Azar, in Portugese, means “bad luck.” And while recording AZAR in 2007 and 2008, Athens dream-pop outfit Venice is Sinking certainly hit some rough patches.

“It’s kind of hard, in this economic climate [and] with the continuing problems in the [Democratic Republic of] Congo, to be all, ‘Making that indie rock record was so hard,’” says Lucas Jensen, Venice is Sinking’s drummer. “But yeah, relatively speaking, it was a period of great doubt and self-reflection.”

Venice is Sinking

But Jensen’s quick to point out that despite the band’s trials and tribulations, **AZAR** isn’t an ode to the band’s bum luck.

“[**AZAR**] is the name of the titular liquor store on the cover of the album,” Jensen says. “And it's a weird place; this weird meeting of Old South and new gentrification and urban blight. And that liquor store sits like this beacon of awfulness on the corner of these conflicting areas. And the album is like that: Even the happiest song on there, ‘Okay,’ is profoundly melancholy. But not in an ‘everything sucks’ way; just wistful, I guess.”

Indeed, the tunes on **AZAR** sound wistful, but for good reasons: Firstly, the band thought it would **AZAR** would be its last record, given the uncertain and diffuse futures of its members; and, secondly, making **AZAR** was a stressful, taxing process, during which one band member left (though amicably), one member got divorced and gas prices soared to over $3 per gallon.

It also didn’t help, Jensen says, that Venice is Sinking simply wasn’t ready to make a record when it began laying down tracks with Scott Solter in his Charlotte studio in May 2007.

“We weren't confident in our performances,” Jensen says. “We didn't practice enough. There was a lot of recording and rerecording. Plus we did this all on weekends in North Carolina, so we drove back and forth every other weekend through 1-85. **And** Steve [Miller, former bass player] quit the band. **And** I was going through a separation-slash-divorce. **And** James [Sewell, pianist/organist] and I had school. **And** Karolyn [Troupe, violist/vocalist] and Daniel [Lawson, guitarist/vocalist] worked full-time, as did I. It was just hard to focus sometimes.”

“I mean, we spent a lot of money we saved up and I think that affected things for us,” he adds. “All of the Chicken Planks and draft root beer from that Long John Silver's/A&W on I-85 start to wear you down.”

But the distance traveled had another effect on **AZAR**; the album finds the band widening its sonic palette and deepening its focus, tackling the idea of location’s ability to influence our lives, Jensen says.

“Mainly, it's about dislocation and feeling out of sync with our surroundings and how movement and being transient affects our relationships with others,” Jensen says. “All of us love traveling, and we love dirty, weird America. And that directly influenced what we wrote about and [our] instrumental choices.”

And instrumentation is important to a band such as Venice is Sinking. Troupe’s main instrument is the viola, sparsely used in the rock canon, and at moments on the band’s debut, **Sorry About the Flowers**, Troupe’s playing was downplayed and/or undermixed; indeed, making **AZAR** a clearer-sounding record was the goal.

“Our first record,” Jensen says, “we got lucky that it happened, but there were so many things we weren't happy with. We just put everything on it all the time: always three guitars; always two keyboards; always drums. But I think with **AZAR**, Scott forced us to look at music vertically [and] where everything fits sonically.”

“It's what we were going for,” Jensen adds. “We wanted to widen everything.”

Indeed, on **AZAR**, Venice is Sinking takes the basic formula of its debut **Sorry About the Flowers** — lush, reverbed guitars; gorgeous guy-girl harmonies; winsome, wistful songwriting — and broadens its horizons. Undoubtedly, it’s a radical departure from **Sorry**:  Rather than wrap everything in space-pop’s thick gauze, Solter’s crystalline production gives each instrument room to breathe. And while it sounds sparser, there’s actually a lot more going on: In addition to its standard guitar-bass-keys-viola-drum orientation, **AZAR** is fleshed out with vibraphones, boxharps, omnichords, timpani, Javanese seed pods and something called the “fun machine.” Jensen even estimates that “Charm City,” the album’s closer, contains 24 separate instrument tracks.

As a result, **AZAR** is wide-screen cinematic indie-pop at its clearest, finest and most tastefully restrained, expanding gloriously on the band’s debut.

“I think it's a better record,” Jensen says. “I think the record is better because we thought more about what was going down on tape. We had to ditch some preconceived notions of the songs. We had to fight about stuff and not always get our way.”

“All of us were more involved,” he continues. “Karolyn wrote more. James wrote the whole **AZAR** theme. The arrangements were more our own. We had other songs we could have recorded, but these were the ones that felt right. Lyrically they were similar, [and] they were all written near-ish to each other. ‘Ryan's Song’ and ‘Sun Belt’ came about in the same weekend. And our vision, however muddled it started out, was at least consistent.”

Also more consistent: The performances on the record, something Jensen also cites as a problem with **Sorry**. **AZAR** finds Venice is Sinking assured and confident, whether it’s ramping up the tempo and intensity (as on the last half of “Okay”), locking into a hypnotic lull (as on “Ryan’s Song”) or veering into Spiritualized-via-slowcore territory (as on “Iron Range”).

“Scott Solter pushed us to be real musicians and to not be so timid to make real, musical decisions,” Jensen says. “He can be tough on you [but] the guy's ear is staggering.”

“Scott sort of held us to this code of one literal instrument to one figurative one,” Jensen adds. “Literal would be a well-recorded but ultimately dry piano. Figurative would be a warped version of that: You know it's a piano, but we've processed it and messed with it. Very few of the instruments on the record are just straight up.”

In the end, Solter’s push was ultimately good for the band, Jensen says; as a result, Venice is Sinking is more confident that it’s ever been.

“We ended up pushing ourselves to become better musicians,” Jensen says. “Daniel and Karolyn really had to step it up for this record, and I believe they did.”

And though **AZAR** is almost behind them — the band releases it in its Athens hometown later this month — it won’t be the only record to come from Venice is Sinking in 2009. Weeks after wrapping up **AZAR** and just over a year after the band though it was kaput, Venice is Sinking jumped at the unique opportunity to record with David Barbe (Drive-By Truckers, Bettye Lavette) at Athens’ historic Georgia Theatre. Much like The Cowboy Junkies’ famed **Trinity Sessions**, the as-yet-untitled album was recorded live to tape with only two microphones. As a result, it’s another album that marks another radical sonic departure.

“It's basically the anti-**AZAR**,” Jensen says. “The songs are generally more direct and poppier, even twangier, and it sounds so wild. It's **way** dynamic.”

As for the future of Venice is Sinking, Jensen is coy.

“I will say this,” Jensen says. “Fourth album: Reggaeton.”


The Art Bar is located at 1211 Park St. in the Vista. Damn the Sun, The Overtones and The Jaded Rakes — led by former Stelle Group frontman Chuck Mims — open. Doors open at 9 p.m.; admission is $3. Call 929-0198 or visit artbarsc.com for more information.