WHITE RABBITS - Fort Nightly Review

Brooklyn newcomers White Rabbits pull off an amazing sleight of hand with Fort Nightly, popping out of the hat with a debut as fully formed and self-assured as any likely to be heard this year. Comparisons to The Walkmen aren't far off the mark—both groups share an appreciation for vintage instruments and the mod/ska sounds of The Specials—but where Walkmen deals in ragged morning-afters, White Rabbits evokes the champagne-popping here-and-now with buoyant ragtime and lyrical nods to The Great Gatsby's endless, hollow pursuit of fun—and all the self-loathing and damnation that comes with it....full text Fort Nightly is that rare debut where potential isn't the operative word-- White Rabbits deliver the whole package straight away. The NYC six-piece writes great songs that merge rhythmic intensity with grandiose melodrama in a seamless and inventive package. Opening the album with a sinister left-handed piano riff, "Kid on My Shoulders" features steam engine drums that give the song's many hooks ample chance to sink in. It's a track that keeps getting catchier as it goes, ending with a choral coda that has a monumental sweep....full text Based on "The Plot," the tambourine shaking first single off of White Rabbits' debut Fort Nightly, it's tempting to assume these gents are merely a standard rock band, one with the same Stones, Stooges and Bowie fetishism as any other New York band outfitted with shaggy haircuts and Les Pauls. And, for what it's worth, "The Plot" is pretty good, especially when the chorus of "he's not impressed" overlaps vocalist Greg Roberts' "whoas" in the song's denouement. But that's actually about as normal as the band gets, which is to say that there's very little that's normal about White Rabbits at all....full text