Invalids - Eunoia (2012)

Let the math pour over you in the name of the fa.....Oh! Hi how's everyone doing? I was actually just dropping in to post about Invalids (Pete Davis on everything except Nick Shaw on bass) because well its flipping amazing.This is Math Rock, something we never speak about at the Swords but hear me out. The unique part of this whole one man bandish group is that you can tell it is the vision of one person. Meaning that you can up the time bending quotient by about 1200. This is tech as a tiger if your wondering in every manner of instrument. Guitars are known to get a bit tap happy while the drums are jazzing the junk out with the bass. Vocals actually make a prominent spot here too. Think a kind of emo style but not super annoying. Thankfully nothing ever feels like any one element is competing for space which with music like this youd imagine there could be issue.  For an EP and a side project your going to be hard pressed to find something better so far this 2012.

Lastly let me close by saying:


EVERYONE GET THIS IN YOUR EARS!!

First Post: Cutting Pink With Knives

Hey all, new contributor on the blog here, I figured I'd kick it off with one of my favorite bands, the UK's own Cutting Pink With Knives. They were around from 2004 until 2008, and did some of the most inventive techno-grind I've ever heard. When I first heard them it reminded me of Genghis Tron but a lot sillier (mostly because both bands use drum machines). They started out as a relatively one-dimensional drum machine grind band, but as time went on they incorporated more synths and major chords/chord patterns into their songwriting. Their third and last album, Populuxxe, is near-perfect; I can't think of an album that mixes the heaviness of grindcore with poppy dance music with over-the-top guitar lead lines better than this.

Oh Wow!

Populuxxe

Live, demo, EP, and unreleased tracks

Please Join us on the Facebook!

Listen, I wanted to interrupt the normal flow of the blog to urge everyone reading to click below and follow us on the old Facebook:

Plenty of Swords

Why? well its an equal opportunity for everyone to post video's, talk about how much we dont/do like "insert band name", band suggestions, ect. This creates a looser and more fun environment where extra content and sharing come into play.

Also because it wouldn't be fair to have everyone read my 30 seconds of promoting (its for you own good) I have also included a link below in the comments to an extra awesome album.

You can thank me later and thank you for reading.

Fish Tank - Henry

UK MATH POP #@RU(QR#PFJ FA!!! ALL OVER THE FUC......

Excuse my outburst fellows and fellows ettes, in keeping up with my obvious love for UK bred math rock.indie pop hybrid beasts (Tangled Hair, Colour, Pharoahs so on and so forth) is Fish Tank. This three piece have dropped on us an EP that eats like a meal or an LP (your choice). Giant sized rock outs, wonderful breakdowns, sing alongs, awesome vox, tapping, keyboards, horns? check. These boys are not afraid to jam heavy on a great chorus or conversely rip through a couple time signatures with some guitar acrobatics. Make no mistake though this stuff will get caught in your dome. It seems as though a full length is to come rather soon and I can't help but be on my chair about it.  Criminal that they aren't more talked up because they are a sight better than a lot of this "sensitive math with strong guitars".

Pro-tip: Hand claps in a song =  + 5 to crushing brilliance



HENRY

Pensioner - Yearlings (2011)

Pensioner from Scotland certainly have caught my attention and others as well. At the base they are a post-hardcore/math rock hybrid that seems to have more fun jamming as many awesome ideas into a song as they can. Vocals are also deliciously present. Here lies a problem with most bands that do employ vocals they tend to play second fiddle...not so here at all. An Incredibly solid release with nothing too technical but some herky jerk rhythms get thrown in out of left field. It keeps you on your feet and you'll frequently be surprised by some of the structural choices going on. Don't worry no surprise gangster rap outro.

I guess you could say its just a really sweet and inspired rock album that is as vocal centric as guitar led. Which I think more bands should try to follow. Here that other bands?

Yearlings (2011)

Sweep the Leg Johnny - Going Down Swinging

I'm hoping there are those of you out there that are not super familiar with these guys.  Although if your even slightly schooled in the off time arts you should have at least heard mention. Those that do know, as far as mid to late 90's early 2000's math rock, Sweep the Leg Johnny was an important and impressive musical force. What they are most known for is the inclusion of not just vocals but a vocalist that also plays saxophone. Very cool rhythmic ideas at work but not especially frantic. They do get slow and at times resemble a fairly standard early 90's dissonant indie rock band (not a negative thing) Going Down Swinging was to be there last release in 2002 and a great place to start when checking them out. They seem to be at the height of their style playing very intricate extended rock. This is some excellently crafted and very much a classic Math rock group.


Going Down Swinging (2002)

Jerseyband - Beast Wedding (2009)

I feel slightly embarrassed on this one, mostly for the fact that these guys were formed in Rochester NY during the same period I was going to school there.  Not the point however. Jerseyband play their own sort of mash up of two very singular genre's Jazz and Metal. While this doesn't sound that new and exciting for those of you familiar with Mr. Bungle, Zappa or Estradasphere to name a few they have a way of breaking away from the pack. Self describing their music as "Lungcore", This large ensemble utilizes their horn section almost in a "big band" sort of fashion while the guitars and drums play metal breakdowns. It all comes together in a surprisingly organic fashion and not at all like the musical experiment it could end up sounding like. I will say a couple songs end up reusing certain riffs and horn interplay but for the majority of this release there are some excellent variety being displayed.  So if your into any of the above mentioned bands.....or even if your not check these gents out.

 Beast Wedding (2009)

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

AS MEIAS - self-titled & II

Japanese math rock is always crystal sharp in its execution and never a nary note thrown in. The most important aspect of my mass generalization is that their drummers are ALWAYS amazing. AS MEIAS is no exception to either of these rules. The singing here is a highly melodic emotional style that works well with the music and never tries to follow the rhythmic curve's going on behind it. Both guitars get locked into some solid steel counterplay with some riffs that I'd dare say are pretty original especially rhythmically. My issue (however slight) is that the riffs don't change as often as I'd like. Confession time I have musical ADD, no surprise. So many of you might listen and think "hmmm he's full of junk hell" Drums are pretty incredible in that they never play with the guitars and are always trying to (F) the beat up. This is super solid across the waters level biz.

Self-Titled (2004)

II (2010)

Happy Body Slow Brain- Dreams of Water (2010)

I was reminded that I had yet to post about these guys when Acey thanked Ghost for recommending track 8 off their 2010 debut, Up Late. What an excellent track to start off with: a majority of the album is melodic, minor keyed synth pop, and Up Late stands out as a track that especially showcases their skills in that regard. The album is great; standout tracks include the opener Everything You Know, and as i must show you in video form, this excellent acoustic version of track 10, Emperor. Full-band version is sick as balls, but its really nice seeing them perform a song like this as a duo:


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Arietta - Migration (2009)

     Arietta - meaning "stop" in french

  A Canadian group that has managed to keep me coming back time and time again to their 2009 release "migration".  If your thinking this is because these guys play some kind of future bending face melting psych drone alien pop well your wrong. Arietta do almost nothing that you haven't heard before. Sounds like a bad start but consider this.
    These guys travel in a highly refined pop / post-hardcore climate that is a seeming distillation of both of these genre's best aspects. Fairly complex without being heavy handed as well as some interesting jagged riffs that have been sanded to perfection. Its this balance that keeps Arietta from sounding like a boring copy of other such bands. Vocals are well sung and lyrics dont become too embarrassingly ridiculous.  If your not sold by this description well you should be. This is incredibly well constructed song craft and 85% of these songs are catchy as sin. I'm a super sucker for catchy hooks and memorable chorus's just as much as I fiend for stabs of dark dissonant mayhem, again balance.  Always surprised that I don't see these them getting talked up more because they are easily more deserving than half of the groups I hear twirling their guitars around.



Migration (2009)

Kayo Dot - Gamma Knife (2012)

Following up on last month's Maudlin of the Well post, we've got the sudden release of Kayo Dot's latest full length, a partially live record of all new material that was recorded this past fall. Book-ended by a pair of beautiful "ballads", Gamma Knife contains some of the most blisteringly brutal fuck-your-face outer thought broadcasts that Kayo Dot's put to tape, full of raucous bass and guitar counterpoint punctuated by brass stabs and guttural screams. Fuck if I know what an "Ocellated God" is, but these jams are fierce and endearing.

The live material is a bit muddy, with the vocals buried amidst the madness, but the performance is great and they managed to achieve a fair bit of separation in the mix. When horns blaze high and mighty, you won't be thinking about what the man's singing anyway.

5 Dollars at they bandcamp: http://kayodot.bandcamp.com/

If you a stingy fuck, Toby Driver says:

If you're gonna download it illegally anyway, just email me and I'll send you a download code so you can get the authorized version instead of having to go through some other asshole who uploaded it. In return, I get to put you on my mailinglist and also get to put your name on my voodoo list.

A Troop of Echoes-Tour Starts 1/4/12!

Just wanted to add a quick bumpity bump to restate that starting tomorrow, January 4th, our fellow ninja FranklinDCs group A Troop of Echoes is kicking off their tour at Precinct in boston; metaghost and i will be going, and hope to see some more of you Swords folks at the show. They'll be touring all over the northeast, so get ready to rock out to some sick tunes. Heres a neat video for their song Little Bird off their 2010 album Days in Automation, and again tour dates below:



4 Boston, MA - Precinct (w/ Zvoov, Strange Mangers)
12 Baltimore, MD - Charm City Art Space (w/ Fires, Sea Patterns)
13 Greenville, NC - The Tipsy Teapot
14 Charlotte, NC - The Common Market (w/ David Cox)
15 Columbia, SC - Conundrum Music Hall (w/ Pan)
16 Nashville, TN - Exit / In (w/ Call it Anything, Chris West’s Junkyard Horns)
17 New Orleans, LA - Hi-Ho Lounge (w/ Autotomii)
18 Athens, GA - Go Bar (w/ Sleep Dance)
19 Charleston, SC - Village Tavern
20 Baltimore, MD - Sidebar Tavern (w/ Zvoov, Time Columns)

PLOKK - A + B

PLOKK are a 5 piece from Hamburg. (EDIT: 3 piece ((even more impressive)) )
PLOKK are freaking amazing

Just listen to the facts. This is a franken beast that makes so much sense when you hear it.  Depending on the moment you might catch them in the middle of some kind of quasi dissonant guitar battle that sounds like its about to fall  apart. Two seconds later you could be thrashing to an all out alternative metal  riff. It never turns out sounding at odds with itself though and flows organically on its way. The band itself says "intelligent krautrock" which I suppose you could tack in there.  A better idea as far as other bands go would be a more disjointed and less jazzy version of Fago. Sepia, a wonderful comparison in my opinion. So i know i must say this a lot but if you enjoy math rock in any of its aspects this is not something you can pass by. Don't even think about it.

A + B

Audiocæneat! - Red Sessions (2011)

Post-rock can be a tricksy beast. It is often a  downright boring and formulaic genre affair (as anything can be) But when you are distilling many different genres down the roots system you've gotta have your weapon enchanted with just the right amount of elemental forces to stand ahead.  This brings us to Audiocæneat! from Germany who play a classic post-rock (think epic guitars) pounding drums, some great structure and shoegaze thrown in to flesh out the proceedings.  What I can and always do give props to is the attention of production, everything is in your face and crystal. Also if you think that this is your grandpas old post rock with down time they remain always interesting. Do I hear some metal influence in those guitars? You bet your bottom. These guys put a lot of the main streamers to shame. So what does that mean for you? it means clickity below fellow's.

Red Sessions (2011)

The New Year - Newness Ends (2001)

 Eh?  Eh? Ok I know it might seem a bit cheeky to do what with it being New Years Eve and all but lets talk stock.

So The New Year features the talents of the Kadane Brothers formerly of the kings of sadcore Bedhead. Certainly check into some of their other amazing albums as well as they practically invented the genre. Newness ends doesn't really tred new ground but its incredibly solid with some really nice lyrics about getting older.  No blistering solo's here these guys are all about the slow burn rock and its moody as all hell.  You can practically smell the cooling rods from the time machine powering down after being transported to the early 90's with these guys but honestly I find myself yearning for that simpler rock music landscape sometimes. So crank these jams and be safe tonight. Happy New Year everyone.

Newness Ends (2001)

Harsha Iyer- Curious Toys (2011)

*BUMP UPDATE*

After listening to Harsha a bunch, and talking to him from india to Boston over the facebooks chat, i have come to realize how wide a range of music this dude digs on and ends up subtly and at times overtly adding to his own songs. My initial review favored the comparison between Overcautious as a pop song to songs by The Kinks and OTC. But that is the tip of the iceberg; Overcautious is one song in the style of Pop Music this dude enjoys writing. And needless to say, dude is prolific. Hes working with a lot of different musicians while writing solo stuff. Hell yeah. Tracks like Not Yet Dead really blew me away in listening to Curious Toys: it is moody and sparse, dark, with excellent vocal melodies, guitar work and string arrangements.

Below Not Yet Dead is my initial review of Overcautious, with a link to his bandcamp page for his 2011 album, Curious Toys:

Harsha Iyer - Curious Toys - 06 Not Yet Dead by ninko

Dull Blades and Guilty Trades

This is a post for all of those albums of yester-year that creep in and out of your life like old friends. They could be albums you still enjoy but that you feel secret shame or just albums you have thus far in your life out grown. A lot of what we do here is to inform those of the new music that we discover whether through friends, file sharing, music sites, seeing live shoes, ect. But realistically these choices have all been informed by music of our past. I have invited each of our resident swordsmen to partake in this and hopefully we can have some fun.


As a side note to all of our readership: Please feel free to mock and laugh accordingly.

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ACEROLA:
Osker - Idle Will Kill
(Pop-punk with bad vocals. Although isn't that built into the genre? Still surprisingly catchy)

AFI - Black Sails in the Sunset
(Some sort of punk, alt., emo glam beast. All of their records were pretty good.)

Juliana Theory - Love
(Catchy Alt - Prog-lite. Over produced and all the better for it.)

Thursday - Full Collapse
(Sadly one of my first intro's to post-hardcore. uninspired but very loud and dramatic about it. 16 year old me loves this)

Millencolin - Pennybridge Pioneers
(Catchy pop punk. so good)

Green Day - Dookie
(No link? because if your around my age you listened to this enough. my cassette of this broke because I listened to it too many times. true story)
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METAGHOST:
Shootyz Groove - Jammin in Vicious Environments (RAP-METALLLLLLL!!!)
Another Society - S/T (Couldn't find a link. They were like... a Nirvana knockoff from Alabama or something)
self - Subliminal Plastic Motives (Pretty sure this was the first album I bought. Still kinda ok.)
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NINKO:

blink 182- dude ranch (Dammit was the first song i NEEDED to learn)
metallica-..and justice for all (this is where my guitar teacher took me)
barenaked ladies- stunt (i also really dug this in middleschool)
phish-a live one pt1; pt2 (then i smoked pot and wound up here)
blues traveler-four (somewhere in the middle, i heard this)

korn- follow the leader (before smoking pot, i was angst-y)
limp bizkit- three dollar bill ya'll (and i really liked the finger tapping going on in this)

gruvis malt- sound soldiers (and then this happened)
sigur ros-agaetis byrjun (i got really into this at music school)
beastie boys- hello nasty (favorite hip hop of mine in 9th grade)


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FRANKLINDC:

I was all about Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Santana, Jimi Hendrix, Garage a Trois, Dave Holland, ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, and a local alt/emo band called Premonition. Actually I should post them soon. The only emo band I know that had a djembe.
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Merry Merries from the Swords!

Merry Merries, dingleberries! This will be brief. Hope all of you are enjoying some awesome time with your families, listening to dope jams and jibbin' plenty of flibbits. Again, we want to extend a heartfelt thank you for checking in here and conversing with us about the things we love; its a great community and we are so glad to be a part of it.

As thanks, I want to show you something i just dug up from my oldschool iPod, which is packed with all the music i was listening to from highschool through my early 20s, as well as being filled with things i was recording at that time. Two good friends and I were out visiting Metaghost and abigail wonder at their college, where Ghost had access to an amazing recording studio. One night, Ghost and i were in studio jamming out some Father Geoghan when the pals i drove out with showed up with more of our friends. We decided to record some random zombie noises to use in unspecified projects; prior to this, i had been practicing Proud Mary by Creedance. If the first 4 minutes of zombie nonsense/ jamming does nothing for you, skip to 4:15 where i decided to kick into Proud Mary. It was hilarious. And the quality of the recording was so good. Just ridiculous. Happy Holidays pals.

00 - Zombie Chorus by ninko