The music of The Joggers holds an awkward glee — the kind that inspires one to make spastic pelvic thrusts and throw elbows, even as the songs sound ready to collapse into themselves at any given moment.
Since signing to New York label StarTime International Records (home to like-minded bands like The Walkmen and French Kicks), the Portland-based group has been receiving the national recognition it deserves.
The group’s newest album, “Solid Guild,” starts with the pop-based, garage rock sound of unpolished vocals and staccato guitar parts. But instead of working inside the suburban, vinyl-sided box that similar bands find themselves inside, The Joggers shift and twist their songs, matching the instrumentation to singer/guitarist Ben Whitesides’ strident vocals.
At times, Whitesides’ vocals sound like they belong on a Strokes album, but his aren’t the only ones that shape the music. In fact, all the members (the band is rounded out with Darrell Bourque, Murphy Kasiewicz and Jake Morris) contribute vocals. The Joggers may actually be indie rock’s only barbershop quartet. Songs like “Back to the Future” and “Neon Undercarriage” give way to the four-part harmonies usually reserved for choirboys.
Halfway through “Back to the Future,” the song breaks down into an a cappella round with the band singing “Back to the future falling slow as snow on your shoulders / a shadow from the spring sparks you can’t explain before you sleep / waiting to kill the signals that the garden wouldn’t grow.” With four different voices singing, the song is rich in texture, even during the moments without instrumentation.
Also, the band seems to have an excellent understanding of texture and how to layer instruments to give their music an emotional arc. Chords roll and then hop between thumping drums and basslines. The Joggers know how to make the whole bigger than the parts. “Solid Guild” is just one more reason for the Portland music scene to be proud of itself.