The Antlers are playing tonight
When my girl and I thought that The Antlers’ album Hospice was a true story, I told her she had to listen closely to it in the car on the way to Burning Man last year. By the time we got to the late-album crescendo, Wake, we both had tears streaming down our face.
The album can still get me misty, but now we both know it’s not literally true.
Peter Silberman of The Antlers did not work at a hospice, and did not befriend a young, abusive girl with bone cancer and care for her until her death. He did, however, write an amazingly sweet story about it, in album form, that touches on real themes of death, guilt, love, generosity, abuse, and the meaning of life. He wrapped it in amazing package of shimmering shoegazer rock and some pretty goddamn touching vocals.
His self-released CD slowly grew in popularity in Brooklyn until finally Frenchkiss picked it up and gave it a real release.
Peter and the band have had a pretty good year since then, I guess, and tonight I finally get to hear them play the album live at Neumos. Thanks, pretty girlfriend.
Note: The above photo is from the pdf liner notes for the album.