It was a long and arduous task to find this week's Theirspace artist (one might've thought that Jeffree Star would've been an ideal candidate for this week's Theirspace, but Star's from Orange County, not Etobicoke). There were an awful lot of poorly recorded myspace tracks from promising bands playing this week. That is, until I found the self-described "over produced" work of Lacerda, a Power Pop group playing at Smiling Buddha this Sunday, February 25th.

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Lacerda's Myspace Page

Front and center, Lacerda defines their music as Power Pop, Electronica and Experimental. I'm gonna have to disagree vehemently with the last two descriptors. Power Pop they indeed are, however. Lacerda falls into a pool with a similar consistency to These Electric Lives than they do with Holy Fuck. It's just as well, as these guys can write a damn good song. Including drum machines and some keyboard work "does not an electro band make" (in my best Yoda voice).

They have four tracks for your listening pleasure, none of them over-produced at all... but given a decent budget, I'm sure their tracks could reach said status with a minimum of added effort.

Also, does anyone know why there's an "LB" for a logo in the background?

Annie Lennox sets the tone with a nice, albeit brief evil-synth line. Why do I keep hearing the voice of Fall Out Boy coming through my headphones? For some reason I'm finding the sound to be similar... I'm also thinking the kick drum is mixed a little too high. "Power pop" this is indeed, though.

The New Pretension plays out like a standard, yet quite good, pop-rock song. Again, the Fall Out Boy comparisons keep flowing through my head. It's apparent that Lacerda know how to finely craft a tune. Several nice bridges and breakdowns in this track, particularly the "way out of context" conclusion.

Paul Allen gives us that "analogue warmth", also called noise, followed by some low -key percussion and repeating piano chords. Cue the synth and the nice cut-back distortion. At this point, it went from my least favorite to my most favorite Lacerda song. Mixing drum machines with the real thing (for the recording, at least) works very well. There's just more electronic programming in this tune than the previous two. It doesn't sound like a different band, just a different side of them which keeps things fresh.

Personified Acrobat offers us more electronic programming as a slower pop tune with a lot of layers cutting in and out. Very little is repeated in terms of the instrumentation, which even throws in some mechanical sounding strings to great effect. Far from the disaster without a soundtrack that the lyrics keep referencing.

Evident in the latter two track especially, Lacerda really know how to arrange a track. For 8$, these guys are easily recommended for your ears' best interests.

LACERDA LIVE:
February, 25 2007 at Smiling Buddha
416-516-2531, after 7PM
961 College Street
Cost : $8

Check out the previous week's Theirspace profile on Terror Lake