Don’t Get Sentimental

A couple weeks ago I had the fortune of seeing the Decemberists live.  The show was incredible, especially the always epic ‘The Island.’  What I wasn’t expecting was the opening band, Loch Lomond.  They’re a 7-person ensemble from Portland, Oregon (indie music central?) whose music stretches from the quietly moving to the folksy epic.  To paraphrase my brother, their sound is akin to listening to an orchestra while underwater, a description no doubt inspired by the fact that their name refers to a famous loch in Scotland.

The group uses an eclectic collection of instruments to produce their sound, including piano, violin, guitar, theremin, and the surprisingly powerful falsetto of the lead singer.  It’s the kind of music that is often soft (at least before the crescendo), but soft in a commanding way, not like some weak shit that just tinkles along in the background.  It demands your attention.

Also, there’s a lot of songs in 3/4 waltz rhythm, which is always sweet.

Loch Lomond - Song in 3/4

Loch Lomond - A Field Report

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

A couple weeks ago I wrote about the talented-beyond-her-years Laura Marling (above, right), but I probably should have written this post first.  Before Marling struck off on her own solo career, she sang back-up vocals for Noah and the Whale, a UK group that falls under the same nebulous Anti-Folk genre as Marling herself.

I found out about them after Marling, and initially only gave them a couple listens, then moved on.  Over the past week, however, I sat down and listened to their new album Peaceful The World Lays Me Down, and it’s really growing on me.  Their sound is equal parts easy-going folk and well-crafted pop, with songs that make you feel bubbly and happy without drenching you in saccharine.

Interesting fact from Wikipedia that lacks citation:

Apparently Noah and the Whale’s “name is a marriage of the title of one of the band’s favorite films, “The Squid and the Whale,” and the name of the director (Noah Baumbach).”  Sounds believable enough.  Thanks, Wikipedia!

MySpace

Noah and the Whale - 5 Years Time

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Reflect June is a Dallas-based indie/underground/unsigned rapper that has recently caught my attention with his album “Hunt Club.” The album is produced entirely by fellow Dallas resident, Semantic Noise, whose beats provide a perfect complement to Reflect June’s poetic and pensive lyrics. Along with being an awesome album as a whole, showcasing lyrical finesse and excellent production, “Hunt Club” has one of the coolest and most memorable album covers I’ve seen in a very long time.

"Hunt Club" album cover

Although Reflect June proudly represents his home of Dallas, Texas, as can be heard on his song “East Dallas” produced by Rob Viktum (not on “Hunt Club,” but featured on his myspace page), he has managed to do quite a bit of traveling in his lifetime. Having spent his childhood in Puerto Rico, and then spending some of his early twenties in Europe (primarily Spain, but visiting Sweden, Norway, and England as well), Reflect June has accumulated a set of experiences unlike those of other rappers’, giving him his own original style and sound.

His lyrics on “Hunt Club” are poetic and thoughtful, dark and dense, but at the same time very accessible, giving him an edge in the rap world. The entire album can be downloaded for free, so definitely give it a listen if you like what you hear. You can also buy the album from his myspace page, which features all of the instrumentals, as well as a remix by Rob Viktum.

Reflect June - Hunt Club

Reflect June - Rapidly Failing

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

New York based producer and multi-instrumentalist Cassettes Won’t Listen, has recently become somewhat of an indie darling, being featured on Gorilla vs. Bear, as well as being asked by artists such as El-P, Dr. Octagon, Mr. Lif, and others to do remixes of their songs.

Recently however, he caught my attention with his five song cover EP, Small-Time Machine, featuring some obscure and classic indie songs, including one of my personal indie favorites, “Cut Your Hair” by Pavement. I’ll make sure to have a post titled “if I ever lived out my dream as a musician, these are the five songs I would cover” in the future, but for now I’ll stick to talking about this sweet cover and the original Pavement version.

“Cut Your Hair” is clearly about selling out and the role that image plays in the music industry, and somewhat ironically is Pavement’s best known song. Still though, to cover a Pavement song, you have to be pretty ambitious, and to pull it off while still making it your own takes real skill. And CWL did an outstanding job covering it.

You can get the five song EP for free on his website, and get a feel for his original songs while browsing through the rest of his site.

Pavement-Cut Your Hair

Cassettes Won’t Listen - Cut Your Hair (Pavement Cover)

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

We’re working our way (I’m working my way?) up to newer music on this blog, but as we’re just getting started I feel compelled to point out all of the great music I’ve accumulated over the last few months/years.  Also, we currently have zero audience so it’s all relative I suppose.

Regardless, I feel like just as the internet has opened me up to a multitude of new music, it’s also made it that much harder to focus on any one particular new artist.  Often times I’ll find two or three new albums in one day and I don’t always give them the attention that I should.  That said, this is one album that sucked me in from the first track and quickly distinguished itself from the masses of my iTunes playlist.

I picked up Marry Me by St. Vincent sometime in 2007, and even as I skip through any number of great albums, there is not a song on this album that I cannot listen to all the way through.  I had the fortune of seeing them a few months ago at the Rock and Roll Hotel in DC, and the even greater fortune of being able to snag a place right up in front of the stage.

Now, to be fair, I cannot safely say how much of that performance was great because of the music and how much was simply the fact that I could not look away from Annie Clark’s super-intense eyes (even in pictures, it’s impossible to look away, and if you don’t believe me, check out the video below).  Either way, this former (and current?) member of the Polyphonic Spree has a solo album that is packed with inventive instrumentation and even more inventive lyrics (”Your lips are red / My face is red from reading your red lips”).

What strikes me most about the music is Annie’s guitar.  I can’t quite articulate what makes it so special, but there’s a certain controlled yet absolutely free sound that surprises me every time.  You’d think at some point that the electric guitar couldn’t surprise you, but then you hear a song like “Jesus Saves, I Spend” and it’s like hearing the instrument again for the first time.

St. Vincent - Jesus Saves, I Spend

St. Vincent - Your Lips are Red:

Pick up Marry Me at Amazon

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!