I am making my way quickly to the end of this volume. There are only four more episodes after this post. Because of obligations with my place of business, Christmas time is almost upon us, I try to keep these postings going until the end of November. There are no postings in December. Volume three will start up again in January. I am hoping to have the first post up by January 14, 2012. This is just a reminder and I will probably post this reminder up again on the last post of this volume too. Thank you all for reading! On with the show...
Gold-Bears – Something To Think About
Gold-Bears – Something To Think About
This is an EP released in 2011. There are only 4 tracks on
the EP and none of the tracks appear on the full length album that came out in
the same year. The title track, Something To Think About, has a rhythm that is
similar to The Pains of Being Pure At heart. The sound is thinner than The
Pains though. This just helps to differentiate the group though. The vocals are
a bit hard to judge though because they are so distorted. It can be understood
better when the chorus punches in. That is good enough for me though. The next
track, So Natural, has a similar sound to the previous song with a bit more
distortion overall on the track. The repetition of the title of the song is
very catchy though. The third track, Train song, has lyrics that are better
understood. The music itself is clearer than the previous two songs. This is my
favorite song from the EP I think because of the clarity of the vocals and
music. The overall distortion is missing from this track as well. The song is
pretty, graceful and more calming overall. The last song on this EP is called Yeah
Tonight. It is soft with an acoustic guitar. It repeats the line, “Yeah tonight
we fall in love again like we did the first time.” The music behind it fills me
with happiness and reminds me of my love life. It also has a Sigur Ros sound in
my mind. I love Sigur Ros and to have a group make an attempt to copy them,
intentional or not, is absolutely wonderfully butiful. I think that I would recommend
this EP to anyone regaurdless of musical taste because of the range that is
covered on it.
This is the first single released from the album Are You
Falling In Love? It was released before the album in 2010. I was lucky enough
to get a copy and it came on white vinyl. It is a three track single. I thought
that this was great because usually there is only one B side on a single; we
get two with this one. The first song is the title track, Tally. This song has
a great jangle sound to it in the verse. The chorus jumps into a hard punk
sound with heavy distortion though. Putting these two sounds together is
brilliant though. This song has a sound similar to the reason that I got into
this band. That reason is because of a song called Record Store from their
first album. This song is very special to me because it uses elements from
Shoegaze and jangle pop at the same time. Two clashing sounds that for some
reason come together so well with this band. The next song from this single is
called Jezzer. This song has a sound similar to a lot of the groups that have
been putting out music in the New
Jersey area, The Gaslight album comes to mind here. I
can’t exactly explain this sound but I will give it a shot. If Bruce
Springsteen were just coming up in the indie world I think that he would sound
similar to The Gaslight Anthem. I hope that comes across well enough. The last
song on this single is called HK Song. This song is a song that reminds me of
the soft rock of the 70s with a little bit of the 80s new wave mixed in every
once in a while with the synth keys added in at the choruses. It is a sweet
song but a short song too. It is another great set of song that explores
different genres of music.
This EP was released in 1990. It is the seventh EP released
from the group. The title of the EP is in reference to the style or method that
is used by the guitarist. Fans referred to this method as glide guitar. The
first track, Soon, from the EP was included on the second full length album
called Loveless. The song was released from this EP as a single. It has the
classic Shoegazer sound that MBV has become famous for. Rough around the edges
but soft and warm at its heart. The lyrics are unintelligible for the most part
but that is OK with this type of music really. The next track is the title
track for the EP, Glider. This song sounds like they tried to take a page from
The Beatles with the recorded sounds being played back backwards. It sounds
interesting but just doesn’t come close to what was intended. Every thing seems
to be layered on piece by piece in a backward fashion. It does this until the
very end when it just fades out. There are no lyrics to speak of. The third
track, Don’t Ask Why, has a vocal sound that is similar to one of my favorite
artists, Abandoned Pools. Abandoned pools cam out many years after MBV but I
think that Tommy Walters, the Abandoned Pools vocalist and music writer, sings the only way that he knows how and Kevin
Shields, MBV vocalist and music writer, loves to play with sounds. It may be
that Tommy wanted to emulate the sound of this track but I can’t prove that
either. I think that this is my favorite track from the EP though. The lyrics
are also understandable and singable if you are into this type of music. The
last track, called Off Your Face, features a nice sounding airy female vocal. The
song has a good beat and is great for a lazy day in the house. I think that I
would not recommend this EP to everyone but I would recommend the song Don’t
Ask Why to everyone.
This EP was released in1991. This is the eighth EP that the
group has released. The title is a reference to the heavy use of the tremolo
and vibrato that the group used in creating their music. This EP only has four
tracks but Kevin Shields was quoted to say that, “Tremolo had seven tracks on
it, but you’re not allowed to do that, so we called it four tracks and didn’t
name three of them.” This was in reference to the extended codas on the first
three tracks. The first labeled track on this EP is from the second full length
album called Loveless. The extended parts of these tracks are not a part of the
songs on the second LP. The coda on the first track, To Here Knows When, is not
completely different from the first part of the song but is different enough to
stand out. The second track, Swallow, has an Indian styled rhythm. The drums
are some type of bongo and there is an instrument sound that is reproduced on
the track that reminds me of the instrument that you may have seen street
performers use in the country to tempt snakes out of baskets. The song is not a
heavy distorted song. It is actually quite peaceful. The coda on this song
utilizes more reverse recording. There are no drums on this track but the snake
instrument seems to be still used on this part of the song. The third song, Honey
Power, is very distorted in the intro and breaks of the song. The verse part of
the song seems to smooth itself out with some nice airy female vocals. The coda
on this song if very clean sounding with Ooo and Ahh vocals from the female
vocalist. This is very uncharacteristic for the group and is a welcome change
if only for one minute. The last song on the EP is called Moon Song. This song
also uses the bongo style drums. The music is still heavily distorted but the
vocals seem to be on the loving side. The lyrics are almost understandable over
the distortion that is being used on the track. I think that these types of
songs are a lot of fun because you can make up your own words if you can’t
understand parts. I think that this EP is more for the collector than the
casual listener. I like the EP a lot because of the extras that are included in
the music though.That is all I have for now....
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