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Saturday, March 21, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
New Music Tuesday: The Love Language
Heed my words, these guys are going to explode very soon.
Comin' at ya from Raleigh, NC, I recently saw this awesome band open for The Rosebuds (also an awesome band) back in January at the Middle East. I had just seen some band whose name I can't remember chug through a few closing tracks that sounded like terrible Jimmy Eat World songs and had very low expectations. Needless to say, they rocked, and I've been listening to their album that they had for sale ever since.
Imagine my surprise to see that the album's actual street release date is today of all days! So, I am here to laud them, as hopefully other, more influential blogs will be doing in the coming days.
The album:
This is The Love Language's unabashed debut, largely the work of frontman Stu McLamb, and apparently recorded nearly in entirety by him alone in a storage area with a 4-track recorder. The result is a concise, but brilliant, 9-track lo-fi masterpiece, with a fuzzed out sounded akin to the Walkmen, Neutral Milk Hotel (well, without a million other instruments), and Funeral-era Arcade Fire (I'm a Neon Bible hater, apologies). McLamb guides you around emotional highs and lows, from hushed, strained piano all the way to freewheeling romps like a Devendra Banhart dance party, and even manages to throw in a little country-- recalling Okkervil River or The Avett Brothers (particularly in his vocals).
Anyway, I could go on longer but it would do you better to just give a listen, so I present my track picks:
Nocturne
Sparxxx
Hear more at their MySpace
Live:
Ivan of the Rosebuds heard McLamb's album, and invited him to assemble a full band and head out on tour with them. Thus, the 7-piece touring ensemble of The Love Language was born. As good as the album is, the music is even better live. The songs yearn to be fleshed out and they do it, amazingly. Check out this live video of "Lalita" featuring the lovely and charming Missy Thangs on tambourine:
Attn Northeast:
They will be at TT the Bear's in Cambridge on April 23 and The Bellhouse in Brooklyn on the 24th. Do yourself a favor and GO!!
Comin' at ya from Raleigh, NC, I recently saw this awesome band open for The Rosebuds (also an awesome band) back in January at the Middle East. I had just seen some band whose name I can't remember chug through a few closing tracks that sounded like terrible Jimmy Eat World songs and had very low expectations. Needless to say, they rocked, and I've been listening to their album that they had for sale ever since.
Imagine my surprise to see that the album's actual street release date is today of all days! So, I am here to laud them, as hopefully other, more influential blogs will be doing in the coming days.
The album:
This is The Love Language's unabashed debut, largely the work of frontman Stu McLamb, and apparently recorded nearly in entirety by him alone in a storage area with a 4-track recorder. The result is a concise, but brilliant, 9-track lo-fi masterpiece, with a fuzzed out sounded akin to the Walkmen, Neutral Milk Hotel (well, without a million other instruments), and Funeral-era Arcade Fire (I'm a Neon Bible hater, apologies). McLamb guides you around emotional highs and lows, from hushed, strained piano all the way to freewheeling romps like a Devendra Banhart dance party, and even manages to throw in a little country-- recalling Okkervil River or The Avett Brothers (particularly in his vocals).
Anyway, I could go on longer but it would do you better to just give a listen, so I present my track picks:
Nocturne
Sparxxx
Hear more at their MySpace
Live:
Ivan of the Rosebuds heard McLamb's album, and invited him to assemble a full band and head out on tour with them. Thus, the 7-piece touring ensemble of The Love Language was born. As good as the album is, the music is even better live. The songs yearn to be fleshed out and they do it, amazingly. Check out this live video of "Lalita" featuring the lovely and charming Missy Thangs on tambourine:
Attn Northeast:
They will be at TT the Bear's in Cambridge on April 23 and The Bellhouse in Brooklyn on the 24th. Do yourself a favor and GO!!
Friday, March 13, 2009
The Friday Find: Aloha & Brendan Canning
No reviews today, just some great stuff I thought I'd share ranging from not-so-old to a little bit old.
Anyway, first up is a stellar track by a sometimes-stellar band called Aloha.
Forming in Cleveland, Aloha started out in the late 90's and put out their first (and best, if you ask me) album That's Your Fire in 2000. I didn't get into them until much later, probably 2005 or so, but their early work is fantastic and some of their more recent albums have a few great songs here and there.
The real great thing about Aloha is their sound-- floating around somewhere in between indie, post-rock, and free jazz, their songs rarely follow a straight form, always evolving, always taking an unexpected turn into something different. Oh, and did you notice in the picture up there that there's vibraphone?? Yeah, that is what really makes their sound awesome and pretty unique. Unfortunately, their more recent albums have sort of downplayed their earlier innovation and become more predictable.
Still, their vibraphone chops are brought to the foreground here in the highlight of That's Your Fire, the sprawling, 9-minute "Heading East." A looping guitar and spacey bass groove loop set the stage for some great vibraphone work and sparse, at times off-tempo drumming. Three minutes in, the song pulls itself together for some vocals, with great lines like "it's times like these I swear that inspiration is locked down in a closet," or, "I'm having dreams I shouldn't share." With three or four minutes left, the vocals cut, and the song deconstructs itself in a glorious wash of delayed piano and more vibraphone awesomeness.
Download it! Aloha - "Heading East"
---------
Second, OK, a lot of people LOVE Broken Social Scene, but their two most recent efforts under the guise of "Broken Social Scene Presents:" (essentially solo projects of the two most focal members of the band, Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning) largely flew under the radar of a lot of fans. These are really great albums on par with, if not better than, a lot of BSS material. Particularly good was Brendan Canning's 2008 album Something for All of Us. Here I give you the very creative and enjoyable video for the track "Churches Under the Stairs:"
Anyway, first up is a stellar track by a sometimes-stellar band called Aloha.
Forming in Cleveland, Aloha started out in the late 90's and put out their first (and best, if you ask me) album That's Your Fire in 2000. I didn't get into them until much later, probably 2005 or so, but their early work is fantastic and some of their more recent albums have a few great songs here and there.
The real great thing about Aloha is their sound-- floating around somewhere in between indie, post-rock, and free jazz, their songs rarely follow a straight form, always evolving, always taking an unexpected turn into something different. Oh, and did you notice in the picture up there that there's vibraphone?? Yeah, that is what really makes their sound awesome and pretty unique. Unfortunately, their more recent albums have sort of downplayed their earlier innovation and become more predictable.
Still, their vibraphone chops are brought to the foreground here in the highlight of That's Your Fire, the sprawling, 9-minute "Heading East." A looping guitar and spacey bass groove loop set the stage for some great vibraphone work and sparse, at times off-tempo drumming. Three minutes in, the song pulls itself together for some vocals, with great lines like "it's times like these I swear that inspiration is locked down in a closet," or, "I'm having dreams I shouldn't share." With three or four minutes left, the vocals cut, and the song deconstructs itself in a glorious wash of delayed piano and more vibraphone awesomeness.
Download it! Aloha - "Heading East"
---------
Second, OK, a lot of people LOVE Broken Social Scene, but their two most recent efforts under the guise of "Broken Social Scene Presents:" (essentially solo projects of the two most focal members of the band, Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning) largely flew under the radar of a lot of fans. These are really great albums on par with, if not better than, a lot of BSS material. Particularly good was Brendan Canning's 2008 album Something for All of Us. Here I give you the very creative and enjoyable video for the track "Churches Under the Stairs:"
Monday, March 9, 2009
The Friday Find: Ocean Colour Scene
Ocean Colour Scene - Moseley Shoals [MCA, 1996]
[click to download]
4.5/5
OK, it's not really Friday. Sorry I've been behind, but to make up for it I'm bringing a truly wonderful album out from the annals of history. Well, 13 years ago anyway, cmon, that's old!
So, the setting: England, 1996. Oasis and blur have just utterly ripped the britpop scene wide open with 1995's (What's the Story) Morning Glory? and 1994's Parklife (respectively) and it seems as if the rest of the country couldn't care less about any other bands. Ocean Colour Scene had already had a bit of a flop in their 1992 debut and were now trying to get back in the limelight. What's a fledgling guitar- and piano-rock band to do??
The simple answer is to make an incredible well-crafted album full of more hooks-per-minute than you can imagine. With one listen, you can easily hear how vocalist Simon Fowler sings drawing upon McCartney/Lennon, Jagger, and his contemporary Noel Gallagher of Oasis. It's quite a statement to compare Ocean Colour Scene to three of the biggest bands of all time, but thanks to championing from Paul Weller (of The Jam) and Gallagher himself, Ocean Colour Scene quickly rose up to iconic status in the UK with psych-tinged classic rock goodness that is Moseley Shoals.
Opening strong, "The Riverboat Song" packs a bluesy punch and shows off some of the slick guitar work of Steve Cradock (who played with Paul Weller previously) as he really brings out the old psychedelia influence of the band. The psych is at its strongest on other tracks like "You've Got It Bad" and the epic closer "Get Away." Tremelo and phase shifting across left to right (especially remarkable while listening on headphones), the light addition of psychedelia really takes Ocean Colour Scene's music to the next level on this album, as opposed to getting comfortable with arena-rock bombast akin to other big British bands (cough... Oasis).
However, OCS didn't jump to the top of the British charts and go multi-platinum (there, not here in the US) from a few great psych tunes-- where they really excelled (both musically and in terms of public appeal) was in their piano-stomping pop gems like "The Day We Caught the Trains" and "40 Past Midnight." They could even tone it down and produce some quality ballads ("The Downstream" is practically perfect, though, I really could have done without the rather forgettable "It's My Shadow"). Their ability to really craft an album full of varied styles and emotions is what makes Moseley Shoals so widely enjoyable.
In the end, it was largely due to their well-connectedness and praise from Weller and Oasis (who loved their album and invited them on tour) that propelled Ocean Colour Scene to the apex of their fame, but in the case of Moseley Shoals, it was very well-deserved success. If you like music, you will like this album (well, or at least a few tracks!)
Track pick: It's so hard to choose... I'll go with "You've Got It Bad."
[click to download]
4.5/5
OK, it's not really Friday. Sorry I've been behind, but to make up for it I'm bringing a truly wonderful album out from the annals of history. Well, 13 years ago anyway, cmon, that's old!
So, the setting: England, 1996. Oasis and blur have just utterly ripped the britpop scene wide open with 1995's (What's the Story) Morning Glory? and 1994's Parklife (respectively) and it seems as if the rest of the country couldn't care less about any other bands. Ocean Colour Scene had already had a bit of a flop in their 1992 debut and were now trying to get back in the limelight. What's a fledgling guitar- and piano-rock band to do??
The simple answer is to make an incredible well-crafted album full of more hooks-per-minute than you can imagine. With one listen, you can easily hear how vocalist Simon Fowler sings drawing upon McCartney/Lennon, Jagger, and his contemporary Noel Gallagher of Oasis. It's quite a statement to compare Ocean Colour Scene to three of the biggest bands of all time, but thanks to championing from Paul Weller (of The Jam) and Gallagher himself, Ocean Colour Scene quickly rose up to iconic status in the UK with psych-tinged classic rock goodness that is Moseley Shoals.
Opening strong, "The Riverboat Song" packs a bluesy punch and shows off some of the slick guitar work of Steve Cradock (who played with Paul Weller previously) as he really brings out the old psychedelia influence of the band. The psych is at its strongest on other tracks like "You've Got It Bad" and the epic closer "Get Away." Tremelo and phase shifting across left to right (especially remarkable while listening on headphones), the light addition of psychedelia really takes Ocean Colour Scene's music to the next level on this album, as opposed to getting comfortable with arena-rock bombast akin to other big British bands (cough... Oasis).
However, OCS didn't jump to the top of the British charts and go multi-platinum (there, not here in the US) from a few great psych tunes-- where they really excelled (both musically and in terms of public appeal) was in their piano-stomping pop gems like "The Day We Caught the Trains" and "40 Past Midnight." They could even tone it down and produce some quality ballads ("The Downstream" is practically perfect, though, I really could have done without the rather forgettable "It's My Shadow"). Their ability to really craft an album full of varied styles and emotions is what makes Moseley Shoals so widely enjoyable.
In the end, it was largely due to their well-connectedness and praise from Weller and Oasis (who loved their album and invited them on tour) that propelled Ocean Colour Scene to the apex of their fame, but in the case of Moseley Shoals, it was very well-deserved success. If you like music, you will like this album (well, or at least a few tracks!)
Track pick: It's so hard to choose... I'll go with "You've Got It Bad."
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