No new updates this week. There will be an additional post later this week though. That's right, this is a double post week. Enjoy the early post.
Here we go...
This is the debut album from The Stargazer Lilies. It will
be released on October 22. I got my copy from Graveface Records a couple weeks
early. It is supposed to come with a download too. There was not card with a
code in the sleeve. I can only assume that I will get an email closer to the
release date with a link to down load the tracks. This is what has happened in
the past with other releases from Graveface. It came on red-violet vinyl. This
is the first mail-order pressing. The record club version is on translucent
with lavender haze in the center. I can’t justify getting on the record club
for this record company because there aren’t enough releases that I am
interested in getting and it is $135 to join. I will keep my eyes peeled for
what they are putting out though. I found out about the group from Graveface
Records. I follow them on twitter and they posted a link for the first single.
I thought the video was very cheesy but I started working on something else and
got lost in the music very easily. The album is wonderfully put together and
has a kind of wash of musical warmth. This is just what a cool fall day needs.
This will probably be my favorite fall album.
From what I have seen there have already been three singles
released from this album, all have been digital only singles though. The first
single is the title track for the album, We Are The Dreamers. It is a very
simple track with even guitar strumming and beautiful female airy vocals. I
like the guitar solo that happens about half way through the song. It mimics
the vocals musically but puts a different tone on the sounds as it is a guitar and
not the female vocals. It is a great song.
The second single from the album is called Endless Days.
This is another simpler song musically. There is a cool synth sound that is
used in the background that floats through the whole song. The guitars follow
this part in the front of the song. Then the vocals float above that. The bass
guitar part is played in the higher registers so it is easier to pick out in
the midst of the guitar and synth. The bass follows the vocals for the most
part and it works so well together.
The third single from the album is called How We Lost. This
track is very floaty, as if I were in space looking at the earth. It is slow
and makes me feel solitary almost contemplative. The guitars use heavy echo and
almost sound like they are being played backward. It is a very interesting
song. The chord progression is superb.
This is probably the noisiest chill record I have ever
heard. Actually it is completely shoegaze. I could get lost in this album very
easily. I like it a lot.
This is the second album from Yuck. They lost their vocalist
with this album so the second guitarist stepped up to do the vocals. They have
a new second guitarist to add to the group. I got the UK edition of
this album. It came with a lithograph of the cover art that the band signed.
Because the original lead singer left the group the distortion in the vocals is
gone on the album. I liked the distortion on the last album but with this album
and the new vocals it sounds pretty good with out the distortion on the vocals.
I wasn’t sure that was going to sit right with me but it seems to work quite
well. I think that part of why they did this was to get away from the 90s sound
that they have become attached to. Honestly I think they still have that 90s
sound it is just a new facet from what the first album was. I can’t exactly put
my finger on what groups they sound like now but that feeling of the 90s is
still there.
There have been two singles released from this album so far.
The first is called Rebirth. This track smacks of something that I remember
from the 80s. It also reminds me of Bob Mould’s band Sugar. Specifically the song
Your Favorite Thing but just in the vocals though. It is a good pops song that
will easily get caught in your head.
The second single from the album is called Middle Sea.
It is a pun for those of you musicians out there. This track is back into the
Dinosaur Jr. sounding guitars. It is a fun 90s styled rock track. The vocals
are not distorted with this track, like I mentioned earlier, and that gives it
a clarity over the songs that are on their first album. I like it.
There is another song that I like from the album called HowDoes It feel. This track has something that I would not expect from the group,
horns. It is a slow song that reminds me of something that Elvis Costello would
have done. I am not sure if that is what they were shooting for but that is
what I get from it. The song is slow with light distortion on the guitars and
horns. Even the chord changes remind me of something Costello would have done.
It is still a good song though.
This is the groups first EP. It was released in 2012 in Japan and the UK on CD or as a download. You can
still get the CD from their bandcamp page. I found out about this group when I
was looking for music from Joanna Gruesome. They had two songs on the Art Is
Hard Family Portrait EP with two tracks from a couple other bands as well. The
EP has 5 tracks on it. The vocals remind me of The Silversun Pickups. It is kind
of a higher male or lower female, somewhere in that overlapping range of
tonality.
There are two stand out tracks on the EP for me. The first
is called Anna Sang & Alison. The song reminds me of something I could have
created. It is quite simple but multifaceted at the same time. Every time I
listen to the song there is something new that I hear. The chorus is easy to
get stuck in my head because of this. The song is very exciting in the chorus
but more subdued in the verse parts, just the way I like it.
The second song that I like a lot from this EP is called
Silver. There is a lot of fast picking on this song. Over all it is an even
keeled song but the lead guitar is playing the same notes so fast it reminds me
of the honey bee’s dance where they wiggle back and forth so fast. I like it
simply because it is very rare that that style of playing is done with a slower
song. It is a very cool sound that they have put together.
That is all I have for this early post. There will be a second latter this week...
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