CD: 444825
RELEASED: 2007
LABEL: Beggars

01. Dear Me
02. Lectric
03. Meanmedian Mode
04. Sick Hipster
05. Must Try Easier
06. Two Kinds
07. Capitalized I
08. Go Down Together
09. Compare
10. Florida
11. Blizzard Scout
12. Plots And Plays
13. What I Meant To Say

San Francisco's Film School are a band built around frontman Greg Bertens. Formed in the late 1990's, Bertens has recruited members and slowly put out albums and EPs before signing to Beggars and becoming a more permanent band. Opener Dear Me and follow-up Lectric set the scene perfectly, with a wall of sound that builds and builds with pounding drums. Produced by frontman Bertens and Mixed by Phil Ek (Band of Horses, Stephen Malkmus, The Shins) the album is a huge leap forward from 2006's self-title album, which confusingly was their second. Rich and textured, the records feels like a lot of time, love and attention has been put into it. Overall Hideout owes more than a passing nod to the brilliance/pretentiousness of My Bloody Valentine. The effects are set to stun and while on several occasions things look like they are going to drift away, the sonic theatrics are kept in manageable chunks and the album remains strong and focused without the directionless ramblings that MBV had a taste for. While the admittedly Cure sounding Two Kinds, with it's bass and 80's John Hughes keyboard sound starts promisingly, it's doesn't quite deliver but tracks like the juggernaut sound of Sick Hipster Nursed By Suicide Girl swirl up a pummeling sound that builds up to a crashing drum finale. Shoegazing is a direction that gets little attention in these obsessed days but it would be more than welcome to mooch back into the limelight.

Influences / Similar Artists:
The Stills, Interpol, Elefant, Longwave, The Editors