Im not sure why but these young gents from England took me a couple try's....not sure why it took me so long but now I cant seem to get their new release out of my head. This is almost a perfect marriage between post-hardcore and post-rock with the added benefit of some nice string work. As with many items in my musical library they do add some nice tapping math rock elements in for good measure as well. Rarely is there a dull moment here with every instrument pummeling their way through like some imaginary race, really some exciting stuff. Structure wise may just be the most impressive things about the group with some fairly inventive break downs (not to mention surprisingly brutal). Please everyone needs this now.
In doing some listening a few minutes ago for the Starfucker post, i was quickly reminded of Miike Snow in how a bunch of their tracks share great sounding rhythms throughout their separate bands. I found them while i was doing some youtube surfing on some Passion Pit, and a video came up where i remembered the band name, again, from reading a positive review of their album in the AV Club. Black and Blue was the first song or video of theirs that i found. Its a great sounding track; the production is amazing. Miike Snow is a three piece band, two of which are a production team called Bloodshy and Avant. They are a heavy duty production duo, working on lots of big mainstream bands, but in 2004 they met their singer Andrew Wyatt and started work as Miike Snow, using original tunes sculpted the way they saw fit. Black and Blue is a showpiece:
It starts nice and simple, with great piano and drums sparsely dotting around the vocal melody. Then that bass comes in in the chorus and they start the crescendo of electronica they provide through the rest of the track. The bass takes centerpiece for a majority of the rest of the verse and choruses, until the instrumental section breaks and a wider electronic arrangement comes in. And its needless to say how awesome the vocals are throughout. Great video too, i love that mannequin and machine made band the old dude has constructed in his apartment, and the revelation of it is a really great moment.
The album has a few duds, but for the most part it is very enjoyable. At this point, i do skip forward to a choice 4-5 tracks when i listen, but i am constantly reminded of other tracks when i decide to see what is next. It is easy to want to just press play and let the album go after they offer such a strong opening track in Animal. Mike Snow - Animal by downtownmusic miike snow
I've known Starfucker for a few years, from a few singles and random times of remembering their name and finding youtube tracks of theirs. Again, before a recent trip to Newbury Comics, i was checking The Onion AV Club for music reviews and saw their name with a very good grade next to it, so i picked up Reptilians. Its nice electropop with a breezy, summertime dance party feel. They write tight little pop tracks with great vocals and intricate, interesting instrumentation. The first song of theirs that I remember was from their self titled album; the song went on to being used in a car commercial. Must have been pretty silly, being a band called Starfucker and having a big company want to use one of your songs. But who could deny the commercial wonder of this track; its simple beat, lovely vocals and polyrhythmic panned guitars and bass are just so damn smooth and tight.
There is a great variety of stuff on both of their releases; having just gotten into them, that makes it a bit harder to absorb it all, but i have been digging it all. Its very nice stuff. starfucker reptilians
A little more Bloc Party action for you guys, one of the singles from Silent Alarm. Again, using cool ways of spreading rhythm throughout a band in a pop song is always nice; although its a bit simple in the verses, its has a nice bounce to it, clearly defining the roles of all the musicians in the track and building into a sweet chorus.
A friend showed this to me the other day; holy moley. I love how great the video is, there is obviously a lot of time and effort going into the visual trickery for a track called Im On Crack. But those freeze frames kill me. I love that first one with all the 70s stars and the font. Having a Tupac impersonator as your main character is also a huge plus.
In honor of young Teagan's birthdate, I thought I'd share what turned out to be the final recording of the band the four of us here at Plenty of Swords once played in.
When this album dropped in front of my lap many years ago I remember the sort music mode I was in. Just starting to realize the potential of genre's that I once thought "dead". If there is one thing I have learned from listening to so much music through my life is that no genre is "dead". But there was Jazz laid in front of me. I could never break in no matter how hard I tried, that was until Tortoise. Granted they do not travel specifically in straight Jazz it is certainly....... Jazzed up a bit with Electronic, dub and post rock elements. This Chicago mega group had such a crazy streak of releases and then they drop TNT. In my approximation they are at the height of the powers here, perfectly blending elements into something emotional, complex and most importantly fun. A lot of Tortoise's miss hits as far as from an album stand point is missing the fun. I have Tortoise to thank for opening my eyes to the potential of jazz.
These gentlemen may not be familiar to you with this name but perhaps with the name Russian Circles? Well truth be told both guitarist and bassist went on to form that better known post metal group. I've always found there sound to be a little uninspired but they have their moments. That is not to say that Dakota/Dakota travel in high creativity. They sound a little like a more structured post rock don cab. Its some good stuff and a couple very stand out tracks are showcased. If this was developed a bit more I would give it some bigger props but certainly on its own its a great math rock piece.
This very excellent comp. is making its way through the inter webs rather quickly. Brought to you and yours by Leed's based alternative music facebook group. Featuring twenty one excellent songs from semi-established or up and coming artists (a lot of them math rock based) Definitely some things I had yet to have been made aware of. Very nice indeed.
Just wanted to bump Acerolas post for Max Tundra, because i have been digging it so much. I cant believe these motherfuckers hid this shit from me for so long; this is so completely up my alley it is ridiculous. The styles and instruments that this dude assembles are so great; he has a keen eye for pop, but beneath his catchy melodies, the man is a serious programmer and knows how to create nostalgic electronica with fine detail.
I want to share track 3 from Parallax Error Beheads You for a few reasons; it demonstrates both his abilities in his production and his growth vocally. Throughout the song, the bouncy electronic band behind the vocals dives in and out of providing first bare chord structures behind the vocals to then harmonizing with them in very unexpected, mathematic arpeggios. I love how, throughout this album, songs move into extended instrumental sections that ride out or build into a fantastic chorus after a minute or two. In this example, the ending of the track happens to be the extended instrumental section, but the album is cut in a flow that sometimes makes it hard to differentiate one song from another. The track following Which Song picks up right where it leaves off.
Max Tundra has reminded me to share another band, Crystal Castles. They are a duo working in a lot classic 80s synth sounds and experimental, sometimes abrasive vocals. They keep it poppy and simple, but they display a nice depth in their production. This instrumental track is a good representation of their influences.
Colour is a now defunct group from England that very much likes their math with a liberal sprinkling of pop rock and there is no shame in that game. Parts of the group have now reformed into a band called Tangled Hair, who are pretty similar and cool in their own respect. Any who, upon breaking up the group released an Anthology of there songs for all to enjoy. To tell you the truth though there are only a couple songs on that worth anyones time (many would disagree) Their Unicorns EP is short at three songs but packs everything that makes them so damn good into em. This group can play fast and technical while still remaining highly catchy. The first song Unicorns is packed with tightly wound upstroke riffs with some nice time changes. Well worth the eight and a half minutes it takes to plow through it.
Icelandic 4 piece that issues forth alternative math pop metal. I guess they won a bunch of awards in their native land which is cool because yes they are pretty awesome. As you can guess you've prolly heard similar things musically but its done well enough. The vocals however are what helps Fresco nudge the bar of awesome. The best way to say it is the vocals are almost operatic and soaring. Not in an obnoxious way but just extremely controlled and clearly trained in some respect. CCCCCCHHHH eck it!
Max Tundra, is an interesting case. You can tell that there is a lot of love for a lot of different genres going here. Much hubbub has been made about him using a bunch of vintage recording equipment to make these dense electro pop pieces. Speaking of pop, he is a man very much in love with pop culture as well, it can get a bit corny. As this might start to sound a bit odd at times...yea it can be but you can tell its honest work. The drum programming is what impresses me most about all of Max's albums, it is dense and schizophrenic. He has an incredible ear for rhythm which is what 9 times out of 10 is lacking from similar artists. Flirtations with 8 bit music in the past are now brought more to the front showcased in their own songs. Vintage synths rule his songs along with heartfelt vocals.
Im not sure the exact date of the adventure that lead to this music moment, but at some point in the past, Metaghost and I packed our shit up and took the 6 hour drive to Ithaca college where we were to jam out with our good friend Stewie. Acerola was a friend of stewies, and we had met before on a few prior visits to the school. Stewies jam space was a garage next to a huge house where a bunch of film students lived, and one night we just jammed our hearts out, from about 6pm until at least 11. Endless jamming, practicing, recording our improvisations. Such fun stuff, but by the end of this marathon we were pooped and decided to take a break and check out what was going on in the house. We walked into the living room, where a party of about 11 people were gathered around a TV watching some music i had never heard before. Right as we walked in the room, this nice song started. It was a strange moment; everyone in the room knew what was starting, and were so excited that they all started dancing in their seats, or getting up to dance. I just walked a bit closer to the screen and for the first time heard The Talking Heads perform This Must Be the Place, from Stop Making Sense, their ultimate tour album/ video directed by brian de palma at the height of their game.
I had known nothing of Talking Heads, or this concert in particular, until this moment. Looking back at how i approached their discography, it was a great point to start at; I got Stop Making Sense, loved it immensely and then went right back to their debut album, buying another album of theirs chronologically until i wound back up at Stop Making Sense. I could go into great detail about what this concert meant for the band, and how wonderfully their band had grown- creatively and physically- as they gained momentum. Maybe, in another post.
Before i discovered Ra Ra Riot, i had been searching around desperately for another band to satisfy me as much as Bloc Partys first two albums did. I listened to a lot of shit in this time period, testing the waters of the genre with more mainstream, crappy stuff- The Editors and The Cribs come to mind; i still havent checked out The Killers beyond their singles, but they never really did it for me anyway.
Bloc Party was another purchase i made on a whim. A roommate of mine was heading out shopping and i wanted to tag along and grab some new music, so i quickly checked the Onion AV clubs record reviews, and the best reviewed album of that week happened to be A Weekend in the City. Unknown to me, Bloc Party was delivering a second album after being very well received after their debut. Where Silent Alarm was a minor-keyed pop rock album, it was still very easy to dance to and full of great hooks. Like Eating Glass opens the album and is one of their strongest tracks. It builds so well, and those drums are just bombastic.
But A Weekend in the City just got darker and more creative, adding in deeper studio work while using the 4 piece band to its fullest potential. The lyrical content got much more defeated and scared, second guessing the places they were in their lives and clinging to hope, yet the melodies of the verses and hooks that the singer uses are all very unique and dynamic. It was the strength of the band around these unique vocals that instantly drew me to them.
I Still Remember is probably the most friendly from A Weekend at the City, but it is also just a powerhouse example of how well these guys could write a pop song. The album adds a lot more electronics that were nonexistent on their debut, but I Still Remember is just the band alone, writing a nice love song with a great beat.
Still on the subject of Bloc Party, this is a really really cool cover of a song of theirs from Silent Alarm performed by the very talented Owen Pallett. Dude is a very talented musician, but his live covers are what kill me the most. He goes simple, just a guy with a violin and a RC50 loop station, building loops on the spot easily and flawlessly. His covers are all great; if you dig this i suggest checking Peach Plum Pear, a joanna newsom song he does great justice to. I wanted to post that, but this is equally as badass and a bit more relevant. Its also a great Bloc Party track.
