This is fine.
Bear In Heaven rode into town riding the waves of praise from their recent release, I Love You It’s Cool. While the crowd filled the room for their set, it’s possibly many missed the stupendous opening acts at the Parish. Come on people, go to shows early!
Anyway, here’s a few words on my evening at the venue, with photos from our homie Brian Gray.
This song from Stepdad is so ridiculously good that I had to share it with you. It starts off with this electronic meandering, sort of like what you get from later Animal Collective, but then it unites with trickling pop structure…going back and forth. You’ll find this song opening the band’s new album, Wildlife Pop, which comes out on June 12 via Black Bell Records. Starting off an album like this is dangerous, but I have a feeling that the group can live up to the expectations. If you’re looking for a pop tune that combines swirling gang vocals with electronic pulses, then get into this jam right now!
Download: Stepdad – Must Land Running [MP3]
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If you had just entered into the alternative side of the music scene recently, and knew nothing of a little band called Animal Collective, there is still a great chance that Panda Bear would have crossed your path sooner or later. Despite being a rational fan of Animal Collective, I wanted to hate this record so bad. Something about how much it was hyped before its release just sort of irked me. However, despite my preconceived notions that had nothing to do with the actual music, I was able to overcome the intimidating enigma surrounding Tomboy to get to the electro- pop that Noah Lennox has down pat.
The first song “You Can Count On Me,” serves as a transition of worlds for the listener. With its echo-y and distorted vocals, the repetition hazes you to a certain level of detachment, so that you are in the right place mentally to enjoy the album. Thankfully, it doesn’t go on for too long, and soon you are already on “Tomboy,” the title track. Laden with buzz and grimy electronic elements, the repetitive nature of the first song is broken with the natural qualities of the second. Despite that being paradoxical, it still rings true; somehow, the inorganic elements of this sound work together so that the gravelly echoes feel more like tangible back up singers.
It is in this little detail that Panda Bear wins me over. While other kinds of electronic music seem to fall flat in their lack of empathetic qualities, Lennox has managed to fuse the impersonal to deeply reaching, all in one stroke. For instance, “Slow Motion,” feels bitter in its tone, but evolves into pocket of enticing and almost sassy sounding jams. Continuing this chunk of satisfying songs comes “Surfer’s Hymn,” which sounds just like the title describes: tropical. On this number, the background noises transition to sound like the rushing tide pushing back and forth.
The one place where this album falls short is in its overall repetition. While I understand the intentional usage on the first track, it comes up a bit too prevalently throughout Tomboy: at the end of “Slow Motion” and during “Last Night at the Jetty” (which bears similarity to “My Girls”). Too much of the same thing over and over again brings down this effort to the level of mediocrity that other bands of this genre have established. It is a good thing that this only happens a few times.
Overall, it’s about as good as you are going to get for this kind of artificiality. If someone can make emotionally reaching and evoking music from electronic machines, that is a feat in itself and should be appreciated and enjoyed.
Artists don’t always make the best decisions. Perhaps they just get bored. Reinventing themselves after every album must get tiresome. I guess that’s why some musicians choose to collaborate with people from other genres. Leaps of faith, even if they are doomed to failure, are more interesting than repeating the same old song and dance. Finding out the hard way that something is a bad idea is more exciting than going through the motions of what has been done before. Oftentimes though, it’s best to stick with what you know. Otherwise you end up with the kind of collaborative catastrophes listed here. Let’s take a look shall we? See the Top 5 Unusual Collaborations below:
It’s interesting being a huge music fan. You come across bands that you absolutely adore, and you rush to make mixes for your friends who ultimately decide that they hate the one song you were most excited for them to fall in love with when you made it. I started thumbing through my catalog and the Internet, diligently searching for the bands in my collection that I love, but I feel people hate; I also looked at bands on the net I know people love, but I hate. Here’s my list of the Top 5.
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As the human race keeps pushing towards a completely digital age, it is no longer a novel idea to rely on our computers for musical inspiration. Take Animal Collective, and countless others that have delved into the seemingly bottomless pit of electronic sounds. However, there is a definite difference between dabbling into the realm of electronic alternative pop and diving too far into the deep end of noise. With Nocturne of Exploding Crystal Chandelier, these two gentlemen skate this fine line as though tightrope walkers.
The album starts out with “Infinity,” which, to my dismay, is a bit of a redundant dud when pitted against the rest of the songs. However, if you look past the first song and onto the second, “American West,” you can see what this band has to offer. Coat upon coat of electronic fizzle combine with a slightly cloudy vocal to produce a song that is filled with noise, but allows for a ton of variation in said noise so that the listener doesn’t tire of the same drone, but becomes interested in the complexity of the song. This is where I feel Sun Airway failed in choosing an opening song for their debut; shouldn’t the first song grab my attention and make me ask for more?
Next the band travels farther into the bliss pop genre with “Swallowed By The Night,” which is a change from the first three songs, in that it is devoid of the buzz and fast pace. Instead, this song focuses on the sweeping qualities in the vocal, which are sprawled in some parts, and then pulled back to their robotic precision. From this, the song gains an emotional dimension and allows you to feel like you are standing alone with the night sky, engulfed by its vast darkness and captured by the millions of twinkling stars.
And so Sun Airway continues with their neo psychedelic pop, alternating between faster, less human songs, and the softer, easier to emotionally read beats. A song that stands out strongly is “Your Moon.” The delicate vocals break into a downright outburst of longing when the chorus sounds clearly: “I just wanted to be your moon/ alone in your night sky.” This song truly encompasses the delicacy that this group angled for in their nod to Chopin’s Nocturnes. Like Chopin’s music, this band is soft when it needs to be, yet juxtaposed with sharpness that makes for a really pleasurable listening experience.
As far as first albums go, Sun Airway do an excellent job in showing their distinct sound, without growing too hollow or redundant, as electronic beats tend to. For this, I commend them and look forward to their next work.
[audio:https://austintownhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/03-Oh-Naoko-1.mp3]Download: Sun Airway – Oh, Naoko [MP3]
So while recently looking back on our earliest days here at ATH, I skimmed over on an almost 2 year old post about our least favorite things in the music world. If you don’t care to read that old piece of journalism, it was more a focus on trends in the extremely popular media world. We ranted on myspace, the loudness of some new rock bands, and the decline of albums as an art form. Looking back, I’d say myspace is really on it’s way out, loudness is a declining trend and albums seem to be on the rise. We made a difference! For today, I’d like to focus on 5 things that really erk me about our little niche known as the “indie music world”. Of course with bands like Arcade Fire, Band of Horses, and Spoon topping the charts, these trends are slowly making the move from indie to popular. We must put a stop to them now! Follow the jump for more.
Dave Hartley of Philadelphia is primarily a sideman for some notable bands, namely The War on Drugs, which has some affiliation with Kurt Vile. Currently, he’s just put together a long project under the moniker Nightlands, and it’s something that I think everyone out there will enjoy. The track we’re featuring recalls a bit of that wintry folk that’s won fans since the debut of Fleet Foxes, but it also uses multiple loops and vocals to create a bit of a soundscape, a la Animal Collective or The Books. Thrown altogether, and its just plain beautiful. You can get the album, Forget the Mantra, for $5 right HERE.
Download: Nightlands – God What Have I [MP3]
There’s a new band coming out of Georgia these days, and with their blend of melody and electronics, Sunglasses are sure to be making waves with the crowds soon. At first listen, it has a lot of the flavor that Animal Collective has, but their beats have a bit more of American nostalgia to them. For instance, this single, off their self-titled Sunglasses EP, feels like you’re walking into a Leave it to Beaver show, and the vocal delivery has a bit more of a flow, as opposed to a chant, like many of the chill-wave bands. If you like it, you can hear more from the group when the EP comes on on June 15th.
Download: Sunglasses – Stand Fast [MP3]
Emos hosted one of the most anticipated shows of the Spring music season, as the sold-out Austin crowd welcome Beach House back to town. Opening the evening would be Washed Out. Follow the jump for more.
