Akron/Family Might 'Transcend the Internet' With New Album

Freak-rockers Akron/Family have, once again, proved that they are infinitely more interesting than many other formed-in-Brooklyn indie bands while, simultaneously, confirming beyond all doubt that they are somewhat impenetrable and, perhaps, impossible to fully understand. That's OK -- what could just as easily be affected idiosyncrasy as divine channeling we'll just take for artistic expression, one way or the other. And besides, it's all overridden by the music's undeniable charm. Say what? Exactly.

Akron/Family's latest record label, Dead Oceans -- bless them -- has released a statement concerning the band's upcoming album, which will be released on Feb. 8 in the U.S. and March 14 in the U.K. That part's easy to grasp. And the fact that the album is entitled 'S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT' is even manageable, somehow. But the details behind it?


"Finally, after over a month of unanswered emails and text messages, blown deadlines and pleas to finish and turn in their new album, last week a large brown cardboard box showed up at the Dead Oceans doorstep," reads a statement from the label. "It had 'SHINJU TNT' scrawled across the bottom of the box in black magic marker, and the return address read only 'AK, Detroit.'"

There's more: "Opening it revealed a sincere but poorly made diorama of futurist swirling spaces filled with toy astronauts and dinosaurs, four blown-out song fragments on a TDK CDR in a ziplock bag, three pictures, a tracklist written in crayon and a typewritten note from Akron/Family." Apparently the band wouldn't even give the label the full album, taking it straight to the vinyl manufacturer instead, for fear of a leak.

As far as the label can figure it, the band wrote most of the album "in a cabin built into the side of Mount Meakan, an active volcano in Akan National Park, on the island of Hokkaido, Japan." It was recorded in Detroit -- possibly in an abandoned train station -- by hip audio engineer Chris Koltay (Deerhunter, Liars, Holy F**k, No Age), who told Dead Oceans that the finished album "will transcend the Internet."

We'll just have to wait and see about that. But we're not betting against it, per-se.