Just heard of this band through Aversionline. You can click on the link to read the review that sparked my interest in the band. The band is a three piece from Allston, Massachusetts. They are currently unsigned per their myspace page, but I'm not sure how long that will last. The recording is what you would expect from a demo, but there are elements of this sound that works well with the music. The instruments tend to blend, and reverb flows throughout, but particularly with the guitar the sound is just right. The drums are flat, as you can imagine, but other bands have been driven to maintain this type of lo-fi sound (hello Times New Viking), so it works in that regard. I would imagine they bring more depth to the drums on future recordings once the money starts flowing in. I like the vocals, distant as they sound, almost as a separate instrument complimenting the groovy guitar and solid writing. Reminds me of an old H2O 7" I had back in the day for some reason.
Young Adults - "Annulation"
A few open notes leads into the core rhythm of the song. Catchy right off the bat. The guitar takes the lead on this song, partly a result of the recording, but (hopefully) partly by design, as it creates the aural experience that is immediately satisfying. This is not to discount the vocals, but they rather serve the purpose of supporting and filling in well juxtapose to the guitar.
Young Adults - "Impression"
The oddest guitar intro on the demo, but when the next guitar part takes it up a notch (on the scale that is) it works. The pace is slower than on any other song, allowing for a more "rocked out" feel and clearer vocals due to less reverbed sound created by open guitar play. This also allows the drums to make their way into the feel a bit, as the beat is more pronounced, whereas the previous song was built more on the rhythm of the guitar.
You can check out more of their songs on their myspace page linked above, and they are also posting all of their demo songs for free download as well. If you want a cd I believe you can contact them through their myspace page and they will send you a copy for $4. The demo is 5 songs in total.
I somehow missed that the third Kings of Convenience album (excluding the remix album Versus) had been released last October (2009). I am a very big fan of their first two albums, Quite Is the New Loud (2001) and Riot on an Empty Street (2004). As you can see, its been quite some time for this third album to be released. The Bergen, Norwegian group is made up of Erlend Øye and Eirik Glambek Bøe. Øye, has been quite active in a number of other projects (a solo album entitled Unrest, part of The Whitest Boy Alive). Eirik Glambek Bøe, I believe, had been focusing on school at one time which also accounted for some of time off. In any case it has been long overdue, so I was quite elated when I discovered this release.
Both Erlend Øye and Eirik Glambek Bøe sing and play guitar in the group. At times they have included other musicians often bringing in other stringed instruments, rarely any percussive instruments, though it is noted on this album that Eirik will often tap at his guitar creating a percussive beat in certain songs. After my initial listening, I came away thinking that they had moved their focus toward the vocal end of things. I still think this as I have re-listened to the cd, though some of the guitar and viola nuances have shown through. I think this album will serve to compliment their previous two quite well. My personal bias is towards the more instrumental end of things. The part of their music that really captured me was their interwoven guitar playing that had been a hallmark of their first two albums (particularly the first). But, to ignore the beautiful harmonization of their voices would be criminal as well. While I sit here listening to the music on this album and writing this review, I hesitate to draw further conclusions about this album. I can tell it is already revealing much more than I first grasped. What can be taken away from this, is perhaps this album in its ever so Kings of Convenience softness and subtlety, is layered and holds its greatest offering underneath its surface.
Kings of Convenience - "Mrs. Cold"
Erland on nylon strings and Eirik on steel strings. Eirik's picking style provides a percussive feel that helps build a beat for the song. While Erland is free to come in and out with some very beautiful playing that brings alot of character to the song. This song also features Davide Bertolini on upright bass and Tobias Helt on viola. The vocals are often composed of Eirik singing lead and Erland joining in on chorus and occasional trade offs. There is a little bit more liveliness at times in the vocals in this song than is typical for duo, which fits in well with the lyrical concept of the song.
Kings of Convenience - "Riot On An Empty Street"
Here we see a change in the vocal pattern. Eirik, often the lower sounding of the two, switches with Erland and takes the high end. This is simply a beautifully written song, I think my favorite on the album because of the emotion evoked by the mainline guitar hook. It feels like a sad song, but of a kinetic sort, without conclusion, which can be a bit haunting if not for the fact that it is so warming at the same time. The lyrics do a wonderful job of painting imagery, and are sung in doses, two lines at a time, broken by guitar interludes. The piano and vocalized humming accompanying the closing portion of the song is wonderfully done and the seconds of silence that separate this song and next (whether intentional or not) are perfectly placed.
You can find this album available for mp3 download through iTunes and on cd at Amazon.com for relatively good prices (~$11.00). The group is venturing out on a tour of Eastern North America beginning in June, 2010. Details and cities that they will hit on this tour can be found at their website.
I recently read about Weeping in Fits and Starts for the first time at Tiny Idols, a very well written and interesting blog about obscure and out of print material from roughly the past fifteen years. This has really been growing on me after a few listens. I wasn't able to find an image of the cover of this album, so this fuzzy band photo to the left will have to do. The band is a little difficult to pigeon hole in regards to their sound. Certainly within the broad label of indie rock, but to their credit it gets more difficult beyond that. Built on rich vocals, acoustic guitar, clean electric guitar and bass, varied percussion, banjo, and more. The band leader was Greg Jacobs, who wrote all of the music expect for "Riding Green Riding Bike". The songs were written in the early 90s and the recorded around '93-'94 in Boston, MA. The songs on this album, the band's first (they released a second before calling it quits), benefit from good writing, an inherent skill at harmonizing voice and guitar, and a good use of backing/layering of vocals. There's an "Irish folk" element that can be found here and there, as well as general swaying and warm fullness felt, particularly towards the end of the album.
Weeping In Fits And Starts - "How Can I Get Half"
Following the title track instrumental "This Wreck Is Goin' Down", "How Can I Get Half" starts out with two sets of vocals, one up front in the mix, the other set in the back. The songs demonstrates some of the better use of layering the vocals to emphasize the chorus at times, and separating them to provide background and foreground. The drumming also plays strongly in this song, changing up the beat and tempo often. Added guitar about half-way through helps to build and accent the acoustic guitar. The tempo is slowed at times, led by the vocals, which really drive the song.
Weeping In Starts And Fits - "Greater Sorrows Will Prevail"
The recording on this song is mixed a little more evenly, the guitar stands more prominently here than in "How Can I Get Half", a fuller warmer sound. A mid-paced beginning turns it up a tick briefly before layers of guitar and other instruments fill the middle portion of the song thickly and almost evoking sadness. The real winning part of the song is the final chorus "I got my feet wet and it's something I can't control..." sung over up-tempo drumming and great feeling and emotion created by the open play on guitar and later the vocals as it trails off.
I found a few copies of this album (and where I purchased it) at Amazon, reasonably priced (~$3.00). As I mentioned above, at first listen, I wasn't really caught all that much by the songs. It took a couple listens and now I'm listening it consistently, and am going to look to pick up their other album Blue Funnel World (1998). The music can be sad, introspective, upbeat, and especially warm.
Rites of Spring remain one of my favorite mid-80's punk bands. The band's only full length release, End on End, was released on LP in 1985 and two years later on CD. They have since been both remastered in 2001 (CD) and 2009 (LP), all on Dischord Records. For those unfamiliar with the band, Rites of Spring were an emotionally charged band that stood in response the negative "macho" attitude current that was prevalent within the punk scene and genre. They carved their niche, and should be applauded for this, as the underlying life blood of punk or hardcore punk is the defiance and challenging of accepted rule, whether that be societal or within the genre itself. I have long felt thatGuy Picciotto's singing on this album was as an impassioned voice as I have ever heard. Never having a chance to see them live, I can only imagine how a stage performance must have felt for those lucky enough to be in attendance. Picciotto and fellow band-mate Brendan Canty (drums) went on to form Fugazi, and are probably more well known for there efforts there. Its guitarist Eddy Janney that nears Picciotto in standing out on this album, as his writing and playing on the guitar brings character to the songs on the instrumental side. Canty handles the pace and fills well, while Micheal Fellows supports on bass, though he sometimes is lost in the album's mix. The recording at times is a bit thin (see bass and guitar), and the drums could use a better recording specifically, but none of this takes away from the auditory experience that much.
Rites Of Spring - "For Want Of"
Feedback flows into the full band, led by Guy's vocal "I...". Active guitar chords run over the steady drum beat. With every "I" sung by Guy he seems to exhale more and more, building steam into the chorus. The instrumental parts of the song are pretty straightforward. They roll into a guitar led interlude (my favorite moment of the song) that pulls away momentarily as the vocals return, then together returns to the main guitar part. This cycle is repeated again through the rest song, but the emotion in the final vocal parts is almost overflowing, intensified by the guitar and drumming.
Rites Of Spring - "Nudes"
Towards the end of the album the songs are a bit more diversified musically. "Nudes" opens right up with powerful vocals. In fact, the vocals are possibly stronger and more forcefully sung on this song than any other on the album. The music is tightly played with the vocals, and accents the lyrics well. Its as if the music is pounding the words into your ears, well in a good way that is. Everything just works together in a collective effort to emphasize. Emphasize the sung word, the played chord, the emotion felt by the listener, emphasizing it all.
Other stand out songs on this album include "Persistent Vision", "Spring", "Deeper Than Inside", "End on End" and pretty much every song towards the end of the album. There's alot of strong material here that not only brings me back to listen repeatedly, but basically for the whole album. You can check out samples of each song at the Dischord website for Rites Of Spring. You can purchase the LP, CD, or mp3 there as well. The 12" LP comes with free mp3 downloads which is very cool thing that labels are doing more and more.
I can't really put into words the emotions resonated by some of these songs, and I wonder if sometimes if it's just something about me (or the me from years ago) that finds their music so evoking and holding. I often think appraisal of artistic mediums has as much to do about the appraiser as the appraised. I find myself identifying with certain characters or roles in some of my favorite movies, finding out that this is what really draws me to falling in love with a certain film or song, its perceiving these emotions that are familiar or, maybe in a way more applicable to this album, "strike a familiar chord" within me. I think there's a rush when we believe someone else "feels" the same way as we do. Our language caps our ability to communicate, we are limited by our words. We can't describe emotional experiences accurately through words, so when that feeling that someone else is experiencing a similar emotion (sometimes we believe it to be the same) occurs we perk up as if we just successfully remembered that tip-of-the-tongue word that escaped us momentarily, and connection and understanding is made between us. So I don't know if this album will evoke you the way it does me, I am not sure I can objectively review or critique it, though I am also not sure how one does that anyways.
Four years following his debut full-length album, Veneer (2003), José González's second full-length recording In Our Nature (2007) came out. The Swedish guitar and vocalist of Argentinian decent performs with Erik Bodin on percussion and Yukimi Nagamo providing backing vocals. Mostly you are getting pretty straight forward guitar and vocal music, with some layering of vocals, minimal percussion, and some synth work as well. González is still an active member of the band Junip, and reportedly a new album by the band will be out soon. His solo work might be his best output though, as it allows for his amazing guitar writing to shine through, mostly because it carriers the burden of being the primary instrument played on most of his work. One of the best songs on this album happens to be a cover. Massive Attack's "Teardrop", as done by González, carriers more outward emotion than any other song on a moody, introverted album, and is beautifully done. It is the only cover on the album, which is good, as González's own songwriting is strong enough that he does not need to rely on using covers to fill out his solo works, but it is a tastefully done cover nonetheless.
José González - "How Low"
The first song on the album. One of the best songs with regard to his guitar playing. The guitar picking/plucking is used to create an offbeat rhythm that I don't find typical of solo work or folk or what have you, almost math rock-like in a way. González's singing comes across as quite unique for me, maybe its his Latin American roots, it seems to give a distinct ring to his voice. The level and inflection of his voice is perfectly matched with the guitar tone. About two minutes into the song, the vocals cease and an enjoyable guitar led solo steers its way over the guitar rhythm quietly closing the song.
José González - "In Our Nature"
This title track, "In Our Nature", starts out with a bouncy guitar and percussion beat. Another defining characteristic in this album, and Gonzalez's work in general, is the lyrical content. Easily he could have written two albums worth of love longing or relationship based material. That would have been more typical of similarly sounding musicians in this genre, but instead his focus is often more toward social aim, and social change more specifically.
Put down your sword.
Send home your dogs.
Open up your doors.
Let down your guard.
It's in our nature.
It's in our nature.
It's in our nature.
It's in our nature.
Put down your gun.
Ignore the alarm.
Open up your heart.
Let down your guard.
Once again the tone of the music fits the lyrics and vocals perfectly, and vice-versa. The song builds up briefly towards the end, following the spoken "Its in our nature" line mixed in the back of the track, which moves on to the final chorus, and as quickly as the song rises it turns quietly to an end.
The artwork for this album and his previous release Veneer, is done by Elias Araya. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find much out there about Araya, or his works, though a Google image search turns up a few interesting works. Back in regards to González, it looks like it may be another four years between albums, which is too bad, but a new Junip album would do much to help pass the time. I read an interview of González, where it was noted that he played in a hardcore band when he was younger, and he identified Sick of it All as one of his favorite bands at that time, musically there isn't much influence here, but one wonders if the political/social aspect of that type of music had an influence on him. Here's a link to his U.S./North America online store, and there are links to other online stores through his website, if you are interested in that merch stuff and cds.
Here's an oldie that has been playing regularly on my iTunes as of late. I'll come right out and make sure anyone not familiar with Reagan Youth recognize that the cover art is an ironic representation of the band as they were a vehemently anti-racist punk band circa 1980s. In fact, the band's lead singer Dave Rubinstein's parents were Holocaust survivors. This is a combination of the band's only two albums and was released in 1994. The first ten songs are from the first album, while the remaining twelve songs are from the second. There is a clear distinction between the two album musical styles and the combination of the two on this one album is interesting to say the least (not unlike comparing the last few songs on the Minor Threat discography to the earlier tracks). The rocked out, heavily guitar layered second half of this release is what I think brings me back repeatedly. This is not to say that the band's earlier and likely more popular songs from the first half are lacking, they are strong early east-coast hardcore punk songs, that lyrically delve straight into the political and particularly anti-rascism anthems, but I find the depth of the latter songs providing a greater listening mosaic.
Reagan Youth - "I Hate Hate"
An example of the band's earlier songwriting and one of their tighter played songs. The drumming is on a constant tear to the finish, filled with snare rolls, a bit sloppily played if only to fit the style of the music. The guitar that pours in toward the end of the song is nice added layer, giving a typical straightforward punk song a little something extra to help it stand out. For those following along, the next song on the album, "Degenerated", was the song that Chaz Darvey (Brendan Fraser) and his band play at the end of the movie Airheads.
Reagan Youth - "A Brave New World"
This track appears toward the end of the album and represents the later recordings of the band. Right from the start you can hear the difference in songwriting between the first album release "I Hate Hate" and this song. Heck its over a minute before the vocals kick in. The drumming here is still strong, but slowed down a bit while doing a fine job of accenting and rolling. The guitar layers add to the theme of the song, kind of a desolate wasteland.
I see a perfect alpha-plus
I see an epsilon-minus
Everybody in their place
I take a soma holiday
To be born without face
Problems conveniently erased
And the matter of sex and erotic play
I take a soma holiday
Is this utopia, the dream of mankind?
Livin' your life on a factory line
Is this utopia, dream of mankind?
Livin' your life from nine to five
The written lyrics have developed since the earlier work too, taking a darker view of society degenerating. The vocals, similarly to the guitar, seem to fit the mood and theme of this song perfectly, all the way through the last few lines decrying that it is better to end then to mend.
I found some information about the band at the New Red Archives (record label that released this album) website, and the bands releases, including this one at the labels online catalog here.
