Hi, everyone.
So, a trio of suckers went to a duo of suckers, and has been reduced to one solitary sucker.
I’ll actually start posting more music/reviews and such in the next week because I actually have time. Yeah!
There’s a point to this though. Over the next few weeks I’m going to ask a few of my friends/favorite bloggers on here to do write-ups.It’ll be a really great way to get a bunch of different music out to you guys.
SO, look forward to that!
So, apparently I’ve had this album in my iTunes library for almost 3 years. I am hitting my head against the desk I am sitting in.
Other Lives is a great little band from Oklahoma. Shout out to Foster, Sophie, Davin, and Collin… YOUR STATE DID SOMETHING RIGHT!!!!!!! (I kid, your state is fantastic)
This is an absolutely gorgeous song, and the album is even better. If The Avett Brothers, DeVotchKa (apparent on the album) and Fleet Foxes had a child, this would be it. All of their music has a fantastic raw quality, while still incorporating the grandeur of an Arcade Fire song and mystery and darkness of a Castanets song. It’s just haunting, and completely worth your time.
Oh, and it’s in E minor…. who doesn’t love that??
Check out their debut album from 2009, Other Lives, and release from last year Tamer Animals.
you have a great taste in music! Do you know of any good unsigned artists? by aurevoiirrr
Thanks! I don’t know many unsigned artists, mostly because I don’t keep track of what bands I listened to are signed and which aren’t. However I’m in a few bands myself (Lightning Killed My Parents, Burning Buildings, my solo music), which are unsigned, so there’s that shameless plug. And I’ve met quite a lot of bands while on tour, like Butterscotch Stanley, Nonsense Syllables, Uncle Joel’s Comb, 4 Point 0 and Mr. Boneless. There’s a lot of great stuff out there, signed and unsigned. You just have to keep your eyes and ears open.
-Brian (caughtbythehalfmoon.tumblr.com)
I know of a few local bands here in Oklahoma, as well.
You would be well served to check out Deerpeople, Horse Thief, Black Canyon and The Wurly Birds.
-Foster (portsofcallandmorrow.tumblr.com)
I’d recommend hotfox and Deadwood Floats
-Cassie (thetreesweremistaken.tumblr.com)
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
“Bright Whites”
Kishi Bashi
Room for Dream; 2011
I saw Kaoru Ishibashi, aka Kishi Bashi, open for Sondre Lerche back in June of last year, and I was instantly smitten. I talked with him for a bit after his set and after touring with acts such as Regina Spektor and Of Montreal, he seems quite motivated and excited to be taking on this solo venture and starting anew.
Now, on his first solo outing, he has been armed with a variety of instruments and loop pedals, creating songs from scratch during each performance. It is with this style of music-making that he has been compared to Andrew Bird and Owen Pallett. While I’m a small fan of those other string loopers, I have to say that Kishi Bashi’s music has struck me the most. His lyrics tell intricate, meaningful stories that are layered with Queen-esque choral harmonies and orchestral flourishes, Japanese phrases and tribal percussion. He even has a little McCartney in him at times.
All in all, the four songs on his EP, Room for Dream, are intoxicating. I can listen to that record for hours on end. I highly recommend you pick it up for yourself. Until then, here’s the second track, “Bright Whites.” His first full length will be released sometime this year.
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
“Radio”
Lana Del Ray
Born to Die; 2012
I didn’t see her perform on SNL but to be honest, barely anybody sounds good on SNL. It sucks sound-wise. (It’s pretty rare to see anything good happen on that show nowadays.) Anyway, I’ve heard an in-studio session of “Video Games” on the radio a couple times and I didn’t mind it. I didn’t TOTALLY HATE it, nor did it strike me as amazing. After the whole SNL thing, I heard people rant about how she’s awful and the worst thing to happen to music. Really though? Recently, I heard a song that was literally just someone saying “ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass” over a MC Hammer sample for four minutes.
In other words, I don’t mind Lana Del Ray.
In fact, after listening to this song, I might grab a copy of her album. I might like it, I might not. All I know is, I’m going to go into listening to this album with no expectations. She’s a new, young artist that was recently introduced into the mainstream music industry and okay, she probably didn’t make the best first impression. However, I do think she deserves a fair, second chance.
So give her one.
(Source: musicilikeforyou, via thugprofound)
Album of the Week: 1/7/11
To make up for missing last week’s Album of the Week, here’s something I wrote two and a half years ago.
The First Days of Spring
Noah and the Whale
This is, without a doubt, the best album of 2009, and I can say that with pure, unadulterated confidence.
The first track, after which the album is named, opens up with a simple bass drum, before blossoming into a harmony of strings and guitar. Before long, singer Charlie Fink softly groans, “Well, it’s the first day of spring and my life is starting over again.” He sounds depressed, and he damn well should be. After ending a relationship with Laura Marling, NATW’s backup singer, as well as Fink’s protégé, one can imagine he’s not feeling all that great. (“Spring” has a continuing narrative that follows the breakup from intolerable grief to eventual acceptance.) He follows up with lines such as, “I do believe that everyone has one chance to fuck up their lives,” and “I’m still here hoping that one day you may come back.” The man is struggling, yet there are still signs of hope. The six minute epic, slowly yet surely, crescendos louder and louder until the bold, spectacular finish when all of the band’s voices; strings, guitar, bass and drums, erupt in a clash that will warm and enlighten your soul on the darkest and gloomiest of days. That one song alone blows anything on their first album, Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down, right out of the water. To say the band has matured would be a tremendous understatement. They have surpassed what one defines as “adulthood” into a realm full of wisdom and experience that could never be imagined to exist. And that’s just the first track.
“The First Days of Spring” is followed up by “Our Window,” a song describing the beginning of the end of the relationship. It puts the listener in the middle of one of the last arguments, during which both man and woman “are talking like a stranger” and are “callous and cruel.” A lighter song, accented by piano tinklings and Fink’s throaty baritone, finishes with an echoed, fading voice promising that “blue skies are coming,” yet, by the sound of it, not anytime soon. It transitions into “I Have Nothing,” with opens with the moanings of a mournful choir, an acoustic guitar, and Fink, who sounds like he’s singing through tears; “I’d do anything to be at your side, I’d be anyone to be at your side.” The lyrics are nothing new; one can probably name at least ten songs that say something similar, yet that is the genius of the Whale. They use familiar lyrics to attract the listener; something that he or she can relate to and take a hold of, yet it feels brand new, like you are experiencing this sadness, this loneliness, for the first time. “My Broken Heart” is the exact same way. The words are old, almost recycled, but this is the one time, the exception to the rule, when that is not a bad thing. Both the familiarity and the complexity of this album make it a masterpiece.
There are two instrumentals on the album. “Instrumental 1” acts as a prelude to the beautiful, joyful “Love of an Orchestra.” One can hear the trumpets, flutes, violins, trombones warming up before striking a chord (a D major 6th for all you music geeks) to start off the flowing, racing punches of horn, string and piano. The wordless music gathers speed, adding layer upon layer, prancing along until the big finish - yet it has only just begun, for that’s when the choir joins in, singing in exuberance, “If you gotta run, run from hope.” By the time the song gets into full swing, you’re already gone. The happiness is infectious, so much, in fact, that if you are not careful, you may find yourself running down the street, beaming and jumping and singing at the top of your lungs. Fink presents to the listener the fact that there is still good in the world, even if at times it doesn’t seem true. Could this be the song to save your life? I think so.
“Instrumental 2” opens the second half of the album with a quiet picking of guitar that acts as a nice, refreshing palate cleanser for the songs to come, the next of which is “Stranger.” The song finds the narrator in the middle of the shame and nausea that he feels following the first one night stand after the breakup. Fink sings, “Her legs still forced in between mine, sticking to my skin,” recounting the sickening feeling of disgust that is pitted in his stomach. Yet, by the end of the tune, Fink is optimistic, crooning, “You know, in a year, it’s gonna be better. You know, in a year, I’m gonna be happy.” He’s almost out of the woods, ladies and gentlemen. The remaining three songs, “Blue Skies,” “Slow Glass,” and “My Door is Always Open,” place the listener into Fink’s mind, giving him or her the feeling of bittersweet melancholy. Each song perfectly fits with the one preceding it and what remains with you after the echoes of vocal harmonies and acoustic guitar of “My Door is Always Open” die out can only be described as miserable bliss. Then again, my words seem to be meaningless when compared to the album itself.
The First Days of Spring comes with an accompanying film of the same name, written and directed by Charlie Fink, which contains little dialogue and is scored by the album itself. And while I haven’t watched the entire film yet, I can safely assume it will be just as beautiful as the music. So, why should you purchase this album? In my opinion, this album is not just music. It is a soundtrack. It is a soundtrack to your life and my life and everyone else’s, and that is what makes The First Days of Spring, as well as Noah and the Whale, perfect.
