Youre going to see his name thrown around about a million times on the swords and thats for good reason. Victor Villarreal (owls, ghosts and vodka, capt. jazz) really pioneered that technical twinkle that we find sprinkled throughout a majority of the math rock landscape of today. This 2003 release finds Victor teaming up with Ryan Rapsys to create some highly melodic post rock mathy sound scapes, highly enjoyable. Doesn't really rock the formula boat all that much but its certainly an excellent release all the same.
As most two man math rock units can get a bit samey, The Americas have always been a breath of fresh air. Coming from Cali. with emotionally charged lyrics, crazy melodic looped guitar and some of the honest to roger grooviest drums your likely to hear for awhile. Think of a hyper charged indie rock band with their hearts on their sleeve, the beats per measure turned up and your starting to get close. Casey Deitz also happens to be the drummer as well in the excellent The Velvet Teen (very interesting in their own respect) Dont let this one pass you by.
The technology that we are growing accustomed to using has the ability to coordinate highly tactical terrorist attacks in India (and coordinate the murder of Osama Bin Laden), leak crucial top secret government information and letters to the public, and pirate music and entertainment media at an insane level. Industries are dying, and with the last of their power they are going to continue suing money out of individual offenders until they can figure out who is legally responsible for sites like Mediafire, Rapidshare, bit torrent service providers, etc. It is their death rattle; maybe they will come out of their spastic downfall, maybe they will sink and drown. Epic times.
I was chilling in Waltham for celtics game 2, against the heat, at my friend nates, and through the game my friend Greg V and I got to talking some classic hip hop production, mostly stemming from my rediscovery of Bizarre Ride by the Pharcyde. My hip hop collection came by deep recommendation, and incurring hands on analysis, from my highschool pal DJ Shinyo, mister Matt H. Hes responsible for my love of Pharcyde, and my discovery of Madlib through Quasimoto on some blunted cruises, and so much of that classic production that makes good damn rhyming great.
Greg got to recommending the producer 9th Wonder, and a few choice albums through his long career. As Greg left for the night, i sighted checking out The Minstrel Show, and he said "yeah thats cool, but im really talking his earlier stuff". I checked the wikipedia again, and saw that the first album by Phontes group Little Brother also happened to be one of dudes first releases as a producer.
This song, the title track from The Listening, uses an arrangement style of building a song similarly to much of Madlibs work, starting a track with a short musical skit, then adding a tight band with MCs for a verse or two, breaking into a skit midsong, adding background music throughout the skit, and diving back in and out of verses and choruses. The album is awesome; thanks Greg.
Speaking of our overseas English brothers, here we have the much lauded This Town Needs Guns. If you're not familiar well think an American Football feel with the waking ghost of Victor Villarreal on guitar. If this still leaves you scratching your head then I will go one step further. Pretty breezy yet technical math rock with some pretty soaring vocals. Its really in the vocals that I could live without but there are places that they are memorable. Instrumentation though is the shining star and they do a very good job of separating themselves from the pack. In my opinion (though who gives a flying junk) they are a bit over rated, still extremely good but seems like a lot of people are losing their nuts over them.
*Also as an odd addition i swear a couple guitar riffs remind me of incubus....even though ive collectively heard maybe 1/2 a song by them. strange i know.
So I just got home from work and checked out the AV Club to see what kinda music was coming out today, and was surprised to see two releases that I'm going to have to grab in the next few hours. First off, Beastie Boys have a new album, which is their latest studio album since 2004's To the 5 Buroughs. I never checked that album, but i loved Hello Nasty back in highschool. This video is absolutely amazing, such ridiculous cameos. Im just going to link to the AV Club's review of Hot Sauce Committee Pt.2 as all I've heard from it is this vid:
Also being purchased today is Fleet Foxes' sophomore album, following up their incredible self titled debut. I love these guys. I was worried that their immediate rise to fame would affect the group of what look to be lumberjacks writing Americana and their grip on reality and song craft, but again, I haven't heard more than a few tracks while I write this, I've just read a beaming AV Club review of it. This was the only video from their new album that i could find with both quality audio and something to look at. Cant wait :D
I'm not going to say that these guys are incredibly mathy but I will say that its a lot of fun and there are some awesome guitar licks being traded. So imagine some kind of pop punk indie math rock that isn't trying to take itself so seriously. Its a very solid EP all in all. These guys are from England and actually sound a titch like a band I previously posted "Colour". The lyrics are pretty forgettable but end up being catchy anyway. BOOM!
Three piece moody instrumental jazz math trio. Noodly guitar remains grounded on planet earth and always puts the feeling of the song first. O and did I mention that there is an upright bass :) It really whole hardheartedly gives it a far more unique feel. A nice relaxing listen with a couple surprisingly catchy melodies thrown in for good measure. Let the music speak for itself :) Welcome Monday how I loathe you
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