Rainwater Cassette Exchange - EP

It's hard to believe given his towering stature in the indie rock scene these days — both literally and figuratively — but Bradford Cox was a blip on everyone's radar up until a few years ago, when Deerhunter delivered their breakthrough disc, Cryptograms. Now that he's seemingly everywhere, from blabbing on blogs to carving out a side career with Atlas Sound, it's easy to write Rainwater Cassette Exchange off as Cox's spring cleaning collection. After all, it tears through five new tracks in 15 minutes, leaving lots of blustery garage pop in its wake. There's a lightheaded ballad that breaks out the bongos ("Game of Diamonds"), traces of extraterrestrial theremin lines ("Famous Last Words"), and a curtain-closer that starts off as a catchy indie rock tune and ends in a series of splintered samples and scrambled frequencies. Wait, what were we saying about this being a bunch of leftovers again? Never mind.