If you’ve never heard Casper & the Cookies, do yourself a favor; dismiss any preconceived notions. Forget that Jason played with of Montreal. Cast aside the reports of live shows replete with fake eyelashes, though it does look fantastic. You’re going to have to take Casper & the Cookies on their own terms. Fail to do so and you will miss some of the most original pop music to come along in years. Over the course of three albums Athens, GA’s finest have managed to carve out an aesthetic all their own, a labyrinthine tangle of ear-worm melodies, plot-twist production, and the history of popular music. This is good news for those waiting for another XTC or Elvis Costello, ambitious artists that never left their audiences wondering where the catchy songs went. After playing over 120 shows for 2006’s The Optimist’s Club (including two tours supporting the Apples in Stereo), the Cookies re-entered the studio. Starting with a few catchy nuggets for what was to be a studio recording of the band’s live set, Modern Silence eventually took over a year to finish. They pooled resources from the evergreen Athens scene and beyond, calling in Bill Doss (Olivia Tremor Control) to assist and perform, and soliciting contributions from Robert Schneider (The Apples in Stereo), Vanessa Briscoe Hay (Pylon), music writer Gary “Pig” Gold, Keith John Adams, a parrot named Rocky, and dozens more. During the gestation period the Cookies experienced two notable casualties: drummer Joe Rowe (who left to start his own band) and the Bacharach/David classic “(They Long to Be) Close To You,” which they completely dis- and reassembled. When the egg finally cracked what came out was fifteen great pop songs and one sidelong high-concept orgy of sound. As the album neared completion in October 2008, the Cookies sent baby pictures in the form of mp3 exclusives to some of their favorite blogs, one each to Three Imaginary Girls, Optical Atlas, You Ain’t No Picasso, & Cable and Tweed. What now? According to Jason, “We gotta get out of this studio and back on the friggin’ road!” “Miles and miles of conceptual pop soundscape. An eternity of possibilities...Skin bracing.” --Aiding & Abetting “[Modern Silence] recalls NeSmith’s former band, Of Montreal, minus the constant sex imagery.” --Magnet “Rocking from Athens, GA Casper & The Cookies are a fun little rock and roll band. They’re everything you like best about The Monkees, Nick Lowe, the dB’s, XTC, Sparks, the B-52’s, and earlier Bowie all wrapped up in one colorful musical ribbon.” --WXPN Blog “This is a band that embraces making challenging music. Their glossy surface is what makes them attractive. The last band to master this technique was the Beatles.” --URB “After their stellar breakthrough The Optimist’s Club, anticipation is high for the third Casper & the Cookies record; no one wants to be taken off guard again.” --Optical Atlas “Casper & the Cookies have an album of the year contender.” -- Funeral Pudding “It’s not just an early contender for that coveted “album of the year” title, but it’s a late entry into the “album of the decade” contest. Seriously.” --RetroLowFi