as a beautiful cover of Beach House's "Apple Orchard." You can grab Cold War (plus some more MP3s) here.
[MP3] The Antlers - Apple Orchard (Beach House Cover) (highest recommendation)

I'll be honest, I haven't heard the original song from Beach House (although I've been told I should)... but I can't imagine it sounding any more haunting and lovely than this. Silberman sings like a timid Jeff Buckley over a wall of droning and bending noises and vocal melodies that challenge even my most elevated opinion of In Rainbows. Silberman proves once again that you don't need a gargantuan budget or a million fans to produce great music. You just need ambition, of which The Antlers have plenty.


http://iguessimfloating.blogspot.com/2007/11/antlers-offer-up-free-cold-war-ep.html

- I Guess I'm Floating

Twenty-one-year-old Peter Silberman will release his fifth studio album In The Attic Of The Universe, for free on his website under his moniker, The Antlers. The new effort was recorded in his cramped Manhattan apartment and outside the farmhouse he grew up in and features an array of instruments (all played by Silberman himself), including a full rhythm section, moog, accordion and piano (both traditional and toy).

"I've been recording on my own since high school, so I think sometimes it's out of avoidance of work I don't want to do," Silberman explains. "When your studio is where you live, it's really easy to let recording consume all your time and distract you from obligatory stuff."

Currently unsigned, Silberman opted to release the digital-only album for free in hopes of getting his music out there in an easier fashion. "I definitely second-guess myself anytime I buy music I've heard of but never heard," he says, "so I think releasing it for free, at least early on, makes it more accessible."

Silberman will put a band together to play locally before a tour this summer. As for future albums, he plans to emerge from his solo hole and collaborate with other musicians.


http://prod1.cmj.com/articles/display_article.php?id=33547307 - CMJ.com - 3/27/07

The Antlers hail from Brooklyn NY. They are of the subdued pensive ambient variety but still manage to pack a mean punch with great builds and layers of acoustic intruments and delicious drone. Listen to "Two" below. It's perfect for listening for the fall.


http://www.rockinsider.com/2008/09/antlers-two.html
- Rock Insider

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2008/10/women_etc_the_p.html#more - Brooklyn Vegan

In my inbox this morning was a heartwarming Monday-morning surprise. Analogue under-rated indie favourites The Antlers are free-releasing a new EP, New York Hospitals to coincide with the NY-based After The Jump Fest this 21st of June. In ringleader Pete Silberman’s own press-released words the EP consists of “Two covers from New York-ish bands from around 1999 surround an original, entitled “Sylvia (An Introduction)”, intended to introduce the focus of the soon to be completed Hospice LP.” Last time we talked, Silberman chatted about his burgeoning My Bloody Valentine affections, and their influence can be heard seeping through the EP, as the three songs absolutely drip with reverb and ethereal vocals. Yet the New Yorker’s high-frequency vocals and increasingly orchestral compositions lend a particularly singular sound to a record with more cover material than original.

“Nothing Matters When We’re Dancing”, from the Magnetic Fields seminal 69 Lovesongs filters the song through some Mazzy Star aesthetics to spectral effect (get used to thesaurus-ized versions of the word “haunted” for this blog entry… comes up quite a bit). It is a deceivingly hopeful opener, and one look at the lyrics set the song up for an impending darkness. Silberman’s lyrics complete the Herculean challenge of matching the haunted chill Merritt’s own words invoke with second song “Sylvia (Introduction)”. He sings in his Elliot Smith-like vibrato ostensibly about Sylvia Plath (It made you crawl under that house/And stick your head under the stove), possibly from the point of view of Ted Hughes. Rather though, it seems like a personal allegory for a Plath-like person in his own life, and the spectres they carry through their lives. Their inability to cope with mortality at an early age “makes you sting/…makes you want to kill“, and Silberman, or Silberman’s character struggles to understand his Sylvia’s morose pain. Set against the same sea of reverb “Sylvia (Introduction)” is otherworldly enough to keep Yvette Fielding in business.



The closing Yo La Tengo cover, “Tears In Your Eyes” from And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out acts as a sort of desperate attempt to save the aforementioned Sylvia, with it’s assurances that “Darkness always turns into the Dawn.” A beautiful rendition, if not somewhat unmemorable, rounds a short EP off with the commendable feat of actually engaging with the source material of the songs Silberman has produced here, and is a promising opening salvo from forthcoming sixth album Hospice. Mind you, if it’s this macabre in the New York Hospital, I’ll be needing a much bigger thesaurus for the Hospice…


http://www.analoguemagazine.com/reviews/713/ - Analogue Magazine

The Antlers, aka Brooklyn bedroom pop artist Peter Silberman, were a featured "emerging" artist of ours in March of this year. Silberman's arrangements are reverb-laden, ethereal masterpieces that we can't help but love. It's fun for us to be asked by coworkers who the band is when they overhear me playing it around the office. Loudly.

Now comes word that The Antlers have completed a three-song EP called New York Hospitals that consists of two covers and an original called "Sylvia (An Introduction)". You can get the EP for free by clicking here. It is, frankly, fucking brilliant. Silberman will play this year's After The Jump festival on June 21.



http://www.thecultureofme.com/culture/2008/06/mp-free-the-ant.html - The Culture Of Me

When I sit down to start this review, I have a headache. It is dreary outside and the lights are too bright and I can almost physically feel the weight of tasks left undone. Within the first thirty seconds of listening to The Antlers’ In The Attic of the Universe, however, a major shift occurs: the lights suddenly appear less harsh, the clouds outside seem to be parting, and the stress-knot in my stomach is dissolving. The interior of this bookstore has taken on a new sheen, and nothing matters quite as much as the quiet glow streaming through my headphones. Divine providence, you win this one; and Peter Silberman, you have a gift.

Twenty-one year old Silberman is The Antlers; now based in Brooklyn, this is his fifth release (though only his second under this moniker). He plays every instrument on the album and has a stunning knack for songwriting. Though it checks in at a scant 27 minutes, In the Attic of the Universe is a living, breathing being. The bass drum provides a heartbeat, acoustic guitar is its backbone, and plinky keys are its flashing eyes. Each track’s unpredictability imbues the creature with a kind of mystery, an assurance that, no matter how carefully you listen, you will never fully comprehend it.

The album starts with a tape player being turned on and ambient noise that sounds like footsteps on crunching leaves. Angelic and misty synths float in over the banal noise. The song materializes with Silberman’s vocals and acoustic guitar, and reaches its apex with a piano part and light drums that simultaneously elevate and ground the song. The tracks shift into one another so thoroughly that one doesn’t know—nor care—where one ends and another starts. The album has soothing, whisper-lullaby moments, and sweeping film-score moments, and, often, the two bleed into one another. One track, entitled “Shh”, sounds like a music box with low batteries: sounds bend and waver, then disappear into the mists before piano comes in and (nearly) ties it down. It segues into “The Universe is Going to Catch You”, a sweet, toy-piano-accented track that is dizzying in its charm. In the Attic… is so much a cohesive entity that it seems counterproductive to pick any of it apart. The album is a sum of eight songs, each song is the sum of countless sounds, and each sound is traced back to just one person. Its ability to make a listener’s muscles weak, however, is a trait that can’t be pinned down. In less than half an hour, it turned my day around; just imagine what it might do to yours.

http://soundcheckmagazine.com/magazine/index.php?option=com_simple_review&review=152-The-Antlers---In-the-Attic-of-the-Universe&Itemid=27
- Soundcheck Magazine