This is fine.
When I look at the Fun Fun Fun Fest lineup for the weekend, trend setting new band Active Child is one of my must sees of the festival. We caught the live act a couple of years ago, serving as an introduction to the band, and the ATH crew has been fans ever since. Lucky for you and I, the brains behind Active Child, Pat Grossi, made some time to answer a few of our questions. Follow the jump for more.
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Family Tree: The Branches is the second installment in a trilogy of records from Radical Face. It continues the family saga begun by 2011’s The Roots, and will be followed by The Relatives. Ben Cooper, the voice behind Radical Face (who is also a member of Electric President, Iron Orchestra, and Mother’s Basement), explains that the lyrics on these albums are based upon “a fictional family tree — a Frankenstein of random genealogy charts, my own family history, some of my personal experiences and plain old fiction.” (http://www.radicalface.com)
The Branches is another beautiful Radical Face album despite the fact that it probably contains the most depressing collection of songs that Cooper has written. As in Cooper’s previous efforts, the harmonies and background vocals here are fantastic. The piano work throughout the album is also wonderful. Unlike Radical Face’s previous recordings, The Branches has been mastered, making it cleaner and a bit more modern sounding than Ghost, Family Tree: The Roots, or Radical Face’s two EPs.
The lyrics on The Branches are often quite dark. There’s a great deal of regret expressed here, and very few of the stories here have happy endings. Cooper begins “Reminders” by saying, “I wish I had more nice things to say, but I was raised not to lie.” This kind of bleak realism is representative of the tone throughout most of the record. The closest thing to optimism on The Branches is the kind of calm acceptance conveyed in songs like “Holy Branches” and “Letters Home”. The latter, a fictional letter from a wounded soldier back to his family, ends with the line “I’m all right; I’ve made peace with it all.”
“Summer Skeletons” is probably my favorite song on The Branches. It has everything that is good about Radical Face: simplicity, honesty, and profound, unassuming lyrics like: “we were down by the shore and the skies opened up and all the stars fell into the lake, and the water was warm. I walked in over my head then you pulled me out by the collar of my shirt.”
I do somewhat miss Radical Face’s slightly more hopeful side, and I must say that Ghost is still my favorite album, but I would highly recommend giving Family Tree: The Branches a listen.
I’m a huge sucker for a beautiful female voice, especially when it’s strung atop well-crafted musical accompaniment. I love the way there’s these light strings accenting the push of the drums. There’s this beautiful tension that just builds and builds, erupting near the very end of the track. If you’re looking for something with a nice bit of construction and majesty, then you won’t have to look much further than this number. Lanterns on the Lake will release Until the Colours Run on January 14th, followed by a short US tour, so keep your eyes peeled for this promising act.
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It’s difficult in this day and age to have your hair blown back by anything, especially upon first listen, but I have to give credit to CYMBALS. Their music on the latest single was immediately accessible, yet wholly interesting. A deep vibe comes from the darkened corners of their music, yet a softer touch on the vocals provides listeners with the mentality of club two-stepping. I imagine this song could be played pretty much anywhere, enticing anyone to tap their feet. The group will release Age of Fracture in February of next year via Tough Love Records.
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We started this week with a lot of softer tracks, so I feel like we should offer you the flip side of the coin with the newest tune from Autistic Youth. The band have been fairly quiet lately, but they’re readying a new LP for Dirtnap Records titled Nonage. The album wears their influences on its sleeve with a punishing combination of hardcore, not to mention a softer touch you’d find in old skate video games by employing gang vocals to encourage maximum crowd participation at shows. You can pick up the album next week from the label; it should be in stores shortly after.
Download: Autistic Youth – Not For Me [MP3]
Based on the throngs of people begging for tickets oustide of Moody Theater, Monday night’s taping at ACL Live was a pretty hot commodity. Myself, well, again I was fighting to reclaim my youth by revisiting the catalogue of Nine Inch Nails.
The folks at ACL should definitely be proud of bringing in Nine Inch Nails for a taping. Sure, they’re huge in the grand scheme of things, though not necessarily the largest act to grace the studio. But, what it did represent was the power behind the PBS program, as the importance of the show continues to grow with each act that comes to the venue. It also allowed for many of us to get a version of Nine Inch Nails that me mightn’t have seen otherwise.
Read on for my thoughts on the evening…
Australia’s DZ Deathrays are hard at work trying to wrap up the recording of their next full-lenght, but in the mean time, they’ve provided us all with a nice little peak at what we’re likely to hear. Ringing guitar works really well here, with layered vocals doing a perfect job providing a fairly blissful touch to the song itself. Bloodstreams, their last album, made huge waves, so we can expect them to gain more steam as their sound crosses the great pond, landing them in our speakers. We’ll keep you posted on the release date, but experts are looking at a February release.
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It’s almost here people. That’s right, Fun Fest is just a mere 2 days away, and ATH is of course pumped for the weekend. As usual, we hit up a few bands prior to the fest to ask them a few questions about life. First up on the list is veteran act Quasi. Follow the jump for more.
Monday night gave you lots of choices as for live music in this city, but it didn’t seem like Emo’s was the popular choice for many, as even with the full venue partitioned in half the crowd wasn’t close to capacity. However this lack of audience wasn’t a problem once the bands for the night took the stage, each offering a different kind of tone and energy.
Read more and see pictures from Brian Gray…
Man I really dig this new track “The Other Way” that just came our way from UK based singer/songwriter S A Reyners. I’d probably call it quirky throwback pop music with some incredibly catchy guitars and beats throughout. It’s just a downright fun tune to listen to really. No word right now on if a new album or anything is in the works, but we’ll certainly let you know as soon as we hear something.
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