As our interview ends and Manley heads inside to soundcheck, I mention that Trans Am are a particularly interesting story in the narrative of post-rock. They’re funny and fearless, unashamedly catchy and overt. Their songs are bright blocks of automation and machine-varnished rock, providing a blunt and monosyllabic response to post-rock’s tendency toward obfuscation, ambiguity and instrumental complexity. Out of all the bands associated with the label ‘post-rock’, I tell him, Trans Am are often particularly difficult for me to fit into the picture. “Well, Simon Reynolds called us that,”
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