Saturday, November 17, 2012

Vol. 3 Episoce 48



It was just announced this week that Veronica Falls will have a new album out this coming February. It sounds like Slumberland Records will be supporting the release of this album and will have pre-order information up as soon as they can. In the mean time you can stream the track called Teenage from the upcoming album. I am hoping for a 7” release for this single but haven’t yet heard anything.

Sigur Ros world tour tickets have gone on sale, in most cases yesterday or today (Saturday). I got my set of tickets yesterday. Actually, I got them the day before but they were standing room only. I had them switched for seats the following day. There will also be a three track digital EP given out with the tickets but the EP will not be released until a month before the tour starts. The EP will have all new music from the group.

It looks like Devildance Records is back up and running. You can now order the new Let Me Run album, Mad/Sad from them.

Here we go...

The lead singer for Family Force 5 (FF5),Soul Glow Activator, is hosting a show on the online radio station called Ngen radio. The show is called Phenomenon. He has put together a song to promote the show. You can download the song still here for a limited amount of time. The song is simple in the lyrics department but still meaningful. The title of the song is repeated as it the additional lyric, “I’ll show you love if you show me love.” There are some other lyrics to the song but those are the ones that stand out in my head as important. The song is excessively electronic and is the direction that the group seems to be going recently with their music. That has always been their direction I think anyway. I have had some friends complain that the group are becoming too dub step. I don’t think that a rock group can be too dub step since most rock groups, even with electronic influences, don’t want to be fully electronic. I think this song is more like Justice or Ratatat than anything like a Skrilex. All I can really say is keep making music FF5 I will be the one buying it for sure.

This is a digital only EP from Foxes. I will never understand why they started calling a single song with remixes of that same song an EP. It should be called a single. Anyway, There are four songs in this collection. The first song is called Echo (Radio Edit). It is a little disappointing that we couldn’t get the original studio version of this song. It is done in her usual style, electronic style drums with a good beat, synth backgrounds and bass with twinkly sounding piano. It is a really great song that I like a lot. I think that this song will be on her futured full length album. I think I heard a release time of next summer.

The next version of this track is called Echo (MONSTARemix). It is a big beat version of the song. I am not sure that I like it all that much really. It is just a lot of big hits in a row that follow the tune of the music. Some of the lyrics are included but are a bit sped up to follow the speed of the remix. Foxes was happy with the remix but I think it is a little over the top.

The third song on the EP is called Echo (French FriesRemix). This version seems slower than the Radio Edit version but I think it is just as fast. This version is mainly a drum and bass version of the song. I like this remix a lot better than the previous remix. Not much on the words but the bass line reminds me of a camera taking multiple shots in a row. It is the same repetitive sound happening all through this remix. Some would get board or cringe at the repetitiveness of this song. I think that it is perfect.

The last version of this song on the EP is called Echo (Instrumental). Obviously this is the music to the studio version of the song. I love it when artists are willing to put out just the music behind the song. I usually love the music more than the lyrics for most songs anyway. This is no exception either. The music behind this song is beautiful and has a great beat behind it. It reminds me of the ends of movies that have people standing on the edge of a cliff with a sunset going down behind the mountains. All of the beautiful oranges, reds and yellows that shine out from behind the mountains as the sun goes down.

I would recommend downloading a copy of this if at least to hear the instrumental version of the song.

It is here, it is here, it is finally here! Volume two if the Analog Series is out and I have my copies. The sad part is that I will probably never listen to them on vinyl because I would have to break the foil seal to get them out. It is not a big deal because I can download the music without a problem and hear the music that is contained that way.

This is a three track 7” record that contains three tracks. The first two tracks will be on the up coming full length album and the last track is only to be found on this 7”/download. The first track is called Communication Breakdown Part II, as of this point there is no part one to this song. The group likes to make titles of songs like this. For example, on their last full length album, A Spectrum of Infinite Scale, they have the title of a song called: Obligatory Part 2 Song In Which There Is No Presently Existing Part 1, Nor The Plans To Make One. I can only assume that there will be no part one to Communication Breakdown Part II. The song starts with an electronic wind down. The song kicks in at a low point in the wind down. It seems like a slower song and sort of drags along. Surprisingly this song has lyrics. There was also a track with lyrics on the previous album. This means that the full length will have two tracks with lyrics on it. This has been a rarity in the past. Maybe there will be more than just the two tracks on the album that will have lyrics? Anyway, the song is about losing contact with head quarters via their only contact, the radio. It is a simple song, not their best, but a good song still. I think that the music, when they include lyrics, suffers a little and becomes not so interesting. Maybe if they had a extra person dedicated to lyrics and other instruments it could work. On the other hand, I really like what Starcrunches (Lead guitarist and vocalist) voice sounds like when he does sing.

The second song on the single is called All Systems To Go. I really like the soft tones that are used to start this song out. They remind me of the racing video games that I played in the 80s. It is a soft beep, beep, beep, beep where the last beep is in a higher tone to signal start. Coco The Electronic Monkey Wizard (the bass player) uses the electronic vocalizer that they have used in the past to get the words for this song. The system says the title of the song, All Systems To Go, along with other words that seem unintelligible with the music playing over the top. I think that it may be counting down from nine but I am not sure. The song is very interesting but kind of mellow for the group. I would think that this song and the previous song were written at about the same time because they have a similar flow. I have done this in the past. What I mean is that I have written a song and still have other ideas that I want to get out at the same time. This leads to two songs that have a similar feel but are still different music.

The last song on the single is called Chemical Cats. This song can only be found on this single. I usually think of The Cure when I think of a two word title with the last word being cats. This is because of the song they did called Love Cats. This song is nothing like Love Cats. This song is deep with great guitar pops and fun drum lines. The song is short but drills into your head then makes its way into your heart and sits there for a while making you think about what you just heard. It is a great song and is classic MOAM?

This is really great stuff but if you are not a super fan then just wait for the full length next year. Four of the six songs contained on these two volumes will be there.

Don’t forget, if you missed out on the orange version of the first volume they were repressed on red vinyl so you can still get your hands on a limited color version of Volume One.

This is the eighth edition of the Live Current series. My wife and I have been collecting this series since the start of the radio station eight years ago. It all started when she got the founding members album. She got two copies of that, one on vinyl and one on CD. It continued from there. After she met me we started collecting them together. We have even picked up a memory stick that had an extra 5 tracks on it and the special birthday album. This volume was available on vinyl, CD and a box set. The box set has a vinyl copy, CD copy and a limited poster with the cover art on it. It was not so much of a box set as it was a record packaged separate from the CD and the poster rolled up in a shipping tube. I got all the things it said I was going to get and I guess that is what counts.

I am never a fan of many of the tracks on these compilations and this is no exception. Although there are seventeen tracks on this compilation. There are just a couple of tracks that I really like from this compilation. The first track that I really like from this is from Nada Surf. I have been a fan of their music since the first album that they put out, High/Low. The song that is on this album is called Waiting For Something. This song comes from their album The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy. This album was released in early 2012. I wrote a review about it in Vol. 3 Episode 4. The song that is here on this album is an acoustic version. It is really just as good as the album version. I have a problem with acoustic versions though. They always seem to lack the presence that the original studio versions have. I am not sure if that is because of the production or if it is something else. I am leaning toward production because if you record something live, acoustic or not, it can sound amazing. With this The Current version it seems a bit flat.

The other track that I really liked from this collection is from Polica. They are a local band from Minnesota. The group was pushed very hard in the local scene and as a result I never bought the album (if you are pushing that hard it must be mediocre). The song that is on this collection is called The Maker. It is a simple song with the chorus switching between two chord changes in a lower bass register synth sound. It becomes mesmerizing. There are a few more instruments that come in over the top of that and it then becomes a smooth rock song. This song is so good that I am going to look up more from the group. Maybe the group was pushed for a good reason, they are that good. I will look into them more and give info as soon as I can.

That is all I have for now...

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