“The reason I got involved with music, directly or indirectly, was to meet people. In other words, communicate with strangers,” says singer-guitarist Michael Kentoff. “That’s a very, very complex process.”
While it may be a very, very complex process, that doesn’t mean the band makes very, very complex music. It may seem that way at first, though. And Kentoff is fine with that.
“I’ve always liked music that I didn’t necessarily fall in love with on first listen,” he says. And “Discontinued Perfume” is absolutely less a love-at-first-sight album than a friends-then-gradually-lovers one. It’s a slowly seductive collection in which a slinky guitar line eventually becomes catchy, or a head-scratching lyric suddenly becomes insightful.
General tags such as indie rock or guitar pop may be accurate enough to describe the Caribbean, but it’s rarely quite so simple. The band’s songs aren’t written so much as crafted, with every sound and word meticulously considered. They are meditative, and sometimes contradictory. Even a comparatively straightforward tune such as “Thank You for Talking to Me About Israel,” which rides along on snapping drums and fuzzy guitar, is built on a titular conceit and lyrics that are the polar opposite of an instant singalong.
“If you make something personal, almost by definition, just as it takes time to get to know somebody, it’s going to require a certain amount of effort to bond with it,” Kentoff says. “You remember when a record would come out and you would get it, and it was like having a crush or being in love? You would be glowing for weeks. You couldn’t wait to get home and put that record on. It really was a relationship. That’s the ideal. You just make something that you feel close to and believe in.”
A great sense of ease also courses through the songs. They are relaxed and unhurried. The same can be said of the band’s creative journey. The band members aren’t simply grownups but full-fledged adults. All three are married. (Guitarist Dave Jones’s nuptials occurred somewhat famously on the day after 2010’s enormous blizzard.) Drummer Matthew Byars has two children. Kentoff, 46, is a civil litigator, which some people might call his “real” job. Kentoff is not one of those people.
“If you have a serious career, the people who aren’t in your art world say, ‘Wow, that’s really nice that you do that. What a great outlet!’ ” Kentoff lingers disdainfully on that last word. He calls it “the O word.”
“No, it’s not an outlet — it’s my job that pays [expletive].”
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