Tag: the twilight sad

Ticket Giveaway + Show Preview: Twilight Sad @

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Our friends have been gracious to provide us with a pair of tickets to one lucky winner for an incredible show going down next Tuesday at Red 7: The Twilight Sad.  I’m excited by this show for more than one reason: 1) I met our photographer Brian at a T. Sad who years ago, so it’s our anniversary 2) the band is one of the most captivating live bands I’ve caught in years.  They stop in town behind the release of their latest, No One Can Ever Know, but there’s more reasons to want to win these tickets! Opening will be Austin’s The Calm Blue Sea and Errors, so you’ve got three incredible bands ready to blow you away.  Now, how do you win? Simple, leave a comment with your favorite European band, and I’ll pick a winner.  The contest will end on Monday at 5 PM.

[audio:https://austintownhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/reflection-of-the-television-1.mp3]

Download:The Twilight Sad – Reflection of the Television [MP3]

New Ear Buster from PAWS

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FatCat really has their hand on melodic noise rock from the British Isles.  Not only do they have our favorite The Twilight Sad on their roster, but they’ve just picked up PAWS to release their album, Cokefloat!, on October 9th.  There’s a great bit of exuberance in this track, with a youthful vocal attack dominating the song from the get-go.  I like how things are slowed down just a touch towards the end of the song, giving you time to capture your breath before they blast off in an angst-ridden fashion.  Definitely an exciting track from these Glasgow lads.

[audio:https://austintownhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/10-Miss-American-Bookworm.mp3]

Download: PAWS – Miss American Bookworm [MP3]

The Twilight Sad – No One Can Ever Know

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Rating: ★★★☆☆

A brief synopsis of the Twilight Sad has some ups and downs.  They burst onto the scene with the explosive Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters, filled with squalling guitars and blissful pop.  But, then they took an odd side-step with Forget the Night Ahead, which was a more straightforward approach.  Now, officially three albums into their career with No One Can Ever Know, the band is still treading the darker side of humanity, just with much more polished edges and electronic flourishes.

James Graham’s vocals have always been a vital part of the Twilight Sad, and it takes the lead on opener “Alphabet.”  More important, however, is that the guitars work that made the band such a bombastic group is now being replaced by shades of electronics, at least in the foreground of this track.  You can’t claim that this is a poor track, but the absence of the dynamics that flourished early in the band’s career really aren’t present on No One Can Ever Know. Still, with Graham’s prowess, it’s hard to dislike anything the band puts together.  “Sick” almost feels like it’s utilizing some of the electronic playfulness we found on Kid A or Amnesiac, combining grooves, beats and strengthened vocals. Just one listen to the chorus and you’ll surely find yourself fawning over this number.

Even though it’s easy to see the differences from album one to album three, the band’s not completely lacking energy on this effort.  In “Another Bed” you’ll find a pulsating rhythm brooding beneath the number, and melded with further electronic swaths that cut through the track.  Similarly, “Don’t Move” uses the same stylistic accompaniment, although the pounding of the drums definitely provides hints of a darker force just waiting to explode on No One Can Ever Know.  Yet, there’s something amiss, even as you see the band is aided by their craftsmanship. The whole of the record feels really sterile, and lacking a bit of passion, which drew me to the band long ago.  “Kill It in the Morning” is perhaps the only track of the collection that really sees Graham pushing himself, and it doesn’t arrive until the end.  But, you should definitely give it a listen as there’s hints of Trent Reznor in the production of the song; the ending where it drops off and you get Graham again is also a special moment.  You just get the feeling that the band is capable of so much more.

For what it’s worth, No One Can Ever Know is an enjoyable listen, and one that brand new fans will surely appreciate.  But, followers of The Twilight Sad might be a bit disheartened by the listen, as the group still seems like they’re trying to find their footing in the current musical landscape.  I appreciate the dark quality musically and lyrically, but it’s placed too simply, lacking much of the force you know the band is capable of producing.  Perhaps this is just a stepping stone to greater ambitions, and only time will tell. For now, we can be pleased, just not blown away.

Show Review: The Twilight Sad @ Emos (6/11)

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If ever a show served as a reminder of why aged men (such as myself) should wear headphones, then this was precisely the set of bands that would help me come back to this obvious realization.  Glasgow’s The Twilight Sad would bring their swirling sonic blast of guitar pop to Austin, and opening up was local act Calm Blue Sea. Follow the jump for the full show review and some hot photos.
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Frightened Rabbit – The Winter of Mixed Drinks

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Rating: ★★★☆☆

Riding the waves of praise since the release of their last album, The Midnight Organ Fight, Scotland’s Frightened Rabbit are poised for their breakout album.  They’ve amassed a large following built on their recordings and a knack for delivering powerful shows to audiences across the globe.  The Winter of Mixed Drinks finds the group middling between intimate club group and powerful arena-ready rock band.

The Hutchison brothers, Grant and Scott, remain the core focus of the band.  It’s Scott’s vocals that dominate throughout the record, and Grant’s drum tracks that foreshadow a blistering live show.  But, at times, it doesn’t appear as if too much musically is going on within the songs aside from these two, despite three other members now being part of the entourage. Take “Things” or “The Loneliness and the Scream,” for example, which don’t actually have too much traditional songwriting to them, at least as far as the instrumentation dictates the song.  In the latter, it seems as if the guitar is merely there to keep Scott on pace.  This isn’t a huge knock against the band, as Hutchison’s voice can carry the band alone, but it does lead you to wonder precisely what the songwriting process was during recording.

“The Wrestle” is the first song where you can hear a bubbly bass line just beneath the surface of the vocals.  In creating this underlying tension, along with a staccato-sort of guitar strumming, the vocals really pull at you.  It’s such a song where you can picture the band belting it out on stage to throngs of adoring fans who all sing along simultaneously.  These are the type of moments you came to expect from Frightened Rabbit.

Guitars finally begin to crash upon your ears when you come to “Nothing Like You,” which is the fastest song on The Winter of Mixed Drinks.  This is the sort of song that has the pacing and drum work to really win over fans in the live setting, but for some reason it doesn’t really seem to fit into the collection of songs here.  Most of the songs have a slower, almost folk approach, so it feels sort of lost.

Much should be noted of the possible influence of fellow Scots The Twilight Sad.  Many songs seem to be coated in atmospheric noise, but only as an extension of the song.  “Not Miserable” has sort of a slow, drawn-out beginning, fleshed out by a fuzz in the background, whilst piano lines sputter along.  It’s something that leads you to focus on the lyrical content, which is perhaps a very current Scottish trend.  Then again, it seems like using atmospheric backing all about is just a general fad in the industry.

Once you finish your listening experience, it’s hard to sit down and think back to superb moments on The Winter of Mixed Drinks.  Every single song is pleasant, and some might say they are all good tunes, but none of them really achieve that feeling of exceptionality one expected from Frightened Rabbit this time around.  They filled the record with decent tunes, but leave you feeling somewhat indifferent, which is something you surely can’t say at their wonderful live shows.

[audio:https://austintownhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/swim-until-you-can_t-see-land.mp3]

Download: Frightened Rabbit – Swim Until You Can’t See Land [MP3]

The Twilight Sad – Forget the Night Ahead

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twilightsadRating: ★★★★☆

From the depths of the Glasgow music scene burst forth another band in 2003.  Since then, The Twilight Sad have slowly been building up a reputation for their melodic rock meets shoegaze, creating beauty surrounded by squalling guitars.  Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters won over many critics, and the world was eager to see if Forget the Night Ahead could keep the band riding the wave of popularity into the hearts and ears of everyone.

As “Reflection of the Television” opens the album up, you can see the screaming feedback you can see that the band still has some of their traditional elements in place.  But, you will also notice that those elements no longer live in the foreground of the song, as they did on previous efforts.  Singer James Graham now has his vocals standing before you for all to see, and while it dramatically changes the aesthetics of the release, you still catch onto the power of music.

“I Became a Prostitute” is the band’s first single off this album, and you can see that it definitely has a presence that can rise above the indie status. Like Glasvegas, it’s a grandiose number full of wave upon wave of guitars accompanied by Graham’s vocals, which just so happen to crash atop the song as well during the chorus.  All in all, it’s a softer approach to writing than the group took in the past, but for most listeners, you will find that it’s equally as effective.

Fortunately for us, this album is longer than their previous affairs, despite the fact that each song reaches well beyond the mark of 3 minutes, with most running near the five minute mark. However, the dynamics of the atmospheric guitar flourishes combined with Graham’s new vocal presence do make some of the songs blend into one another, making it hard to differentiate between the album’s best numbers.  Don’t take this to mean that there aren’t standout tracks in abundance.

“That Birthday Present” is a clever song, with the majority of the tune relishing in the bouncy guitar work.  All this comes to light even though this also happens to be one of the noisier songs on the record.  The Twilight Sad at this point seem sort of like a cross between M83 and Mogwai, except they rely upon a more traditional songwriting structure.  It allows their songs to breathe, instead of wallowing before they fade into obscurity like other bands that implement noise attacks.

“Floorboards Under the Bed” is different than most tunes you’ll find in the groups catalogue.  It seems to wear the influence of tour-mates Frightened Rabbit, but then it fades into a piece of tinkering flare.  Albeit an interesting opening, the song quickly disappears into the back of your mind.  All the build up will lead you into the final three tracks.  Of the final three, “The Neighbours Can’t Breathe” is the stand out, although the closer, “At the Burnside,” has an emotional appeal, with a hint of Glaswegian balladry wrapping it all up.

This album has some really beautiful moments, more than way out the few weak points.  The Twilight Sad are able to build upon their own sound, pushing the shoegazing into the realm of a more pop-centric world, and Forget the Night Ahead wins because of its ability to step into these new realms, encouraging the band to become more than just another stagnant noise-rock act.

[audio:https://austintownhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/reflection-of-the-television-1.mp3]

Download: The Twilight Sad – Reflection of the Television [MP3]

More from The Twilight Sad

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the-twilight-sadNeedless to say, the more that flows through the usual news channels concerning The Twilight Sad, the more excited I get about the release of their new album, which is slated for this fall. Now, I’ve only got a link to this, so you’ll have to travel via the Internet, but once you see this video featuring another new track, “Made to Disappear,” hopefully you’ll start salivating just as I am.  The only thing that needs to be added is the usual walls of sound that the group is known for with their albums.  Check out the video at FlyTV. 

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