There is a new video for Withered Hand’s song Black Tambourine. Check
it out!
There are some new/old freebies from Chunklet if you’re
interested. "Just email henry@chunklet.com with your mailing address..."
Eternal Summers have also put up a new video. It is for the
new single Never
Enough. It is a super fun video featuring the group in various genre dress.
Jonsi and Alex are doing the score for the TV show
Manhattan. It sounds interesting but I will wait and see what happens.
The new single from White Laces is out on SoundCloud. It is
taken from the up coming album called Trance. The album is to be released on
10/7/14.
Here we go...
This is the new full length album from Whirr. It is to be
released on the 23rd of this month. I got my copy last week and it
is a beauty. It will be out on DL, CD, Cassette and LP. The preorder LP is on
brown/yellow bone colored vinyl. It actually looks like kaki with streaks of
black and white to me. The first 300 were hand poured in what looked like black
white and purple with a bit of green mixed in as well. No two are alike in
those hand pours and were made available only to the record club members. The
record came with a tour poster as well. There was also a “Party Pack” version
of the preorder album that came with some extra goodies for some extra money.
The sound of this eight track album is loud and slow with an all encompassing
ebb and flow feel. Like all of their music before, the sounds wash over you and
you don’t need to focus on it but you defiantly know it is there. The one thing
that I feel is missing from the album though is the female backing vocals. This
is something that I find I like from the current crop of shogaze groups. There
are female backing vocals on this album but they are not as prevalent as on
previous tracks from the band.
The first single from the album is called Mumble. It follows
the somewhat limited vocal tones through out the album but it seems to work all
the same. The music is slow but still moving enough to make me feel the sway of
the ocean waves that the album reminds me of. The music is loud and distorted
and the vocals are just under that loudness so that you know there are vocals
and can nearly make out what they are saying but not quite. This makes for a
lovely wave wash of sound. I would not call it a wall so much as an energetic
wave that will push you but not bowl you over.
The second single, Lines, starts off a bit quieter than
Mumble but it is just an illusion. The single clean guitar in the open is
beautiful but don’t be fooled, the rest of the band joins in at the thirty
second mark to make the solo beauty into a full band distorted noise. The group
really builds on that solo opening to make something louder, fuller and more
emotional. It is a sweet and beautiful sound if you can see past the noise in
the track. I think that is what I like about the groups sound. If you like
noise this is a great group. If you can focus on the sounds that are buried in
the noise the group becomes even better. I really like the lines that the clean
guitar draws but they are so fine and the distortion on the other instruments
are so thick and heavy that it takes a good ear to find the lines that are
drawn by the clean guitar sometimes. It is almost like a game at times to find
what it is that I like about this band.
If you like slow moving noisy music, i.e. shoegaze, this
album is totally for you. I like the sound and it is refreshing for me with all
of the pop indie that I seem to be listening to lately.
I have found a new band to like, and I like them a lot. They
remind me of The Gaslight Anthem’s early albums and Let Me Run (who have now
split up). Restorations have that husky/heavy breathy vocal style that both of
these groups make use of in their early albums. In the past I had labeled this
as the New Jersey or just Jersey sound. I can’t really call it that any more
since Restorations are from Philadelphia PA. What I really like is that they
don’t over use this sound. The lead singer also uses clear sounding vocals at
times too. The group has two albums out with a third soon to be released. The
new album and the second are up on Side One Dummy Records as a fair priced
bundle right now. The first is currently out of print but I have a feeling they
will be repressed soon from Tiny Engines Records.
This single was also put out on Tiny Engines Records in 2012
as a pre-release to the first album. The record was released in multiple
colors. I just ordered the blue version and got the download right away. The A
side of the record, called A, showcases what the band have been working on and
why they deserve a full length album. Neither of these two tracks are on the
first album This first track is filled with that classic Jersey sound that
started with Bruce Springsteen in the 80s. The song shimmers and wavers like a
candle in the wind with a breakdown in the middle of the song that feels like
that candle could go out but then explodes into some of the greatest sounds and
rhythms I have heard in a while. The song does a nice fade out at the end that
makes the song feel complete. I have listened to a lot of music and there are
just those songs that feel like they were not ended properly, this one is
proper indeed.
The B side, called B, is an explosion from the start. It
starts with a hard hitting bass line and drums and they guitar kicks in along
with the lead guitar in the first five seconds of the song setting the tone for
the rest of the song, with almost a minute intro to the song. The song slows
down just a smidge to let in the vocals for the verse where the guitars fade
out. When the chorus kicks in it is all on for a great rock band sound. The
break down also finds a bit of a slow down with a vocal chant for a bit to show
contrast in the music. This works well in the song though and the song picks up
with a great guitar solo before the end of the song.
I just found out about this group and needed a replacement
for Let Me Run in my catalog and they fit the bill very well. I can’t wait to
get some of their albums to listen to.
OK Go have a new album coming out next month. I put my
pre-order in on their Pledge Music campaign and because of this I got their Upside
Out EP download for free. I have also gotten this remix of their first single
from the EP/album for free because I pledged to the campaign. The remix is
called Dan Konopka’s Midnight remix. Dan is the drummer for OK Go if you didn’t
know already. The remix is totally ready for the rave dance floor. It sends me
back to the 90s when I was really into the techo tunes and it was cool for rock
bands to get techo artists to remix the really popular rock tracks. Radiohead
even had some of their track from the 90s remixed, not to mention that all of
the tracks from their last album were remixed. I hope that there will be more
remixed tracks from the up coming album from OK Go. This one is killer!
That is all for now...
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