The Week That Was

So, as it turns out, Sunderland is not the new Seattle, what with leading lights the Futureheads and Newcastle-upon-Tyne neighbors Maxïmo Park pumping out less exciting variations of their much-celebrated debut albums, and the scene's dark horse-- oddball indie pop trio Field Music-- announcing their hiatus before their second album (2007's Tones of Town) had barely settled onto record-store shelves. But for fraternal Field Music leaders David and Peter Brewis, the end of the band does not mean the death of the brand. Citing a growing disillusion with the touring and promotional aspects of being in a band but a continued enthusiasm for the recording/creative process, the brothers have essentially split into two outfits united under the "Field Music Productions" banner: David was first past the post earlier this year with his boisterous new School of Language project, which closely adhered to its antecedent's post-punky guitar pop schematic, while Peter now emerges with the even more ambitious The Week That Was, whose assured self-titled debut ushers in the Brewis brothers' next phase in earnest.