BAEBLE SESSIONS: The Temper Trap at The Guest Apartment

When first we heard The Temper Trap, it came via the cool flicker of a film projector, splashing images of Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt falling in and out of love in 500 Days of Summer. Curiosity then lead us to the Australian band's debut disk Conditions; an addicting, near perfect collection of pop songs that shamelessly shoot for the moon with their massive, arena ready sound And so calls were made, emails were exchanged, and wouldn't you know it? Come CMJ time the dashing young band were here hunkering down in the Guest Apartment. Talk about a whirlwind ride for the band...for us and the band.

In our latest segment of The Guest Apartment, The Temper Trap pair down and showcase three tunes from Conditions in a way you've most likely never heard before. Here the dense textures and overall ambience of the album gets scrubbed away by a wash of acoustic guitars, sparse keyboards, and makeshift percussive surfaces. "Sweet Disposition" - massive on album - is entirely fragile here, with singer Dougy Mandagi's falsetto light as feather upon the instrumental breeze. "Fader", a monstrous song the band admits to writing because they didn't feel they had a pop song that would sell on record (pffft...riiiiight guys), is anything but a beast here. And "Science Of Fear" comes devoid of those DJ Shadow programmed beats that inherit Conditions. We admit, such subtraction from the formula might read a little strange on paper (or your monitor). But the result is a session that's nothing short of genuine from a band we're betting will enjoy a very massive 2010 indeed. - David Pitz