Kevin Bronson on February 5th, 2015

0

I owe my devotion to the music of Statistics to a publicist’s sleight-of-hand. About a year after professing love for Desaparecidos’ debut album “Read Music/Speak Spanish,” I received a missive saying that if I liked Desaparecidos, I should check out their guitarist Denver Dalley’s side project, Statistics. Of course, the Conor Oberst-fronted emo-punk of the former sounded nothing like the latter, but well-played. Statistics’ 2004 “Leave Your Name” (made with Omaha staples Tim Kasher, Scott Martin and Mike and A.J. Mogis) remains one of the hidden gems in the Jade Tree catalog, and 2005’s “Often Lie” was pretty good too. Since then, Dalley has written music for film and TV, released music as Intramural, played in the reunited Desaparecidos (who recently signed to Epitaph Records) and rocked the stage as part of the Watson Twins’ and Har Mar Superstar’s bands. In 2013, he released a new Statistics album, “Peninsula,” a collection of guitar- and synth-spiked indie-pop that ranged from playful disco (“Take the Lead” and “Waiting”) to balladry (“Pictures of Success”) to sweet popgazing (“Lock Me Down”). Har Mar (aka Sean Tillman) guests, and this week Statistics released its first-ever music video. “Peninsula” is available on iTunes, but Minneapolis-based Afternoon Records is offering a free download as well. Bargain.

||| Stream: “Nineteen Ninety Nine”