The singer in my band knows them, and knew the singer when he ditched his old band (in an ass-like way) and hired a bunch of "music-pro's" 10-15 years older than him to play music with him. That and they spent a ton of money to work with the producer of The Shins (I believe). Gotta love that well-oiled supergroup cash-machine.
I don't really get any of this argument in regards to them being "sellouts' or a "cash-machine". I could only find 3 ages, Robin is 22, Skye is 22, Wescott is 27, and Tilman is supposedly the youngest and had never toured before until this last year. Robin and Skye were best friends through high school. Looking at pictures, the other guy is probably around my age (high 20's to early 30's).
The band is based in Seattle, signed to a Seattle label (Sub Pop may be big for an indie label, but they're FAR from being a well-oiled cash machine), and were produced by someone in Seattle (Phil Ek produces all sorts of groups from the area and often produces a number of newish local groups he personally likes to try to help them get more exposure: see The Shins as you mentioned, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Sea Wolf, Dios Malos, etc). The band actually ran out of money trying to make the album, hence why it was delayed clear until now, and why they released the Sun Giant EP early this year to make up for the massive delay.
Anyways, I've mentioned it elsewhere, but I personally like the Sun Giant EP even more than the album (though it's growing on me more). 'Mykonos' from the EP is one of the best songs I've heard this year so far, I absolutely love it.
Shouter, and anyone else - I'd recommend these tracks to try to get into them:
Mykonos
White Winter Hymnal
English House
Your Protector
He Doesn't Know Why
Ragged Wood
And I agree with Shout/Laz's opinions on Pitchfork and any and every other music review site or magazine in existence. You can't expect any of them to always say exactly what you want to hear, but they can all be extremely helpful in making decisions about what stuff to check out. They can frequently give interesting insight into bands you love as well. And the idea that Pitchfork hates music is unbelievably ridiculous. Even leaving the reviews out of it, the amount of awesome videos, links, and news they post daily more than proves this wrong.
The difference is, I don't think they sound like My Morning Jacket. I just think the singer sounds like Jim James.
