Important Changes

I've decided that this blog will no longer serve as a 'musical journey' as such. I'm becoming interested in freelance writing, and this will become my portfolio. It will remain focused on music, and I'll be attempting to give a proper, solid review on one or two albums a week. I'll mention gigs and such, but expect the informality to cease here.

I have changed the title also.

Again...New Bands

Insomnia has reared its ugly head yet again. It's half-past two in the morning and I'm supposed to wake up in three hours. It's gonna be a fun drive!

Whining aside, I've got important news for you, my loyal readers - I'm going to see New Found Glory, Break Even, Paper Arms, and a stack of other bands in a few days. I don't particularly like any other those bands, but it beats sitting around at my uncle's place. I'm getting my NFG tickets for less than half of the retail price too. SICK!

Down to business.

When the Sea Became a Giant by Empire! Empire! (I Was A Lonely Estate): Well, strike me down and call me an idiot, 'cause I thought 90s emo was...well...still in the 90s. I discovered them in a really strange way, the guy who owns the label they're signed to sent me a private message (which I assume was somewhat superficial) that attempted to strike up conversation about Mineral. Regardless, I can forgive his shameless advertising. Damn this is good. Don't let my branding of 'emo' fool you with immediate connotions of lyrical reliance; this collective has an idiosyncratic instrumental focus, that goes to the extent of offering an exact polarities of their (10-year prior) 'contemporaries'. I'm noticing a pattern in the current journey, and that's an undeniable emo streak surfacing. I'm cool with it. Definitely look them up. 4/5.

Whirlpool by Chapterhouse: Found 'em cruising around Last.fm, as per usual. Another shoegaze band, with remarkable soundscapes and density. I keep using density a lot lately, but it's really the only way to describe what I'm listening to. There isn't much of a deviation from the traditional shoegaze form, so there isn't much to talk about, but they're also worth a spin. 3/5.


...I probably need sleep. See you on the other side.

Violent Soho: Self-titled

Finished exams today. Thank God. HA. The skin on my middle finger has worn through about 6 layers. Preeeetty cool.

Anyway, now it's down to business.

I'm going to dedicate this entire post to one of my FAVOURITE Australian bands, Violent Soho. They've recently released their second full-length Violent Soho.

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Violent Soho are an interesting collective. Their debut We Don't Belong Here rates as one of the best albums I heard last year, but disappointingly, this one doesn't reach the mark. Firstly, my main issue is with the recording. Violent Soho's attraction is the utter rawness of their art. The pounding riffs of the "original" tracks such as "Love is a Heavy Word" and "Jesus Stole My Girlfriend" is truly remarkable. It even challenges one to consider grunge as still having traces of life, behind the flannelets and binge drinking. When I downloaded my "copy" of this new endeavour, my hopes were crushed. Brutally.

The album is essentially a regurgitation of over half of its predecessor, 7 out of the 10 tracks are remastered. The production seems to have detracted from this raw nature Violent Soho can pride themselves on; it's kind of hard to articulate, but in short, the heavy drawn out bass-line that dominates the previous work is reduced to a cheesy overlay of a "do-do-do" and childish attempts at anthemic rock.

Here, check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig8k9XZOOrQ

Can you hear the intensity? The "rawness" that I'm talkin' about? Eh?

Yeah, I thought so.

In short, I heard it and was immediately reminded of The Vines - Awesome debut, then crash and burn baby.

Make sure you ain't misunderstanding me, I'm not feeling this album due to the fact that they've lost their raw grunge spirit and haven't even bothered to write a new album. This album is more than likely to thrust them into popularity off the back of a year-long US tour. It's just got that kind of feel to it.

Two New Ones.

I'm trying to space this out a little. I've had a massive few days with exams and all, so I'm sorry if anybody actually reads this.

The Destruction of Small Ideas by 65daysofstatic: Ever heard an album for the first time and immediately love it to bits? Well, that's how I felt. Last year I got heavily into post-rock for the first time, and I'd never really gotten around to checking out these guys. I'm an idiot. This is well and truly some of the most unique manifestation of post-rock that I've ever come across in my three years of listening to 'real music'. As much as I hate borrowing opinions, particularly from last.fm, I'm going to have to mention the industrial sound these guys have got. It's truly idiosyncratic. They have dense instrumentation that comes off as gritty, coarse and marvelously textured. I've got their entire discography in my library now, and I can promise you that this will be a band that'll stay with me for a long, long time. I feel privileged to listen to it. 5/5.

Landscapes by To The North: I rarely enjoy Australian bands. Maybe I'm just pretentious, well no, I AM pretentious, but this band got me excited. I found them through word-of-mouth after hearing that they'd toured with La Dispute (see past blog) mid-last year. I'm also disappointed that I missed them. This is only an EP, but yet I could sense an incredibly high level of sincerity. Many bands of this mathy-screamo hybrid type genre come off as highly sentimental, attempting to cling to their fleeting youth. To The North aren't like that. Heavily confessional lyrics with "we try these waters / It makes me weak" in tracks such as "Drift Away" that truly redefine as to what it's like to "drift away" top sincere math jams. 3.5/5.

La Dispute

So, yet again, I've changed my philosophy. This seems to be a frequent occurrence, yet I still feel like reviewing bands. I'm not very good at it, but the process of analysis and articulation of thoughts sets me in good stead for school related work

So screw you, I'ma non-conformist. Ya'll dig?

Now that I've permanently tarnished any self respect remaining, I shall continue.

Somewhere at the Bottom of the River Between Vega and Altair by La Dispute: I've been holding this sparkling gem back for quite a while, four months to be exact, and to be perfectly honest - it's easily one of the best damn albums I've ever heard. La Dispute, a five-piece post-hardcore band from Grand Rapids, Michigan are truly the unsung pioneers of post-hardcore. In this endeavour, they've aimed high with a debut full length album that centres around themes of love and loss. Apparently, they've stated that Somewhere... attempts to "prompt discussion regarding the aspects of ourselves that prevent us from maintaining our happiness as people by documenting both their own experiences in the matter and the experiences of those around them". I honestly couldn't pick up these themes in the work, but seriously, don't let that fool you. This lyricist is one of the finest poets I've ever heard, they've managed to forge energetic tracks such as "New Storms for Older Lovers" with angular riffs and complimentary vocals offering an outpour of emotion that their post-hardcore contemporaries would cut their fringe for. Truly a fine album that you need to have.

As a side note, La Dispute had actually toured Australia six months prior to my discovery, while I was even in Sydney. I am so devastated about that. I'm actually planning a trip to the US at the end of next year during my gap year, before I head off to the wonders of University and I'm definitely going out of my way to visit these guys multiple times. It'd be worth it.

Here's a few tracks off the album performed live that truly encompass the magic that is La Dispute:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NiXY2VO3ng - "Said the King to the River"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pm2Kqvubc3w - "New Storms for Older Lovers"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLCfcUSNCzQ - "Damaged Goods"

And this one isn't off the album, but rather an EP entitled Vancouver that is one of my all-time favourite videos in the internet. Amazing show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYpDuHMBgKQ - "Future Wars"

Few new bands.

School work has been monumental of late, so here's a quick little summary of what I've been listening to.

La fine non è la fine by La Quiete - Fantastic screamo/emo violence band from Italy. It seems that Italy has a thriving screamo scene, which functions as a breath of fresh air into a stale genre, dominated by Bring Me the Horizon type bands. Even though I could not understand a word of it, it was a great experience.

Carry Me Home by Loss of a Child: Amazing to say the least. It's hard to quantify down to a specific genre, but more or less post-rock with pronounced math rock and classical influences. I really loved this album. It is entirely instrumental, so if you like that kind of thing, I advise you strongly to check them out. Another cool thing about them is that all of their releases are under Creative Commons, meaning you can download them for free and its perfectly legal. Here's a link:

http://lostchildrennetlabel.wordpress.com/2009/12/13/loss-of-a-child-carry-me-home/

Blue Record - Baroness: I discovered this band by complete chance - by planning to attend Soundwave (and of course, not going). Perhaps this offsets all my disappointment from missing an amazing lineup. It's really hard for me to find a sludge metal band that I can take an instant liking to, but Baroness have done it with pounding riffs, wails and screams that put my pretentious nature to shame. Great album.

I'm going to two local gigs this weekend, so stay tuned.

General Listening

I had the download count reset a few days ago, so I'm back at download speeds of 900+ kb/s with a phenomenal amount of new music. I won't write them all down at once, but I'll spread them out over a few entries.

I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning by Bright Eyes. This is absurdly good, I've listened to it about 6 times back-to-back, and that's just today. There's some really great fusions of gutsy folk and blues, that are just shoe stompin' goodness. I love it when each track sounds different from the last, but on this album, each track has a different theme! Ah, man. Brilliant. 4/5.

Sigh No More by Mumford and Sons. I was a bit apprehensive about this at first, mainly due to the commercial outburst of 'Little Lion Man'; but surprisingly, I enjoyed it. I heard it for the first time on the bus today, and in all seriousness, the album moved me. I know it sounds 'wussy' or whatever, but I don't care. It just did. I'm reminded of an intensive epic poem when listening from beginning to end, experiencing a million emotions. I'm so, so glad. As soon as I get a chance, I'm buying this. Sadly, I think that with their next album, they'll break through as a commercial band...then we are faced with their music being played to death on every radio station/commercial/dumb ass kid's iPod. Oh well, in the meantime, enjoy it. 4.5/5.

xx by The xx. Kind of like being stuck in a sweaty, filthy indie club with little room to breathe and little room for individualism. Seriously, you aren't kidding anybody with hushed vocals. 2/5.

General Listening

I'm pretty stoked that I've got 100 views on this page already...haha, it might have something to do with all the shameless advertising I've been doing. I've got just a little experiment, if you are reading this; can you pretty please 'follow' the blog? I'd really like that.

Now, I've been tied up like a sexual deviant to the dominatrix of Year 12 lately, so much of what I've been listening to has been generally mellowed out study-music. Does that means it's terrible? Oh god no. I've even found a few new artists!

Too Much Too Soon by New York Dolls. I didn't enjoy it, although I have only listened to it once all the way through, and a few random tracks here and there. The repetition gets to me too much; each song is like the last. 2/5.

Broken Social Scene by Broken Social Scene. This album blew me away, no exaggeration. I never thought I could describe an album as sprawly and erratic, but absolutely love it at the same time. It's hard to describe their sound, but think experimental pop/post-rock/avant garde...and you might be getting close. The density of the album was what initially attracted me. I have no idea how many musicians are in the band, but in tracks such as 'Ibi Dreams of a Pavement' its nearly impossible to count the instruments. There seems to be a pattern with albums that I've been getting into lately, and this one perpetuates the trend. 3.5/5.

Argh. Right now it's 5 minutes to midnight and I've got to be up at 6am. I was initially intending to write more. Well, I guess its goodnight then.

Albums and the Like

Bitte Orca by Dirty Projectors. I found this on last.fm and yes, I did enjoy it. New York seems to be the place to be for the funky art-house kids like this experimental pop outfit. Some of the tracks like 'Temecula Sunrise' are magnificently crafted nylon-acoustics that drift of into euphoric highs. On the subject of instrumentation, I loved the amalgamation of digital sampling and the somewhat 'revolutionary' practice of playing an instrument. For me, it signaled an equilibrium between surrealism and realism; an absolute key for the genre. Similar artists that I also like: Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear, Panda Bear and Atlas Sound. 3.5/5.

Grammatics by Gramatics. Pissy vocals. Misdirection. General shittiness. 1/10.

Romance is Boring by Los Campesinos! Yeah, I don't know. It's pretty much identical to the other two albums, seriously. As a test, I listened to all three this afternoon in one sitting and I couldn't tell where one album ended and the other begun. Also, the length is way out of wack - 15 tracks. Far too ambitious and overly-endearing. They seem to have fallen into the trap of contentment with their fan-base, and are just playing to them with little or no experimentation. 2/5.

Fits by White Denim. YES! Finally, here comes the positiveness! This record is a refreshing listen to (what I think) is a re-vamping of the garage punk genre. Some really complex, brain shattering riffs. Great experimentation on 'Radio Milk How Can You Stand It?'. Wonderfully crafted. 4/5.

Yep, that's it for now...more to come.

New Band: Trash Talk

Now I'm really showing the diversity of what I've been listening to lately; yesterday it was mellow indie/hip-hop, and today it's fast paced hardcore. Now, for those that know me fairly well, you'll know that I absolutely love hardcore in just about every form ('cept most generic post-hardcore posers). The crowd that hang around hardcore gigs are generally dickheads, but I try to ignore them the best I can.

Now, enter Trash Talk. This is bloody fantastic material. I've yet to discover any band (even some of the all-time faves) which have managed to rack up 200+ plays in just a few days. They are defined by their pace and aggression which just makes me want to crack a bottle on someone's head and wreak havoc. Pretty cool, eh?

Well, here's what I've got sitting in my library:

1. Walking Disease EP

2. Self-Titled

3. Plagues

4. Steel Trap/Trash Talk Split

5. 2005 Demo

6. Live at United Blood 2008

What really sets Trash Talk apart from the rest of the angsty hardcore kiddies is the song length. Now, song length is key for music of this intensity. Each track on Walking Disease EP and Self-Titled sits at around 40-60 seconds, which really helps to condense a piece of work which can actually be listened to from start to finish without having to pause and conduct relaxation techniques.

I also found the lyrics to be quite exceptional as well, since they compliment the strong (to say the least) riffs and drumming to a full extent. You'd love lines like 'rip me, stab me, pull me, fuck me...' too, yeah?

I wouldn't recommend listening to their material if you're fairly new to hardcore as this is pretty much as heavy as it gets before crossing into trashcore. Seasoned listeners are required.

4/5.

New Band: Why?

In this new open-minded attitude I'm trying to adopt, I decided to take some baby steps and dabble into some alternative/indie/hip-hop. At first it might seem at little ambitious to fuse such genres together, but I really enjoyed the product; that is, product of Why?

Now for the music (haha, it's becoming a bit of a catchphrase!). The following are the albums I have sitting in my library:

1. Elephant Eyelash

2. Alopecia

3. The Early Whitney EP

4. Miss Ohio's Nameless

5. Rubber Traits EP

6. Sanddollars EP

7. The Hollows

All in all, it's a fairly impressive discography if I might say so. In particular, Elephant Eyelash contains some interesting experimentation that doesn't particularly have an orthodox feel for a hip-hop/indie record. They are eager to chop from lo-fi, avant garde, prog, rock...so I guess it's suiting that they're signed to AntiCon Records.

Lyrically they also stand out from the crowd. The traditional lyrical rulebook for hip-hop is thrown out the window for a more refreshing taste of a genre that seems to frequently be coming under the spell of generic 'homeboy' type clones.

Apparently there are several projects by the members of the band, so I'll have to locate a few records by 'em and write up some reviews.

3.5/5.

Bare Arms

As good as it gets, seriously. This band has me dancing for joy for the future of post-hardcore! Finally, a p/h group that doesn't sound exactly like 1000s of other 'bands' like A Day To Remember, Alesana and all that rubbish.

As a bonus, they're local too. Unsigned and unheard of - WIN WIN WIN!

Now, for the music. They've only released a self-titled five-track EP and a few demos, that are awash with lyrical complexity, bass oriented direction, and a kick ass female lead singer that shreds hard.

Of particular note is the track 'The Refrain' on the self-titled EP. I've pretty much had this on repeat for four days now and it amazes me. The opening crescendo and bass line gives me shivers.

I've heard along the grapevine that they might just be touring in my town, so that'll be pretty awesome

I've posted two links, from which you will be able to find their material as free downloads.

http://www.triplejunearthed.com/Artists/View.aspx?artistid=26363

http://www.last.fm/music/Bare+Arms

Hugh.

New Band: Reatards

Well, Hughie needs to get with the times. This garage-punk outfit rock as hard as I could hope for with catchy riffs, wailing vocals and lyrics that make me cringe - 'did he just say that?!'

Apparently, the front man, Jay Reatard, died fairly recently. I'm upset about this and yet I've only been listening to them for a few days. For me, I think that's a strong indicator for a good group; getting attached and dragged in a short period of time. Hardly any bands do that to me.

Now, for the music. The various melodies, loops and riffs remind me heavily of an angsty second-coming of Ramones. This is a winner. I really can't be bothered writing up a review for each individual album, but here's a list of what I've got sitting in my library (listed in order of preference):

1. Not Fucked Enough

2.Grown Up, Fucked Up

3. Teenage Hate

4. Bedroom Disasters

I'd imagine there'd be more material floating around cyberspace, but hey, those albums are an excellent starting point. I put Bedroom Disasters last as it isn't particularly compact; it seems to be like Sonic Youth's Dirty -just a mashing of tracks with no direction.

One facet of their work that I really like is the song length. For me, length is everything. I have the attention span of a fourteen year old on Viagra when it comes to music, and with an average song length of 1-2 minutes; I am suddenly calmed down.

Also, the dude that died - Jay Reatard, has solo material. I'd get on that shit too.

Hugh.

#01 Exploding Head By A Place to Bury Strangers

[I just realised I have misspelled the URL of this blog, oh well, I'll live]

A Place to Bury Strangers (alongside My Bloody Valentine) are the band/s that prompted my fascination with the genre of shoegaze. Now enter the new album, Exploding Head that was released on the 12th of October 2009. It was an album that I have truly enjoyed and, I would even love to see them perform live in their upcoming tour, but, I've got other commitments. I know I'm a bit late, but hey, you can't rush it.

Now for the music. In this album APTB certainly to not abandon their reputation as 'New York City's loudest band'. I really love how they whisper their lyrics alongside a heavy sound that leave your ears stunned. It's a real treat.

Below I've posted a link to what is, in my opinion, the best track on the album. It reflects the overall feel of the album in it's entirety.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWjic1FsB2w

On a negative note, I really feel disconcerted that Exploding Head is so similar to the previous Self-Titled album. For me, it signifies no progression and exploration of sound. This negative aspect is offset by the sheer experimentation of APTBS, which I find as being a truly admirable trait in any band.

As a final verdict, Exploding Head does live up to it's heavy, loud and rhythmic name that concludes in a sensory overload.

3.5/5

Oh Man! Not Another Elitist Blog!?

Well, here we are...yet again. I've tried my hand at blogging, but I never seem to be able to sustain it regularly, but I'll try with this one.

As you might have gathered from the title, this is a blog dedicated to chronicling bands that I like, or that I've discovered. And you know, it'll help sharpen my creative writing. Sure, if I go to a few gigs, I'll be sure to write up a review.

What music tastes will this cater for?

Well, it'll obviously cater for mine. So if you like noise, post-punk, hardcore, alternative, indie, lo-fi, folk, blues, avant-garde and really weird shit - this is for you.

So yeah, that's all I have to say for the moment, but stay tuned.

Hugh.