Jagjaguwar Spring 2007 Sampler

We Say...

Review by Amelia Raitt

The Curious Digit may be a long-forgotten rock footnote, but its success helped a small indie stay in business just long enough to get off the ground. That small indie, of course, is the now-venerable Jagjaguwar. A small Virginia-based label at the time, after a number of small releases, label head Darius Van Arman picked up and moved to the green(er) pastures of Bloomington, Indiana and a partnership with indie powerhouse Secretly Canadian.

That collaboration has seen the label grow into a market force, releasing records by buzz bands such as Okkervil River, Oneida and Swan Lake. It’s the recently signed Besnard Lakes that lead off Jagjaguwar’s Spring 2007 Sampler, though, with their psych epic “And You Lied To Me,” followed closely by Alex Delivery’s even-more-psych, even-more-epic “Komad.” After these two relative label newbies, the rest of the compilation showcases many of the artists that you know and love: Odawas, Julie Doiron, Parts and Labor, the Pink Mountaintops, etc. In so doing, Jagjaguwar tips their hand: what used to be Secretly Canadian’s hard rockin’ grizzled cousin has matured — moving effortlessly between the long jams that made its name (Oneida provides one of the best in “Up With People”) and fruitful deviations from the norm (the bagpipe-led noise romp of Parts and Labor’s “A Great Divide,” the loose alt-country of Skygreen Leopards’ “Disciples of California”). Enjoy it — and, as you’re doing so, raise a glass to the Curious Digit.