31st Oct2010

Weekly Digs #5 (10/31/10)

by Adam Finley

As you may have noticed, the end of October is a busy time for the respective members of the 402 crew. You’ve seen the result this week– sparse reviews, pictures of a dirty dog, and a late installment of the Weekly Digs.

Adam’s Picks:

Various Artists – Halloween Stomp: Jazz & Big Band Music For A Haunted House Party

A great little collection of halloweeny music featuring spooky-themed swing and jazz tunes from well-known and obscure big band acts. Not an album I could put on any other time of the year, but this is perfect putting-together-your-costume music.

Bad Veins – Outliers EP

A great introduction to the Canadian duo that I wrote about in a live review. A proper treatment of Outliers may be coming soon.

Deftones – Diamond Eyes

It’s great to see a band you loved 10 years ago and forgot about in the meantime come out with an enjoyable album. The screamy rockers have added nothing new to their repetoire, but they’ve held up better than most of their contemporaries and Diamond Eyes explains why.

Michelle’s Picks:

Ingrid Michaelson – Be OK

Mae – Destination Beautiful

Ours – Distorted Lullabies

That’s it for this week. Enjoy your Halloween, interwebs, and all hail the Hypnotoad!
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28th Oct2010

402 Meetup in NYC?!

by nickwan

Hi everyone. A slow week from all of us for whatever reasons. Maybe we’re all trying to figure out our costumes or something. Anyway, we have a potential meet-up we can do in NYC if anyone wants to go get crazy. Probably around December 11 – 15… one of those days. Or multiple days. I don’t know. Anyone interested?

Category : Interviews/Misc., Music
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26th Oct2010

Album Reviews: The War on Drugs – Future Weather

by nickwan

It’s a slow week here at 402. A few of the writers (half of them, actually) are taking mental breaks right now. The other two are slammed with other work right now. Luckily, one of the perks to other work for me is the ability to listen to new albums on the fly. Such as Future Weather, the new EP from The War on Drugs.

They have been around the east coast for quite some time now, with a decent fan base enough to pack out the Mercury Lounge on December 8th. Their Philly headquarters has been homestead since about 2005, releasing a handful of EPs under self-promotion. They’ve definitely made some headway this year with a Daytrotter feature and an almost constant touring schedule. Does the hard work match the album?

Listen along

The Pros

Pretty easy to get lost in this album. Simple direction and a strong, galvanized instrumental base to really make this album one of the most consistent releases of the past month. This EP release from them seems more complete than some LPs I’ve heard this year. There are a few contenders for floor-movers if you catch a show from these guys, however due to the indie culture… it might just be a lot more arm-crossers drinking PBR.

The Cons

As much as this album is completely fun, it’s almost carefree. At the end of it, it seems as if I’ve really gone no where. The songs sing together, but the EP itself is static, like I’ve just heard the same song six times (two of the songs are filler instrumental songs). Overall, not impressive.

The Verdict

Fun, but nothing earth-shattering. If you have been a fan of The War on Drugs then this album will be a decent treat, since they haven’t released an album in two years. If you’re a new listener and not a die-hard lover of that New Jersey sound (a la Gaslight Anthem or Titus Andronicus) then you might be left out wondering what this is all about. I’m really not moved by this at all, and I definitely wouldn’t consider myself a die-hard lover of level 11 reverb or Pseudo Springsteen, so this album has found it’s way to the meh-bin

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23rd Oct2010

Weekly Digs #4 (10/23/10)

by Adam Finley

This is the single greatest image ever created by mankind. Don’t try to deny, and don’t try to hate.

Installment #4 of the Weekly Digs finds Halloween fast approaching and yet another 402 writer throwing their hat into the ring with some recommendations. We’ll start with our own Adam Haynes; here is what your 402 writers have been listening to this week.

Adam H.’s Picks:

Bad Books – s/t

Kevin Devine – Brother’s Blood

Bayside – Walking Wounded


Nick’s Picks:

Gigi D’Agostino – I’ll Fly With You

I heard this song on the radio driving back to my hometown a few weeks ago. Reminded me of middle school. Then, when I was working some weird party, the DJ was mixing this down. It doesn’t have that umpff that I would have thought it would have, like it did back in middle school, but it does have that nostalgic ring to it.

Sufjan Stevens – The Age of Adz

Hyped up? Yep. Does it match the hype? Yep.

Zach Hill – Face Tat

I’ll leave Nate to describe this one. It’s all over the place (in a good way)

Adam F.’s Picks:

The Bird And The Bee – Interpreting The Master, Vol. 1: A Tribute To Daryl Hall & John Oates

How good these covers are speaks to how good a songwriting duo Hall & Oates actually was, and that they sound at home alongside modern indie tracks speaks to how influential Hall & Oates actually is. Good luck getting this entire album out of your head.

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin – Let It Sway

A solid collection of songs from the awesomely-named Missouri indie-poppers, including a very mixtapeable title track.

B.o.B – B.o.B. Presents: The Adventures Of Bobby Ray

Genre-bending backpack-swag rap featuring a grab bag of guests (Eminem, Rivers Cuomo, and Paramore’s Hayley Williams to name a few), I’ve probably given this album more time and attention than it deserves, but I can’t bring myself to regret it.

That’s it for this week, folks! Check back soon for more recommendations and don’t forget to leave a comment with a list of your own favorite albums of late.

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22nd Oct2010

Album Reviews: Max Bemis & The Painful Splits – S/T

by nickwan

Max Bemis, front man for Say Anything and a contributor on many other projects, has decided to sell a 10-song album that will be available only at Say Anything shows. Each is personally signed by Mr. Bemis himself. Seeing the progression from Say Anything’s infant years with Baseball to their last self-titled release, it is somewhat of a guess as to what side of Max Bemis we would get with this album.

Listen Along

The Pros

If you ever fell in love with Say Anything songs like “I Want to Know Your Plans” or “By Tonight” then you’re in for a real treat. The lap-top microphone recorded songs are almost a real patronage to those sing-along anthems someone might have fallen in love with before. This album, may it be working b-sides or working demos (or maybe even just completed songs), are really refreshing. I would say to those who may have lost touch with Say Anything over the years… this album will bring you back.

The Cons

If you’re into quality, this isn’t really the best bet for you. At times, the garbled mess of overdriven vocals filtered with amateur post-production stylings can turn those polished FLAC quality listening ears into something more along the lines of a mono-64kbps mp3. That is to say, this this sounds rough. To it’s honor, the roughness gives it that kick-back DIY Say Anything feel, a la Baseball and other garage-sounding demos Bemis and the gang have released over the years. Needless to say, this wouldn’t be my #1 recommendation for new Max Bemis et al listeners.

The Verdict

No, it’s not RCA-money production. However, that’s why it’s a real treat for the long-time fans. Selling this baby at only shows was a really good move, as this is truly for the fan. I wouldn’t really recommend this to anyone who hasn’t heard Bemis before, as this is really rough and not what you should expect from future Bemis releases. So, for you random experimental acoustic people who somehow randomly picked this album up, sorry… the trashcan recording quality isn’t a norm for this guy.

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21st Oct2010

Frightened Rabbit @ Showbox At The Market – 10/7/10

by Adam Finley

About four songs into Frightened Rabbit’s recent set at Seattle’s Showbox At The Market, I took out my handy-dandy notebook, opened to a blank page, and drew a giant triangle standing on one point. This image conveyed the vibe of the show to me perfectly, of a band that has become top-heavy with success and reached a point where they may be too big for their own good. We’ll get back to this later.

Before FR took the stage we had Bad Veins, a Canadian duo seemingly composed of a Dana Carvey character and a Brandon Flowers doppelganger. Those are not necessarily insults; Sebastien Schultz was phenomenal, drumming with enthusiasm and drama, but everything from his haircut to his painfully wide ever-present smile makes him look like a lost mid-90s SNL sketch called “The Exuberant Drummer”. Singer Ben Davis takes his dramatic lyrical and soaring vocal cues from the Killers frontman, alternating between Flowers’ delivery and a lower range that sounds suspiciously like Franz Ferdinand. On record, Bad Veins have strong arrangements but the impression that I got live was of a band lacking a unique songwriting style to apply those arrangements to.

Next up was Plants And Animals, a band whom I enjoy immensely on record. The kicker is that the P&A you know and love from Parc Avenue and La La Land is not what you get live. On record, the Canadian trio play with subtlety, lacing interesting sounds and textures into their compositions. Live, the strings and keyboards and infectious melodies are gone, replaced by a frenetic guitar-bass-drums combo which was run through a kelp bed of distortion to the point where if I didn’t know who the band was and you said “Plants And Animals” I would have called you a fucking liar.

Finally, Frightened Rabbit took the stage and I was excited to see a band that I’ve seen several times before in an entirely new context: a big one. Showbox At The Market is a sizable venue for bands with burgeoning mass-market appeal who easily sell out Neumos or The Crocodile. But the first words out of lead Rabbit Scott Hutchison’s mouth were: “We played here about 3 years ago opening for a band called Pinback and this room felt fucking huge. It still feels pretty big.” We laughed, but that statement would set the tone for the entire set.

FR’s power, both live and on record, stems from their ability to make individual connections. In a club of 500 devoted fans, the vibe is intense– everyone sings along and the floor is a sweaty mess of cathartic hipster-jumping and fist-pumping. But at the Showbox, that dynamic sadly lacked and FR struggled to build momentum. Put simply, they couldn’t fill that fucking huge room. Opener ‘Things’ fell flat and despite following it with fan favorite ‘The Modern Leper’, just one person out of perhaps 1,200 attempted the jumpy-pumpy thing.

Scott seemed especially nervous throughout, prattling on between songs about liquor laws, girls, KEXP, and booking fees. At one point he promised to play some “really old songs” for the fans who have been around a long time, but the bulk of the set was comprised of established crowd-pleasers from 2008′s The Midnight Organ Fight and FR only dipped into their pre-international audience catalogue once for the brief ‘Be Less Rude’.

For someone as emotionally connected to Frightened Rabbit’s songs as I am, there is no such thing as a bad FR show. But this is as close as I’ve ever come. It felt like pandering, as though the band, in the face of playing on a much larger stage, collapsed in on themselves and went for the safest set possible, content that if they played non-stop fan favorites they could fill that impossibly large space, and that when they said “old songs” no one would remember Sing The Greys.

Despite this, there were a few high points; I was blown away by the stripped-down arrangement of ‘Good Arms vs. Bad Arms’, as well as by false set-ender ‘Keep Yourself Warm’, which I’ve never seen played with such intensity. And closing with ‘The Loneliness’, after half the crowd had already left, was a brilliant move. For a minute or two, with the few hundred remaining fans clapping in time and singing the back-up vocals while Scott smiled and sweated on stage, the room seemed much smaller and it actually felt like a Frightened Rabbit show. And for that minute or two, it felt great.

Set List:

1. Things
2. The Modern Leper
3. Nothing Like You
4. The Twist
5. I Feel Better
6. Fast Blood
7. Old Old Fashioned
8. Swim Until You Can’t See Land
9. The Wrestle
10. Good Arms vs. Bad Arms
11. Head Rolls Off
12. My Backwards Walk
13. Be Less Rude
14. Yes I Would
15. Living In Colour
16. Keep Yourself Warm
17. Poke
18. The Loneliness

Category : Record Reviews
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20th Oct2010

Album Reviews: Sufjan Stevens – The Age of Adz

by nate

October 12. Sid Vicious is arrested for murder, John Dillenger escapes from jail, Snoop Dogg debuts Drop It Like It’s Hot and Sufjan Stevens releases The Age of Adz. It’s a big deal. Hailing from the 187 (Detroit), Sufjan Stevens is an artist all his own. Ranging anywhere from electronica to folk, labels just don’t do him justice. With the release of The Age of Adz, Sufjan unveils his first song-based LP in 5 years, and it’s a doozy. Spanning a little over an hour in 11 tracks and heavily inundated with electronic and orchestral chaos, this LP has a little something for everyone.

While very appealing from the first listen, this album truly cashes on the subtle complexities offered by each song. It is an album that needs to be listened to multiple times to grasp every detail. While the heavy amount of noise can seem overwhelming at times, everything in this LP sounds meticulously planned down to the most minor detail. To better understand, here’s a clip of Sufjan performing the title track, The Age of Adz.

Where to start. This album throughly impresses from start to finish. From a production standpoint, it is brilliant. So much work went into each track, yet every subtle nuance shines through. It’s like every color paint in the musical pallet was mixed, but instead coming out as a dull shade of brown, each and every individual color vividly shined through. In addition, the album is as lyrically strong as it is musically. Sufjan’s soft voice lends itself perfectly to the high octane electronic sound surrounding it. This album will blow minds.

Not much to say here. The heavy dose of electronic noise can be a bit overwhelming at times. The track lengths (most of which are between 5-8 minutes, one 25 minutes) may frighten some listeners away. Additionally, it can be mentioned that some Sufjan Stevens fans may not like the new direction taken with this album, but that’s basically true of any Sufjan Stevens album.

The Age of Adz is a homerun. Pure musical genius from start to finish. If you don’t have an hour to give this album a listen, make time. It will be well worth it. The more listens it gets, the more I fall in love. This album stunned me so much, that it will be receiving my bid for the 402 productions Album of the Year.

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20th Oct2010

10 Albums to Study to

by nickwan

Maybe the easiest assumption about our staff is that we are all at universities still. Not that being out of school would change much of anything for us, but there are a few stressors, like exams, that are easily musically related. And if you’re like me, you are the kid who asks the professor if iPods are allowed during tests. Most of the time I’ll get “Uh… no.” but some times I get lucky. Here are ten albums to throw on while studying for your midterms!

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Vince Guaraldi Trio – A Boy Named Charlie Brown (pictured above)
Jazz. No real surprises here. A friend of mine said this album reminded her of Christmas, so maybe this album is more related to the idea that after this semester I’m going on my Winter break. That is, if I don’t drop out beforehand…

The New Amsterdams – Killed or Cured
Really easy to get into this album if I need a break from all that cramming. Really easy to let it sit in the background while working on essay outlines. The entire two-disc set is really low-key and full. No harsh stops or insanely hooky lyrics and/or beats; really, nothing that would catch my attention abruptly (and that’s a really good thing). Maybe one of the more under-appreciated New Ams albums, as well.

Kevin Devine – Brother’s Blood
This might be Kevin Devine’s most flowing album. Each song seems to be well integrated into that whole album feel. I think that’s one of the best keys to a good studying album, finding a good album that flows throughout songs. This isn’t my all-time favorite Devine album, as Make the Clocks Move takes that place, but it’s definitely one of my favorite albums in the scheme of things.

Mycomplex – If We Keep Moving
I don’t know why, either. This is one of the most musically inspiring albums for me but in most eyes… shouldn’t really be considered “study music”. It’s a mash-guitar album with fast punkish rhythms and intricate guitar work. If I had a dream concert, this would be one of the bands I’d bring on for sure. …….still trying to find a reason why others should study to this, but maybe there is none.

Ardecore - S/T
Italian acoustic rockish-folkish-punkish from Zu and Geoff Farina. Obviously, if you can’t understand it then it’s kind of hard to be focused on what they’re saying — which makes this album a great contender for studying sessions all around (unless it’s a study session on learning Italian… anyway). Mostly calm and nothing too flashy (or, rather, too rock or punk).

Red Sparowes – The Fear is Excruciating, But Therein Lies the Answer
Hard to argue post-rock when trying to conquer your own apocalyptic struggles. Maybe the best word to describe how I feel when this comes on is “determined”.

Colour Revolt – Plunder, Beg, and Curse
It seems like these guys are going to be one of those bands everyone seems to look over but can never fully appreciate. I don’t know why, either. These guys are really good. Loved this album when it came out and became an exam anthem for me for a year. Hasn’t changed since. Should probably review their latest album, The Cradle, which came out this year…

Sigur Ros – Takk
I mean, it’s really hard not to think of Sigur Ros as the best studying music. An impossible language to understand (barely sensible if you speak Icelandic), long whimsical music that drones into other songs, and easy to jump in and out of when you’re braining away. The only problem is when you somehow learn the lyrics and find yourself singing very botched Hopelandic. Maybe not the best album to sing along to in a study group, as your group mates might be questioning the words you were just singing… I mean, are you really going to say “oh, I’m singing the lyrics of a made up language that I don’t actually understand”??

Pedro the Lion – Control
Whenever there is a time to take a theme of an album and completely take it in the wrong context, it would be this album and the context would be “don’t cheat”. And that I won’t. This album has a few catchy riffs and hooky choruses, but keeps within an easy thinking rhythm.

Russian Circles – Geneva
Along the same lines of Red Sparowes, except a little more aggressive… maybe the word that comes to mind would be “aggravated”. This album doesn’t aggravate me, but I feel that it’s theme-music to some sort of demon challenging me to a contest of wit.

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There you have it. If there were any albums I missed, feel free to comment below. Until next time.

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20th Oct2010

TuneBreaker Music Awards!

by nickwan


I can’t really go on assuming we have a completely random base of regular readers — we most likely don’t. I’m really assuming a good chunk of you are either in bands or know of amazing unsigned bands who deserve some larger praise. With that being said, TuneBreaker Music Awards seems to be a very logical step in trying to promote yourself (or your friends).

At 402, we try to make the attempt to feature as many unsigned or unknown bands and artists we can get our hands on. TuneBreaker is building themselves up the same way.

These guys over at TuneBreaker are trying to get those artists without the PR or management personnel who can barely afford to tour out of their own area in the open. The way they want to do it is with the most transparent voting model possible. Supposedly it is so transparent that people won’t believe it’s for real. They have yet to explain this, but in time they said they will.

The catch this year is that this is only available to bands and artists from the UK and there are a limited number of entires, so sorry folks from the US who want to jump in on this. Maybe next year?

Honestly, even if you aren’t able to enter this year, try checking it out. It’s a pretty easy way to start networking with other unsigned artists. And who knows, maybe you can meet some decent UK fellows and get some shows over in the UK.

Check it all out here at http://www.tunebreaker.com

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19th Oct2010

Album Reviews: Maximum Balloon – S/T

by nickwan

In all honesty, we really shouldn’t be showing this album off… but somehow, Maximum Balloon has flown not only under most radars, but there is barely any headway for this album as far as hype is concerned. This is somewhat of a shocker since David Sitek, aka Maximum Balloon, is also one of the founders of TV on the Radio. As cultish as TV on the Radio is, they made a favorable splash into mainstream as their album topped out at #12 on the Billboards, as well as commercial radio and also… uh… actual commercials.

In some ways, it seems apparent that Mr. Sitek wants to keep things low-key, saying that the crew he would assemble as the live version of Maximum Balloon and he has not yet turned this project into a studio adventure. And although promotion isn’t a huge priority on Mr. Sitek’s list of things to do, you would at least assume some hype would surround the mysterious workings of NME’s supposed #1 Future 50 artists who will pave the way for new music. And yet…

The strangest part about the antihype Maximum Balloon is whether or not the music is a spladow of David Sitek’s personal B-Sides or if this truly is a project ready to burst and bloom. Listen to “Absence of Light” below!

A general hodge-podge of great single tracks. It’s hard to say this album is a complete package, but each song brings something very unique on it’s own to the proverbial table. At times, the descent into practically-dance-pop seems so accurate, it’s hard to imagine David Sitek has yet to produce a star in the vein of Rhianna yet. At other times, the hodge-podge of artists and different styles makes this album seem more of the modern day Talking Heads. Except instead of random 80s rock it’s deep hip-hop roots. And it’s quite good.

It would not surprise me if this album, or this project entirely, never saw another production again. This doesn’t have the same cult appeal that other cult-projects (i.e. The Postal Service) had. It’s not the hype either, it’s the content. This album is more of a portfolio of what David Sitek can do rather than a set of songs David Sitek has been dwelling over for years. I would go on to believe these are songs that he had tried to pass across a writing table and were either not what they were going for not what Mr. Sitek wanted for the them in the end. Who is “they”? That’s the past twenty-two albums and the artists behind those albums David Sitek has produced in the past eight years. You try keeping eight years worth of half-written songs and scribbles tucked away somewhere. See what happens.

I have serious doubts about the future works from Maximum Balloon after this album, but it’s not to say this album has not contributed. Whether it’s a showy portfolio or a collection of saved songs over the years or something completely different, if TV on the Radio explodes again in the coming years then this album will be a cult-classic. Until a major event occurs for Maximum Balloon and/or TV on the Radio, this album will see the back burner for a long while… and something tells me David Sitek is completely fine with that.

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