Matters of real life pushed this back later than normal, but better late than never, I guess.
Revolt Revolt - Latah Nights
I was unaware of this band until recently, but they're pretty darn good. They've spent a lot of time opening for Built to Spill, and that pairing makes a lot of sense: they specialize in that 90's alternative guitar-led genre and manage to touch upon a lot of the giants: not just Built to Spill, but The Pixies, Sonic Youth, and Dinosaur Jr. as well. Interestingly, some of their slower songs have a psychedelic feel that more than a little brings to mind Jane's Addiction. Additionally, the album is only eight tracks long, and there is definitely something to say about not wearing out your welcome.
Selections
Flares
Revolt Revolt – Nu Blud
It Echoes On
Revolt Revolt – It Echoes On
Jason Lytle - Department of Disappearance
Jason Lytle's previous band Grandaddy is something of a musical blind spot for me, but hearing this recent album, which is Lytle's second solo effort, makes me want to explore Grandaddy's back catalog.
Lytle's music is an interesting amalgamation: he uses plenty of synthesizers and strings, but he usually grounds the music in driving guitars, and he definitely knows how to craft a song. This means he can do just about any style: driving rock, mellow folk, spacey prog, or straightforward pop rock. Lytle's offkilter raspy vocals are kinda reminiscent to me of The Thrills (sidenote: remember The Thrills?), but they are similarly versatile in their mood, sounding at different times apathetic, whimsical, melancholic, or spaced-out.
The album could probably use a little bit more uptempo songs - it sags a bit in the middle before picking up again with the excellent "Your Final Setting Sun" - but the beautiful moments are awful beautiful.
Selections
Department of Disappearance
Godspeed You! Black Emperor- Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!
So, uh, there's no way to get around this: this band is pretentious as all hell. Both band name and album name are ludicrous, and the actual music they create is composed of vocal-free 20+ minute songs with symphonic-like movements. Further, I thoroughly reject the premise that any of this ostentatious artiness makes the band any smarter than anyone who can write a three and a half minute catchy pop song (in all fairness, any claims to the opposite are far, far more likely to come from one of this band's fans than from the band itself, so maybe I shouldn't level it as a critique of the band).
All that said, the music has its moments, even if the majority of those function best in a background music type of way. The band appears to be attempting to combine classical symphonic music with noise rock, and they deserve some kudos for at least doing something original. I think I slightly preferred the album before this most recent one, as this one is a little too ambient and drone-y for me at points, but really we're splitting hairs in ranking the two. It's not a type of music I'm going to be reaching for often, but I can appreciate it for what it is.
Selections
Mladic
Dethklok - Dethalbum III
Speaking of music I'm not going to be reaching for often...
I've never been a death metal fan. There are any number of metal bands that I've enjoyed before: I'm no hater of heavy music, and I definitely can enjoy a fair share of thrashing guitars. Death metal, however, has always seemed a bridge too far for me. I suspect my biggest criticism of the genre is the barking lead singer who is always buried too low in the mix to even really hear: I have no rational reason to explain my dissatisfaction at this staple of the genre, but I know I consistently don't enjoy it.
Having enjoyed the cartoon Metalocalypse (although as the show has gone on it's consistently had diminishing returns for me), I decided to check out this album. Not being a fan of the genre, I am hesitant to opine too much on this, but all things considered, it's pretty amazing how authentic the music sounds, considering it was all written and performed by the creator of the show, Brendon Small (he does have a drummer and bassist help him record the album, but the writing and guitar work is Small's). To my ears, this fits very well with "legitimate" death metal songs.
My favorite song on the album is probably "The Galaxy," which by death metal's standards actually manages to be fairly tuneful, slowly building to a pretty epic crescendo. The album hasn't won over me over on the merits of death metal, but it is a lot better than an album by a showrunner of a cartoon has any right to be.
Oh, and there's a song on it called "I Ejaculate Fire." No joke forthcoming; I just thought that was a noteworthy fact.
Selections
The Galaxy
Andromeda
Bonus Single Coverage:
Bruno Mars, "Locked Out of Heaven"
I would not have considered myself a fan of Bruno Mars before hearing this song, but this is a freaking great pop song. It sounds like he got The Police to be his backup band.
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