It Has Certainly Been A While

ar Why, hello. I apologize for taking such a long time to post again. I've been really busy this past month or so, first being away at Brown and I just got back a day ago from San Francisco.

Anyway, let me start you off with this video by one of my favorite bands ever (The Antlers)

The Antlers - Two / Epilogue - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

It's done by La Blogotheque, who have a whole bunch of other great videos by loads and loads of other artists, I highly recommend checking it out, it's basically impossible to not find at least one video you like. Only problem might be that they're based in french and the english version of their site is not the easiest to navigate.

Next up, No Age. They're another one of my favorite bands (the fact that they are a drum and guitar two piece make me like them even even more than I would anyway) and they have a new album (Everything in Between) coming out on September 28 (my birthday!) (the new Deerhunter comes out then too) and it leaked pretty recently. It's quite good (although it definitely needs more listens, I think it'll be a grower) but really toned down from their older garage-noise-punk days. Check out the first officially released song off it:



Privacy. Privacy is Laurel Knapp, currently signed to Marriage Records, based in Portland, Oregon, and (I am pretty sure of this at least, but there is a good-ish chance that I am wrong) run by Adrian Orange, who makes some nice tunes under the name Thanksgiving. All I have heard of her is her 2007 album Without Mercy. It's really good and enjoyable (also perfect for falling asleep to). Privacy's music consists of Laurel playing sparse, somewhat repetitive (in a good way) folk-ish guitar strumming with soft, incredibly soothing vocals over it. They all strike me as very lullabye-esque. I really want to listen to her 2009 EP, Songs, but her music is incredibly hard to find. I may end up buying it without ever hearing it because I have heard it is really, really good, and I enjoyed Without Mercy a whole bunch. Check her out bee-low.


That's all for now, expect a mix in the somewhat near future as well as a return to more normal posting schedule.

-Alec

Let's Try an Experiment

Alright. I can't keep "finding" new bands that I really like and that are less well known, so I needa think up some new sort of posts. I also don't go to enough shows to fill my quota with reviews (and they really aren't good reviews anyway).

Anyway, here are some things I like and don't like.

LIKE:



The Antlers on Tiny Desk Concerts : I really love the Antlers in general. They were quite possibly my favorite "new" band in 2009 and Hospice is really one of my favorite albums ever. Hospice is just everything an album should be really. It tells a story, the songs segue into each other nicely and flow together, and when you read the lyrics off the liner sheet, they look like a short story, but when listened to aren't awkward or clunky at all. When I saw them live I was a bit disappointed though. They weren't bad at all, they were really, really good, but the show just failed to capture the intimacy and delicateness of the album and its emotions. It's partly the crowd's fault. It seemed like hardly anyone was there for the Antlers (although, when I left, almost right after their set, I saw a few other people leaving the show too), and several people kept talking and looking around and bein' obnoxious which really ruined the mood. The other problem was that they just didn't capture all the dynamics they had on the album. They played my favorite song, Wake, where at the end there is a repeating part that starts off super softly and then builds up and up until he's practically screaming and the drums are pounding and the guitar is oscillating more and more and surrounding you (it's really awesome), but in the live show they didn't get quiet enough at the start so it lost its intensity. That's why I love this filming of them playing a few songs. It's a lot more quiet, stripped down, and intimate, a lot more like the record was. Also, I felt like the background and surroundings really kinda fit the sound and feel of the music. Definitely give it a watch, or at least listen to it.

DO NOT LIKE






Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works 85-92: Apparently this is one of THE GREATEST ambient albums out there, or at least from the 90's. I don't see it. At all. It's just not "amibent" enough for me. The first few beginning tracks are pretty good, and then it just gets more active and annoying, culminating in Green Calx, a really, really, boring, repetive track centered around truly awful synth sounds. The Album doesn't flow together well either, which I guess is okay (since it's a collection of works), but really bothers me, since I love ambient albums that seem complete and more like it was written as an album instead of seperate songs. Maybe I'm wrong about this though, so many people seem to love it. Can't stand it, but it might be your thing if you like lackluster, repetitive techno/trance that's a bad combination of ambient and dance-like stuff.

- Alec