There’s a sweet spot in my heart for a band that just doesn’t really give a crap. Deer Tick is definitely more folk than rock, but has enough rock to keep me interested. The folk-rock thing is on the downward, but bands like Deer Tick don’t mind. These guys have been here a little before the folk/indie-folk thing got big and don’t seem bent if it’s going out of style soon.
Is that too much folk for you? WELL I LIKE THIS STUFF.
Guitarism. Never can get enough of some awesome guitarage. Also, decent vocal harmonies tie me to this one. The album, only five songs, is worth the jam on a long road trip.
It’s a short album and has no room for variety. Also, it’s pretty much straight up folk rock, and many people will see that as a con in it’s self. There is a sense that each song might sound the same… but I feel as if it follows more along the lines of At the Foot of My Rival by The New Amsterdams, just more folk-rocky. More punchy.
People who would like this: people interested in getting into folk rock. It seems like a big leap from Kevin Devine to these guys, but the only real difference is the tempo in my opinion. Deer Tick holds down a fast paced jumpy type style whereas the indie-folk around at the moment in the indie scene is filled with not-so-much jump-style folk rock. This is a good transition into a folky way of life. Others interested would be… people into The New Amsterdams, anything from Long Island, people who like PBR, and if you have rips in your jeans from where your bike spokes tear holes.
God, why. There are many reasons why the music I review is far and few from being a “breakthrough” type artist. Some people, like Rachael Cantu and Matthew Price, have all the pieces to themselves and just might need some sort of push over the top to make them something special. Some artists, like Russian Circles and The American Dollar, just don’t have a mass appeal but are good in what they do. If you aren’t in one of these categories, whether you are just hunting for a special piece to your puzzle or whether you have it all and just don’t mind where you are, then you are in this… special category. This category is the one for those who have a missing part. Erik Schau was once a solo artist without a band backing him. Adding that upped his chances for being more likable. Another way to look at it: The Fire Theft, which was Sunny Day Real Estate without Dan Hoerner, was missing that shimmering glee that Hoerner brought with his lead guitar. Los Campensinos! is that type of band. It’s missing something.
Straight off the bat, if you don’t like Gareth’s voice then you probably won’t like half of this album. Second off, I believe most of us in the US have been spoiled with British singers from the singer-songwriter field. There are plenty, but for some reason Fanfarlo is the only one that comes to mind. Los Campensinos! is the vocal antithesis of what you would immediately assume from British vocalists. This is the kind of vocals that you would be common to if you were listening to tons and tons of local bands from Cardiff. Second, the music itself isn’t surprising that it’s about 150% fun rock. This is most likely to cover the poor vocals (sorry guys).
You tell me. What is this? Have I heard this before? Is this a new twist? Why don’t I like this????
I said it already. It’s 150% fun rock. It’s hard not to just like this music for what it’s worth. They play it up very well, and if this is album is how they are in real life then they will go very far in the scene in my opinion. They have energy that precedes their musical capabilities (not saying it’s bad musically, but it seems as if they write for the fun rather for the musical mastery). It’s really hard for me to say this is going to be a bad album. Although.
It’s missing better vocals if you couldn’t tell. The vocalist is way harsh. I feel like this is the indie pop version of the Sex Pistols and we all get it already. The music is eons ahead of the lyrical creativity. Gareth, the frontman, was stated to have said this album is about “death and football”. What comes to mind when I think of both in the same context is the time my dad told me that he would go to these soccer games in England (he’s English) and take these thick magazines and roll them up in a way that would be practically rock-like. Then he’d smash people over the back of the heads because he was a drunk trouble-maker at the time. All the while, that scene plays in my head with sing-alongs and long strolls from the stadium back to someone’s place for more drinks until someone throws up on the carpet or someone falls asleep in a bush. This album doesn’t make me feel any single one of those feelings. Any of them. Death? I want to die after listening to this album more than twice, sadly. Football? I was optimistic for the sing-along factor but singing along to this guy’s voice is like mimicking the tattooing techniques of a homemade tattooing video off YouTube. It hurts me to watch that crap, and I question why I am trying to attempt this feat. Along the same theme of the album, it’s missing more. I feel that it’s hitting a lot of right things, but it’s lacking… vocal production. It’s a killer that it might just only be that one thing that makes me not like this band, because I can usually feel past some fact like that and assume this band’s potential regardless… but it really is the one thing this band is missing.
People who would like this: anyone who loves dance rock and Morrissey. Although, that is definitely subjective because I love Morrissey as much as the next scenester and I can’t stand this album. But I feel that if you have a knack for getting over nasty chav-sounding accents then you probably will be able to enjoy this album. David Bazan once said about the band Criteria, “if Weezer went the right way after making Pinkerton, that’s what Criteria would be”. I believe something similar could be said about this band… but they aren’t anywhere near Criteria or Weezer right now. It’s definitely heart-felt and fun, but not quite enough to keep listeners of Morrissey, Criteria, Weezer, or general dance rock interested for very long. Others who would be interested… people who are into fun., Forgive Durden’s new stuff, and Say Anything’s latest release. I think these guys would be good touring buddies for any one of those bands.
As much as I personally don’t like the singer’s voice, the music is pushing the idea of this new musical-esque rock forward. Breaking down the structure, building it up more like short stories rather than formulaic intro-verse-chorus-breakdown-outro type songs. This album definitely has it’s moments of brilliance, and trying to displace the vocals for something more likable helps me see where this band can be a few albums from now. If Brand New could change a leaf from Your Favorite Weapon to Deja Entandu then there is always hope for a band like Los Campensinos! It’s just not today.
It’s hard to get it wrong at this point in time with the (legendary?) Spoon. The long-awaited follow up to their last album Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga doesn’t faulted. How could it? Spoon, a staple in the indie world now, has been doing their own thing for years and hasn’t changed much for anyone. Is that a problem though?
The album itself is everything I was hoping for. A care-free shot at making music to be proud of, Spoon spares no artistic creativity to output something very… Spoon-ish. From track to track, it’s hard to put a finger on what is coming up next as far as song structure goes. I wouldn’t call it progressive or post indie at all, but it has a journey-type feel that some post-rock and prog-rock gives me from time to time. That, again, shouldn’t be too surprising. Spoon has built their empire on weird-rock.
Fearless. And not that album by Taylor Swift. Is that what it was called? Anyway, Spoon doesn’t try to meet anyone’s standard, and with good reason. This album proves that doing something well inside a genre for SO long will get someone’s approval. Not like they need it. These guys all are big names in their own rights aside from this band.
If you haven’t heard Spoon before, this album could be a bit much. There is definitely some jarring you might endure before you enjoy the somewhat-lo-fi sounds of Spoon. This album shows no mercy as far as dipping you into their world. Why would it? These guys are legendary (right?)
People who would like this: people who hate Starbucks. Most likely, you have one of your friends in a group who REFUSES Starbucks and supporting their corporate, small-business killing ways. They probably have some sort of stereotypical music selection that is way anti-Starbucks. Spoon fits into that “anti-Starbucks” mood I feel. It’s definitely not the newest Paul McCartney or Norah Jones. Far from it. Other people who would like this album… people into groove-ish music like Black Kids or people into weird music like Sigur Ros. I’m sure there’s something to find from both parties.
Personally, I feel kind of lame for putting this review up so late. The album came out a week ago. Also, it’s Spoon. It’s not necessarily the most unfounded band I could have reviewed since my week-ish hiatus. But this album does fit the mold of music I review… so bite the bullet I suppose.
In this: Me complaining, Owen Pallett, The American Dollar, some Flirtphonic. Also, I threw a shout out to my homie Gigi. No need to review Michelina’s Rigatoni & Sauce with Broccoli and White Chicken, I got you covered.
Some errors: I say I’m “restarting” Flirtphonic’s song at the end… but I never started it to begin with?
This month hasn’t been packed with game-changing music, to say the least. Much of it has been predictable, rehashing of other music, or just not inventive enough. There aren’t many people who can step into a genre, saturated with good talent, and really change minds. Owen Pallett is definitely putting a foot forward and making his case. Heartland is maybe the most different singer-songwriter attempt I’ve heard in a long time, and definitely can turn some heads.
Mr. Pallett himself is most known for his studio work, being the composer of many string compositions for many indie artists (Arcade Fire, Beirut, and Grizzly Bear included). Knowing this, his album might be reminiscent of these indie staple-bands, and rightfully so. However, the album only slightly resembles the tone of his former employers. This new album is definitely more of something else. Maybe best to describe this as “indie classical music”. That might be over-the-top to say, as it really is an elaborate singer-songwriter attempt, but it’s surely something else to label it as.
Owen Pallett live is definitely toned down from his album. Impressive to see his almost-robotic time as he samples himself with a loop station of some sort, although it lacks the beauty the album strikes with. The video above is a great example. The song on the album definitely sounds similar to this attempt, but obviously lacks many things that the album includes. For one, the beautiful vocal harmonies he has. For two, more weirdness. The album is full of great vocals and weird scratching noises and such, and there isn’t a clone of him on tour either… so many of the nice, lovely things the album has doesn’t translate fully to the stage. Although, the idea that he does percussion, violin, and sings all at once is definitely a sight to see, and worth it if you’re into Owen Pallett.
The entire album is really nice to sit and listen to. That’s something to say, since many people don’t have the attention span or care to sit and listen to any given album. I feel as if I could sit and listen to this album on loop at any given time. It’s a great mix of noise, touched by care. Maybe the voice might be not-so-lovely for others, but I enjoy it much. It’s hard to dislike what this album offers. Also, this album takes a major stab at what is out there in terms of singer-songwriters. Owen Pallett is doing something completely out of the box in my opinion, and making it happen. There is much to learn from here. Although some songs are definitely familiar in tone (sadly, the almost-title track, “Oh Heartland, Up Yours!”, is familiar in arrangement) the album has plenty to offer aside from how a song is structured. This would be what I would consider a very very great attempt at experimenting within a genre.
Variation is a concern, even though the album itself almost flies through a spectrum of different sounds. Owen Pallett sits in a certain sound, erring on lo-fi and hopped up on complexity. The music produced is fantastic, but the amount of fantastic music produced could be pressing on people who aren’t completely sold on the sound. Be prepared to listen to some similar sounds up until the song “Lewis Takes Off His Shirt”. From then on out, it gets pretty fun. Up until then it’s pretty serious, bro.
This album is definitely a contender. I can’t say much else about it, as far as praises go. I am very interested in the next Owen Pallett adventure. I would recommend this album to everyone. Oh yeah, that reminds me of a part of my reviews I totally forgot about!!
People who would like this album: awkward music listeners. If your iPod has “interesting” artists listed next to each other, even though it’s alphabetical and you have no control over that (e.g. Death Cab for Cutie + Disney Soundtracks), this might be the perfect album to introduce to your album flow. Plus, it fits in pretty well if your “O” list is Onalaska!, onelinedrawing, and Owen Pallett. Others who would like this: people into Death Cab, Onalaska!, and onelinedrawing. Actually, Jonah Matranga (ex-onelinedrawing) is pretty similar is concept to Owen Pallett, as far as songwriting goes. They both have interesting arrangements but aren’t afraid to kick it back down to an almost-pop level if they feel it. Both mutually enjoyable. Collaboration please?
Is the intro too much? Too big? If you got ORIGINAL music, preferably that you personally own the content rights to, and want to let me use it for the show then shoot me an email at nick at 402 productions dot com.
Some errors: I think I call You Me at Six’s song “Liquid Confidence” incorrectly “Liquid Courage”. Although it would take much liquid courage for me to be confident in saying You Me at Six’s newest album is a good album. And that would be false confidence.
In this episode: Me complaining about Bat for Lashes, review for Baggy Time, review for Matthew Price, review for You Me at Six, some similes for bad music, and some more Baggy Time.
I thought this music died. But then I realized that where good music exists, there has to be bad music to contrast. And seemingly this album is doing it from first to last track.
Please entertain yourself with this YouTube video of them. Embedding was disabled and I couldn’t be bothered with looking for one that could be embedded. As YouTube user oliversulley has said, “it looks like theyve just tried to fill this songs with as many clichés and random sayings as they could”. You betcha.
You Me at Six, also known as youmeatsix, youme@six or ym@6, has popped up here and there on the “related music” swash with the likes of The Academy Is…, Taking Back Sunday, and a slew of then-scene bands. This “then-scene” was the scene that everyone who is into Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear used to be in. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. This is now the scene people turn their back on and shun liking, only to be made fun of when people scroll through their iPods and iTunes playlists when music like this is even visible. As far as what this music is all about now: played out. Regardless of what is “in” now, this kind of music isn’t original anymore. Nor is it nice to really listen to when you’re just sitting back and trying to write a review (…hm).
The album itself is nothing less than predictable. Lyrics written for the primary purpose to be chanted along with, cheese-filled choruses, and that randomly decent bassist who takes this music way too seriously when he could legitimately be in some amazing jazz fusion band (what?). The album is obviously well produced, but hard to say if it was over produced since the band itself has sold itself to a certain market since their 2008 release of Take Off Your Colours. The best way to describe this music would be… that music that ends up being the background music on MTV shows. I bet you $100 that one of their songs were featured on The Hills or some crap like that.
There is some silver lining I suppose. I bet if you had a van filled of drunk people who were into pop punk in high school, questions like “hey, who is this?” or “what the hell is this? New Found Glory?” oh, on the contrary ex-scenesters, don’t offend NFG by comparing them to this. I guess that wasn’t really a pro, was it? To have, yet again, a stereotypical cop out for a stereotypically bad band, the bassist is good. Isn’t that like… the cop-out of the century?
Many. It’s a rehashing of past songs and albums! What isn’t wrong with that? I honestly think they stole the “Don’t Stop Believin’” cover from Fox’s show Glee during the back up vocals for their song “Liquid Confidence”. Listen to the podcast to hear what I’m talking about. As far as specific bad things about this album: none when listening to this from a production stand point. Everything is tip-top. Even the musicians are decent. But as far as song writing and lyrics go, it’s trash. I could write lyrics that have the same emotive quality as the lyrics Josh Franceschi have composed for this sophomore stunner. And boy, did it stun.
With little originality, and precedent albums that are tons of times better than this showcase of songs, it’s hard to even justify this as a good album. If I lived in Weybridge, Surrey in England and this was the local band that got big and I was into one of their ex-girlfriends, I might be a little more lenient with this review. Sadly (much like this album), I’m disappointed that music like this is still thought of. I guess thinking of other played out music (grunge, nu-metal, 80s metal, hyphy), people still write and play these kind of genres as if they never went the way of disco. But like disco, this will soon be that music people make fun of you for if you are more than into it for more than novelty purposes. And like all other novelty albums than come my way…
Post-rock isn’t necessarily my business, to say the least. American Dollar is nothing short of post-rock. And like their mid-nineties brethren, they aren’t really striking any new chords that we haven’t heard. But, unlike the shortcomings of certain pop-punk revivalists, American Dollar and their newest album Atlas is in the right place at the right time, even though we have heard this all before.
In the past year, post-rock and prog-rock has been on a rise, varying between a more indie-rock appeal like Russian Circles, or holding true to their past ambient ways like Massive Attack. Sigur Ros is always relevant to this post/prog-rock scene like how Arcade Fire is relevant to the indie scene. Both of those bands have something in common: they are both still revered in music relevancy when it comes to music in recent time. However, much like how blink-182 and New Found Glory had many copy cats and not many breakthrough artists in the midst, Sigur Ros and Arcade Fire followers are having a tough time weathering the confusing storm of relevancy.
American Dollar’s Atlas is definitely swimming upstream hard. The album itself is very consistent in the sound, introducing a strong, contrasting mix of live instrumentals against an electronica-type back track. Similar to Massive Attack in ways, the album doesn’t sway from their sound into something else using overly-jarring guitars or hardcore breakdowns. However, much more like Russian Circles’ attempts, American Dollar is trying to develop their sound in the indie music scene rather than the already-existing, and quickly about-to-die, art-rock scene. Art-rock itself has been taken over lately by noise-rock bands… view the video below if you dare.
With music that resembles this, how could bands like American Dollar and Russian Circles thrive? Unfortunately, the bad-music scene is doing more than enough to cover up potentially tons of great new material… they are just sunk into a scene that is rendered irrelevant.
So, now that I’ve done my best in justifying this album’s shortcomings, here’s the album’s review:
Consistency and simplicity. Although it wouldn’t be proper to say this music is “simple”, as it is very complex, the idea seems to be simple: instrumental post-rock, playing the instruments we know how to play. Simple formula sometimes over looked by many post-rock bands. They aren’t doing too much, and the lot that they are doing is very full and rich. It’s always a pro when an album is flawless in production, as is this one. And it’s also always a pro when there hasn’t been too many bands like American Dollar trying to maximize their status in the indie music scene. So, for trying something new in a scene that doesn’t really include this music natively yet, it’s a pro.
It’s hard to say, but the con to this album is the same con Matthew Price ran into this year. The only advantage to this is that this album is pressing forward in a scene that hasn’t formed a strong progressive/post-rock identity yet. As far as Matt Price is concerned, his target scene definitely has formed an identity for the type of music he is playing. Since the newly forming identity in the indie scene is based on only a few bands, it’s not as much of a con as initially thought of.
In the end, however, it’s hard to say this band is doing something new when bands in the mid and late 90s have done much of what they have done already. Since the band is pushing ahead in a new scene, they do get a plus point. Although, with the precedent of others who are relatively well known (see God Speed You! Black Emperor, et al), it’s tough to say this is competitive for an album of the year nomination. Maybe at the midterms in June, if this is still an album I turn to, my mind might change. Until then:
Relay
P.S. to ease the ears from what you heard in that YouTube video above, here is some American Dollar. First video is their “single” from their album Atlas and the second is a live video. Enjoy!
I’m a big sucker for the singer-songwriter, trying to write those home-hitting songs that are big on meaning and not-so-high on the meaningless. Take Matthew Price for example. There are no pseudo-love stories about fictional people and guest vocals from other popular artists. Also, there are no far-reaching stories about big issue things like the war or some worldly disaster. Matthew Price is best described by his album title, Stranded. Salem, Oregon’s own Price speaks mostly about himself in this album, in situations and stories that would be forefront to a bonfire on a beach or a back yard patio party. But does it match up with other singer-songwriters out there?
The big thing that is hard to overlook is the saturation of this particular scene. Much like most genres that come in and out throughout the years, the singer-songwriter scene has been flourishing for a while. But with the recent success of people like Jason Mraz and Jack Johnson, the beach-time feel good hits are slowly being converted from Matthew Price-type meaningful songs into pre-written pop machine-type music. Beasts in different colors right? Separating the more meaningful singer-songwriters from the singer-not-so-songwriters is a hard task when the music is very similar, but proves easier when it seems that the artist is definitely one of the only people working for themselves. Matthew Price isn’t signed and probably books his own shows. His tours, when he has the time off to do them, are probably consisting of himself and his car and enough cash to get to the next town. Matthew Price’s album isn’t about turning over the big bucks quick. Stranded is an album about listening to a real story from a real person, and it definitely shows.
The album itself tackles one “big city” issue, and that’s the questioning song of “One Hit Wonder”. He talks almost freely about how many people, just like him, write all this music and never get seen or heard. Of course, there is a whole other side to that industry that I could talk about for days, but that’s for another article. “One Hit Wonder” is a song more about him, yet again, and how he isn’t like these other superstar-songwriters. And that furthers the idea of his entire album, Stranded. It’s Matthew Price, a guitar, and (I guess) a bicycle against all these other people who are seemingly getting their shout in a crowd out before the crowd gets broken up. Is this album just another shout in the crowd though?
Truth. Production and quality obviously was meticulous, with much kudos to Rob Stroup for doing a stellar job mixing and mastering up and down and all around this album. Aside from the production quality being a complete 10-out-of-10, this album is way straightforward. Metaphors, the handful of them, are short with a lot of real-stuff lyrics to paint a picture mentally. Practically storytelling with a soundtrack, Price spares no expense when expressing his tales. This is definitely a breath of fresh air when music lately has been filled with similes and metaphors.
This is his first album, which he calls an EP release, so there is much more to hear from him definitely… but although the album itself is great musically and lyrically, what separates him from the rest? This is definitely some of the most real stuff I’ve heard sung in a while, but the beauty in this album really is buried under that shadow cast by Jack Johnson and Jason Mraz. Somewhere down the line, Matthew Price will either add something to his get-up that does create enough fissure to maybe break through to that next tier, but between now and that time I fear that Matthew Price, amongst his honest lyrics about his own life, might feel that he’s okay with the music that matches his stories. Matthew Price has the lyrics and a good set of vocal cords to belt a good tune, it’s just the lack of a more fascinating musical arrangement that could potentially be holding him back from his own “One Hit Wonder” fantasy.
In the end, I really can’t take away from the musicianship of this album. Although Matthew Price is stranded like many of the up and coming singer-songwriters, at least he’s stranded with good musicians around him. Some albums this year aren’t so lucky to be stranded with the people they have been stranded with (see Baggy Time). Also, for a good vent and nice replacement for your guilty singer-popwriters pleasures, Matthew Price is a great place to start. Plus, it’s really nice to hear a great production from a smaller studio. So, for a small town studio and a small town storyteller, this album gets a good rating from me. Can’t wait for the next installment.
Hello 2010. This is the biggest surprise of the new decade. This is the album of the new decade. This is the best album of the foreverade. Why? WHY?! I’ll tell you why.
First off, this album begins exactly how most albums I would turn off immediately begin: a horrible mic and the poorest of mixing and mastering (if you could even say there was any editing or mixing) mixed with maybe the worst music in the world. If you know me at all, which almost all of you do, my own personal attempts at this kind of music pale in almost all comparisons. All. This girl who has warped my mind aurally. And although this album won’t see the light of an album of the year award from me, it will definitely occupy it’s own “wtf” award.
Some songs of note: Manager. About a crappy manager. Not interested in that? Maybe you’re interested in the dance jam called “Don’t Dance Yet”. Not hardcore enough for you? “I’m Your Motha” is the most gangster of songs I’ve ever heard. It sucks to be your mother are the lyrics to the sing-along outro for that one. And if you don’t think you’re into any of those topics at all, there are another THIRTY songs ranging from the obvious sex-prone and sex-oriented to songs about outer space. I’ve listened to this album twice so far, which bring my total up to sixty songs of Baggy Time recorded in time forever, and there is only one statement to state for this album: this is the best album of all time.
The entire album. If you aren’t already listening to this album, via illegal or (some how) legal means, what are you doing with the rest of your life?
I need a .flac version of this. It’s necessary that I rip this album in FLAC quality. It’s that good.
Now, for those of you who have obtained this album, I know you agree with this entire review already. How could there be a bad thing to say about the greatest album of all time? No one can compete with this album. No one. Not Radiohead. Not Wesley Willis. Not even Family Force 5. This album is a three-headed beast of Radiohead, Wesley Willis, and Family Force 5, with the body of Brooklyn and the feet of pilgrims. Why pilgrims? Because this album is pioneering a new future. To a new decade, audiophiles.
