Zvoov - Everbrown (2011)

This is a sleeper album. On first listen, nothing really pops. Everything is well-executed and sounds nice, but there's nothing really jaw-dropping.

After a few listens, the album definitely starts to grow. The guitar parts are subtle, sneaky, and dark, highly reminiscent of Slint. The rhythms have an understated but groovy swagger. Its clear that a lot of thought went into composing each song. The parts are polished, interesting, and stand up to repeated listens.

In contrast to a lot of math-rock albums I've been listening to, there is nothing extreme or astonishing on this record. But a face-melting chopsfest does not appear to be Zvoov's intention here. Instead, they use restraint and have created a thoughtful, well-crafted album. Its an interesting approach to the genre and well-worth a listen.

Also, the drummer is one of the tallest men on earth.

Everbrown is available for free on Zvoov's Bandcamp.

Derek Bailey - Ballads (2002)

Fact:          I love Math Rock.


If you haven't figured that out yet then you clearly don't follow this blog. But it can be exhausting if too much is consumed, hence today we have Derek Bailey. As its fathers day today for some reason it reminded me of this album. Bailey is a taste that divides listeners, Avant-garde improv. acoustic guitars. Now if that doesn't sound awesome then this is just not for you. Many of his releases even for me are just too much as far as an enjoyment stand point which is why I've always clung to Ballads. This was actually in response to many critics claims that maybe Derek had no clue how to "normally" play the guitar.  Well it kinda splits the difference with actually playing "straight" and his crazed picking and plucking.  Discontinuity between notes is one of the many things listeners will notice with his playing style. An idea or rhythm will disappear as quickly as it's played.  There is a longing feel to the album even a slight romantic bent but I cant say exactly why. Again most people are not going to be jamming this shit with their windows down this summer but I cant say I know too many acoustic guitar players that use this much emotion in their composition and playing style.

Ballads 

Brontide - Sans Souci (2011)

Brontide (definition)- A sound like distant thunder

This hotly anticipated outing by relative newcomers Brontide seems to be living up to expectations. An English trio dishing out an instrumental math rock sound that can be likened to a more energetic Russian Circles with a bit of Battles thrown in (think early Ep's). Theirs is a varied post rock approach set up in such a way that no songs become stale. The Obvious metal influences surface when the distortion is kicked on and it gets the job done pretty competently.  What I believe to be the star lion tamer going on here though is when they actually buckle down with some looped guitars and up the melody factor. It allows the group more rhythmic freedom which they have a strong grasp of when they are in that mode.  the Production is crystal clear which I am always thankful for. A small gripe is that it appears they never quite try to break the mold but it's seriously such a consistent and enjoyable album I can bet you twenty bones you'll never even notice.

San Souci (2011)

Jaga Jazzist - One Armed Bandit (2010)

A Norwegian jazz ensemble that has a clear passion for electro-jazz kings Tortoise. They even have a small obsession with the vibraphone like Tortoise does! This of course can be excused instantly as the vibraphone is awesome. But thats really only a launching point for this adventurous young band who have been honing their craft over several releases. Their latest (and best in my opinion) has some very real proggy proggings . They of course have always flirted with such progressive trappings on previous releases but here the flag is waving high and proud. I enjoy the upbeat nature of the songs with different instruments being used almost at random.  For those of you that are not super into Jazz well I'd even say that this is for you also as it could be considered post rock as well.


One Armed Bandit (2010)

Girlfriends - S/T (2009)

Gotta say that the one man math rock band thing is something I'm really loving these days. Portland Oregon's "Girlfriends"(AKA Jerry Joiner) is an attack force of guitar and drums with post hardcore style scream singing that is very easy on the ears.  There is certainly some sort "dance" element going on as well. Dare I say even a Foals sort of vibe. The drumming runs tasteful to fairly inventive which is always a step in the right direction. The first two songs are incredibly strong with the second (brobocop) being one of the finer tracks I've heard lately. This (as always) is some really great stuff and there shouldn't be anything else that needs to be said.


S/T

Sick Electric - Haywire (2008)

Lazer. Laundry. Buffalo. Accident.

In 2008, the four aforementioned members of Sick Electric released their magnum opus, Haywire. Clocking in at 16 tracks, the album is a math/surf/prog/metal epic about surfing, robots, headless lovers, some more surfing, zombies, the future, nuclear war, outer space, and the apocalypse. While thematically this album sounds like fodder for a MST3K episode, the band manages to pull everything together by employing tight, concise song structures while remaining outrageously mathy, aggressive, and intricate. Most reviewers have attacked the schizophrenic genre-bending action as a source of confusion, but for me the multitude of sounds has kept the album interesting listen after listen.



Post-Haywire, Sick Electric put out a straight-alt-rock LP in 2010 which tanked hard. Then they broke up. But Haywire remains an essential piece of experimental rock.

Sick Electric - Haywire

The Fire Show - Saint The Fire Show

      Sometimes a bands last effort can be a trans-formative affair.  Other times it finds them run down and beaten into the ground.  All I have to say is thank god for this swan song by The Fire Show.  Sadly, for as much press in online publications that this band has received they were forgotten by time even before they went there separate ways.  I hope to let more know of this great album.
     A post-punk band in the loosest of definitions, Seth Kim-Cohen and Michael Lenzi make a beautifully controlled racket on Saint the Fire Show.  With Brian Deck (Califone) behind the boards you know your going to get some excellent percussion sounds.  Programed drums along with live kit playing, introspective lyrics, sampling, buzz saw guitar and a low end that provides a thundering bed for the rest to flow on is the area which these boys inhabit.  This is certainly not your daddies post-punk.  If your wondering as a point of reference musically it  has shades of Wire, Public Image LTD and This Heat sprinkled throughout.
     This release is always on rotation for me and for a lot of people i show this to it remains the same.  I really can not say enough good things about this release.  It is truly a portrait of a band at its creative peak and would beg to question “where would the band go from here” I am somewhat thankful I dont know the answer because cliche or not it really doesn’t get much better this high on the mountain.

 Saint The Fire Show

Clever Girl - No Drum and Bass in the Jazz Room

The instantly impressive Clever Girl have left a surprisingly large mark considering their on and only release is four tracks deep. Bad news time they are currently defunct. This changes zilch as these four songs are tight as all get out. Jangled mathy guitars and intricate drums with progressive structure. On tap as well is the Saxophone. On paper sounds a bit like our buds "A Troop of Echoes" truthfully however The Troop take their saxophone parts way more seriously and are not so jangly anyway. Carrying onward Clever Girl covers a lot of ground in four songs and youll be begging for more when its over so eat up folks dinner is served.

Complete Discography
(reanimated corpse)
(love ~acerola)

Yamon Yamon - Days like Television EP/ This Wilderlessness LP

Yamon Yamon reside in almost perfect mood. It truly shifts to your needs, weather or listening habits. Far be it for anyone to deny that this slightly mathy but altogether indie rock band is not even a little amazing. 2007's EP Days like Television is a concise section of their out put but possibly stronger than their full length. The EP slam jam's an inhuman level of hooks and pristine vocals.  There is no slouching on the full length either though. Track one Alonso will more likely than not be stuck in your head for weeks.  Not a bad thing considering what normally gets stuck in my head....kids songs / classic rock.

Days like Television EP

This Wilderlessness

Sweetthieves - Blood and Curses (2008)

This album never had a chance.

Sweetthieves emerged from Providence, RI in 2003 to unleash riff after sweet riff upon the world. As a power trio consisting of baritone guitar, tuned-up bass, and punchy drums, their songs consisted of angular, aggressive, dissonant riffs with well-executed boy-girl vocal harmonies. Their songs are tightly composed, without a lot of excess riffing or improvisation. Guitarist Dave Martinka has his own line of amps and pedals, and his expertise in guitar equipment translates to killer guitar sounds live and in the studio. Catchy, dissonant math rock. Delicious.

Blood and Curses is a lean, mean album that should have scored big for the Sweetthieves. The songs are tight, the sounds are good, and production is clean and powerful. The guitars snarl, the drums pummel, and the vocals float nicely on top. So what happened?

The guitarist and the bass player broke up. Blood and Curses is a breakup album in a very real sense. With lyrics about vengeance and song titles like "I'm Right Here With You as You Burn Our House to the Ground," its not hard to tell what this record is about. I can't even imagine how uncomfortable the recording sessions must have been.

The album release in 2008 was the band's final show. Without any further promotion or distribution, its easy to imagine a box with hundreds of Sweetthieves records collecting dust in some Providence basement.

The band members have since moved onto other interesting projects - bass player Hilary Jones is now playing with the guys from Tiny Hawks. For now, Blood and Curses continues to collect dust.

Sweetthieves - Blood & Curses

Japandi

Japandi (of San Diego) reminds me very much of their over sea's Japanese math brethren.

(WARNING mass generalization)
I mean that they are hyper tight but might not pull on the creativity strings to hard.

As far as a counterpart here I'd say they remind me of Sleeping People. Their first release plays it very safe. They use really nice melodies and keep the angular chords to a complete minimal, no tap tap here folks.  While it may not sound too exciting, stick with them and you will come to love them.  They just dropped their second release and I've got to say my opinion has changed more than I thought possible.

Decorative Duck makes damn sure you wait for the moments that they are going to come together and give you what you want. It takes more joy in the rhythmic side of things and plays all the better for it. More aggressive and angular but in a completely tasty way. I may be critical of them but its only because I really do love them. I know you will too.


The Great Dinosaur Mystery

Decorative Duck

Colossal - Welcome the Problems (2004)

This is one of those albums that helped push a lot of what we have today in the "emo" math rock area. I mean no disrespect either when I use that tag. Sadly it was over used in the past to the point of having either no meaning at all or being derogatory.   These five from Illinois play a music indebted to post-rock, pop-punk, pop and math rock. Their influences take different roles on different songs making them a highly versatile group. Without their song structures however they would be not even half as good. Instrumentation runs fairly technical without ever getting too showy.  The appearance of brass on a few songs makes perfect sense as well. Vocals are actually used when necessary and by no means a central figure. I love this album because there is always something new I find that I like. Not that its dense but that it offers a lot. If your not familiar and enjoy breathing and people playing music I'd say your best bet would be have a gander.

Welcome the Problems (2004)

By Surprise - Mountain Smashers

Im Tempted to say of the new school of 90's emo revival By Surprise might just take "most impressive" award. Unlike their contemporaries we have crystal clear instrumentation and lyrics that aren't just tacked on but feel vital and most importantly tell a story. A lot of heart runs through this release that seems more than pleased to bounce around alternative rock genres like a Sunday stroll. It can be silly at times but I would rather use the word charming. I couldn't begin to think of someone that wouldn't at least find one thing they enjoy about this.

Mountain Smashers

metaghostin' Vol. VI - Doxylamine Daze

Doxylamine Daze - ~30'00"
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For the past two weeks I've had this goddamn cold that just won't go away, feeling like a plague-ridden toddler, spreading disease everywhere I go.

Thankfully, we got legal drugs that get you high as shit to help you sleep when your brain is corrupted with mucus and your lungs are just freaking out all the time.

This mix is dedicated to Nyquil Liquigel capsules, giving me dem 9 hours I crave.
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1. Bad Dudes - "Eat Drugs" / Eat Drugs

I wanna do drugs, I wanna do drugs, but I'm afraid of drugs. (Na nana naa naa)

2. Ebu Gogo - "Never Ending Hole" / Chase Scenes 1-13

We done an Ebu Gogo post yet? Y'all know I love deez dudes. Sometimes their awesomeness makes it hard to appreciate similar but less awesome bands. Like that time Acey tried to get me to listen to Adebisi Shank and I was all "FUCK DEEZ DUDES EBU GOGO BE SHITTIN IN DEY MOUF!"

True story.

3. Enslaved - "Giants" / Axioma Ethica Odini

I haven't been a legit metal-loving dude for very long, and metal in its various forms only takes up a marginal part of my library, but these guys were one of the first metal bands that I could really dig. They aren't especially mind-blowing from any perspective, but the production is super slick and they just got dat craft.

4. Jardín de la Croix - "Synaesthesia" / Pomeroy

Acey just dropped a slick post about their most recent jam, Ocean Cosmonauts, that brought these guys to my attention. I thought this was an interesting track because whether they would admit it or not, the King Crimson influence on math/progressive can be witnessed in full force here. Mega-heavy Discipline vibes.

5. Make Believe - "Television Cemetary" / Shock of Being

Kinda surprised we haven't had a Make Believe post yet, but I suppose they're one of the lesser Kinsella bands with a couple very uneven releases. But Sam Zurich was really showing his ass on these riffs and the rest of the band ain't no chumps.

6. Mastodon - "Aqua Dementia" / Leviathan

Acey and I once had a short talk about whether Mastodon is metal or just modern hard rock. Obviously classification doesn't really matter, even though we do it all the time, but sometimes I wonder if a big part of why someone might think Mastodon is "hard rock" is because of how so much of their sound is built from this crazy southern-fried blues framework that just gets hella sped up and crunchy.

7. sunn O))) + Boris - "Akuma no Kuma" / Altar

Sippin' on some sizzurp.

Well Weapon Records Compilation #2

 

     Well Weapon Records are a Northern England based independent label. Having just released their 2nd compilation, they were nice enough to extend a chance for me to get a crack at a review.  So first things first what are we in store for here? Well a heaping helping of math mayhem is in store for your ears from some of the most promising new groups on the scene:

Track one from Bearcubbin'! starts things off a flurry of taps and builds from there. I was actually impressed structurally with where they ended up taking this 6 plus minute mini epic and each turn was sensible and well thought out. Looking forward to hearing more from these guys in the future. 

The second track by Girlfriends (aka Jerry Joiner) perhaps even one up's Bearcubbin'! by offering some of the slickest dancey math rock I've heard in some time. Think Foals with a set of cajones but with post-hardcore scream singing. Very much into this joint, expect a full write up on his album at a later date.

"No Monster Clubs" offering while a solid song is unfortunately the odd man out in this comp. Not even for the fact that it doesn't follow math rock tropes like the rest of this release. Actually the last two songs here by "Russia Today" and "The Widest Smiling Faces" are great low key acoustic based offerings that really help close out the album. No Monster Clubs inclusion seems like an addition rather than something to further the comp.
   
"Laps Around the Sun" bring it back with an inspiring electro based song with rock conventions and instrumentation slowly added in. Very unique take that eventually saddles into an almost entirely post-rock affair.
   
Previously blogged about "Duck. Little Brother, Duck!" amp up the post hardcore math rock with one of their better songs "Billy Mays" It's a lot of fun and reminds me exactly how good a band firing on all cylinders can sound. They are a cohesive unit that doesn't monkey around any extras and they are all the better for it.

Bringing the jazz that I so richly love is "Suffer Like G Did." Kinda low key but starts setting the tone for the second half of the album. Great name by the way also.

Einhorn, which features Dominic Kesterton of zefs chasing cara, carries some ideas from his other group to Einhorn. Sparse intricate drumming and structurally interesting for math rock. This and the next track from "Lost From Atlas" might be my two favorites of the release. Atlas bring some powerhouse math to the party that breaks the mold for the second half really well.

All I can say is if this sounds even mildly interesting you owe it to yourself to make the small 5$ purchase. PLUS you get a zine with it. I know I am grabbing myself a copy.

Well Weapon Records

Bandcamp

Algernon Cadwallader - Parrot Flies

 

I'm going to say that the first time (and many other listens after) I did not get the big deal. The 90's emo revival is in heavy swing these days and what better band to ape than the many incarnations of the kinsella boy's projects especially Cap'n Jazz.  Just recently I've made my peace and found that i really do enjoy Algernon Cadwallader. The main difference's are the vocals and instrumentation which happen to have a better handle on being melodic when they need to be. Parrot Flies marks their newest release. Its emo indie rock with touches of angular guitars and scream sung vocals. There lo-fi approach is charming but honestly I feel like cleaning up things could really bump these kinds of bands in a more positive direction. 

Parrot Flies

The Foreign Exchange- Authenticity 2010

I have mentioned Little Brother in previous posts, as well as featuring some Strong Arm Steady in a madlib mix post, and both showcase the excellent harmonies that singer Phonte would kick out on all kinds of jams; dude is a melodic, harmonic vocal master, and at some point in the early 2000s, Phonte connected with a dutch producer named Nicolay through the Okayplayer message boards, and soon the two pulled a Postal Service style exchange of instrumentals/ vocal takes (the name The Foreign Exchange stemming from this strange musical connection), and put together their first album Connected in 2004.

Alright the Captain - Snib

An English rock band with one foot in that classy ass 90's math sound and the other firmly planted in their own bass monster death march. Very well thought out structure and in your face production make this a real treat to sit through thats for sure. You can almost sense the amount of fun these guys are having playing these songs.  I will say though that this wont change your summer vacation plans.  It just doesn't push in any one direction too much not enough to break out of the mold. Still its worth a glance, isn't everything?

Snib

The Grand Rapid City Lipdub 2011

it is blowing up real fast since memorial day weekend, but im not sure how many of you swords dudes had seen the craziness that is the grand rapids lip dub. I know I hadnt until earlier today when i heard about it on NPR. The story went that recently, a list came out of the Top Cities in Fast Decline, and Rapid City was near the top of the list. The citizens of Rapid City said fuck that, and a local filmmaker gathered $40,000 and the support of the city to put together the most intense, single shot lipdub video of all time. And this didnt just reach to the citizens of the city; the government was involved, as well as local police and firefighters, business owners, artists, nerf gun enthusiasts, etc. Everyone represented themselves to unite and give a big FUCK YOU to the world that saw them in decline.

And i mentioned, it is a single shot; 10 minutes long, and one continuous shot of so many crazily arranged things. The undertaking of this project was a daunting idea, but holy shit did they pull it off. Not to mention the nurf gun fight on the bridge all Braveheart style.

"We need a slogan. You need some stuff" contest

WINNER! WINNER!

Thanks Clay for your slogan of "Cutting edge music"

We love you for it.... I mean that in a completely not scary way.

Clay will receive an amazing prize package that will not include a trip or a car!

WOW! WE ARE AWESOME!



UPDATE 6/1:
We will be running this through Sunday 6/5/2011. Looking good so far guys cant wait to shower the winner with pointless treasures.
_______________________________________________________________________________


Having almost hit our 10,000 view mark I would like to extend a contest to our readership. If you haven't noticed we have a very lame slogan quickly made by me when I started the blog.

"it's about awesome music....and swords"

Doesn't really scream awesome slogan, I know this. That is the reason why we need help here at the swords for someone to come up with something better (admittedly anything would be better)

As a way of saying thank you to the person who gets picked by us for best slogan, they will receive a handsome package of music and non music related goodies!!!!#$^#$&*#$

So lets get this going, please leave in the comments your proposed slogan and we will do the rest.