Landlordland

The lo-fi crusade of the '90s seems to have left almost as many casualties as the Summer of Love did -- only instead of burned-out old hippies, we've been bequeathed with bummed-out ex-slackers, still slouching in some post-collegiate cloud of dirty socks, pot smoke and scratched Sebadoh records. Landlordland's laundry habits might be debatable, but its love of laid-back noise and bedraggled melody is certain, as evidenced by Dragging Through the Weather, the Denver quartet's debut full-length (whose release will be celebrated Friday, June 17, at the hi-dive). All of the requisite touchstones are there: Pavement, Sonic Youth, even early Tortoise. But singer/guitarist Darren Dunn's excursions into the darkness of innocence are distended and distorted by the band's beautifully sprawling arrangements; keyboardist Sylas Cooley adds washes of warped, erratic turbulence that bring to mind Archers of Loaf's synth-addled swan song, White Trash Heroes. The sound of the recording itself, while far from sparkling, is more mid-fi than lo-. But there's no polishing Weather's gloriously choppy take on the warmhearted slacker pop of the past.