Vinyl of the Week: Portland's Prids Redefine Shoegaze on 'Chronosynciastic,' for Velvet Blue [MP3]

In the strange wake of music's digital rebirth, vinyl has experienced a modest boom in popularity, seen by many as a replacement for the awkward middleman that is the compact disc. INCHES reviews the output of L.A.'s healthy vinyl community, believing that good music deserves much more than a handful of ones and zeros.

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The Prids take flight with "Chronosynciastic"

Read our review, and download some downward-gazing tuneage, after the jump.

Portland's the Prids--who've released their third LP on Huntington's Velvet Blue Music--have weathered both an in-band divorce and, in 2008, a nearly fatal touring accident, so it doesn't come as a surprise that Chronosynclastic sounds like catharsis. It's in the thick My Bloody Valentine crush of guitar and bass that invariably buries each song in its warm avalanche. It's in the way the vocals of former husband and wife David Frederickson and Mistina Keith coil and intertwine. It's in the comforting upbeat pop that hides just around the corner in songs like "Hide Your Thoughts" and "Break," and the fact that even that sounds sad eventually, like the Cure's skewed synth-pop.

Built to Spill's Doug Martsch lends his voice and guitar to "In the Fall," one of the album's swooning, moody highlights, and the pairing makes sense. The Prids' reinvention of late '80s/early '90s alternative rock isn't without its own nuance. There's a certain buzzing twang in Frederickson's voice--a distinctly American (and Americana, considering the lap steel on the quiet "Desolation" and the delicate closer "Tonight, October) touch that drives home the blues inherent in these guys' tunes, setting them apart from contemporaries like Silversun Pickups and adroitly sidestepping the possibility of straight rehash. Bathetic? Sure, but so is a lot of great music, and the Prids are on their way.