Saturday is Record Store Day! Go support your local indie
record stores. I will be doing so with my family! Next weeks post will then be
about my Record Store Day 2013 experience.
I believe the preorders for the new Man Or Astro-man? album
will be up next week at Chunklet.com!
The Current has announced the five acts that will be
performing at Rock The Garden this year. They are: Dan Deacon, Low, Bob Mould,
Silversun Pickups and Metric. As with every year of Rock The Garden, there is
only one band that I would kill to see, the Silversun Pickups. I missed them on
their last tour but don’t want to see the other four bands or pay the huge
amount of money for the tickets. I am a member of the current but will not be
going to see this set.
Here we go...
From the North
Central University
web page about the album, “Over the course of two Chapel services and one
praise gathering night last week (February 6-8, 2013), the amazing talent of
the North Central University College of Fine Arts recorded a passionate,
Spirit-filled example of the live worship at the NCU Chapel.
Using the performing groups of the North Central University
Concert Chorale, One Accord, Worship Live, Jeff Deyo, and an NCU Chapel packed
with students, faculty and friends, more than a dozen songs were recorded live.
Additionally, a team of videographers and photographers recorded video and
still images of the 3 performances for production of promotional materials as
well.”
I downloaded this album because my churches music leader,
Jon Carlos Velez, was a part of the release. He did not know at the time that this
was my side project. He had asked all of the church band members to get the
album and give it a review on iTunes or whatever. I told him later after practice
was over that I review albums for fun. I actually thought that I had told him
about this before but it is an easy thing to forget about.
I don’t usually listen to the music that is played at church
outside of church. I guess that is because the music is simple so that the
congregation, who are not musicians, can easily sing along. I personally like
the music more than the lyrics and so prefer difficult music and the Christian
commercial bands that exist outside of the church. Bands like Pillar, Red and
even Family Force 5. That being said, I can still get behind this album because
it does support the up and comers that could be a part of the bands like some
of the ones I have mentioned. They could also end up being church leaders like
Jon Carlos. You can listen to samples of the music that I am going to talk about at the link above.
I am going to start off with the one thing that I have a
problem with on this album. Stephanie Mac Donald takes the lead vocal on the
song Glory. This is a good song but my problem is that she seems to have a
slight problem singing the R sound in the word Glory. The reason this is a
problem for me is that this is basically all that the chorus is, repeating the
word Glory. The verse comes off near flawless but that chorus makes me feel
like I have a fat tongue just listening to it.
All right lets move on to the better stuff, not that Glory
isn’t a good song. There are 13 songs on this album and one lead off prayer
track. Jon Carlos Velez leads on three of these tracks, Jeff Deyo leads on
three, Brittany Lepard has two tracks, Evan John has one and Stephanie Mac
Donald has one. There are two duets with Stephanie and Evan as well. The last
track is just credited to North
Central University.
The tracks lead by Jeff Deyo are We Delight, Eternity, and Moving Mountains.
His first track, We Delight, is a fun rock song with a simple catchy chorus.
The electric guitarist stands out the most, for me, on this track. He plays a
speedy riff that has a lot of distortion and echo. I have been listening to a
lot of music with these sounds lately so it naturally attracted me. The second
song that he leads, Eternity, is slowed down but comes off as a arena rocker
with the crowd participation. His last lead song, Moving Mountains,
picks up the pace. The vocals are still slow but the beat on the drums is very
quick. This one also has the crowd participation but not as heavily. Jeff Deyo comes off as a very competent music
leader whose crowd cues are not so over powering.
The tracks lead by Jon Carlos Velez are, I Will Go, Your
Love, and So Good. His first track, I Will Go, puts him with an opening of
piano and vocal. The crowd joins in after the first line and the band comes in
just after the first verse. With this one the guitar stands out for me again.
The guitar is very sparse so when it is played it seems to stand out more. It
is a slow song though with amazing emotion in the vocals. The second song that
he leads is called Your Love. This is a slower song than the previous track.
The song is simple with acoustic guitar and vocals being the base of the song.
The band does come in but they are incredibly simple as well. This helps the
crowd to focus on the words of the song and the meanings as they sing with Jon
Carlos. His third song that he leads is called So Good. This track is a bit
faster but not by much. Although the song is slow still it follows the now
classic loud soft loud style that has become popular in music.
Brittnay Lepard leads on the songs Glory To God and Your
Presence. Glory To God is another slow track that seems to move very well. This
is probably a stand out song for me. The drums and bass work well together and
the guitar sprinkled on top is so smooth and understated it is sweet when you
can pick it out. Brittnay’s vocals work just as smoothly with this track too.
Her second lead track on the album is called Your Presence. This track seems a
bit off for me. It is almost as if she is trying to hard to make this one work.
The song is good but the vocals get lost sometimes. It almost seems as if the
song is too low for her vocal range. This doesn’t seem to matter much though
because you can hear how happy the crowd is as they sing along.
Evan John leads on the song Exhilaration. The opening to
this song is a slow build with that arena crowd chant happening. It is a good
power ballad put in a new light. The track is a lot of fun and seems to get the
crowd moving. This is a great track and comes in as the first track on the
album after the prayer. This is probably my second favorite from the album.
The two duet tracks lead by Evan and Stephanie are Where You
Are and The Bride Arising. The first of these two, Where You Are, leads with
Evan energizing the crowd with the verse and into the chorus. Stephanie’s
vocals come in at the last part of the song with repeated held out notes. It is
a very short part but does help make the song at the end with the repeats. The
second song that they did together is another grand arena rock style song.
Stephanie opens the track and Evan takes over. It is kind of a trade off call
and response style. The chorus is sung together and sounds very nice.
The one track that doesn’t claim a specific leader for the
song is How Great Thou Art. It starts of with some beautiful female vocals and
continues with that after the band joins the song. It then moves on to male
vocals. I have a feeling that it was designed to showcase each of the music
leaders in the collection of songs on this album. It is a good song and is a
gimmick that somewhat works.
I understand that this is a live recording but it still
bothers me that the music leaders have to call out cues to the crowd so that
they can sing along. I get that this is the point of having worship music but
it has always been something that bothers me about “church” music.
If you are into worship music then check this live set out,
if not that is OK too.
This is The Oh Hello’s first full length album. It was
released in October 2012. There have been no single releases from this album
that I am aware of but there are some very good stand out songs contained
within this concept album. The album has been recently repressed on CD and you
can get a copy now for a mere eight bucks or download it at a name your own
price at their Bandcamp web page. I got my copy of the CD a few days ago. The
CD comes in a simple LP styled slip case with beautiful artwork created by
Maggie Heath of The Oh Hello’s. I have listened to the album all the way
through a few times now and find that the vocal hiss that was present on the
previous EP have all but evaporated.
The very first track, The Valley, is actually a great
opener. The addition of multi-tracked vocals sounds big and happy on top of the
simple acoustic guitar and drums. Floating just below the vocals is a very
pretty electric guitar that adds a flourish very sparingly. This could easily
be a grand arena crowd chanter.
The second track that I like and the second on the album is
called Like The Dawn. The song showcases Maggie’s vocals with an acoustic
guitar. It is sweet and depressing at the same time. After the opening the song fills out with
drums, banjo, and additional guitar and continues with the multi-tracked
vocals, making the song bigger than it seems. It is all together another very
pretty song on this album.
My favorite song from the album is the fourth track called
Second Child, Restless Child. This song paints a picture, to me at least, of
the children of the 1930s where there were not all that many roads and kids
could run and play where ever they wanted, let their minds be free. The song is
fast and happy, a song that I could listen to frequently for sure.
The last song that I like off the album is called I WasWrong. It has a strong start with an electric guitar playing staccato chords.
The song has the same happy feeling as Second Child but a bit more subdued. The
song also keeps with the very fun multi-tracked vocals.
The album is very good. I couldn’t follow what the concept
was but this may be due to the fact that I don’t really pay attention to the
lyrics much. With the exception of these four tracks the rest of the album
comes off as a bit depressing. This doesn’t mean it is a bad album, I quite
like it actually. If they ever decided to press this on vinyl I would totally
buy it. That is how much I like the album. Maybe they could add the previous EP
to that vinyl pressing? (Hint Hint)
This is a split EP from White Laces (A side) and Snowy Owls
(B side). This was a limited 10” record put out by Harding Street Assembly Lab
(HSAL). There were only 100 of these made in various colors. It was released in
2012. I recently found a copy for sale and snapped it up immediately. The copy
I found was brown marbled vinyl. I am not happy about the color but what are
you going to do when there were only 100 pressed. I was very surprised to find
that the download card worked still. I will probably never listen to the record
because of the limited nature and the download card. I am not mad about this as
it is something that I wanted in my collection.
I started collecting White Laces music when Slumberland
Records tweeted about a split single that Speakertree Records was putting out
by Lilys and Big Troubles. I scrolled through the Speakertree releases, not
many as of yet, and found their first full length. I loved that so much I
started looking into their other releases. I found out that they had put this
release and a couple others on HSAL. I was disappointed that this was so
limited and that I was about a year late to get my hands on it. I was very
excited then to finally find a copy.
There are three tracks from White laces on this split EP.
The first track is called Hands In Mexico. This is actually a single that was
leaked. There are a couple of releases with this single on it since it had been
leaked. This release has an additional two tracks that I didn’t have and that
is why I was after it on this split. The song is kind of a moderate rocker that
drives the listener to quite literally rock like it was an early 80s ballad. It
is a lot of fun.
The second track is called Bastard’s Dead. This song has a
similar feeling but comes off a bit darker with the heavy tom drums and bass
leading the way for the most part on this track. There is also a slight surf
rock feel in the break down with the bending of certain notes and heavy echo on
the guitar. It is a very interesting track the way it is laid out.
The third track is called Don’t Wake Up. This track comes
off hard hitting and reminds me more of a shoegaze track like Whirr or All The
Saints. I like this direction. It reminds me of the start of the heavy metal
movement back in the early 70s; heavy drums, heavy bass pretty guitars and
strong male vocals.
The four tracks from Snowy Owls I wasn’t really concerned
about but after listening to them a few times the come off as very smooth. The
vocals are pushed back with the band for the most part. You can’t exactly
understand everything that is said because of this. They are a good rock band
to chill out to based on these four tracks. They remind me of some of the music
that was popular in the mid 90s. I don’t think that I would hunt down any of
their music but these four tracks are very nice to listen to.
This was originally released in 2002. It is a three track EP
and is their second. The tracks on this EP were included in the Japanese
version of The Photo Album. It was a limited edition CD EP when it was released.
It has finally seen a vinyl pressing with the Artist In Residence (A+R) Death
Cab For Cutie: The Barsuk Years box set. This is how I got the EP. This is the
EP in this box set that had the error on the labels. My copy does not have the
error though.
There are three tracks on the EP. The first track is called
20th Century Towers. It is a very slow track that I feel was typical
for the group at the time. They hadn’t quite found there footing as of yet but
there are hints of what was to come in this track. I can hear ideas for I will
Possess Your Heart for example in this track for sure. This is not a track that
I want to hear over and over but it does lead one to think about where they are
currently and where they were and the journey inbetween.
The second track from the album is a cover of Björk’s All IsFull Of Love. This is not one of my favorite songs from Björk but anyone who
covers her music is OK by me. I like this version as it does not use any
electronic sounds. It is a completely different take on the track. I want to
say that all the instruments are acoustic but the electric guitar is not
exactly acoustic. I also like that a male is singing female originating vocals.
This has always intrigued me. Abandoned Pools singer Tommy Walters also did a cover
of one of her songs, Army Of Me, and I can’t get enough of that cover song
either.
The last song is called Stability. This is nearly a twelve
and a half minute song. This song was cut down and renamed on the album Plans
to Stable Song. The instrumentation is completely different from the version
that is on Plans as well. This song is a very slow song that I could easily
fall asleep to. It is better than the
first track on this EP but three times as long.
Unless you are interested in the cover song or are totally
into DCFC there is no reason to get this EP. The only reason that I have it is
because I got the A+R box set.
That is all I have for now...
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