Let me make this quick. In honor of my birthday it's only fitting to post an album that means a lot to me. I have to say I am woefully ignorant of any other releases of Tara Jane O'Neil but this does not make the gravity of "In the Sun Lines" any less. Completely played by herself, it is a very emotional and slow burning album. Don't let that fool you though this album musically is amazing. Think slow core post rock but with a more direct sense. See the connection we are making here is that Tara is originally the bassist from a little band called Rodan. For those that are familiar know that they were a contemporary of Slint...albeit a lesser known one. Just give it a chance you wont be sorry, trust me.
Continuing with their domination of lite instrumental math rock, toe has recently released their newest EP. While it doesn't really expand upon the ideas of the full length.....this is toe we are talking about here and as such its pretty damn amazing. Also amazingly short at a paltry 4 songs!!! GRRAAHH!!!
The melodies and rhythms on display here are top notch as always. The closing song for me remains a large highlight but its all pretty flawless. You know you've been wanting it so have the appetizer before the main dish (soon I hope).
Ok acerola. The duel is on. I am about to hit you with some serious pop right now. This is a forgotten blade buried deep within pop culture, an example of how fleeting fame can be to a group of ninjas that were known solely for a single technique, instead of being appreciated for the vast catalogue of skills and limit breaks they produced in their heyday. I give you The Zombies.
A British band who reached their high water mark with one hit song from a otherwise ignored yet absolutely stunning album, these dudes were serious. They were a five piece band that all sang, focusing instrumentally on keyboard, bass and drums, and featuring their skills with vocal harmonies and hooks; these dudes fully embraced choral vocal styles and interesting song structures, especially so for 1968. The only other band at the time that wrote pop songs and did not incorporate the guitar predominantly in their music were The Doors†; The Zombies were unique, smart, and catchy, and had the skills and imagination to separate themselves enough from being pigeonholed solely as "pop music". This is surely a reason they were not given more acclaim. It was not as adventurous a time for their kind of music, with classic albums from The Beatles, The Beach Boys and The Rolling Stones dominating the airwaves†, and they were never shown the proper spotlight for their work. The one small spotlight they were given came from their 15 minutes of fame with the release of Time of the Season.
Time of the Season is great enough to be a #1 hit song, yet it never rose above #3 on the Billboard charts. If you haven't heard it in a while, it is so great that you might not realistically remember how good it actually is. I only stall on sharing it with you to bide time for a quick reflection.
People unfamiliar with Odessey and Oracle may not have heard the second to last track of the album: Friends of Mine came in at track 11, right before the epic last track of the LP, Time of the Season. It is a very lovely combo of songs to feature at the end of an album, and specifically back to back. Friends of Mine is a harmless love song about being a third wheel, hanging out with various couples that you totally give props to for finding each other. It is a hopeful song, upbeat and positive, relating their awesome relationships back to your own hope of finding the right person yourself. Here you go:
And how do you follow up a super poptastic appreciation of love? You offer up the most pimptasticly smooth song about looking for summertime romance, of course. You're young, its hot outside, you want to find someone interesting, and naturally you play it super cool. For good measure, you add in some ridiculously great keyboard solos. Time of the Season:
And that is just the end of the album; the download I have linked to also includes an EP released soon after Odessey and Oracle, and that in itself is an utterly dusty blade. It was made and then no one ever saw it; it just sat in a studio and hardly saw the light of day. The entire package is full of greatness: Odessey starts the show off with Care of Cell 44, a hugely upbeat love letter to the girl for whom you are waiting to finally get out of jail and come back home to resume your relationship together. It is dark in the lightest possible sense: the EP is full of other blades that are just as pop-tastic, such as Don't Cry For Me, or the criminally unknown If It Don't Work Out.
One last song: this one you may recall from the cover of it in Kill Bill Vol 2, after the Bride puts her daughter to bed in Bills house and walks down the hallway on her way to kill him. Its a neat scene, and a neat cover, but this original is some great old school pop.
Portland Oregon's Breezin starts their EP off innocently enough with a sprinkle of cute keyboard lines and playful melodies. Then...it happens....the bass and drums enter and the proceedings become chaotic prog math workouts. Its worth taking note that the most impressive item here is the fact that no matter how bonkers these guys get the vocals remain pretty pop to the core.
.....Listen to that bass....
seriously just listen to it fly all over the damn place....
I will say I wish the mix was a little kinder to the bass sound so we could hear those angular stabs and dagger knife turns better. Cute and dangerous like a kittens head on a snakes body.
Ready yourselves for three albums by well-respected lady singer/ songwriters coming at your ear holes. Though this post is a little late for the release dates, it had to be done. I was very excited about the first two of these albums, and the third I do not know very well but have read some great reviews:
First off, Beach House. Aw yeah. I love both of the two previous albums that came before their 2012 release; Devotions low fi sounds showcased the duo of keyboard/ singer and guitarist making due with what they had, then getting popular and releasing a well-polished follow up with Teen Dream, adding members to their band to get rid of the programmed drums etc and fleshing out their sounds. Their new release, Bloom, just builds upon what they added on Teen Dream, not branching out much further aurally but tightening up their gorgeous dream pop. Victoria Legrand has one hell of a voice, and the guitar work that Alex Scally does compliments her melodies wonderfully. Check their new single, Lazuli:
Second, Regina Spektor. If you have a musical heart that digs pop music that can sometimes be cutesy and hilarious but is always deeply rooted in great piano work and wonderful melodies, this lady will be your new friend. She is well known for tracks like Fidelity, Samson and Hotel Song. You will probably be familiar with at least one of those three tracks, and if they tickle your fancy, give her new single, Don't Leave Me, a shot.
Third, Fiona Apple. She hopped on the bandwagon for this post; Metaghost had to remind me that she was the lady responsible for Criminal, as the only song of hers I could recall myself was the title track of her previous album, 2005's Extraordinary Machine. But, I have read a bunch of great reviews of her new album, and the comparisons to Kate Bush had me intrigued. As I don't know her catalogue at all, I don't have much to say besides that it is very lushly composed with great instrumentation and vocal performances. Interesting stuff, but I ain't hearing no Hounds of Love or Suspended in Gaffa on it yet. The single from The Idler Wheel is track one, Every Single Night. Do enjoy, fellow swordslingers.
beach house- bloom regina spektor- what we saw from the cheap seats fiona apple- the idler wheel
So a little bird informed me of the fact that along with Mouth to Mouth to Mouth a band by the name of "Living Room" embarked with them on a weekend of shows. These guys are from Brooklyn and actually dont share a large amount of similiarities with their mini tour mates (not that they have to) but its in the ways that they do that make these guys pretty interesting and exciting. Dream Journal is a nice tidy collection of alt-emo with all the heart felt singing a guy could ask for. What I typically sign up for in a musical act however is the instrumentation and Living Room doesn't disappoint. Nice varied dueling guitars, some healthy stops and stops, and interesting drums keep them from being placed in the "same same" pile. I could very easily see this sort of energetic rock being transferred to a very incredible live show.
ps: Apologies Scott for referring to you as a "little bird" :)
Anyone recall a previous post of mine on a group by the name of The Prophet Nathan? Well if your drawing a blank..shame on you and click the link above. serious math-pop magic.
More to the point however is James from The Prophet Nathan wanted to let everyone know of his OTHER super amazing math rock group The Ace of Coins. They just released their ep The Fool and I must say once again I am very impressed and for different reasons. Ace of Coins is a more song oriented sort of math rock and it prominently features vocals. However there still remains a grounding in pop rock as well. Instrumentation is still pretty complex despite this but does have to dial back to a more traditional format for the singing.
"The Fool" feels incredibly new but also a throwback to the golden age of math, the 90's. Its a winning combination that I imagine everyone having an easy time enjoying....so yea click the link and do that enjoying thing you guys do so well.
Yes Ithaca NY's very own sons of the time change are back with their newest release (two brand spankers, a live track and remix's) Right out of the gate we are smacked upside the head with dizzying drums and guitars that are dangerously close to a miss step on the tight rope followed by a blissfully distored , all inclusive breakdown (re: AWESOME). It's these kinds of risks that I appreciate the most on these new songs. Where as in their first EP the argument of keeping the guns holstered could have been made they are fully drawn and taking head shots here. You come to really appreciate a math rock group that has both rhythm (drum, bass) and lead (guitars) at a point where neither are wrestling for the spotlight. It makes for that much better of a listen especially in a genre such as this. The occational vocal addition, notably in track two, are tastefully done and keep the intensity high. In my estimation a hopefully forthcoming full length will tie in their excellent balance of chaotic shuffling and lock step vocal specked math. The remix's all do a great job of creating a new song with flecks of the old but all in all I would handily trade three remix's for one more new track :) Really really pleased with this showing and seeing these four progress at this level. A must for any well rounded math head.
Pure unfiltered full flavored....ugh..math rock yes math rock is what we have on tap this evening. After Franklinton DC's previous post of the excellent Arc and Sender it got me thinking:
Dark, Thoughtful, Exciting maybe something new as well... and then I remembered stumbling on L'viv.
See L'viv feature on guitar a previously posted fellow, Alexander Litinsk (A.M Overcast) Impressive considering that he easily shifts into a completely different ilk of math mayhem without nary a stumble.
These Canadians lay it on thick and heavy. You need not worry about fret tapping mumbo flumbo. This is some straight dish Math Metal riffage with some razor edges and dime dropping time shifts. The best I've heard in a good long time. Tempo is slow to mid range, which for modern math rock is a bit of a black sheep these days. This is not a negative however. The melodies are strong enough and the drums interesting enough to carry along the songs. Fantastic guitar tones also.
What this automatically reminded me of was some 90's type shizz in a great way. No vox by the way, you won't find yourself missing them either. This is a must have for everyone, in case you didn't catch that by the above nonsensical writing.
Arc and Sender play dark, contemplative, math rock that heaves through atmospheric passages punctuated by huge riffs. The format of drums, bass, and baritone guitar is accompanied on a few tracks by violin and saxophone for extra spiciness. The compositions are sprawling. I usually prefer the songwriting to be a little tighter, but in this case everything is so heavy that too many changes might sound strange.
This band is relatively unknown, at least as far as I can tell. They started off as a studio project, released an album, played a few shows, then faded from existence. For such a short band lifetime, the quality of the product is excellent. We were super lucky to play with them at a DIY joint in Baltimore in 2008. They slayed. I believe that this was their final show.
Check out "WWJLD" (What Would Jesus Lizard Do) on their Myspace, then download their self-titled debut album here:
When I mentioned Belle and Sebastian in my post on Two Door Cinema Club, I recalled this particular Music Moment very vividly and instantaneously; I believe I compared Two Door to them because of the instant perking of ears that occurred in both cases when I heard a particular song of theirs.
Belle and Sebastian was a band name I was familiar with, but at the time I could not honestly put a sound to the impression I had of then from their name. Naturally, I thought they were a duo, playing who knows what kind of music. But in summer 2007, I was living in New Hampshire and commuting 70 minutes to Boston to paint the interiors of vacant apartments with my two roommates, Jacob and Claytor. It was a grueling, tough day for us, and I was exhausted for our long drive home. I put on some college radio station to add a little variation to the usual sounds of NPR we listened to most of the time, both driving or working; I just wanted to hear some tunes. After a few songs went by, this one track popped on and I instantly woke up, befuddled and excited, wondering who the hell was making this great, harmonic, classic sounding pop music. The broadcaster didn't mention the band after the song ended, so I had to go home, check the radio stations website and their playlist timeline, and after a long while I finally found what I was looking for. Wrapped Up In Books, track 8 off their 2003 release, Dear Catastrope Waitress:
Naturally, I picked up Dear Catastrophe Waitress, and I was not disappointed. Linkage: It starts off hilariously with a Zombies-style ode to sex with Step Into My Office; they follow that up with the superbly produced title track, a love song to people working dead end jobs with high hopes; their first single from the album, I'm A Cuckoo, is neat but, to me, Wrapped Up In Books is the lynch pin of the album. Further listening comes from their follow up studio album (after a singles and eps collection and a live album), 2006's The Life Pursuit: Act of the Apostle starts it off great; Funny Little Frog is just classic, wonderful, happy go lucky pop song about the idolization of romance. Enjoy, Slingers.
Riff's ahoy! UK group In Oceans pound their way through their new 5 track album invoking the ghost of post-hardcores past. Isn't there a lot of similar stuff going down? yes but It's just some good solid rock with above average sense of rhythms. plus its pretty fun and well produced. who's not down for a little fun?
Recently, I was looking through a huge book of CDs that I bought when I had just begun listening to my own music in middle school, through high school and into my early 20s. It was full of random crap with a bunch of gems and all the while completely nostalgic. While I was flipping through it, random memories would pop up about these albums I was spending time to investigate deeply, and I spent a few hours trying to remember why the hell I had bought one album, or how much I missed and had forgotten about another. Very soon, I flipped to a page that had two Flaming Lips albums: 1999s The Soft Bulletin, and its follow-up, their 10th album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, and I immediately remembered my first exposure to their contents.
My girlfriend, circa 2002, had bought me some concert tickets as a birthday present that summer of my senior year in high school. It sounded like a good show, though I was only somewhat familiar with the bands on the bill. There was some forgotten, neat opening band, The Flaming Lips, and Cake as the headliner. Sweet, I knew a couple of songs by Cake, but I was pretty apathetic about The Flaming Lips. I remembered that a friend in middle school had given me whatever album of theirs it was he was listening to, and it had their single at the time, She Don't Use Jelly. That track is just some silly pop in the style of grungy rock, and it was the only reference I could use to put a sound to the name. Basically, I was unprepared for the show that followed.
There was one thing in particular that blew me away about this show. I had recently seen Battle Royale with metaghost, and during the concert, the Lips had a huge movie screen behind them playing random video clips to go along with every song, and for a decent few they were playing scenes from Battle Royale to accompany their music. It was dark, violent film to go along with the mostly psychedelic electro pop music they were playing, but somehow it totally worked; the show was a complete visual and audio spectacle, with dudes in woodland creature costumes at the sides of the stage blowing up giant glitter filled balloons to pass into the audience, awesome crowd participation, and other high-profile hijinks. It was a seriously well done show, and it completely sold me on what these guys were doing.
Yoshimi and Soft Bulletin are pretty darned nice; they seemed to only play hits from both albums at the show, and it made for a wonderful concert. Link time: Race to the Prize is an awesome way to kick off Soft Bulletin; The Spark That Bled is a bit more moody and varied as the albums third track. Yoshimi is full of hits; Fight Test kicks things off proper; the title track rocks electro pop socks off, and its basically moot to mention that it also features the culturally-absorbed and now discarded Do You Realize, though it sure holds up well.
Track 2 is what I want to share though. I forgot just how awesome this song is (especially its bassline- yeah buddy) until I uploaded the albums to my computer and revisited it. It has a great blend of electronica, spaced out vocals and tight production. Not to mention that bass, again:
Awesome show; a big time Music Moment. One of those great carefree summertime memories brought back from revisiting old tunes.
As you well know by now, I am a huge sucker for pop. Today, I was watching videos of two bands I had read good reviews of; the results were not as promising as I had hoped for, but in the related videos for a song by The Henry Clay People, I saw a link to a video that I instantly remembered hearing about six months ago, then promptly forgetting. I checked in on it, and as a fiend for well written pop music, I was very happy. Soon I snagged the album, and now that I am a few songs deep I am even more pleased by this band I randomly rediscovered.
Two Door Cinema Club are a young Irish pop group that kick out some upbeat, catchy dance music with decent skills and a huge talent for feel-good hooks. I have seen a few live videos of theirs, and it seems that their strength really lays in the studio. They are a trio of multi-instrumentalists, and their songs usually feature a full band sound that is hard for them to properly replicate live. Its not to say they don't try, or that this fact should be a deterrent; they are young and there is always time for expansion, and their abilities at writing a great studio album are still very strong.
Tourist History is their 2010 studio debut. It is reminding me of a mix of the styles of Postal Service, Bloc Party, Belle and Sebastian and the best parts of Vampire Weekend. Simple, melodic lead guitar melodies that harmonize with the upbeat vocals, guitars, bass, drums and assorted electronica. After hearing only their singles, Cigarettes in the Theatre really surprised me as an opening track; It shares so many flavors with Bloc Partys debut album opener, Like Eating Glass, and I love that stuff soo much. I was quite excited for what was to come after it, and what kind of progression would lead into the two songs I had heard, which appear in the later parts of this album with such an unexpected beginning. Something Good Can Work is on the uber-catchy side of their spectrum, and comes in at track 5; the song that brought up the memories I had of these guys, What You Know, comes in at track 8. It is just so darned accessible. Great rhythms, melodies, and quality catchiness. I am enjoying; maybe you will too. Blam:
Its been awhile since I've sat down with these Irish gents since their last full release in 2011. It looks like they have amped the math rock by 12 and added some choice extra instrumentation and interesting percussion. When their next release drops be careful where your standing because these guys are going to explode. Just a really awesome sense of structure and pretty memorable melodies as well. Nothing too crazy complex but just enough to wet the whistle. This one song moves at a nice clip and keeps adding the tension and volume as it progresses. Previous things are also fantastic as well maybe not as good but still some incredibly solid math rock. Certainly check those as well.
Seems as though the residual trickle down economics of 80's synth revival (isn't there always an 80's synth revival no matter what year it is? ) and danceable math pop ala Foals has emerged in more than a couple bands as of late. I have my own personal love/hate battles with aspects of both but these guys Brightest Color seem to have struck some sort of balance. Is this going to melt your mind with awesome? eh i suppose it wouldn't leave you breathless but there are some genuinely excellent riffs sandwiched in here. Track 2 "Intimacy" opens with what could be a lost mega man boss level. I'm going to say Sabrage Man? Anywho check it could be your thing.
It should be noted right off the bat that if someone told me Rob Crow was involved with this that I wouldn't be at all surprised. Thats high praise in my book by the way. Alexander Litinsky takes that style of Math Pop as a framework for his own frenetic solo work and amps up the time changes and catchy vox. Boy Girl harmonies? yes please! Handclaps in multiple songs? MORE SIR MORE! For the style it doesn't get any better for goodness sake. There is just not enough of this kind of jazzed up complex pop going on today (as of writting this I've made it through 4 runs. not counting the album before this one ;) If you need a change up of the same old same old then this will spearmint your music bad breath into next year... or something.
My friend Greg recommend this album to me months ago, but it was completely lost in a long list of "notes" on my phone full of music recommendations from many different people and kept in a very unorganized manner. Once again, I do not know much about this album: I know that is a solo album by eLZhi, a slick former member of Slum Village; I know that it is a re-imagining of Nas' debut album, Illmatic (much as Rise Above is a remake of Black Flags Damaged); and I know that it is produced by someone named Will Sessions. Hopefully I do not come off as a jackass for not knowing who he, or they, are; it seems as though a lot of the time, things end up that way with me.
Its no matter. This is some truly outstanding hiphop. Excellent production, awesome instrumentation, great flows... what more can you ask for? Check it: track 3 off Elmatic, Halftime:
Why aren't you listening to this right this instant? Well I'd like to give the always mighty and powerful Siren Sound large ups on this one. Completely blind sided by this one. At its core this is some hammers to the floor big post-rock. What will hit you first is everything is loud and trying to kill you. math rock, progressive rock and metal abound as well as some nice ambient textures thrown in. Technical without having noses high in the air. Rock Solid
This is massive. This is punk. This is Ittō from Chicago. They play screamo
Screamo? yea like when you mix emo music and screaming. Hmm that doesnt sound much better. Rest assured however that this is not what you may be thinking. This is some technical hardcore punk with screamed/shouted vocals intermixed with some spoken word. The starts and stops are very welcome to hear but you'd be a little hard pressed to claim this fully under the math rock banner. These songs are just completely unhinged rock music with a dynamic punk spirit. If anything that I just quickly typed out sounded even marginally interesting then I suggest you make a visit. Very Very Good.
