tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55072603619945815112024-03-13T04:20:38.523-07:00the downstairs mix-upandywqfshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09375780596415518777noreply@blogger.comBlogger32125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5507260361994581511.post-30469585755102601042009-02-06T18:58:00.000-08:002009-02-06T19:12:53.947-08:00hipster bullshit that i love<img src="http://cdn.stereogum.com/img/cmj08/abbey/tue_wed/pains_of_being_pure_at_heart-knittingfactory1.jpg"><br /><br />So I was checking out Pitchfork Media today, which I, to be honest, read every day, and they reviewed a CD by a band from Brooklyn called <b>The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart</b>. I wasn't expecting much, but after a second listen to the song "Everything With You," I was really just, totally captured. It's absolutely simple, beautiful, fleeting, happy pop music that is absolutely fucking irresistible! They sound a lot like Ride, Mojave Three, Titus Andronicus, and other lo-fi shoegaze pop. Their music would go perfectly on <i>The Adventures Of Pete & Pete</i> or in <i>Sixteen Candles</i>. You have to try pretty hard not to like this music. <br /><br />As I get older, I find more and more that I mostly enjoy music with a sense of mass appeal and pop sensibilities to it. I don't know what it is. Maybe it comes from a greater need for empathy in my music. <br /><br />These folks really don't have a bad song at all! They're playing at the <a href="http://www.blackcatdc.com">Black Cat</a> on Monday night and I think I'm going, but I'm a little nervous about going because I don't want to be disappointed by it. We'll just have to see. These days I've also been making plans to go to a lot of shows that I don't end up going to, because I can't find anyone to go with. When I was in college I wanted more space, more room to be a loner, I was sick of seeing the same people all the time. As the old saying goes, "Be careful what you wish for..."<br /><br />Listen to <b>The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart</b> at their <a href="http://www.myspace.com/thepainsofbeingpureatheart">myspace</a>.andywqfshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09375780596415518777noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5507260361994581511.post-1835703027778056162009-02-01T22:55:00.000-08:002009-02-03T11:42:20.114-08:00been so lonesome, shakin' that morning chill<img src="http://www.richerresourcespublications.com/images/photographs/Winter%20Scenes/Medium%20Format/Winter%20Tree%20lighter%202.jpg"><br /><br /><br />The winter has obviously long since come to Maryland, and will be gone within the next 8 weeks, hopefully, and as to be expected, it has come to me with the usual accompaniment of a case of the blues, and as any music lover would know, no prescription for a cure for blues can be written without a few key records to help you through. This is not necessarily any different from any other season. For me, each season tends to come along with its set of challenges and changes, and therefore, new blues. For example, I always heavy anticipate the summer until I find myself in the depths of its inescapable, delirious heat waves, feeling as though I’m burning alive.<br /><br />Along with its blues, each season seems to have its particular set of music. Summertime has its sound of fleeting youth, perfectly captured in the pop punk of New Found Glory or the late night, open roads, dying-to-get-out sounds of Bruce Springsteen. The Fall has its transitional, hot tea and cider, comforting down home earthiness in artists such as Gillian Welch. The spring and its new promises and melting snow bring uplifting, epic music that seem fit to fill the next few Ipod commercials, music like Sigur Ros or Explosions In The Sky. The winter, however demands a soundtrack unlike any other season does. <br /><br />Maybe it has to do with the hibernal nature of the wintertime. It’s cold as fuck outside and you don’t feel like leaving your bed most of the time. And if you’re like me and you’ve just moved back in with your parents after graduating from college, far away from many of your friends and no longer having peer company accessible at a moment’s notice, you spend a lot of time feeling isolated and lonely. There’s little to do but think about the past and all of the things you took for granted while you contemplate all of the terrifying life decisions you are going to have to make in the next couple years, and how you would rather just not make any of them. Music allows you to suspend this contemplation for the time that you are listening. A dear friend once explained to me in a letter that he wrote, that in unfamiliar places, you cling to the art and music you have in your possession for dear life, as an anchor in a raging sea where nothing is certain. They take on new meaning. You can escape for a little while, perhaps to another time, or another place, and instead of the fears of the future spinning the pistons in your brain, you can allow the sounds of your stereo to move them. <br /><br />My particular choices have been a combination of things: some oldies but goodies, as well as some brand new favorites. The biggest surprise has been the resurgence of my love for <b>Death Cab For Cutie</b>- particularly their album <b><i>We Have The Facts And Are Voting Yes</i></b>. Released in 2000, the album is decidedly lo-fi, and they actually sound like the indie pop band from a small town in Washington State that they were before they were headling Coachella and Lollapalooza. Songs like “The Employment Pages,” “405” and “Title Track” hit me hard. Whether you have a special, previous attachment to Death Cab, these songs seem to drum up instant nostalgia. In the midst of winter, when memories of better times might be all you have to keep you going, these songs take on a new meaning. In addition to their inherent sense of nostalgia, I also listened to this record a ton in my dorm room freshman year of college, particularly in the fall not long after I had first arrived at school. That fall I dated and became very close with a girl who also shared a real love for this band, before they were that popular, which I suppose made our connection a little deeper, as love for music often does for people. Even though we don’t talk anymore, and likely never will again, she meant a lot to me for a while, and in times of isolation like these, you begin to think about connections and relationships where you didn’t realize what you had. I suppose listening to these songs is a way of calling up those emotions, those simpler times, perhaps to relive the past, perhaps to learn from it, perhaps to avoid the present and the future. Likely, all of them. <br /><br /> I suppose that art is truly great art when, to paraphrase something that Lester Bangs once said, you revisit it long after you’ve even thought of it, when it has been sitting still all this time in the vault of your musical collection, untouched, and the second you press play, it moves again. It moves the energy around you and most importantly it moves you. Now that I’m a bit older and a bit wiser, I can understand the context and meaning of the lyrics in new ways. These songs allow me to integrate a past version of myself with the person I am now. It is the glue for the personal sense of self-integration that I have been longing for these days. Whether it's “The Employment Pages,” a song about trying to find meaning and connection in a lonely landscape of apathy, unemployment and alcohol, or maybe “Title Track,” a song about getting involved with someone where things are moving a bit too fast for it to possibly last, but maybe it only began in the first place out of your collective loneliness and desire to push the passing time to the back of your brain, these songs hit home and they hit hard. <br /><br />The other major band for me this winter has been another group that rose out of obscurity into the upper eschelons of rock stardom, filling stadiums around the world with their epic as fuck rock n roll. Most of my readers and friends will hate on me for this, but damned if <b>U2</b> aren’t one of the best rock bands of all time. This is another case of nostalgia: <b>U2</b> were a very popular band at the summer camp I went to as a kid in New Mexico, the same camp I worked at last summer and will again at some point in the future. It makes perfect sense when you consider the thematic content, sound and scope of their 1987 masterpiece <b><i>The Joshua Tree</i></b>. It is epic, inspiring, uplifting music intended to fill vast empty spaces, ones like the American desert. <br /><br />I recently picked up the remastered double LP of this album, and for the last week have been listening to it almost exclusively. There’s something about the opening keyboards in the first track, “Where The Streets Have No Name” that will simply never get old. The deep, unbelievably low chords that have so little treble you barely even notice the song has begun, until The Edge’s famous opening guitar line comes in, skipping around in circles like circling a drain, thanks to his delay pedal. The song sets the stage for the themes of self-liberation and rebirth that are present throughout this terrific album, particularly with the line <i>“I wanna tear down the walls that hold me inside.”</i> Believe me, I hate Bono as much as the next guy, but I’ll still always get chills up my spine when I hear him cry out <i>“we’re beaten and blown by the wind.”</i><br /><br />With songs such as “With Or Without You,” “Red Hill Mining Town,” “In God’s Country,” (The Edge at his finest guitar work) “Exit,” the album is a testimony to longing, the desperate hope that there’s an answer out there somewhere. The actual Joshua Tree itself is the only kind of plant that can grow in the harsh, dry, suntorched climate of the deserts of Southern California. I suppose their depiction of the desert is a very romanticized one, their perspective of it not quite that of the bleak, godless landscapes that other artists have attempted to portray it as. The desert has featured some of the bleaker sides of American history. Native American genocide, drought, the dust bowl, lost hopes, lost dreams, for settlers moving west and immigrants moving north. I suppose it makes sense that it would be four Irishmen making this album. <br /><br />There’s a mythic depiction of the American landscape that is present here, one that is at odds with the facts of everyday life in America, and at odds with the profound political and social consequences that ripple around the world that stem from our power and influence. This duality, the sharp contrast between the hopes and dreams that are thrown around with American ideals and the serious damage that our government has done to the world and its own people, is driven home even more on the songs that are not overtly political: “Where The Streets Have No Name” is the perfect example of this mythic depiction, only made more desperate and emotional when one considers the impossibility and perhaps non-existence of what Bono is looking for. Their political songs largely fall flat, and perhaps I am biased because I can’t stand what has become of Bono’s spineless, neutral, liberal celebrity politics. <br /><br />All of this is to say, I am really moved by this album, it is timeless, it is perfect for wanting to break free of whatever chains are holding you down. It is epic, it has mass appeal, it is instantly relate-able, and that’s what I love about it, as much as my friends with more obscure taste, or a simple disdain for Bono, would believe. <br /><br />This isn’t even the half of perfect winter music, it’s just what I’ve been jamming. So what are your favorite winter jams?andywqfshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09375780596415518777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5507260361994581511.post-74015549493440843672009-01-31T17:12:00.000-08:002009-01-31T17:18:51.265-08:00heartworn highwaysNot too long ago, my friend and singer/songwriter extroardinaire <a href="http://www.myspace.com/allenthompsonmusic">Allen Thompson</a> sent me two new songs he just recorded, one original called "Sick Of Me," and a cover of the Grateful Dead's classic song "Mission In The Rain." With two full length albums already under his belt, and a third one on the way, if these songs are any indication of how his new album will turn out, we are all in for a treat. <br /><br />Growing up in the town of Roanoke, VA, Allen has spent most of his life living and breathing country music. He once told me a story about driving around with his daddy at age five while <b><i>Guitar Town</i></b>, <a href="http://www.myspace.com/steveearlemusic">Steve Earle's</a> legendary debut album, was blaring through the tape deck. Probably not long after the opening title track ended, Allen pointed to the stereo and declared "that's what I'm gonna do." He's spent the rest of his life trying to make this dream come true, and with these two songs as examples, I think he's well on his way. <br /><br />"Sick Of Me" is as sad a country song as they come. As beautiful as it is brief, this three minute track flows through your ears as soothing as the breeze might flow through your hair while driving down an open, nameless highway somewhere in the heartland, with this song blaring through the speakers. Allen’s songwriting really lends itself to the open road, as any great country music should. While most Myspace music profiles boast about the intricacy of the artist’s work in an attempt to make them as unique as possible, the “sounds like” section on Allen’s profile simply states: “<i>going out for a pack of cigarettes and never coming back</i>.” There is a great sense of desperation, yearning, and heartbreak present in this song, the kind that might help a listener realize that their life and circumstances have become pure shit and they’ve been in the depths of despair longer than they could remember. It feels normal by this point. This would be an appropriate first song to put on the stereo when you finally decide to leave, with no hopes and no idea where it is you’re going. <br /><br />Taking cues from Steve Earle, Gram Parsons and Townes Van Zandt, this is pure whiskey-drenched Americana done the way it should be, with an ethical sense of dedication and appreciation to its forefathers that is nearly unparalleled. <br /><br />I’ve never been the biggest Grateful Dead fan, but realize now I may have been wrong all along after hearing his cover of “Mission In The Rain.” Allen makes it sound like he could have written it, particularly when he belts out the line “all the things I planned to do, I only did halfway.” This classic song permeates the kind of dissatisfaction and discontent that an artist often finds his or herself consumed by when they realize that reality falls fall short of their dreams. The lines come from his heart even though he didn’t write them, as the best covers always sound. <br /><br />Expect another update soon when I work my way through his newest full length which I just received in the mail today! I am not totally done with it yet, but I can already say that each song on here is the best thing he’s ever written, and it just sounds fucking amazing. <br /><br />I’ll be back soon with more on Allen, an update on my friends in Red Collar, and thoughts on the best music for the wintertime blues!!andywqfshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09375780596415518777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5507260361994581511.post-52925106149180797212009-01-26T06:56:00.000-08:002009-01-26T07:46:54.559-08:00<b>#3: No Age-<i>Nouns</i></b><br /><br />This Los Angeles band made waves and waves of buzz last year, and rightly, perhaps strangely so. No Age, along with bands like <a href="http://www.myspace.com/mikamiko">Mika Miko</a>, are a centerpiece of a strong DIY punk scene that has blossomed in Los Angelees, revolving aroun based the all ages, volunteer run music venue <a href="http://www.myspace.com/thesmell">The Smell</a>. The band is only made up of two people, a guitarist and a drummer, and for those of you who would view them as simply a "duo" or a somehow incomplete band, just a couple of lame guys who couldn't find a bassist but wanted to bang out noise nonetheless, y'all are sorely mistaken. They blow apart and in many ways redefine the limitations that a band's size can have on the music they put out. They've been described as a perfect blend of <b>Husker Du</b> and <b>My Bloody Valentine</b> and I guess that's about right. With a number of tunes that make for immediately re-playable short punk songs, and a few songs of beautiful ambient interlude, this is an easy one to play from beginning to end. Their live performances are ones to remember. With the instantly relate-able, i'm-sure-i've-heard-this-before, positive and inspiring nature of their songs, the crowd at their shows plays an equal part in creating the boundless energy in the room. <br /><br />I saw them for the first time at the Bowery Ballroom last fall during CMJ, playing alongside Dan Deacon, Deerhunter, White Williams and Ponytail, and they seriously tore the roof off that place. After seeing them three more times during the week of SXSW, all before <b><i>Nouns</i></b> even came out, I was hooked. My memories of seeing their set at the Sub Pop showcase will keep me warm when I am old and cold. After a long and exhausting day walking around the streets of Austin, my friends Tim an Liz and I decided to give it our all during their set. There weren't that many people there for some reason, so after a good number of gin and tonics, we started dancing our asses off with no apology while the rest of the crowd stood around, likely burnt out and jaded after having already seen dozens and dozens of other bands that week (SXSW will do that to you). We looked across the room and saw a couple other people dancing, and lo and behold it was Dan from <b>Wolf Parade</b> and his wife, who make up <b>The Handsome Furs</b>, who had just played earlier that night. I ran over to them and asked if they wanted to come dance with us, since we were the only other people dancing there. They eagerly joined us and we spent the rest of the set jumping around, making the metal hand signs during the sweet guitar feedback, heckling No Age to play Vampire Weekend covers (to which the drummer responded "this song is by Vampire Weekend, it's called "I'm a college dick!," and then immediately refuted his statement so as to perhaps avoid drama in the blogosphere), and all around having a great time. I took off my shirt cause I was so sweaty and then their drummer said on the mic "dude, where's your shirt?" Then the guitarist shook our hands after the show and we gave the Handsome Furs hugs and Tim, in a high pitched shrieking voice just yelled "I LOVE YOU!" <br /><br />It's pretty cool to see an all ages scene like the one in L.A. blowing up and making serious waves around the country and the world. In my mind, the success of No Age is a reflection of the powerful inertia that the DIY punk community can create. Throughout their brushes with success, they have brought their ethics and their sense of where they came from every step along the way. I hope they continue to make powerful statements like <b><i>Nouns</i></b> for years to come. Below is a sweet video of them playing in Baltimore.<br /><br /> <br /><b>"Teen Creeps" off of <i>Nouns</i></b><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/5ReEL_jyj64&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/5ReEL_jyj64&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>andywqfshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09375780596415518777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5507260361994581511.post-63743368209323760002009-01-24T15:31:00.000-08:002009-01-24T15:40:01.191-08:00it's been a while...So I clearly lost steam in my year-end countdown, as I only got down to #5 before I quite altogether. I had grandiose plans for my year in review updates but I suppose I got so sick of narrativizing a year that wasn't even over yet that I just had to stop. Now with a little bit of distance, I am happy to move on into a 2009 that, with the Inauguration of a new president less than a week behind us, feels like it just began. We had beautiful weather in Washington D.C. on friday and it came with hints of springtime. There's a lot to be excited about, so I will quickly close out my year end list with a few tidbits about my final choices!<br /><br /><b># 4: Pygmy Lush- <i>Mount Hope</i></b><br /><br />There are only positive things that I can say about this album, and not only because I am currently volunteering at Lovitt Records, the fantastic Virginia based label that put out this fine record. I first picked it up when I visiting friends and my then-girlfriend in Berkeley, CA this past August. We started dating over the summer and had a quick and intense relationship, and before I knew it I was saying goodbye to her as she took off with her friends to go to the Burning Man festival in Nevada. I know, I know, sounds like some vomit-worthy hippie version of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069704/">American Graffiti</a>, but true nonetheless. I went to my friend emily's house immediately following this sad goodbye and, staring face to face with a suddenly blank and unpredictable future, put this album on and floated deeply into the sounds that were consuming me. Coming from Sterling, VA, this acoustic album is gorgeous and hits the melancholy spot. I highly recommend checking this out, it may be the best album you would never have heard of other than by word of mouth. <br /><br />i've gotta run so more later!andywqfshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09375780596415518777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5507260361994581511.post-59948533936310159772008-12-24T16:26:00.000-08:002008-12-24T17:07:22.415-08:00# 5<img src="http://www.latenightwallflower.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/fuckedup_commonlife.jpg"><br /><br />The number five choice is the best punk album of the year, or at least the most popular, <b><i>The Chemistry of Common Life</i></b> by Toronto's <b>Fucked Up</b>. This six piece has three guitars, an exciting and confrontational lead singer, and one of the more hilarious, eventful, energizing live shows in the country, usually ended with lead singer Pink Eyes half naked and covered in his own blood. They take a lot of influence from <b>Husker Du</b>, <b>Negative Approach</b>, <b>The Ramones</b>, and occasionally bands like <b>Pink Floyd</b>. A lot has changed for the band, who moved from Jade Tree Records (Kid Dynamite, Lifetime, Breather Resist) to indie giant Matador Records (Interpol, Yo La Tengo, Pavement) to release this album. Apparently they all hate each other and never hang out, in an interview i've read the lead singer says "being friends just gets in the way of making good music." I guess that's one way to look at it...<br /><br /> I applaud Matador for taking a risk on this one. Fucked Up are not the most marketable of bands, with their name, their notoriously destructive behavior, their abrasive music...But then again, subversive counterculture is easily co-opted and commodified into the dominant, indie hipster sphere. The haters will accuse <b>Fucked Up</b> of selling out, but in reality, with no less than 15 guitar tracks per song, they've made one of the highest quality of punk albums of the decade. Driving, propulsive rhythms and constant guitar attack, with throat shredding vocals contemplating and attacking religion, christianity, and conformity, This record is more concise, shorter, and to the point than their last record <b><i>Hidden World</i></b>, though apparently this is due to greater attention to songcraft. Many of the songs on that record were over six minutes long, which is particularly long for a punk band. This seems to be a positive change for the band though, as lead singer Pink Eyes has said that album was about twenty minutes too long. <br /><br />I've seen a lot of people comparing this to <b>Refused</b>'s landmark hardcore masterpiece <b><i>The Shape Of Punk To Come</i></b>, and though the sound is different, the approach and idea behind it seem to be quite similar. Their impact is in how they rip a lot of preconceived notions of what punk music can sound like to pieces, the notion of which was previewed in their 18 minute, piano-centered single "Year Of The Pig." The songs on here just sound fucking huge, with not a single second of empty space. <br /><br /><b>Fucked Up</b> seem to be the modern day torchbearers of all punk rock, having broken many barriers, turned a lot of heads, caused a lot of wounds and heavy bleeding, attracted celebrity fans (i've seen both Davey Havok of AFI and J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. at shows of their's), all the while maintaining a seemingly uncompromising integrity about their work. It's one of those rare albums that seems to redefine a genre, a new point on a map in which you can organize all punk albums into new before and after categories. <br /><br />Here's a video I took of them at South By Southwest last march. I liked them so much that I saw them play twice in one night. <br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/AaEX-I7lQ_0&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/AaEX-I7lQ_0&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />-Andy-andywqfshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09375780596415518777noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5507260361994581511.post-82249870609324534952008-12-20T10:28:00.000-08:002008-12-20T11:11:24.091-08:00Overlooked Albums 2008In this entry, I'll talk a little bit about albums I caught onto a little too late in the year., or albums that I underappreciated and am now finally coming around to. They may have made the top ten if I had heard them a little bit earlier, but that's the way it goes. Seriously give these a listen!! <br /><br /><b>Grouper-<i>Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill</i></b><br /><img src="http://coffeeandtypescript.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/grouper.jpg"><br /><br />With a collection of songs that sound as though they're coming at you from beyond the grave, maybe a deep, underwater grave, Portland Oregon's <b>Grouper</b>, aka Liz Harris, has created one of the year's most gorgeous, reflective works of art, one that I will be listening to well into the winter and through the spring. Drenched in reverb, ethereal and ambient noise, memories, stories and regret, this is more comparable to the sound of waves crashing onto an empty beach the night of a full moon than it is to Tara Jane O'Neill, Mirah, or any of her Portland contemporaries. Perhaps if Darren Aronofsky had directed "Titanic," he would have gotten <b>Grouper</b> to do the soundtrack instead of Celine Dion. That only makes sense once you listen to this.<br /><br /><b>Lemuria-<i>Get Better</i></b><br /><img src="http://www.scenepointblank.com/reviews/covers/01876.jpg"><br /><br />I saw this band play three summers ago with Rachel Jacobs and Karmella's Game, and I did not find them particularly memorable at the time. Little did I know that <b>Lemuria</b> would make one of the best punk albums of 2008! <b><i>Get Better</i></b> takes pretty clear influence from <b><i>Dear You</i></b> era <b>Jawbreaker</b>, <b>Superchunk</b>, and some <b>Husker Du</b>. The leadoff track "Pants" ended up on my streaming seeqpod.com playlist sometime during my friday while at my dayjob, doing data entry at the AFL-CIO downtown, and it put an instant smile on my face. I felt like I had heard the song before, even though I hadn't, and I soon discovered that's how the rest of this album is. Instantly recognizable, instantly relate-able, as if you've been listening to and loving this band for years. Maybe you could have dreamt it up out of some longing for that perfect summery pop punk record, cause you've been stuck on <b><i>Through Being Cool</i></b> and <b><i>Jersey's Best Dancer's</i></b> for years and you want something new. Whatever your reason, this is pretty undeniable and irresistable for the young at heart, great pop punk/emo/power pop out of Buffalo, NY. Not to be missed!!andywqfshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09375780596415518777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5507260361994581511.post-48788887848187387682008-12-18T12:35:00.000-08:002008-12-18T22:26:00.983-08:00# 6<img src="http://sites.google.com/a/weheartmusic.com/vu/_/rsrc/1216490936416/reviews/old-wounds---young-widows-090908/Old%20Wounds.jpg"><br /><br />This was an incredible year for <a href="http://www.temporaryresidence.com">Temporary Residence</a>, the New York based indie label known for its extensive catalogue of seminal post rock releases, from bands such as Explosions In The Sky, Grails, Envy, and Eluvium, etc. The list goes on. Perhaps out of not wanting to be seen as the definitive record label for a genre that is fast growing stale and boring, TRLtd took big risks this year by putting out releases that could at once alienate their base of listeners and bring in a new group of fans altogether. They are not afraid to grow and change, in fact they know that they must in order to survive, and that was exemplified by their release of <b>"Old Wounds"</b>, the newest album from Louisville-based <b>Young Widows</b>, which I have chosen for my <b>#6</b> pick of the year. <br /><br />Young Widows are another band often associated with their member's punk rock pedigrees. Guitarist Evan Patterson has spent the last decade and a half playing in some of the more influential bands in hardcore, including Black Cross (which he was in with brother Ryan Patterson, who is now the frontman of Coliseum), National Acrobat, and most recently Breather Resist, which bassist Nick Thieneman was also in. The band has experience and taste, and they're armed with a giant wall of custom made amps, telecasters, and buttoned up flannel shirts. <br /><br />After listening to the first minute of the album, on the song "Took A Turn," there's no doubt this band is from the midwest, taking its cues from Chicago Touch & Go bands of yesteryear, such as Jesus Lizard, Scratch Acid, and the Melvins, yet transcending these influences to make a record that is unmistakabley their's. The hypnotic, heavy as shit, driving and sludgey bass pattern that lays the foundations behind Patterson's vocals for the first 45 seconds makes this song the perfect opener, and anyone who doesn't get a smile on their face when Patterson introduces Jeremy McMonigle's first beats on the toms by simply uttering "drums" needs to lighten up a little bit. Once the drums come in, they lock into the deepest, simplest, and most shitgrinning of grooves you have heard all year, and you feel a little different afterwards. They go through ten more tracks of what some have called "Indie Drone," whatever that means. At points, the album doesn't quite pay off or go quite where you want it to go, but the moments when it does make the rest of it completely worth it. My other complaint is that drummer Jeremy McMonigle(what a great fucking name, ps) sounds far less innovative, consistent, and takes fewer risks than their previous drummer Geoff Paton, whose skull-crushing, earth shattering grooves were 90% of what made their last album, <b>Settle Down City</b> as good as it was. But it's alright in the end, cause Patterson and Thieneman up the ante here and more than compensate, seeking instead to write solid, hypnotic, trance inducing indie grunge, such as the track "Swamped and Agitated," certainly one of the best songs of the year, sure to be on many mixtapes in the near future, and makes for the perfect closer. <br /><br />To get more of a "live" sound, the band brought producer Kurt Ballou (Converge) on the road with them to record their live tracks, and through what must have been a painstaking mixing process, they put best live cuts of each part of each song onto the final product. At the end of some of the tracks, Ballou kept the crowd applause in the mix, which on each track sounds empty and underwhelming compared to the ear splitting dissonance that has just assaulted your ears. It sounds like maybe one or two people applauding politely, going along perfectly with the thematic content of the songs, with lyrics about alienation, emptiness, wanting to start your whole life over again, regret, fucking up, ie the lyrical content of most hardcore records of today and ever. While I still don't totally get the approach, I trust that somehow this process had a lot to do with the finished product being a great improvement on the sound they started honing on <b>Settle Down City</b>.<br /><br />So anyway, swill back some PBR, put on your flanel, get out that old Kurt Cobain poster you've long since taken off your wall, roll a fat blunt if that's your thing, turn your speakers up as loud as they can go, put on this record, and prepare to be entranced. The packaging for this release is also impressive, with three different covers for the vinyl release, on many different colors. Temporary Residence should be really proud of this release, it will still be in my CD player well into the next year and beyond. <br /><br />Enjoy the videos below! <br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/s3kqU0s8j5I&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/s3kqU0s8j5I&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br />"Old Skin," a fucking killer killer track with one of the best grooves of the year. <br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/eYIMYaZ13gI&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/eYIMYaZ13gI&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br />"Feelers" and "Swamped and Agitated"andywqfshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09375780596415518777noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5507260361994581511.post-88121270423334227852008-12-17T07:52:00.000-08:002008-12-17T08:24:08.793-08:00# 7<img src="http://www.builtonaweakspot.com/images/citified.jpg"><br /><br />For ny number 7 record of the year, I'm gonna have to choose <b>The Meeting After The Meeting</b> by Greensboro, North Carolina's <b>Citified</b>. This is a seven song EP that came out at the very beginning of the year, and had me coming back for more and more. I wrote a lengthy review of the album on this very blog, that you can find <a href="http://andywqfs.blogspot.com/2008_02_01_archive.html">here</a>. If I hadn't been living in Greensboro at the time, this album might have sounded like a boring indie rock album, but as I drove around the streets and avenues of Greensboro with this CD blaring through my speakers, it seemed to perfectly paint everything that was going on around me at the time, using bright colors, reflection, melancholy, and crucial fender twin reverb guitar tone as well. <br /><br />The songs seem to perfectly describe tense, small-town, everybody knows everybody anxiety, where monotony can easily set in and the same faces occupy the same dive bars night after night. Greensboro is on few if any maps that measure hip-ness or thriving music scenes. It's an unassuming town that seems to lie off the nation's radar, which is exactly what makes this band and this EP work so damn well, and in addition seems to create an environment with many terrific local bands. There's something to be said for living in a town with an awesome band like this, when you know the street corners, dive bars, strip malls, water towers and highways that inspire them is the same physical geography that you experience, observe, and interact with day after day. Maybe their album was no particular commentary on Greensboro itself, but I believe a piece of art such as this cannot be removed from the environment in which it was created. It seemed as though, through sound and through their melancholy lyrics, they were describing everything about my life at the time. I couldn't help but feel a connection with this, Greensboro was too small of a town not to. It was the soundtrack to the thaw, a goodbye to winter and a hopeful, crossing-your-fingers welcome to springtime. <br /><br />You can read more about the sounds of the album in the old review, but this is definitely not something to sleep on, even if you're not from Greensboro. The album proved to stick around and its relevance and impact have not faded away all year. I actually listened to this a lot when I was in California in August, walking around the streets of San Francisco and contemplating a home I had just left behind a few months earlier. The deeply reflective, wistful sounds, will strike you with instant nostalgia, for things and people you never thought you'd be nostalgic for. Once the drummer of this band was hitting on a friend of mine and I interrupted to tell him how much the record meant to me and how I had listened to it often on my travels throughout the American west this summer, and he seemed rather annoyed with me. That was pretty funny. <br /><br />Anyway, enjoy the video below and check out their <a href="http://www.myspace.com/citified">myspace</a> to hear the songs "Read Like A Number," "KL Gala," "Weddings" and "Line The Streets," all amazing songs that make for great singles as well. <br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/EqfwMV5eKCw&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/EqfwMV5eKCw&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>andywqfshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09375780596415518777noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5507260361994581511.post-47711268608199210742008-12-16T07:30:00.000-08:002008-12-16T07:58:15.127-08:00a moment's not something you keep...<a href="http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=49665354&albumID=368656&imageID=13179289"><img src="http://hotlink.myspacecdn.com/images01/97/fcd3d8e51a179c5e25e50b8741643d2e/m.jpg" alt="" /></a><br /><br />So i'm taking a break from listening to Ghostface Killah and doing data entry at my temp job to interrupt my year end countdown and write some thoughts down on the newest song from Greensboro's own <b>Giant</b>, or as I understand they are now called <b>Oh Brave Young</b> because some 80's band with the same name threatened to sue them. But I think I might be wrong about this, will someone please clarify this for me? <br /><br />A few weeks ago, these fellas posted a new sixteen minute song they recorded to their myspace account. The song, called <b>"The Days That Sat In Front Of Everything,"</b> can be heard <a href="http://www.myspace.com/giantnc">here</a>. From what I understand, this track is one of several new songs that are thematically arranged around the concept of growing older, and aging. As the title indicates, this song comes off as a sort of funeral dirge to youth, innocence, days where there wasn't much else to do but ride your skateboard around all day and break into pools at night, or whatever sort of punk rock activities one can find themselves engaged in. It comes with a great sense of perspective, of staring deeply into the past and searching for meaning, context, and inspiration to a life now lived in limbo, where one has to face adult challenges of every day life, ie jobs, money, school, and the ever constant threat to those involved in DIY punk of becoming jaded and giving up hope. I don't know if it's what these guys were thinking when they wrote this, but it's what comes to my mind when I listen to this.<br /><br />People have criticized this song and other new ones like it for being too long and building up without ever culminating or reaching a climax, leaving you hanging and waiting for a moment that won't come. I was beginning to agree with a friend of mine who was relaying this thought to me when I suddenly realized, maybe that's the entire point of this song! <br /><br />The track spends sixteen minutes floating through ethereal space, eventually locking into a groove of sorts about 12 minutes into it. With my pre-conceived expectations of what post-rock bands such as Envy, Explosions In The Sky, Mogwai, etc. all do, you're usually waiting for some kind of explosion that is supposed to melt your face off. With this song, you get that explosion, but it only seems to last about 30 seconds, and upon first listen I was left wanting and expecting more of a climax until suddenly, the song ends before it seems appropriate. You can't spend sixteen minutes building up to a point that only lasts 30 seconds, right! I kind of felt cheated. But then I realized that, Giant had ingeniously tricked me. It was this truncated ending that left me coming back for more, and more, and more, until I realized I had listened to the song about 10 times in a week, which is a lot for a sixteen minute track. The listener is left wondering what's next, what would have come afterward, why they stopped before it seems like they were finished...and then I thought, these thoughts are similar to the patterns that seem to have flooded my mind over the last two years as I contemplate becoming an adult, aging, getting older, facing real life decisions and real life consequences.<br /><br />The song seems to build up to something that will never come, much like many people spend their lives waiting for some enlightenment that will also never come. The fact that I even expected there to be some grand culmination is perhaps a reflection of the typical western viewpoint that our means our irrelevant as long as we can achieve some satisfying form of ends, of results. After asking myself why I was continuously drawn back to listening to this song, I realized that, the appeal is in the journey this band takes to get to the end point. The goal is the process, just like it should be for a life well lived. And once they do get there for a brief, fleeting moment of crashing cymbals and crushing guitars, it;s over before you know it even hit you. Much life the more perfect moments in your life. Gone before you can even appreciate them, most of the time. These are all things that I've been thinking about as I get older, and having a song like this has given me a piece of art onto which I can transfer this energy and process these emotions. Isn't that exactly what great art is supposed to do? <br /><br />I don't know of what their intentions were, but this song has done a lot for me in the last few weeks, and has come along at a pretty appropriate time in my life. They are really nice guys, and a fantastic band, whose dedication and professionalism not only to their art but to their hometown of Greensboro, is impressive and something to admire. I highly suggest you check these guys out if you haven't already!!andywqfshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09375780596415518777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5507260361994581511.post-79742493283765102442008-12-15T21:47:00.000-08:002008-12-16T06:04:39.119-08:00# 8 "Let's go on pretending, that the light is never ending"<img src="http://www.cokemachineglow.com/images/7244.jpg"><br /><br />I'm having a lot of fun with this countdown thing. I clearly miss my days of college radio. Anyway, having a blog is almost more interesting right now, at least I have no responsibility and I can do things at my own pace. Sike, I miss WQFS more than anything. Anyway...<br /><br />My Number Eight record of the year is the second release from Baltimore's own <b>Beach House</b>, entitled <b>"Devotion,"</b> which came out way back in February. Beach House are a male/female duo comprised of Alex Scally(guitar/keyboards) and Victoria Legrand(vocals/keyboards). Apparently Victoria's uncle is some famous french guy. I had recently lost interest in this release even though I had been listening to it pretty regularly for most of the year. I put it on again the other day, and to my surprise the therapeutic and calming feelings of warmth and nostalgia that made me melt into the floor when I first heard it back in February came right back to me. It came out at a time when I was just beginning to get over major depression. Last winter was not so good for me, and if I am kidding myself I'd say this period of depression lasted only a couple months, but those who know me best would remind me it was more like the majority of 2007, and into the first couple months of 2008. When February came around and I was beginning to put things in greater perspective and started feeling better about my life and the choices I had made, this album came along and helped me out a lot. It was right at that period that comes at the end of winter when it's not necessarily getting warmer, but it's getting less cold, and that was more than enough for me. It was a reminder that things could soon be good again. That change comes, and that a period of brightness can only follow a lengthy period of darkness like the one I was coming out of. <br /><br />The sea of wistful, lazy, reverberating nostalgia you find yourself floating through upon first listen is comfortable and familiar, like you've heard this album before, or maybe this is just the album you've been waiting for. Perhaps if Nico was the frontlady for Grizzly Bear, or Cat Power got Danger Mouse to produce her next album, it might sound a little like Beach House. <br /><br />Victoria's vocals are haunting and beautiful, particularly on standout tracks like "Turtle Island," a song that seems to promise you that times of fleeting, simple, calm, and hopeful youth are not all over like the winter so assured you they were, her vocals make this song absolutely marvelous. "Gila" and "You Came To Me" are two of the best songs of the year hands down. Their cover of Daniel Johnston's "Some Things Last A Long Time" is chilling to the bone, and what's best is they make it their own rather than giving us an exact replica of Johnston's well known tune. The slow and bluesy "Heart Of Chambers" is oddly sexy, and Victoria's vocals over Alex's arpeggiated guitar scales make her sound years and years older, wiser, and more mature. Her voice sounds worn and tattered, yet vibrant and beautiful, like that of a veteran singer even though this is only Beach House's second album. The great sustain and production values on her vocals sound like they're coming at you from the opposite end of a long, wide, wooden hallway in a 16th century celtic house while she sings at you from 100 feet away. Basically her voice is like the vocal version of John Bonham's drums. Not really. <br /><br />This is a soothing record for the spring time that you might want to put on on a bright sunday morning, or perhaps when you're stoned in your bedroom or driving around on a late early summer night. Definitely deserving of its place in any top ten, I am glad that they call Maryland home. I've never gotten to see them play live and this must change ASAP!! Enjoy the videos below, two music videos to aforementioned songs. Definitely check this album out if you haven't already, I don't think you'll be dissapointed. <br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/tnIq0X12i-8&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/tnIq0X12i-8&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><b>"Gila"</b><br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/8UqwNLdb45k&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8UqwNLdb45k&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><b>"You Came To Me"</b>andywqfshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09375780596415518777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5507260361994581511.post-25221522526012714562008-12-14T00:24:00.000-08:002008-12-15T07:33:07.939-08:00# 9<img src="http://subsom.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/deerhunter_microcastle-album-art.jpg"><br /><br />For my <b>Number Nine</b> record of the year, I am going to choose <b>"Microcastle"</b> by Georgia's hypest of the hype bands <b>Deerhunter</b>. I sort of wrote Deerhunter off last year due to their constant presence in the Pitchforkmedia news section, as well as their frontman Bradford Cox's reputation as a particularly insane and unstable person, going on tantrums and scary rants at shows, telling everyone how much he misses his family as well as how fucked up on pills he is. Then, after a long day of drinking at CMJ 2007, I saw them play a show with No Age, Dan Deacon, and Ponytail, and I was thoroughly impressed by them. <br /><br />The songs on <i>Microcastle</i> are more concise, shorter, and more structured than their 2007 debut <i>Cryptograms</i>, which got heavy comparisons to My Bloody Valentine and every other shoegaze band. After seeing them at CMJ, I realized Deerhunter is a hype band that, underneath the thick layers of hype and bullshit that tend to cloud them, lies a band with an ear for tasteful composition, almost taking Neil Young's "less is more" approach and ironically applying it to Shoegaze, a genre where supposedly, the more pedals and noise you have, the better. Just when every band in the genre is trying to one up each other, Deerhunter take the road that is now less traveled and make a simpler record than their last one. <br /><br />The songs here have more "hooks" and are far more memorable and individually satisfying. This does, however, mean that there are more throwaway tracks, making an all-the-way-through listen a little harder than it may have been with <i>Cryptograms</i>. Perhaps this is Deerhunter for your iPod. This might be as close as Deerhunter could come to writing a "hit" record. <br /><br />and the lyrics, my god the lyrics, they're quite depressing. If you ever feel like you've nearly reached the bottom of a bottomless pit, just listen to this shit and be thankful that you're not Bradford Cox, whose lyrics are more narcissistic than they are empathetic. But like many great artists, perhaps his self destructive ego is required in order to produce the startling honesty evident in his lyrics. Lines such as "I had a dream/No longer to be free/I want only to see/Four walls made of concrete" paint a pretty grim portrait, on top of "It's winter/In my heart/It never stops." <br /><br />As far as other influences go, they remind me a little of Spiritualized and Spacemen Three. Really beautiful melodies with a dark, isolated, agoraphobic sense of paranoia to boot, this is a definite inside, winter, sun going down at 4:30 pm kind of record. Which sounds perfect for right about now considering the upcoming winter solstice. So enjoy this album for the appropriate soundtrack it paints to the dreary winter, just remember the days are about to start getting longer and longer and it won't be long before you'll be listening to <b>Born To Run</b> with all the windows rolled down. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/oup-m8Hxx4Y&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/oup-m8Hxx4Y&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><b>weird music video for "Agoraphobia"</b>andywqfshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09375780596415518777noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5507260361994581511.post-78440174373253373122008-12-13T14:51:00.000-08:002008-12-13T15:21:52.363-08:00year end wrap up! Part One!<a href="http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=79895036&albumID=26962&imageID=30106392"><img src="http://hotlink.myspacecdn.com/images01/17/1bc9c90927b52e8dbd219e95d48b556b/m.jpg" alt="" /></a><br /><br />So with this entry, I begin my countdown of the ten best releases of the year. I will do them one record at a time, the first one being number 10, which is <b>"Rialto"</b> by the Northern Virginia ex-member supergroup <b>Verse En Coma</b>. <br /><br />Upon first listen I was blown away by this release, and believed it lived up to the pedigree of the members oft-mentioned former and current bands: Pg. 99, Darkest Hour, City Of Caterpillar, and Haram. The release particularly calls to mind the work of Malady, and from what I understand a lot of this music came from writing sessions that were intended to be new Malady songs, before they broke up in 2006. Featuring just the melodic, soaring and unconventional guitar-work that you would expect from guitarist Jeff Kane(City Of Caterpillar), laid on top of Ryan Parrish(Darkest Hour)'s relentless and pummeling percussive attack. It's good to hear him doing something else besides galloping 4/4 double bass metal shit. <br /><br />One thing that makes this releases particularly memorable. the CHORUSES man, the fucking choruses. Each chorus on this album is epic as hell, with everything coming together with enough power and climactic energy to tear a new hole in the universe. Not really, but shit is enough to really catch your attention and move you. I hear a lot of influences from bands outside of the hardcore/punk genre, as the NoVa hardcore scene is known for doing. Seems that with each release that the ex-pg.99 crew puts out, they get further and further away from the Born Against/Sonic Youth thing, but I appreciate this dedication to keep pushing in new directions. Can these folks put out a bad record?<br /><br />The one frustrating thing is that the lyrics are sometimes questionable and don't seem to always fit. They're written in a pretty straight forward, storytelling style, which works at points and then doesn't work at others. "DCC Cassette" is a sad tale of a friend's death, the same friend who got the vocalist into punk rock by making a tape for his brother that he then stole and changed his life from listening to it over and over again. I've always felt an essential feature of punk rock is a sense of immortality, or quite the opposite, a reckless sense of accepting mortality, as Modern Life Is War said once "death is more perfect than life, that's why we already died." So anyway, these lyrics aim well but miss the mark kind of. "the tape was for her/but i stole it away/the sticker you put on is rubbing off/but THE TAPE STILL PLAYS!!!" uhh, good idea, bad execution, bro. <br /><br />I also have no idea if this band has played any live shows, or is even still a band. They have never announced any shows nor any intention to play any. It may be just a recording project, which is dissapointing, cause I know these songs could be really powerful if performed live. <br /><br />Anyway, definitely give this record a shot. It was released on 10" with a digital copy inside by Robotic Empire. You can also get it on iTunes. Their myspace is http://www.myspace.com/verseencoma, if you would like to listen to mp3's. <br /><br />so that's Number Ten, y'all!! Check back soon for Number Nine!!<br /><br />-Andy-andywqfshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09375780596415518777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5507260361994581511.post-91821398379353234322008-11-26T15:42:00.000-08:002008-11-26T16:48:34.576-08:00you knew just how you'd been blessed...<img src="http://blogs.knoxnews.com/knx/brown/EverybodyfieldsSMALL.JPG"><br /><br />For the last two years, I've had the privilege of following the Johnson City, TN band The Everybodyfields, quite closely. I was General Manager of WQFS Greensboro, Guilford College's radio station, when Everybodyfields fever began to kick in among our community DJ's. Their sad, slow, breathtaking and beautiful down-home country music found a perfect home on the radio shows of the community DJ's, many of whom had been living in Greensboro for years, and had seen country acts come and go. WQFS and The Everybodyfields began forming a close relationship, with us booking two shows for them on campus, and placing their newest album at the top of our charts for three months straight, while vocalist/singer/songwriter Sam Quinn wrote the theme song for one of our DJ's radio shows, a song which they still play live frequently. I had the privilege of getting to hang out with them most times they came through Greensboro or Chapel Hill. One night, my friend Carra and I spontaneously drove to see them in Chapel Hill and stayed up all night with them, driving back home to Greensboro as the sun was coming up. <br /><br />Fortunately, the band are still hard at work, and better than ever. Today they just posted two new songs on their <a href="http://www.myspace.com/theeverybodyfields">myspace site</a>, "City Noises" and "Mardi Gras." These songs, in addition to <a href="http://daytrotter.com/article/1372/the-everybodyfields">three other new ones</a> they recorded for Daytrotter.com. After years of burning through accompanying musicians, the central songwriting duo of Sam Quinn and Jill Andrews have finally found a lineup that works, with Josh Oliver (keys, guitar), Tom Pryor (pedal steel) and Jamie Cook(drums), the drummer being the most recent addition, and seemingly the secret puzzle piece that sealed the deal. <br /><br />The band still seem to work much like they used to, with Sam and Jill splitting songwriting duties, the writer playing guitar on whatever song is next in the set. I have posted a lot of videos below, so I will let their music speak for itself. I have so many memories associated with this band, having been to see them over 15 times in the last two years. The Everybodyfields kind of supplied a soundtrack to my life in Greensboro, from settling in to calling the city home to coming to terms with leaving it, their music as equally applicable to the bright times as it was to the dark times of my life in that city. It makes me so happy to see them writing the best music of their career. <br /><br />Basically, check this band out, download the songs from the links posted above, watch the videos before, and hopefully your roommates won't mind the mess when you melt into the floor. <br /><br /><br /><b>their spot on, nearly better than the original cover of Neil Young's "Harvest Moon"</b><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/IAQAe2K8tXE&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/IAQAe2K8tXE&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><b>another new song, "Another Man." one of my favorite of their recent batch of new ones</b><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_liMa1EbYZg&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_liMa1EbYZg&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><b>"A Way Out," another one of my favorite new ones</b> <br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/2VkeypHqM9Y&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/2VkeypHqM9Y&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>andywqfshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09375780596415518777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5507260361994581511.post-17120367792765137562008-10-11T14:32:00.000-07:002008-10-11T14:55:54.970-07:00HOT JAMS<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/LrfeI5vNERs&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/LrfeI5vNERs&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><br />So, Ingrid are a sick fucking band, let's start with that. Originating in the Washington D.C. area, the band is made up of Ashley Arnwine(Mass Movement Of The Moth, Des Ark) on the drums, and Joey Doubek(Mass Movement Of The Moth, Danke, Bear And The Butterfly) on the guitar. Combining crusty d-beat hardcore, the jazzy math-core of <b>Tiny Hawks</b> and <b>USAIsamonster</b>, and even the alternative rock sounds of the Smashing Pumpkins, every moment of their new 8 song tape is a treat for the ears. They waste no time on this record, building up to epic climaxes on each song, which only seem to last long enough for you to wrap your head around the sheer, well, epic-ness of it all. One of the most impressive things about this band is that in Mass Movement Of The Moth, Ashley played guitar and Joey played drums. Just when you thought they could do it all, they switch instruments and create another devastatingly brutal yet tastefully different band. <br /><br />The lyrics touch on a variety of topics from queer visibility, environmental issues, death and illness, to mental health and suicide. Joey takes care of most of the vocals, not without Ashley's help, whose moments on the mic are some of the best on the record.<br /><br />You can hear all of the mp3's on <a href="http://www.ingriddc.org">their website</a>, and you can order their tape from my dear friend Will's label website, <a href="http://http://fatearthsmells.blogspot.com/">Cosmic Debris</a>. <br /><br />My personal favorites: "Heron," "Triangle," "What Makes you," and fucking all of the others, for real.andywqfshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09375780596415518777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5507260361994581511.post-35380409671784738902008-09-29T14:30:00.000-07:002008-09-29T14:39:49.157-07:00I'm backHello everyone/no one, my name is andy and I have returned to the music blogging world with more of a whimper than a thud. I have spent the last few months rambling around the southwest and west coast, working at a summer camp and visiting family and friends in the bay area. But now I am back on the east coast in my hometown of Washington D.C.!<br /><br />I am about to head back south for a little while to work on a farm outside of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Then I am headed to New Orleans to visit my dear old friend <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/user/droidlocks">Jacob Mazer</a>. I'm bringing some clothes and my guitar, so hopefully I'll get to playin' on some street corners here and there for money, like i have had the unoriginal fantasy of doing for quite a while.<br /><br />This summer, my music interests consisted mostly of singer/songwriters. Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, and Gillian Welch songs were in heavy rotation in late night singalongs around the campfire circle. There were a lot of oldies but goodies, but my main discoveries of the summer consisted of <a href="http://www.townesvanzandt.com">Townes Van Zandt</a>, <a href="http://www.myspace.com/lucindawilliams">Lucinda Williams</a>, and the late bloomer choice of Bob Dylan. Yes, that's right, Dylan never really hit me until now, but it's all good because his records <b>Blood On The Tracks</b> and <b>Time Out Of Mind</b> are hittin' me like a ton of bricks.<br /><br />I'll write more on these later, for now I have to go meet up with my sister. Good to see you all again!<br /><br />-Andy-andywqfshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09375780596415518777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5507260361994581511.post-59390907554085514182008-02-24T10:58:00.000-08:002008-02-24T11:03:01.656-08:00Citified<img src="http://a767.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/69/l_567359324de4d45a21ee9da8042f4146.jpg"><br /><br /><br />It has been a great six months for new releases from Greensboro bands, and The Meeting After The Meeting by a band called Citified, gives us proof that the best is always yet to come. Just released on Eskimo Kiss Records, Meeting is a collection of seven songs each tremendously beautiful and written by singer/songwriter Chris Jackson, who recorded the group’s last record in 2005 pretty much all on his own, recording all the instruments and using drum machines for his rhythm section. While that was a refreshingly listenable and gorgeous record from beginning to end, The Meeting After The Meeting improves upon the band’s original vision by leaps and bounds, with live instrumentation from each member, guitarist Franklin Kane, drummer Eric Ussery, and bassist Diego Diaz, giving the record the bonus of the full band sound. One can tell each member’s musical vision makes this record in better an improvement in every way. With seven songs, the record is over before you know what hit you, and leaves you wanting more and more. <br /> <br /><br />Combining influences from R.E.M., The National, Ride, to Echo and the Bunnymen, Citified clearly have a love for the melancholy and the autumnal in their music. The first line of the first song entitled “Weddings”, gets to the point pretty quickly. “Open bar/Means I’m safe.” Citified are probably not the first band to suggest the only good thing about weddings is the free booze to warm your own loneliness as a pensive indie rock musician, yet the honesty rings true and continues throughout the record. The high end melodic guitar lines present over Jackson’s voice are drenched in reverb and delay pedals, making the listener feel as if they are floating in a sea of fantastic guitar tone. Many critics have pegged Citified as a Shoegaze band, a term coined by a British music journalist who observed that this style of spacey, reverb drenched music required so many effects pedals, that the musicians spent the entire time looking at the floor for which pedal they had to press next, standing motionless and captured by the music. <br /><br />British Bands such as Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, and Ride were some of the frontrunners of this musical movement, and their influence seeps through every pore of this record. The swirling guitar lines of the song “Read Like A Number” calls to mind the sound of another British band, who go by the name Radiohead. The reflective melancholy present in each song seems to give voice to small town-anxiety, the feelings that come from living in a place where everybody seems to know everybody, and the same few people occupy the same bars night after night. If anything, this record comes off as a soundtrack to Greensboro life in the cold winter months. <br /> <br /><br />Most of the songs clock in under the four minute mark, and with only seven songs, each one ends somewhat abruptly. The restraint and structure present in each song show a sense of discipline lacking with many bands today. The strength here is songwriting, and the band’s ability to transpose that strength into something real and powerful, on a full band scale, is truly awe inspiring. They don’t overdo it, they know exactly when to quit, so as to leave you wanting more rather than bored and looking at the clock. They fill their songs with tasteful and beautiful parts without being too busy, leaving plenty of room for the listener’s mind to fill in the rest with their own nostalgia and memories. This is certainly a perfect record for the end of winter, a reflective album that may help you gain enough perspective to move forward into the spring. Once you’re done with your first listen, don’t be surprised if you find yourself listening to it again and again. Citified are playing in Greensboro several shows around North Carolina in the coming months, so be sure to catch them whenever you can. http://www.myspace.com/citified.andywqfshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09375780596415518777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5507260361994581511.post-48524890654243893082007-12-25T19:12:00.001-08:002007-12-25T19:12:16.891-08:00top five jamzwithout further ado, top five records of the year n' shit. <br /><br /><b>5. Des Ark/Ben Davis-Battle Of The Beards</b><br /><br /><img src="http://a64.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/01222/36/09/1222449063_l.jpg"><br /><br />Besides being a DJ at WQFS, getting to see Des Ark play numerous times a year has been far and away the most rewarding aspect of the music scene in North Carolina. Aimee Argote, the voice behind the quietly vicious, and devastating music of Des Ark, has played a WQFS show each year I have been at Guilford, and getting to know her has been lots of fun. I was not really into half of this record, that being the half that she didn't write (Ben Davis' side). Yet her five tracks here are five of the most simultaneously somber, hungry and powerful songs I've heard all year, and by any artist, ever. Pitchfork Media compared her to Bright Eyes, and I was like, what the fuck? Her lyrics are dark, but far more articulate and honest than anything Conor Oberst could ever touch. I don't think I've ever been to a Des Ark show where half the audience didn't start sobbing. I also don't think I've ever heard of a band that lost its entire rhythm section, didn't bother to replace it, and made an instantly classic album like this one. It came along at a time when I really needed it in my life, and I am really thankful for it. It's perfect for spending night after lonely night, spinning it, sitting on your roof and smoking cigarettes, like I did this summer. <br /><br /><b>4. Radiohead-In Rainbows </b><br /><br /><img src="http://www.exclaim.ca/images/up-radiohead.jpg"><br /><br />I haven't really listened to Radiohead since I was 14, and with this record I was able to fall in love with them all over again. Don't get me wrong, <b>Kid A, Amnesiac</b> and <b>Hail To The Thief</b> were great records in their own right, but they just didn't really hit me like their earlier stuff. Different writers have claimed <b>In Rainbows</b> to be their most "accessible" record since <b>Ok Computer</b>, or the sign of their "coming back to earth." While I think claiming that a record sucks because it is too weird, there is something to be said for a certain level of accessibility. This record allows you to get out of it what you put into, where as with their last three records, I felt like there was sort of something you had to "get" when listening to them. This is Radiohead back to their ambiguously alienated, brooding, yet user friendly self, while still remembering that the last three records they made were incredibly innovative, and they need not abandon the blueprints they created. It's the sound of a band who reached the peak of a sound they were working with, and managed to find a brand new road to go down. And the music is good, too. <br /><br /><b>3. Explosions In The Sky-All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone</b><br /><br /><img src="http://www.universalbuzz.com/SpotlightArtistPics/ExplosionsintheSky.jpg"><br /><br />So I know a lot of people hate on Explosions In The Sky, especially this record, but seriously, I really think they are one of the best bands in the world. The beautiful cover art serves as the perfect introduction to this record, appropriately considering that their music is kind of like a painting. Each note, crescendo, crash and silence seems to represent another gorgeous brushstroke in their quest to make...uh, some kind of sweet painting. Anyway, from the lost in the flood/searching in the dark cover art that certainly brings to mind images of Hurricane Katrina, or just the sad and disconnected state of humanity, you know from the start that they are trying to get something across to you. It may be hard to notice if all of this instrumental bullshit sounds the same to you, but here they have abandoned everything that made their previous albums work so perfectly, and have come up with something else entirely that is somehow also pretty much perfect. They have songs under the five minute mark. They're kind of done with the basic soft/crescendo/loud/quiet structure they working with, a structure that spawned dozens of lousy imitators with no ear for melody. Instead, they succeed more than ever in writing songs so fitting and colorful that there is absolutely, positively, more assurance than ever that a vocalist would be useless here. The music itself fills the void, and then some. Unlike their previous work, these songs don't necessarily work as individual songs. This album requires a focused listen from beginning to end, a target that unfortunately may miss the mark for people who don't have the time or energy for that kind of thing. I first fell in love with it driving around the highways and backroads of their homestate of Texas over spring break. I have found few albums more perfect for a long, lonesome car ride than this one. A great record for a time of transition, loneliness, reflection, heartbreak, and eventual catharsis. <br /><br /><b>2. The Everybodyfields-Nothing Is Okay </b><br /><br /><img src="http://www.aquariumdrunkard.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/the-everybodyfields.jpg"><br /><br />This year I discovered, or re-discovered, my love for country music, and the band that singlehandedly did the most for me in this process was Johnson City, TN's The Everybodyfields. My first interaction with them was smoking pot with guitarist/vocalist Sam Quinn at the Shakori Hills bluegrass festival last fall. We talked about playing heavy metal and "Jungleland" by Bruce Springsteen, and I suppose it was all set from there on out. They describe their songs as being about "leaving, losing, and home." I think that about sums this record up perfectly. Sam and Jill Andrews, the other half of the band, used to date very seriously, and broke up shortly before the release of their first record, <b> Halfway There: Electricity and The South</b>. Subsequently, they have a consistent track record of writing and performing country music in a way that only ex-lovers could: passionately, regretfully, and honestly. The recording process of this album was particularly hard on the band, as the tension between Sam and Jill had escalated to such a level that, at several points, they were near canning the whole thing. This whiskey-induced desire to give up and go home to their lonely beds seeps through every pore of this record. It's haunted by the ghosts of the american south, the ghosts of country music of old, all the Johnny/June and Gram/Emmylou combinations there ever were, and many, many, empty handles of Jack Daniels. Musically speaking, it brings to mind the influence of 1970's, <b>Comes A Time</b>, <b>Harvest</b> era Neil Young, as well as Gillian Welch and The Band. This is certainly a record you can spend many lonely nights with, if you want to. <br /><br />"I combed my hair, it looked just right. And went out to go to these places, I go." <br /><br /><b> 1. The National-Boxer </b><br /><br /><img src="http://hooverdust.com/wp-content/images/thenational_boxer.jpg"><br /><br />Sometimes that perfect album comes along at the time in your life right when you need it most. <b>Boxer</b> was that record for me this year, perhaps the last two or even three years. I first saw them open for the Arcade Fire in may. I was really stoned and had great seats, and they started playing as soon as I sat down. I remember very little about their set except for how in awe i was, and how severely they blew the Arcade Fire out of the water that night. While this record did not hit me at first, in due time, it turned out to be exactly what I needed for a time where depression, happiness, deep reflection, and transition were hitting me all at once. There is as much variety within the lyrics of each song on this record, which is one of the many things that makes it so perfect. If you funneled all the decades of American folk, punk, alternative and indie into one band, that would be The National. In fact, if I could think of any one band right now that might be the perfect American band, it would be The National. They explore themes of alienation, aging, losing friends, falling in love, basically concepts involving both the triumph and downfall of the American dream.<br /><br />The romanticization of the monotonous happenings of everyday life, the detailed descriptions of seemingly irrelevant place, weave in and out of these songs, bringing to mind the early music of Bruce Springsteen. While there's no Crazy Janey, Mission Man, or Wild Billy in any of these songs, each song describes interactions between anonymous American characters in anonymous American places, allowing the listener to put themselves into the song perhaps more easily than Springsteen allowed for. They can make a song about staying indoors and listening to records ("Apartment Story," the single of which features a gorgeous b-side cover/re-interpreation of Springsteen's "Mansion On The Hill") sound just as heartfelt and dying for empathy as any Springsteen song ever did. They turn the seemingly boring details of everyday life into poetry, assuring the listener that they, just as much as anyone, have a story to tell. It is so easy to listen to this record, and so easy to get out of it exactly what you want from it. This year, I have spent many mornings, afternoons, and nights with this record, and I have written so much about it that, at this point, all I can say anymore is just how fucking important it has been for me. Almost in such a way where, if you listen to it, I would be kind of embarassed as to what you might think of me.andywqfshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09375780596415518777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5507260361994581511.post-22337050783469077872007-12-02T19:55:00.000-08:002007-12-02T19:56:27.169-08:00his camera is a phone...8. <b>Pissed Jeans- Hope For Men</b><br /><br /><img src="http://depts.washington.edu/kexp/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/Pissed%20Jeans.jpg"><br /><br />I had always thought this band was some bunch of jaded hipsters playing post punk somewhere on the exterior of the DC punk scene, until I found out their new record was coming out on Sub Pop. This shouldn’t really mean anything, but if it’s Sub Pop, and it’s heavy, I feel rather inclined to trust it. Instantly, any photograph of this band will catch you off guard. They don’t look like the kind of band that would be playing heavy music, but at the same time they seem perfect for it. Four unassuming, normal working class dudes from Allentown, PA, made what seems like the best hardcore record of the year, a record that is itself an anti-hardcore record. Combining the sludgey, filthy sounds of Flipper with the anthemic loserdom of early Nirvana, with the sarcasm and humor of Black Flag, all the while taking out any element that would make it seem even remotely desirable to commercial exploitation, this is perhaps the most unique record of the year. <br /><br />With a brooding sense of sarcasm and apathy throughout, singer Matt Korvette takes you to town on being sad and eating ice cream, guys with funny accents in his “Fantasy World,” and brings us a seething indictment of white collar liberal-ass mother fuckers, on the five minute, one tempo “People Person.” Pissed Jeans may be the first hardcore band to write an angry punk song without guitars, drums, or bass, as present on “The Jogger,” where all they do is recite a list of characteristics that tend to apply to any trust fund hipster who just used his grandparent’s will to move to Williamsburg after he graduated from Vassar. Whole foods…retirement plan…entertainment unit…and somehow you’re captivated throughout the entire song. Drummer Sean McGuinness is one of the sickest drummers on the planet, and he surprisingly holds back quite a bit here, all the while forming the essential backbone from which Pissed Jeans rip your face off. Hope For Men may be incredibly sarcastic, but somehow I felt sincere empathy seeping out of every pore of this record. <br /> <br /><br />You can’t fuck with this band at all. There’s no real point in hating on them, they hate on themselves so much already it doesn’t really matter.andywqfshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09375780596415518777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5507260361994581511.post-78633741612151768952007-11-23T08:51:00.000-08:002007-11-23T08:52:16.878-08:00No. 9<img src="http://www.austinchronicle.com/binary/c4f5/music_phases-38528.jpeg"><br /><br />9. <b> Thurston Moore</b>-Trees Outside The Academy<br /><br />I'll admit that I was never a very big fan of Sonic Youth until this year. Even now, I still have my doubts about them. I tend to enjoy bands who were heavily influenced by Sonic Youth more than Sonic Youth themselves. Seeing them perform all of "Daydream Nation" at McCarren Park in Brooklyn changed a lot of that for me. It was a heavily captivating set throughout, and everyone there seemed to feel that they were a part of something truly special. I still felt that, because I was working my way back in time through the Sonic Youth catalogue, trying to grasp something that honestly didn't appeal to me on its own very much, that maybe they just weren't for me after all. But everyone talked up Sonic Youth so much that I felt as if there was something wrong with me for not getting it instantly. That was all until I heard Thurston Moore's recent solo album, "Trees Outside The Academy," for the first time this past September. <br /><br />SY drummer Steve Shelley and renown violinist Samara Lubelski provide the essential backbone of this record, which also features several fuzzed out, rip roaring solos from J. Mascis. From there, the rest is all Thurston, displaying his uncanny songwriting ability throughout, an ability that doesn't always come through in the more experimental, feedback drenched noise of other Sonic Youth records. Not to put that side of Thurston down, I just like the side that comes out in this record a lot more. As writer Michael Azzerad said, if you can’t play it on an acoustic guitar, it’s not really a song. Lubelski’s violin plays a crucial role throughout the record, filling in all of the empty space and turning the songs into gorgeous, autumnal tunes, meant to tug on your hearstrings. The album serves as a poignant reflection, a sign of Thurston’s maturity, yet a clear indicator he does not plan on throwing in the towel anytime soon. The fact that that he’s able to reinvent himself as impressively as this, so far into his career as a musician, is proof that he may in fact deserve the iconic status commonly ascribed to him. Songs like “Fri/End”, “The Shape Is In a Trance,” and “Never Day” are probably the strongest tracks on the record, but don’t expect to be skipping around much on this one. This is certainly a record where you hit play and just let it go, feeling truly transformed by the end of your first listen, and keeping you coming back for more. <br /> <br />The production of the acoustic mix on this record makes it come off like a punk album, in a sense. You’re able to hear the pick hitting the strings as much as you are able to hear what chords he’s actually playing, making sure you know that just cause’s he’s gone acoustic doesn’t mean he’s lost his punk rock energy. You can hear the energy he’s putting into hitting that thing as hard as he can as much as you can hear the fine craftsmanship he’s put into writing these songs. <br /> The songs on this record seem a logical progression from the melodic, refined, and highly listenable rock songs of the last Sonic Youth record, "Rather Ripped." Could it be his biggest influence here is Sonic Youth? It certainly sounds like the intention of this record was to explore a whole different side of Sonic Youth that wouldn’t work as the follow up to “Rather Ripped,” but works perfectly as a solo attempt. On a side note, the title track is apparently about Ian Curtis, and the third track, entitled “Honest James,” is about James Brown. I’ll have to give those both a closer listen now. <br /><br />Listen: “The Shape Is In A Trance,” “Fri/End,” “Never Day,” “Off Work”andywqfshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09375780596415518777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5507260361994581511.post-5838733066162476992007-11-22T20:01:00.000-08:002007-11-22T20:04:41.183-08:00<img src="http://www.austinchronicle.com/binary/c4f5/music_phases-38528.jpeg"><br /><br />9. <b> Thurston Moore</b>andywqfshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09375780596415518777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5507260361994581511.post-77143491192747344242007-11-21T22:14:00.000-08:002007-11-21T22:19:55.089-08:00here we go...so i guess at this point there aren't really going to be any really good albums released for the rest of 2007, so i may as well begin my albums of the year countdown now. this is obviously based on what i've heard, which is only a snippit of all the incredible music that seems to have come out this year. i make no claim to have any authority or even a handle on all the records that have been released this year. basically, if it sounds like bruce springsteen i'll like it...anyway, and without further ado, I shall start at Number 10, and count down!<br /><br />first things first....<br /><br /><b>10.</b> <br /><br /><br /><img src="http://www.imposemagazine.com/photos/2007/07/redcollar.jpg"><br /><br /><br /><b>Red Collar</b><br /><b>The Hands Up! EP</b> (Power Team)<br /><br /><br />To be honest, when local NC promotions company Cool Fishing sent us this EP at the beginning of the summer, it fell under my radar, and it got lost in the shuffle of the office, a sad fact of life for many potentially great albums coming into the hands of WQFS. When we received from WQFS favorite Team Clermont, it caught my attention a little more, itself a sad comment on the psychology of college radio and music directing. Or maybe there are just too many bands out there, and the high volume of shit we get in from artists such as Electric Chubbyland has made me awfully jaded when it comes to finding out about new bands, or even giving them the courtesy of a quick listen. However, this is one of the few records we got in the station from a band I had never heard of before that completely and utterly knocked me on my fucking ass. <br /><br />The first single, “Hands Up,” was somewhat catchy upon first listen, but as I sat through the rest of the EP, I was blown away at the depth, passion, and honesty present in each and every song. It became evident that no college radio campaign could appropriately explore the complexities of this band, complexities which provide the platform on which Red Collar seem poised to take the torch as the next great American band…At least in the state of North Carolina. Red Collar are probably at their best when they’re tugging on your heartstrings, which the dancey post-punk of the “Hands Up” single doesn’t quite capture. That song sounds a little more like a market strategy than a good reflection of what this band is truly capable of. <br /><br />Speaking of heartstrings, for example, using the metaphor of selling used guitars as a way of mourning the sad realization of the mortality of the American teenage punk rock dream. For someone such as myself who is terrified about growing up, or “giving up,” the tension of which they explore in “Used Guitars,” this release speaks volumes. With this release, Red Collar achieve that rare accomplishment for any group of punkers who are growing up; letting your inner punk grow up with you. Instead of getting jaded and selling their record collection for beer money, they are busy learning more, taking in and sharing wisdom and honesty through song and live performance, and never giving up. Growing up in the DC punk scene, I often felt like there was a very low ceiling on what was deemed as acceptable personal growth if you hoped to retain your punk credibility. Red Collar shatter that ceiling to pieces, and say fuck it, let’s start our own thing. <br /><br />Songs such as “Witching Hour” make it clear they grew up listening to Fugazi and Rites Of Spring, while songs such as “Stay” feature an indescribable mixture of influences that I can’t quite my finger on, although old Small Brown Bike certainly comes to mind. Like Springsteen, they never judge, they just explore, they ask questions, and they tell stories. They somehow manage to combine the impossible-to-package-and-sell qualities of The Clash, the devotion to DIY culture and ethics of Fugazi, the young, anxious, and stuck in a town full of losers restlessness of the Boss, and the dancey catchiness of Q And Not U. yet they’re never above the audience. They struggle with life and its hard lessons just like everyone else in the room. As one review said, “they’re no bar band, they’ve learned too much.” Plus they’re some of the nicest people ever, and they fully deserve your attention. So put your hands up and give it to them!!<br /><br />Listen: “Used Guitars” “Stay” “Witching Hour”<br />www.myspace.com/redcollarmusicandywqfshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09375780596415518777noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5507260361994581511.post-14001091291230778442007-11-11T14:06:00.000-08:002007-11-12T13:19:00.430-08:00Wow, I have not updated this thing in forever. And what better time to update it than when I am currently trying to work on a research paper? I have been listening to a lot of really good new stuff, but briefly I just want to make a list of some of my favorite albums of the year so far, or largely just stuff that i think is going to be on my year end list. isn't that the most exciting thing about new years anyway? making year end lists? this is not any particular order, but i will definitely come up with some big year end entry come december. i have no clue what order these will be in, but for now i am just pondering some things you will see on there...<br /><br />some of my top jams of 2007, in no particular order:<br /><br /><b>Ghastly City Sleep</b>-Ghastly City Sleep<br /><b>The National</b>-Boxer<br /><b>Battles</b>-Mirrored<br /><b>M.I.A.</b>-Kala<br /><b>Pygmy Lush</b>-Bitter River<br /><b>The Everybodyfields</b>-Nothing Is Okay<br /><b>Panda Bear</b>-Person Pitch<br /><b>Akron/Family</b>-Love Is Simple<br /><b>Red Collar</b>-Hands Up!<br /><b>Big Business</b>-Here Come The Waterworks<br /><b>Thurston Moore</b>-Trees Outside The Academy<br /><b>Health</b>-Where You From?<br /><b>Explosions In The Sky</b>-All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone<br /><b>Pissed Jeans</b> Hope For Men<br /><br />stuff that was really awesome upon first listen, and is okay, but kind of faded away rather quickly:<br /><br /><b>Bruce Springsteen</b>-Magic<br /><b>Ryan Adams</b>-Easy Tiger<br /><b>Animal Collective</b>-Strawberry Jam<br /><b>Georgie James</b>-Places<br /><b>Broken Social Scene Presents: Kevin Drew</b>Spirit If...<br /><br /><br />straight up trash:<br /><b>Smashing Pumpkins</b>-Zeitgeist<br /><b>Rilo Kiley</b>-Under The Blacklightandywqfshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09375780596415518777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5507260361994581511.post-21328804525755003012007-10-03T09:55:00.000-07:002007-10-03T10:05:04.040-07:00Do you believe in Magic?<img src="http://www.musicalnews.com/img_art/28082007195221.jpg"><br /> <br /><br /><br /><br />By now you may have read several reviews of the new Springsteen record, “Magic.” Perhaps this isn’t as much a review, but more of a reflection. I grew up on Springsteen. In fact, my very first big rock concert was the D.C. date of the ’99 E Street Band reunion tour that my sister took me to, when I was 13 years old. We were sitting behind the stage and in the upper level, and it still remains to this day one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. Naturally, a man with as many fans as he is going to have high expectations placed on him for a new record. But Springsteen is no stranger to high expectations. In 1975, when he was writing and recording with the E Street Band for his then-upcoming album Born To Run, his record label had threatened to drop him from their contract if this one didn’t sell. Fresh off two semi-flops(which are now regarded as classics, Greetings From Asbury Park and The Wild, The Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle), Springsteen and crew spent 18 hours a day and more in the studio writing, recording, re-writing, and re-recording, until they were close to killing each other. The result was the best record of the 1970’s, in my opinion, and on top of that, a record that still sells millions each year and is continuously finding new generations of adoring fans. The romanticized themes of aimlessness, escape, loss and friendship, as well as getting the fuck out of New Jersey, and the characters whose stories he was telling, proved to be timeless, and Born To Run is that rare record that is still as important thirty years after its release as it was then. What’s more, Springsteen himself has stayed vital and relevant til this day. While many of his peers are putting out their third rehashings of their greatest hits collections, Springsteen has put out four multi-platinum studio albums since his first greatest hits collection came out in the late 90’s. As many writers and critics have already figured out by now, Bruce Springsteen occupies a strange place in American pop culture. <br /> <br /><br />Which brings us to Magic, an album that, from the title alone, sounded like it would be a rip-roaring return to his early days of bumming around the Jersey shore while checking out girls by day, and tearing up the club scene by night with the E Street Band. Critics everywhere were looking at it as a newer, updated Wild, Innocent, and after the adult-contemporary leanings of 2002’s The Rising, which was his first album with the E Street Band since 1983’s Born In The U.S.A, this notion was welcomed by Springsteen fans everywhere. The bad news is that Bruce is almost 60, and honestly, there’s no way he would be able to capture that youthful spirit again. Those early albums were so linked to the time and place in which they were written, that to expect him to be able to sit down and write another “Rosalita(Come Out Tonight” is pretty pointless. Magic sounds like the same Bruce, but an older, wiser, more mature Bruce. The bright production value and upbeat, rock-driven tempos that lay the grounds for most of the songs here are deceptively strange armor for the somewhat dark, dreary, and realist lyrical content that lie slightly underneath the surface. With an uncanny ability to use lyrical ambiguity to connect to fans everywhere, regardless of their political leanings, Springsteen touches on Hurricane Katrina, the lies of the Bush administration, the neglect of American soldiers returning home from Iraq, as well as the more personal topics of aging, love, sex, and death. The first single “Radio Nowhere” is an obvious single choice, but after listening to the rest of the album, may be one of the weakest songs on the record. Songs like “Livin’ In The Future” and “I’ll Work For Your Love,” do genuinely sound like they could have been taken from Born To Run or 1980’s The River, while songs like “Girls In Their Summer Clothes” and “Your Own Worst Enemy” try to achieve their goal of revisiting Springsteen’s early pop leanings, and most of all his obsession with rock producer Phil Spector, but unfortunately fail at their attempt. Spector was famous for inventing the “Wall Of Sound” approach to recording music, highlighted in the vast, epic sounds of 60’s pop classics such as The Ronettes’ “Be My Baby” and the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling.” Well, unfortunately Phil Spector is on trial for murdering his wife, and the rich, dusty, analog sounds of the “Wall Of Sound” technique have been more or less obliterated by the digital age of recording. <br /> <br /><br />Instead, we have Brendan O’Brien, who is most famous for recording Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots, who ham handedly interprets this idea by adding layers of cheesy synthesized strings and weird echo/reverb/delay affects to his voice. He touches up the record too much and makes it sound prettier than it needs to be. In addition, one can’t help but feel that this record sounds really rushed. The various members of the E Street Band flew down on the weekends to hurriedly record their parts, and didn’t seem to be as integral to the writing process as they have in the past. As a result, it has a tendency to sound somewhat disjointed at times. Clarence Clemon’s memorable saxophone solos, always a focal part of any Springsteen track, seem to breeze by without notice, playing it safe, simply repeating the melodies rather than building on them, as he has done so well in the past. Gary Tallent, a talented and capable bass player, may as well have played his lines on a keyboard. I understand that these folks have got the recording process down pretty pat by now, and it shouldn’t take them months to write and record like it used to, but working together as a unit in the writing and recording process might have served them well if they were trying to recapture their older sounds, after all. <br /><br />While these issues are in fact minor faults of an otherwise wonderful record, Springsteen would be better suited to look for a new producer next time, as O’Brien’s 90’s radio style of recording can’t capture everything Springsteen is capable of, and seems more to diminish it than anything else. <br /><br />Not all is lost, however, as there are some truly fantastic songs on here. “Gypsy Biker,” “Long Walk Home,” “Devil’s Arcade,” “Terry’s Song” and “I’ll Work For Your Love” are some of the best songs of his career, both taking from and building on his extensive catalogue. In all honesty, I would not say that this is a good Springsteen album to start on. For those of you who are more into the folk and country side of the spectrum, "Nebraska" is a classic. For the hopeless romantic, "The River," "Born To Run," and "Tunnel Of Love" are essential. For the bar crawlers, "The Wild, Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle" will help you get your drink on, and for those times when you’re feeling empty and lost, "Darkness On The Edge Of Town" will speak volumes to you. Clearly the Boss is alive and well, and doesn’t plan to quit making music anytime soon. I am driving up to D.C. to see him on Monday, November 9th, so while most of you are sitting through your three hour lab, I will be drunkenly yelling along to “Badlands.” While the idea of a three hour lab may actually sound more appealing to some of you than sitting through a three hour Boss concert, let’s just say we can agree to disagree.andywqfshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09375780596415518777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5507260361994581511.post-79575271670426725632007-09-13T06:46:00.001-07:002007-09-13T08:47:22.532-07:00Ha! I KNEW ithe scruffy, Cincinnati-bred chroniclers of twenty-something life known as the National will take on that scruffy, Jersey-bred chronicler of blue collar life known as the Boss aka BRUUUUUUCE aka plain old Bruce Springsteen on the B-side of their new single.<br /><br />The band's cover of Bruce's Nebraska gem "Mansion on the Hill", recorded live at the opening night of last year's New York Guitar Festival, will back the"Apartment Story" single. Beggars Banquet will release "Apartment Story" in the UK on November 5.<br /><br />-pitchfork<br /><br />I knew they probably loved springsteen. who doesn't? nice choice of cover...<br /><br />in addition, here are some fun youtube videos i've found in the last day or two:<br /><br /><br />Grizzly Bear doing an acapella version of "The Knife"<br /><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Jjy2P0MSVlo"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Jjy2P0MSVlo" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object><br /><br /><br />Broken Social Scene with Dinosaur Jr. at some party. this looks ridiculously hip.<br /><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZW3BN_nwpzc"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZW3BN_nwpzc" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>andywqfshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09375780596415518777noreply@blogger.com0