A music blog dedicated to my ever-expanding tastes. A musical journey with endless pitstops along the way. Bringing you the best of what I see and hear.
Remember OK Go? The Los Angeles based Chicago four-piece known mostly for their treadmill choreography in the "Here It Goes Again" video released their third album Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky this January.
The album fuses the jangly pop rock they're best known for with elements of dance pop, electronica, and even folksy acoustics("Last Leaf"). Tracks "I Want You So Bad I Can't Breathe" and "End Love" even contain echoes of disco. The album marks a change in direction for the band towards a more experimental/psychedelic vibe but still manages to contain vestiges of the band's previous sound. Fans might be a bit surprised at first but should find the album an overall good listening experience that strangely manages to fit a variety of genre influences into a cohesive work of art.
The band has decided to part ways with major label EMI and create their own operation by the name of Paracadute. As a result, the new label will be re-releasing Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky this upcoming April. Enjoy this video for album track and projected third single "This Too Shall Pass" here:
Chicago-based indie rock group Maps & Atlases announced earlier this year plans to record a full-length album. The band actually spent the better part of 2009 recording new material for the album in addition to touring. Though this will be the band's debut album the band has been together since 2004 releasing their Tree Swallows Houses and the You and Me and the Mountain EPs through Sargent House.
Now the band recently announced that they have signed to the Seattle indie record label, Barsuk Records. The album is expected to be released sometime this summer.
New Jersey Ska/Punk troubadours Streetlight Manifesto are back with their new album 99 Songs of the Revolution: Volume I. The first in a series of eight releases from the band, and other friends of the band who signed on to the project.
The album is a cover album featuring ska arrangements of works by artists from a variety of different genres such as folkies Mason Jennings and Paul Simon (of Simon & Garfunkel fame), electronic-inspired The Postal Service and Radiohead; even fellow punk rockers NOFX and The Dead Milkmen. The band also covers the song "They Provide The Paint for The Picture-Perfect Masterpiece That You Will Paint On The Insides of Your Eyelids" which was written by Streetlight's own Tomas Kalnoky for side project The Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution. The album is interesting in that it contains what I never thought I'd hear on a Streetlight Manifesto album: acoustic guitar. In addition to acoustic guitar featured on tracks like "Linoleum" and "They Provide the Paint...", the album also contains other cool effects like a trumpet fanfare intro on "Such Great Heights", and ukelele in "Hell".
The album's conception and release has been argued by fans but regardless of their concerns, the album manages to deliver awesome music in the band's traditional style despite consisting of all covers. If you want the album, support the band by buying it at their live shows or ordering it from the band's merch website here: http://www.theriscstore.com/streetlightmanifesto.aspx
Mumford & Sons is a folk rock quartet from London though listening to their debut album Sigh No More you probably couldn't tell. Released in October of 2009 in the UK and February of this year in the US, Sigh No More features wonderfully crafted folk songs that seem to come right out of Appalachia. Employing instruments like mandolin, dobro, banjo, double bass, and violin, the album reminds listeners of straight-up, albeit higher-quality produced folk music straight from the American heartland. Sigh No More moves at an almost break-neck pace reminescient of punk music but in a way that demonstrates the virtuousity of the band while highlighting the songwriting prowess of band leader Marcus Mumford. Though the majority of the songs as fast paced, the average track length is about 4 minutes. The inclusion of balladic tracks like "The Cave", "Timshel", and "Awake My Soul" as well as adding organ, brass, strings, and keyboard provide a nice contrast and keep the album from appearing too predictable and repetitive.
Sigh No More is high energy, well-written folk rock containing a multitude of tracks that could be released as singles. A wonderful debut album released by an amazingly talent band that has a place in the collection of anyone who loves good music, folk fan or not. Enjoy the band's third single "The Cave":
Earlier this week I mentioned the the release of First Aid Kit's debut album The Big Black and the Blue.
The album starter "In the Morning" sets the tone of the album demonstrating what the sisters are best know for: their stunning vocal harmonies. Short and somber, it features the sisters largely unaccompanied for the majority before the entrance ominous beat-keeping drum beat and repetitive twangy guitar riff that instead of distracting only augments the girls' intensity. The lead track also sets up a reoccuring water motif opening with the sisters captivating vocals narrating a trek across the wilds to dispose of a wedding ring into the sea ultimately resulting in a grim watery death. Following is "Hard Believer", detailing a religious arguement in an almost surprisingly upbeat manner especially considering lyrics like "Love is tough, time is rough on me" before reaching a triumphant climax with the duo belting: "And it's one life, and this life, and it's beautiful". "Sailor Song" begins with solo vocals with a gently strumming autoharp that helps to accent the words of the songstress/narrator before the song picks up into a hoedown-like energy and the song's plot slowly unravels. Initially the intro hints at a dark fate with the foreshadowing: "I was out on the porch, and now I'm ready for my doom". This song are so important the lyrics are to understanding the song's content because the overall cheerful, happy tone that belies the song's actual nature. Also returning is the water motif; the story about a sailor and his significant other who waits for him to return. "Waltz for Richard" maintains the dismal mood of the album, telling of a couple's last visit to the coast to watch bosts on the ocean together before being split up.
"Heavy Storm" opens up with lamentatious "I wish I could believe in something bigger/More than these trees, these winds, these oceans/I wish I could believe what they tell me" and describes the change that society has had on the song's various characters who move away, settle down, and ultimate lose old characteristics. The song provides a sort of social commentary with the characters living in peace with nature, playing shabby instuments but not caring, and singing songs praising their loved ones and nature before moving away to the big city and completely phasing out these aspects of themselves. The narrator(s) constantly wish throughout that they could return to far gone days before giving up and resigning to the fate that those far gone times are gone forever. "Ghost Town" enters with a organ and piano intro that provides a stark contrast to the guitar-centric album so far before the guitar and vocals enter to give a balladic account of a lover overwhelmed by their personal demons and a troubled past that ultimately lead to missed opportunity and longing. Whereas the last song saw the triumph of negativity, "Josefin" can be seen as a representing the overcoming of this struggle and becoming better through facing these challenges. "A Window Opens" sees the return of the darker feel. The narrator hoping that leaving will help give them clarity and understanding before ultimately deciding against it and opting instead to return. "Winter Is All Over You" is a slow moving but gripping narrative that portrays a character going off and dying in a war and the feelings of those left behind best illustrated by the sorrowful and almost rageful: "I saw your mother at the department store she looked as innocent like a stillborn/But all I could think about was the sting". "I Met Up With A King" sees the possible re-emergence of the religious themes encountered earlier in the album featuring a conversation between the narrator and dying, rotting "king" (possibly Jesus?) as well as girl used only for body by a young man who takes everything from her and has a total disregard for her mind (a prostitute reference perhaps?). Maybe it's a reference to Parzival? The rotting king being the Fisher king and the girl being...well any girl in medieval literature actually. There's several possible interpretations of this song and that is what is so good about it. The earlier argument against religious validation and the way the girls growl on "Well thank God" kind of shuts down the religious reference but who knows? Last track on the album "Will Of the River" rounds out the album, spicing up the simple guitar and vocals with flutes. The song, full of nature imagery, asks a very Hamlet-esque question of whether "to rest upon forever or to live for one more day" before the storyteller resolves to pick themselves up and go make a home somewhere. The song ends the album perfectly, fading in the same silence from which the album began.
Something I found interesting was the albums way of functioning as a storybook. Each song has it's own story with connecting themes of either the ocean, regret, despair, or sometimes death. The songs could function as a series of vignettes or you can put them all together to get a greater story. Also of note is the use of language in the songwriting. Several wonderful little words and sayings are slipped in in a way that doesn't draw any attention to thems and the listener would probably miss if they weren't paying attention. The songs themselves contain certain hints to their central plot but leave much to the imagination of the listen, much like a well-written piece of fiction. The album itself flows seemlessly with each track aiding to create an overall mood but retaining their own individuality and charm.
I mentioned the ambiguity and variety of interpretation for First Aid Kit's second single "I Met Up With A King", listen/watch and decide for yourself:
Stricken City is a British indie pop rock quartet led by vocalist and korg-er Rebekah Raa. This past October they released their debut mini-album Songs About People I Know, and they're back again with their new Animal Festival EP. Animal Festival is a four song ode to what Stricken City does best. Finely crafted whimsical jangle pop. Title track and opener launches immediately into action; the bassline barely establish the song before Raa enters with vocals. The song is energetic and busy in a way that doesn't manage to overwhelm the listener. second track "An Iron Heart" functions are the EP's emotional track, slowing down the tempo somewhat and allowing for Rebekah's vocals to really stick out. Following is "Bella Writer" , a short reggae-ish track where Raa's vocals are only accompanied by beats and effects. Lastly, "Animal Festival Part 2" is a sort of ethereal vocalise. The strongest song here is opener "Animal Festival" but that's hardly a surprise. It's the longest of the four tracks with the other songs providing more of a cushioning. That's not to say the songs are bad in any way. The band website describes the other three songs themselves as being bonus tracks with the EP itself leading to a full length album to be released in the summer.
Stricken City's Animal Festival EP is available for free download with a donation option on the band's website. Also available on the website is mini-album Songs About People I Know and the single Lost Art.
Normally I avoid hip hop, rap, and R&B like the plague. Not because I don't like it but because it usually takes me such a long time to find anything that I consider "good" that I often don't want to make the effort. However Janelle Monae makes me want to give these genres another chance.
What Janelle Monae does is hard to put a label on. Sure some would call what she does Hip Hop but she takes influences from everything and has a level of musicianship you don't normally see. Her style is quirky, her stage presence electrifying, her music is odd yet strangely relevant. You see, Janelle has gone about the album process in a different way. Instead of releasing full length albums with 12or so songs she decided to create and distribute smaller EPs that contain songs that would keep the listeners interest all thorough. These EPs are linked by overarching story of an android by the name of Cindi Mayweather who defies the rules set forth in a sort of futuristic steampunk world that states that android are not allowed to fall in love with humans. The EPs are part of a four part series known as the Metropolis Suite. She released (and then re-released when signed to Diddy's Bad Boy label) the first EP called The Chase. It sets up the story and has Cindi running from cyborg bounty hunters known as The Droid Control. The epic storyline is brought to life thanks to Monae's powerhouse vocals, lush orchestrations, and clear, confident delivery.
Now Ms. Monae has announced the release date of her debut album The Arch-Android, a combination of the second and third parts of the Metrolopis suite, for May 25. The album will follow the adventures of android Cindi Mayweather and will see her having sort of awakening not unlike Neo in the Matrix. The first single from the album Tightrope featuring Big Boi of Outkast fame has already been release and I'm sure a video is already in the works.
Fans of Monae won't have to wait until May for more though as already she's announced tour dates in a multitude of places beginning later this month. Enjoy her short film for her song "Many Moons" here:
