MEETING PLACES Numbered Days CD Moose, Ride, Slowdive

Artist: The Meeting Places

Title: Numbered Days

Label: Words On Music

Recommended for fans of: My Bloody Valentine, Interpol, Broken Social Scene, Slowdive, Moose, Spiritualized, Jesus and Mary Chain, Ride, Chapterhouse, Yo La Tengo

Format: CD

Condition: New (Sealed, not a cut-out)

Cost: $5.99

Shipping: $2.00 North America (1st Class); $4.00 elsewhere (1st Class International Mail)

Reviews: “The Meeting Places achieve iridescent ambience on Numbered Days, dreaming up expansive atmospherics and silver-lined lyrics. - Spin.com

"It sounds like a cross between The Jesus and Mary Chain and The Byrds. Extremely pleasing and passionate - a very fine album indeed!” - Pop Matters

Description: Numbered Days is the second album of luminous, infectious noise-pop by Los Angeles' THE MEETING PLACES. On their sophomore record the quartet has written ten new songs that craftily combine melodic indie-pop with the tremulous soundscapes first explored on their debut Find Yourself Along The Way (Words On Music, 2003). Numbered Days was recorded at The Ship by JIM FAIRCHILD (GRANDADDY, EARLIMART).

THE MEETING PLACES’ renowned mastery of noise-pop shines through in the gorgeous melodies of "Until It's Gone" and in the blistering, darker guitar work of "Sink Into Stone" — two songs on different ends of the lyrical and sonic spectrum in which singer Chase Harris delves into changes in his family life.

The inclusion of resonating atmospherics is, for THE MEETING PLACES, never an end itself, only a means to an end. Instead of droning into nothingness, shimmering coats of reverb anchor the songs to set up the delivery of a well-placed hook or a knockout punch of a chorus, such as in the boisterous, pulsating "Nothing's The Same" or the catchy, upbeat "Hall of Fame."

The cunning implementation of dynamics and sundry instruments (e.g. piano, glockenspiel), showcase THE MEETING PLACES' songwriting talents, as in the album closer "Cardboard Robot" which alternates between a calm, unwavering verse and a searing chorus that detours into early MY BLOODY VALENTINE and kraut-rock: both pieces stitched together seamlessly by Arthur Chan's melodic basslines.

Scott McDonald's howling guitar melodies sometimes take their cues from Eastern music ("Love Like The Movies," "Numbered Days," "Pause"), imposing order and form to the reverberating ambience that lurks beneath the surface. Dean Yoshihara's relentless drumming fastens the music to rhythms that help to broker an immediate relationship between the listener and the band.

Numbered Days evokes a leaner, more urgent approach to songwriting, in the spirit of the JESUS AND MARY CHAINS’s Darklands or THE SHINS' Oh, Inverted World. Compositions judiciously weave together from start to finish with a proportionality rarely found in an age whose digital format tends to bloat records by the inclusion of filler.