Clastic - Strata EP

A Berlin, Germany group that again has that awesome driving style post rock we like to call, Math. There is a lot to like here but admittedly on the surface its easy to think its a bit run of the mill. The more you listen to the EP the more they do strike there own path and I keep finding myself coming back to it. Nothing jazzy going on over here though very rock oriented which never hurt anyone.

http://clastic.bandcamp.com/

This Music Moment- The Roots 2001

So, it does stink to start a post this way, but the music i want you all to hear and appreciate is so far unavailable in my standard pre-blogpost digging; maybe you guys here at the Swords can help me out with finding a link, but i do hate starting off by saying i do not have the sufficient links to share with you.

That being said, i love hiphop. As i have said many times before in many, many blog posts about my history with the style, hip hop is a strange beast; for the most part, i look to strong production and smooth rhyme flow in the artists that end up really sticking with me. As a highschool kid graduating in 2002, a few of my close friends had a deeper love of hiphop and rap than i did, but i sucked it all up in long blunted cruises, listening to and talking about all kinds of music, and why we loved our respective favorite genres.

13 Assassins

Metaghost recently asked me to venture into boston with him to execute the awesome plan of eating a big bowl of pho noodle soup and checking the newest film by Takashi Miike, 13 Assassins. I had no idea that dude had made an epic samurai movie to rival the likes of any of Akira Kurosawas best work, but holy shit Miike was not messing around. This is straightforward samurai storytelling: an evil, murder-loving man is soon to be placed in high political standing in feudal japan, and a counselor who knows that Japan is in trouble if evil gains power secretly enlists the help of a retired samurai (warriors who had become obsolete in the current state of things) to gather a team of fellow samurai and assassinate this evil man while he is journeying home to the capitol city.

The film wastes no time; they show you deeply how evil this motherfucker is, and how strongly the samurai feel that risking their lives to wipe him off the planet serves the better good of the nation (and also how badass these dudes are.. so much awesome swordplay). The last 50 minutes are a battle taking place in a town they have boobytrapped in the most ultimate samurai death town kind of way, with so many tricks up their sleeves and sooo much awesome set design. It is epic, it is bloody, and it is classic. The end of this trailer says its available "March 25th on demand everywhere"... which i have not investigated, but I highly recommend that you do. Plenty of Swords abound.

Brainworms - II Swear to Me

Happy hardcore anyone? some nice guitar work while a bearded man screams about what ever the flip. Sign me up!

II Swear to Me

Lord Huron - Mighty EP

Some kind of tropical Fleet Foxes vibe going down on this. My prediction is a large movement on the good Lord Huron in the very near future. Its fun and has that throwback touch that those fox boys do so well. Take it to lunch. Whether you bed her down is your choice.

Mighty EP

The Unicorns - Who Will Cut Your Hair When Your Gone

 

Question:

"When is a "joke band" relevant?

Answer:

"When it's not a joke"

 These Canadians walked the razor wire of ridiculous pop, indie rock and lo-fi sensibilities. Short lived as they were they tore a path in front of them wide for all to see.  It's strange to think how wildly popular this was and even still I suppose. Islands the band that two of the members founded after Unicorns basically trimmed the ragged edges of their former band and washed it up for sunday dinner. In my opinion I like my pop with a bit of a five o clock shadow.....which reminds me. 

Who Will Cut Your Hair When Your Gone?

Main Source- Breaking Atoms- 1991

While away on my incredible hiatus, i found myself in the parking lot of some conservation land, waiting for the rain to subside and the sun to finally make another appearance so we could resume filming for the Fire Pit. We were straight chilling, just killing time, and a group of the film crew decided to take a leave and head off to the Red Roof Inn to get some serious business done on the ceramic titanic, the ill toilet bowl action. Some of the actors were chilling in the car that decided to take off for the non-woodland facilities, and i invited them to chill in my car in the rain. Mike G and Keith popped in my ride, Keith hitting the back seat for some quick shut eye, and Mike G chilling shotgun. The two of us started talking hiphop, once again spurred from my love of Bizarre Ride and Madlib. Dude knows his shit; he has a serious background in loving all kinds of music, but has a large chunk of his heart dedicated to the art of rhyming and beatsmithery.

This is a dedication, and a recommendation through osmosis, from the library of Mike G.

Back from a Brief Hiatus!

Hey ya'll,
Just wanted to say a quick hello again, as I have been completely absent from the Swords action for the better part of a week. I've had a fuckton of good times, good conversations, met a lot of cool folks, and helped in the filming of an epic story. Picture Planet film, and all the great folk associated with it, is doing some really cool shit lately, and I am so glad I got to be on board to help them in their work. Expect to hear some updates about the Fire Pit, a short we filmed, now being edited and whatnot. To satiate any curiosity, heres a fake trailer they made to be shown in front of their prior short film, This is Don; Born 2 Ball will be a feature film some day, and i cant wait to hear Harvey St. Lawrences' acceptance speech for his Best Racism oscar.

BORN 2 BALL (TRAILER) from PICTURE PLANET on Vimeo.

Silver Jews - American Water (1998)

Silver Jews are realistically a vehicle for the poetic musings of Dave Berman. Is it country? well.... Is it indie rock?...ugh pop? Its really a few things but never fully commits to any one of them.  Now I know what you might be thinking.

"Indie country, like wilco? you've got to be kidding me"

The short answer is no by the way. Berman's baritone touched life musings are at times devastatingly honest while often being wildly quirky in the same breath, some pretty great stuff. It also helps a lot to have a friend around that knows how to work a memorable guitar line and rip shit, a guy by the name of Steve Malkmus. You might have heard of him. The founder of possibly one of (arguably) the most influential indie bands of all time, Pavement.  Its funny actually but Steve's work with Silver Jews actually predates Pavement, not a super widely known fact. If Steve's inclusion doesn't peak your interest then please take it from me its worth your time. There are quite a few releases actually but I believe this to be his strongest. N JOY.

American Water

metaghostin' vol V - Deadly Duos

Deadly Duos - 34'26"
---
What's better than rapping by yourself?

Rapping with your best friend, of course.
---

1. "The Science of the Two" - Edan (w/Insight) / Beauty & the Beat / 2005

EDAAAANNNNNNNN! Obviously it's his prerogative, but I really wish Edan would release some new rap material instead of the occasional mixtape blender thing. His beats are too dreamy. (Swoon)

2. "Bring it On" - Organized Konfusion / Stress: The Extinction Agenda / 1994

I wonder if it was sad to be Prince Po, an undeniable force on the mic, yet still getting upstaged on every track by Pharoahe Monch. Pharoahe's verse is probably about as vicious as an emcee ever got, going so far as to point out that he buttfucks other emcees. He also molds brains like pottery, apparently.

3. "What a N---- Know?" - KMD / Black Bastards / 1994

MF Doom in his earlier incarnation as Zevlov X still rapped hella drunk. I feel like if I keep typing "rapped", I'm eventually gonna type "raped".

4. "RE:DEFinition" - Black Star / Black Star / 1997

Mighty Mos and Talib Kweli, back before they were dudes whose albums you didn't care about.

5. "Wheelz of Steel" - Outkast / ATliens / 1996

Outkast got the best basslines in hip-hop.

6. "Survival of the Fittest" - Mobb Deep / The Infamous / 1995

I can't really listen to this album because I find it too damn depressing, but it's got an abundance of hot trackz. I wanted to pick a Big Noyd track, but then it wouldn't be much of a "Deadly Duo" thing, would it?

7. "Off (with) Their Heads (Be Prompt)" - Latyrx / The Album / 1997

Probably the least well-known group on here, being late 90's West Coast rap that didn't really fit the mold of any of the big names at the time and being way more chilled out than the East Coast underground of the era. Kinda funky, kinda stoned out.

8. "Lower da Boom" - The Artifacts / Between a Rock and a Hard Place / 1994

Every rap album needs a weed jam! So authentic.

9. "Scream Phoenix" - Cannibal Ox / Cold Vein / 2001

They made one LP and it's so good.

Owls - Owls

So the time line is as such. In keeping with my loose theme of Victor Villarreal related projects we are brought to Owls. This venture occured after his work with Ghosts and Vodka and features the original full line up of Cap. N Jazz members (minus Davey Von Bohlen). As we have Tim Kinsella in control of vocals and lyrics you know to expect crazy cryptic lines and semi out of tune warbling....its an acquired taste to be sure.  What is sure is the fact that instrumentally these guys are on point tearing into these songs. Like some sort of emo angular math lounge music its not really as odd as it sounds. Fun point of reference also is Ryan Rapsys from Noyes was also the Owls second drummer. Wasn't aware of that myself till just recently.

OWLS

Noyes - Noyes EP (2003)

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.

Noyes

The Americas - Sweet Release

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.

Sweet Release

A Brief Message Concerning the Blog

So this is it. 2011.

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.

9th Wonder- The Listening (with Little Brother)

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.



the listening

This Town Needs Guns - Animals

r

 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. 

Animals 

*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. 

Beastie Boys-Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 2

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:

Fleet Foxes-Helplessness Blues

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

pharaohs - we've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas

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!

We've Tried Nothing and We're All Out of Ideas EP

Tenebre - In Everything Give Thanks

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

In Everything Give Thanks