Placer...

Since I’ve highlighted both Slughog and Barbaro in the past on the blog, I figured it makes sense to go ahead to give a full post to the next step for Andrew Schneider and his band Placer. While time together was brief, the band did release one full-length through Dopamine Records titled Summer and after a couple lineup changes the band eventually disappeared.

Formed not long after calling Barbaro quits, Schneider rounded up fellow musicians Kate McGlaughlin and Pat Gleason to form Placer, whom partly appear on Summer. However, the lineup was quickly shifted to that of Tom Korkidis (Alienist Outfit, On Fire), Michael Ushinski (Barbaro, Stricken for Catherine), and Jeff Turlik (Stompbox, Milligram). To me Placer always sounded like a continuation of Barbaro in a lot of ways, except maybe a bit more drawn out and with a few more odd rhythmic changes that reminded me a bit of Shiner especially when combined with the bands unabashed love for low end. Their album Summer I thought was pretty good, albeit maybe a bit repetitive and slow churning for it’s own good. However, for those that enjoyed Barbaro I don’t think there is much to dislike about it.

The band was around for a little while after the release of Summer, making the move to New York sometime during that period. While in the process the lineup for the band was completely overhauled and scaled back to a trio. Ethan Dussault (Garrison) and J.R. Conners (Cave-In) filled in on bass and drums respectively, but as mentioned before they drifted into obscurity after that. Both Schneider and Dussault do recording work these days for the most part it seems like.

Placer – The Drag [MP3]
Placer – Fly [MP3]

The bands album Summer is still available through Dopamine Records for as little as five bucks, so I recommend anyone that digs what they here to definitely go over there and pick it up. Enjoy!