Mimicking Birds: Mimicking Birds

Isaac Brock isn’t just the bark behind Modest Mouse—he’s also something of a part-time A&R man who was responsible for bringing both The Shins and Wolf Parade to Sub Pop. He now curates the Glacial Pace label, which has yet to find that level of commercial success, but has nonetheless released a string of Mouse-approved bands. Portland’s Mimicking Birds is the latest, though it might owe more to Brock’s solo project, Ugly Casanova, than his main band. It’s the brainchild of hushed songwriter Nate Lacy, who chooses to lightly adorn his dark, whisper-sung compositions with minimal acoustic guitars and various plinks, plunks, and creaks. Lacy’s songs are rarely immediate—only “Burning Stars” really nears a trot, the others just saunter—but they’re worth exploring. “The Loop” spins a hypnotic guitar line into five minutes of bliss, and if you listen closely you can hear Brock—who also co-produced the disc—emoting in the distance. Elsewhere, the album sounds slightly more traditional—it’s easy to imagine Jeff Buckley tackling “Remnants And Pictures”—but never obvious. It’s the kind of quiet, considered songwriting that’s easy to dismiss as boring, but that ultimately proves itself anything but.