Alright, Here it is, The last post for the year. Remember, there will be a New Years post with a round up of the good stuff that was released last year. Then volume four will start up sometime in the middle of January.
In my previous post I mentioned that I was still waiting for
four items to come in the mail. Well, 8 hours later two of them showed up in my
mail box. Atoms For Peace 12” and the White Laces album. I am still waiting for
the new Let Me Run album and the delayed Whirr/Anne double split 7”.
This is the official physical release for the first single
from the up coming Atoms For Peace album called AMOK to be released early next
year. I am not sure yet of a release date as XL Recordings have put up multiple dates over
the past few weeks. The latest date that I have seen is Feb 18, 2013. I am
happy to have the single though.
This was taken from Vol. 3 Episode 35 about the song Default: The song is super
glitchy sounding. As a matter of fact the opening few notes are so dizzying
your head will spin until the whole track kicks in to straighten it out. The
bass line sounds very similar to something that Radiohead wrote but there is
enough difference with the other parts of the song that it is easily over
looked. There are vocals on this track and they are silky smooth Yorke vocals.
I know that the group is supposed to consist of other members but this song
seems like it is all Thom like the album that He put out as his solo effort,
The Eraser. I like it but was also looking forward to hearing some bass lines
from Flea.
There are two B sides to this single. The first and most
important is called What The Eyeballs Did. This is the first of the two B
sides. I was very happy to hear Flea playing bass guitar on this track. It adds
so much to the reality of the track since every thing else in the song is synth
or electronic it seems. The bass line is quite funky too even if it repeats the
line over and over. The drums are a mix of programmed and live. It is really
the bass line that drives the song. The synths in the background just kind of
float there like wispy clouds. Thom’s vocals are almost grounded, somewhere
between the synths and the bass line. The drums are just there dancing around
the whole scene.
The last track on the single is an instrumental edit of
Default. It is interesting but without Thom’s vocals on the top I lose interest
quickly.
This is White Laces first full length album. It was released
through Speakertree Records on September 11, 2012. It has a limited pressing of
500 units and 100 of those are on green colored vinyl. I got my order in as
soon as I could and was lucky enough to get a green colored record. It is
colored a light grass green with swirls of darker green and yellow. It reminds
me of a late spring day when the grass is just starting to come up new. The
album also comes with a download code to get the album digitally. On
Speakertree’s web page they gave this little blurb about the album: “The album
is an undeniable force, delivering 8 well-crafted pop songs that float from the
mesmerizing cool to the intensely immediate, often times within moments.” I
find the music to be similar to All The Saints but a little bit lighter and
more fun. I think that White Laces has more of the jangle pop influence too.
Where All The Saints come off as dark shoegaze White Laces are a dark jangle
pop. Two shades of the same style in my mind but one is easier to listen to
than the other, as I already said.
There is a single that was released from this album called
Crawl/Collapse. It did not get a physical release though. There was a video
made to support the song though. The song is a very good song though. It starts
off with a guitar playing with an echo pedal on it. The drums are also playing
at the beginning with a straight forward rock beat that makes me want to get up
and move around. There is also a cool break down where the drums drop off and
it is just vocals with a little bit of guitar here and there. After that there
is this part of the song where it just keeps going like it will never stop. It
becomes enveloping as I keep listening to it I just don’t want it to stop.
There are no vocals during this end part it is just the music. It is shoegaze
magic. I hope that they keep writing music like this.
I am very interested in this group and they have put out a
few EPs on cassette and 10” records. I am going to try to get some more music
from them. We’ll see what happens.
This is the third album from Incubus. It was released in
1999. It was one of the few albums that were really good that came out that
year. This album was never released on vinyl. Let me rephrase that, it was
never released on vinyl until this year. The album was released for the first
time for Black Friday Record Store Day. The band put out 5 of their first six
albums for the event this year. The only album not released on vinyl for the
event was Fungus Amongus. There was special care put into these releases. Each
album was foil stamped and numbered. Each of these albums was cut as a double
LP at 180 grams. Just listening to this album, it is one of the quietest LPs I
have ever heard. What I mean is that the vinyl itself is super quiet in the
silences between the songs and at the silent parts of the song. Sometimes a
pressing is bad and the record can be noisy. The record that I have seems to be
near perfect. It sounds great.
With this album the group seemed to switch from a funk/metal
sound to an alternative rock sound. Some of the tracks still had influences of
that funk/metal sound that they started with. This would be expected of them
though I would think. This album also has a new turntableist in Chris Kilmore.
The album seems to have an overall sound that makes the album easy to listen to
in my opinion.
There are three singles that were released in support of
this album. The first is called Pardon Me. This is the first of the music that
they had put out to receive heavy rotation on radio stations. The song
describes a state of confusion and alludes to spontaneous combustion. This has
always been an interesting idea but one that nobody can seem to prove. Brandon
Boyd, the lead singer, wrote the song after reading about the phenomenon after
a tour. He also had some problems after the tour in that he found out that his
girlfriend of 7even years had been cheating on him. He also found out that his
grandmother and a close friend had died. He wrote the line, “Pardon me while I
burst into flames.” after reading the article and finding all of this
information out. It is a great song.
The second song released as a single is called Stellar. This
song references to outer space and watching the earth from a distance with a
significant other. The song is a loud soft loud type of song. Just that alone
makes it very easy to listen to. The chorus is the loud part and the most
meaningful to me. Brandon
sings, “How do you do it? Make me feel like I do. How do you do it? It’s better
than I ever knew.” This is easily relatable to any intimate relations ship that
I have ever been in. Yes, I get choked up listening to this song every time.
The video for the song is what I first heard/saw of the band. I loved the song
and instantly related it to my then wife. I don’t think that she saw the song
the same way that I did though. She seemed to be into country at the time if I
remember right. and did not understand this group because of it.
The last single released from the album is called Drive. The
song is about how most people live life in fear and conversely what it would be
like to live life with out that fear driving your life’s decisions. I like the
message that the chorus brings. Brandon
sings, “What ever tomorrow brings, I’ll be there with open arms and open eyes.”
I think he is saying that he doesn’t want to be afraid and will take on what
ever comes his way with out fear. It really is an amazing message to come from
a rock group. I am not saying that other bands can’t make messages similar to
this but this one in particular is a very powerful message for me. The music
for the song is very elegant with basically just drums an acoustic guitar and
vocals.
If you can find it, the record sounds so much better than
the CD or the MP3. I highly recommend getting a copy of this album if you can
afford it let alone find it.
This is a compilation released by the band this past summer
(2012). It contains tracks that have been hard to find for over a decade,
probably longer. I found out about the group through Slumberland Records over
the summer. If you are interested you can download the album through the groups
Bandcamp page. The album is filled with indie jangle pop from the late 80s and
early 90s. The group did not put out much music back then but this album has fifteen
tracks on it. You can download the album at a pay your own price method. There
is no actual single from this album but it is a collection of B sides and
rarities. It is a lot of fun to hear what was under ground during that time period.
So, swing over to their Bandcamp side and get a copy, free is also an option.
That is all I have for this year... Remember if you have requests please leave a comment.
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