honeymoon music, anathallo ...

I saw two amazing experimental/ambient/post-rock bands last Friday night at a free library show. Peacefeather and Niagara Falls both have releases on the Philli label Honeymoon Music (I found out today that they released a Thanksgiving cd, see my old post on Adrian and his amazing music). The merch table had a free 8 track compliation which I'm extremely impressed with. I think I'll continue to keep tabs on Honeymoon and their releases as I have with another great Philli label, Burnt Toast Vinyl, for the past couple years. Nothing but good could come of checking into the websites of both labels every once and a while as they continue to put out great music. The ambient and experimental nature of the show on Friday night reminded me a lot of the loose collective of Burnt Toast musicians and friends Reels of White Softly Flow, most notably containing members of Saxon Shore. Everything about Friday night's show was so epic and driving. The absence of a pre-set sturcture provides an amount of freedom in the music that easily translates into the beauty of something never played exactly as is being unfurled right in front of your ears. Definitely listen to the Niagra Falls and Peacefeather tracks I linked. It is really amazing stuff. Another artist on the compilation that I was thoroughly impressed with was The Amazing Trapeze. The last track of the compilation "This Isn't About Bending Over Anymore, Is It?" sounded live but was epic and I loved it.

All four pictures are of Peacefeather.

[mp3] Peacefeather - Peacekeeper

[mp3] Niagara Falls - Oviposit

Anathallo's new album Floating World is out as of this week if you preordered it. If you didn't, there's a much better chance of finding it in stores since Anathallo struck a management and distro deal with Nettwerk, home of Avril Lavigne, Guster, Josh Rouse, and Sarah McLachlan to name a few. Don't worry about these guys becoming the next pop-punk idols, they'll stay indie as ever, but now with the distro to get the exposure they deserve. The packaging is immaculate, beautiful, and delicate. As with all their releases, Floating World is worth owning almost for the amazing packaging alone. Although you can preview two tracks on their myspace, I'll upload them to yousendit because myspace pretty much sucks, only works half the time, and I'm just not much of a fan. So as yousendit goes, they'll be up for a week and then gone forever.

[mp3] Anathallo - Hoodwink
[mp3] Anathallo - Hanasakajijii (four: a great wind, more ash)

new appleseed cast, wsc, bp...

I don't really seem to be having the time to post everyday, but I think I'm going to start to try to make a huge ass post once a week with a couple of bands and whatever else strikes my fancy at the time I'm writing.

Last night I saw Washington Social Club at the Crowbar with a couple of local openers (of most note, Bullet Parade, but also The Minor White, and North). It was a fantastic, amazingly fun show with the addition of randomly interspersed audience percussion thanks to Kleeb of Bullet Parade. Both were very high energy sets condusive to much movement. I had a lot of fun and took some pictures when I was not banging on a tambourine or shaking maracas. Here's a sample of some of the stuff my shutter caught:

Washington Social Club (above and the 2 below)

Bullet Parade (2 below)Anything that Bullet Parade has recorded is with their old line up and in my opinion isn't that great. The new band is awesome and will hopefully have an ep or something recroded soon. As far as hearing Washington Social Club, they have a couple live mp3s on their site which I'll link to.

[mp3] Washington Social Club - Are You High (live @ Schuba's)
[mp3] Washington Social Club - Modern Trance (live @ Schuba's)
[mp3] Washington Social Club - Charlie the Russian (live @ Schuba's)

The Appleseed Cast's new ablum Peregrine is due out March 21 on (if you didn't already know, you might not believe this but) The Militia Group. This (like Denison Witmer) was a very unexpected move in my eyes, but the label has great PR and seems to do a great job selling records so this might have been for the better even though Deep Elm and Tiger Style were such great labels. Despite the picture, they have not turned into a metal band and the new album is not a departure at all. Personally I love it. It seems a little polished and upbeat to be an Appleseed Cast album, but the progression of their sound grows on you fast and you find their classic signature sound settling in your ear when it's all said and done. I'll link a download for a zip of the album but it is someone's personal server space ... find it here (link from Indie Surfer Blog). Listen to "Here We Are (Family in the Hallway) on myspace before you get the album.

Show Your Bones (Yeah Yeah Yeah's) has been slowly leaking song by song. And I'm really like what I've heard so far. It definitely better than Fever to Tell which I solely adore for the last 4 songs. If I'm assuming correctly, Karen-O has mellowed out a little, which is so much better in my opinion. The guitar work of Nick Zinner continues to impress me... "Dudley" is the the slower mellower part of Yeah Yeah Yeahs that I adore and "Golden Lion" is upbeat but not to the trashy extent of a lot of the last album and the "Oooo, oo's" are catchy as hell.

[mp3] Yeah Yeah Yeah's - Gold Lion
[mp3] Yeah Yeah Yeah's - Dudley (yousendit link, expires in a week)

65dos, vek, and new voxtrot

How can 65 Days of Static exist for so long without me knowing. Their sound perfectly blends all of my favorite post rock bands (GY!BE, Pelican, Mono, and Mogwai) into truely epic and amazing soundscapes. Every song is has such a driving element to it that does not repeat from song to song. They truely subscribe to the post rock genre rarely using instruments out side the traditional guitar, bass, drums, and keys. They manage to meld those four seperate entities into one solid, definied, and ethereal signature sound. I can't even choose a favorite song out of the five I'm going to post and I'm definitely considering picking up their latest full length, One Time for All Time, very soon. Check out the music subsection of the media section of their site for a few more mp3s and remixes.

[mp3] 65 Days of Static - Hole
[mp3] 65 Days of Static - I Swallowed Hard, Like I Understood
[mp3] 65 Days of Static - Await Rescue
[mp3] 65 Days of Static - Massive Star at the End of Its Burning Cycle
[mp3] 65 Days of Static - I am Robot


Yet another video I was exposed to this weekend via mtv-u was Tom Vek's "C-C (You Set the Fire in Me). As you can see, he seems to be adorned in a colonial era British soldier's uniform and tapping on his snare drum. He enlists two interesting looking forest creatures as walking tom stands. These little things sort of remind me of the fuzzy little marionettes in The Boy Least Likely To's "Be Gentle with Me" video. Both are really out there sort of videos that pull in an almost child-like imaginative fantasy memory nostalgia. You can find all of Vek's videos on his site. As for his sound, Vek is bound to be the next big thing for mid-fi indie pop. Think John Vanderslice, but not as dark both in voice and overall sound. C-C is the single off his new record We Have Sound and is as catchy as ever. Listen up...

[mp3] Tom Vek - C-C (You Set the Fire in Me)
[mp3] Tom Vek - A Little Word in Your Ear


Voxtrot has a new song on their site from their forthcoming EP. Their sound is definitely maturing and they are improving upon the already amazing Raised by Wolves [EP].

[mp3] Voxtrot - Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives

super what

First off, this is how I feel about the stupid Super Bowl and is also the away message I had up during the damn thing, which I did not watch. I was glad to hear the commercials were sub-par, so I didn't miss anything. It would have been nice if the Steelers lost so I could laugh at all the people crying and/or rioting because they care too much.

seattle is superior to pittsburgh as a city...

this statement has nothing to do with the
(rather meaningless) event occurring this
evening, nor my preference towards which
team i wish to win because, frankly, i don't
care...

so watch those commercials, buy those
products, buy the licensed merchandise, feed
into the extravagant lifestyles of these
"heroes" of the american lifestyle, and yell at
them like they are in front of you and it really
matters what your opinion is - the nfl probably
uses innocent looking polls to figure out which
team will provide a more lucrative victory and
then fixes the game...

the only good thing to become of this
(wretched) american "holiday" is that they
print winning products for both teams so it can
be bought right after the game (three cheers
for capitalism, consumerism), but the losing
team's stuff finds it's way to third world
countries to clothe the starving frames of
people we americans could care less about in
this moment of "great"american history...

Anyway, politics and social justice aside, the bleeding electrical outlet, an image I find quite striking and intriuging, above is from Metric's Moster Hospital video, which I saw for the first time this weekend. Another thing gained from otherwise useless time wasted watching mtv-u was an introduction to She Wants Revenge through their Tear You Apart video dirrected by Joaquin Phoenix. Another strikingly odd, but very well done video. Soundwise they are pretty much Interpol2, but pull it off very well. Search the mtv-u site to watch it. As far as I know, that seems to be the only place you can see it, but I don't feel like associating with mtv to the point of linking them on my blog (sorry to you really lazy people). Back to Metric, their first full length Grow Up and Blow Away was never released due to record label qualms but the songs are floating around the internet and you should be able to find all 11 with some considerable effort. I'll link two of my favorites: Torture Me and Wet Blanket. As far as songs from their newest album, Live It Out, they seem to be keeping a pretty tight hand as far as letting them leak, but I did find a remix of Monster Hospital by mstrkrft that is pretty cool. I'm waiting for their new album as well which looks very promising from what I've heard so far - you can hear some stuff on their myspace. I'll also link Calculation Theme from 2003's Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?

[mp3] Metric - Torture Me
[mp3] Metric - Wet Blanket
[mp3] Metric - Calculation Theme
[mp3] Metric - Monster Hospital (mstrkrft remix)

[mp3] She Wants Revenge - Spend the Night
[mp3] She Wants Revenge - Out of Control
[mp3] She Wants Revenge - These Things
Second and third songs linked from MusicGlob - great blog, check it daily

apollo sunshine pictures

I finally downsized all the pictures I took of Apollo Sunshine I took at the show January 21 and uploaded them. I made an album on photobucket so take a look. Check my previous post about them for mp3s or visit the site to stream some songs. If you want to see the full size 5mp pics, tell me and I'll link you to where I have them uploaded on my filespace.

[pics] Apollo Sunshine (01.21.2006) in Heritage Hall @ psu