The Antlers poke at success

About half a year ago, The Antlers were just another Brooklyn, N.Y., band toiling away in obscurity, quietly releasing independent albums largely unheard by the public.

But then, in March 2009, the band released Hospice. Suddenly, The Antlers were caught up in a whirlwind of near-unanimous positive reviews. They got signed by Frenchkiss Records, and in August, Hospice was remastered and rereleased by the label.

"It's all very strange, said Peter Silberman, the band's singer, guitarist and songwriter. "It's definitely a big adjustment to have people knowing your songs, singing along to them and developing a relationship with them. It's very surreal."

Tonight, the trio will be bringing Hospice's unique sound — and lyrics to match — for a live performance at DC9 in Washington.

One of the most notable aspects of Hospice is its cohesive style. Instead of a collection of unrelated songs, the album is made to flow as one unit. As a result, fragments of ideas coexist with entirely different fragments, often in the same song, and are usually united by different sorts of ambient noise.

While some songs, such as "Two" and "Bear," can stand by themselves, Silberman prefers Hospice to be listened to as a whole.

"I think it's for the mood, for the flow of everything," Silberman said. "Timing in a record is really important — how much tracks are spaced apart from one other."

He added the ambient sections of the record can create this important spacing.

"I think the ambience can kind of stretch and shrink time in a strange way where you don't realize that five minutes has passed, because you're trying to swim out of this ocean of sound," he said.

All this musical dynamism makes the band hard to categorize. Silberman initially said Hospice was "a texture-y pop album, focused around a plot, a sort of narrative structure ... it grows and then shrinks and it kind of has waves." But immediately afterward decided his own description was "kind of terrible."

As important as The Antlers' sound is, though, much of the meat of the album comes through in Silberman's detailed lyrics.

The album tells a loose story of a woman dying from bone cancer and the man who loves her watching it occur. Obviously, the ideas in Hospice are dark, sometimes oppressively so.

Silberman said he doesn't want to specify on the story too much, though.

"I don't want to tell anyone what to focus on with it, it's up to them," he said.

In fact, he feels the story doesn't even need to stay in the concrete confines of a hospital to be relatable.

"[What I focused on] was sort of the idea of a destructive relationship, and less about the loss of a loved one — the way two people can become so dysfunctional with one another," Silberman said.

And an album so emotional comes from a fittingly emotional place. Silberman went into social isolation for a period of two years in New York, and Hospice was the result. The amount of autobiography in the album is a contentious point, and Silberman still remains rather cryptic.

"There is autobiography in there. It is not 100 percent-autobiographical, but in a sense it's a very true story," he said.

A compelling "true story" that led Silberman and The Antlers — rounded out by Michael Lerner on drums and Darby Cicci predominately on keyboard — into a schedule of national touring and an entirely changed lifestyle.

And although Silberman always wanted to tour as part of a band, he never expected his bedroom project would become a full-fledged, full-time undertaking and never expected the band would grow in popularity as much as it has.

"There have been so many points in the past six months where I thought, ‘There's no way it's going to get any bigger than this,' and I already can't believe it got this big," Silberman said. "And the fact that it keeps jumping and keeps jumping ... it's really surprising, and it's kind of mind boggling." 

And it must all be new and exciting to Silberman — after suggesting all students "stay in school," he paused and laughed.

"I'm saying ‘stay in school, kids,' and meanwhile I'm the same age as all of them,"  he said, and paused again. "I don't think I should call them kids." 

After another pause, he spoke once more.

"Maybe we'll end up at the University of Maryland some day," Silberman said.

Tickets for The Antlers' show tonight upcoming concert at Washington's DC9 are $8 in advance and $10 at the door. Doors open at 8:30 p.m.

jwolper@umdbk.com