Like Mogwai or Godspeed You Black Emperor, Actors & Actresses rarely takes the quickest route to a musical statement. Each of the nine songs on the Kansas City group's debut LP, Arrows, heats up at the speed of an iceberg (pre-global warming) before eventually crashing off the figurative cliff. The disc can be heard as the latest in a long line of darkly nuanced, post-rock shoegaze albums that have sprung from KC's loins over the past 10-plus years, with antecedents including Shiner, the Life and Times, the Stella Link, Dirtnap, the String and Return and others. Like those groups' best moments, Arrows makes for a compelling listen thanks to its attention to detail and unflinching devotion to head-nodding, slowcore bliss. Often, listening to A&A feels like being stuck behind an elderly woman on Interstate 70. But she turns out to be pretty rad when she straps on a guitar and gets all intimate with her delay pedal. Get intimate with A&A when the trio plays Sunday, July 26, at the Replay Lounge and Monday, July 27, at the Record Bar.
