Year End Round Up (Part 2)

Part Deux....
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Sodalane
as far as I can tell is a one man affair that skirts the line between some pastoral indie rock, math rock and even a dash of post-hardcore lite. Really an incredibly solid release and has just the right amount of originality to set it apart from the pack. Always interesting with some pretty unpredictable moments in their for the ADD crowd. Myself included. 

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Delicious Death
Have I mentioned this one man effort before? Its been a favorite of mine since I first heard. A really great continuation of Damiera style songcraft. An instrumental version however. Must hear.
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Willow
Super energetic math rock to get you moving. Strong and busy sound for a three piece. These Rhode Island Native's newest on their bandcamp has added some more textural dynamics and singing which only makes them all the better for it 

Into it Over it - Proper

Do Not Be Fooled By This Picture.
Now that we have that out of the way I suppose I will keep with the loose theme I've got going this weekend of Indie Rock.

Enter one man Evan Thomas Weiss (ex/ the progress, ex/up up down down left right... ex Damiera bassist) This is Evans joint through and through and if any of the above mentioned bands perk your head then listen up. To be fair this stuff is done by a lot of bands but where it excels is in pure execution. So we've got your indie rock, intricate guitar lines, twisting drums and awesome memorable vox.  This stuff is like a brain worm. None of these songs will ever leave you...ever, you've been warned.  I realize this isn't a lot to go on but this stuff lays it on from the gates and never lets you go. Even when its dialed down with some acoustic its A-OK.  Great driving music as well. So lets take this recent odd weather (at least for the northeast) and take a cruise with this joint.


Proper

Also odd link between this post and last...here me out.  So before Damiera (as mentioned above Evan played bass for) Lead Dave Raymond played in a band called League. League had an obvious love of...Counterfit! Why would I say this? well one of League's songs cribs an entire line from a Counterfit song.
cough cough league cough cough :)

metaghostin' Vol. XIII - Capsule Corporation's "Encapsulated Copulation"

Capsule Corporation's "Encapsulated Copulation" - 41'55"

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1. Walk Straight Down the Middle / Kate Bush / The Sensual World (1989)
2. The Seven Pillars of Gulu / Stage Kids / Killer Tofu (2011)
3. Box Up My Bones / Cynic / Carbon-Based Anatomy (2011)
4. Gamma Knife / Kayo Dot / Gamma Knife (2012)
5. Heartbeat / Damiera / Damiera EP (2005)
6. The Order / Children of Nova / Complexity of Light (2009)
7. WAY / AS MEIAS / AS MEIAS II (2010)
8. You Won't If You Don't Want / Happy Body Slow Brain / Dreams of Water (2010)

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Pop Quiz:

1. Who left their caps lock on?
2. Which band is most likely to dub helicopter sound-effects into their jammy jams?
3. How many inane contradictions is too many?
4. Name that interpolation —
5. Arrange the above songs in order of power level. (You can assume they all trained inside the time-chamber, geez. NO MORE QUESTIONS.)

The Weeknd- Echoes of Silence (2011)

As per usual, I am hearing about so much music all the time these days that random things get plopped into my lap that I dont have much time to absorb or appreciate. Such was the case in a conversation I had with Acey the other day, where I asked him for his top 3 recommendations of the music he's been listening to in the last few weeks. We got to talking, and we both realized I had let Damiera completely slip past my ears. Acey flipped his shit about that, and eventually came to also recommend the first Stage Kids album, as well as telling me to really sink my teeth into American Don.

Then today, a friend recommended the 3rd free release by a mysterious solo artist named The Weeknd. He wrote a trilogy of 9 track albums, all released through his website for free download spread across 2011. It is foreboding, dark electro r&b, with a nice selection of instrumentation and a killer voice that he doesn't mind obscuring in production trickery; but he knows when to pull back the curtains to give you that clean hook and harmonies. These 27 tracks have been added to my new Must-Listen folder in my iTunes; this the first track off Thursday, his 2nd album in the trilogy. All three albums are available for free at his website, below:
The Weeknd - Lonely Star by The_Weeknd
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houseofballoons/ thursday/ echoesofsilence

Damiera - M(us)ic

There is a glut of post-hardcore groups (that's an understatement). It makes it hard to know what can be worth your time.  Damiera has gone through many line-ups in its life span, but M(us)ic era Damiera was really something special. I had the pleasure of seeing them twice during this time and its a shame they have all split to other ventures. M(us)ic is a great slap of very mathy post-hardcore with High pitched vocals. All of the songs on this album are their own beasts. As it stood they took their obvious influences and compounded them into this excellent release. please enjoy as it still is a high point of the genre.


M(us)ic