By J. Maggio, October 2008
The Death of Nature, Self-Released
To call Oh Sanders just “twee” pop would be an insult. Sure, they have sexless males who show nothing but platonic interest in the relatively nonsexual female lead. That being said, I use the term “nonsexual” in the sense that Oh Sanders’ pop-tunes have a kind of purity. In fact, the band has led a kind of mini-pop renaissance in Gainesville. The tunes on their new full-length range from noisy My Bloody Valentine-style rock, to simple Elephant Six kind of bubble-yum. Through the exquisite pop-jangle or the noise come some lovely lyrics about the complexity of life, love and other usual sub-Beatles/Big Star topics. Lead singer Stella Leung sings: “Are you underwater? / Cause the last four times I’ve been watching any flicker of life come to your eyes / they seem dull. / Does disinterest spread like a recessive disease? / Because I’ve been analyzing your capacity and your genes. / It seems easy.” Leung’s simple-sounding voice ironically hides the maturity of her words and vocal delivery. And, like Against Me! once did in their classic “I Still Love You Julie,” Oh Sanders implies a big “fuck you” to Gainesville in their eminent tune “Conspiracy to Commit Arson,” where Stella sings: “Because we don’t need the status to tell us who our friends are / and we don’t need to be seen in this town’s social hierarchy / and we don’t branch out but I swear we always suck the right ones in / welcome to the clan.” Oh Sanders’ The Death of Nature is one of the best CDs from Gainesville in the last few years, and I hope they continue in their sexless and indie-pop ways.