snickersnicker
03-31-05, 09:33 PM
Okay, so we're a quarter of the way through the year now. I'm sure most of us have heard a couple records released in the past three months that are already contenders for album of the year...so, what are they?
I've only got two:
Meneguar - I Was Born at Night LP
The Meneguar album is just an incredibly well done example of angular Indie Rock. Some of it sounds like Minus the Bear, some of it sounds like The Promise Ring; but this band definitely has their own sound. Most people would probably say they've come a long way since they were called Sheryl's Magnetic Aura and released handfulls of self-recorded cassettes, but I think that both Sheryl's and Meneguar are great in their own way; none better than the other.
This album is full of great singalong parts, lots of awesome guitar texture, neat arpeggio sections, and just enough aggression to keep it from being totally wimpy. Still, you'd never guess that this band was ex-Books Lie/I am the Resurrection/etc. Highlights include House of Cats, A Few Minutes An Hour and The Temp. The last three songs on this record are taken from the demo, and I feel that it would have been a better decision to record more new material, or at least choose better demo songs (namely the song after which this album was titled). However, these demo songs aren't bad per se, and they don't prevent the album from being highly enjoyable.
MP3s: House of Cats (http://www.magicbulletrecords.com/mp3s/houseofcats.mp3), The Temp (http://www.magicbulletrecords.com/mp3s/thetemp.mp3)
Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-La-La Band - Horses in the Sky 2xLP
Anyone who knows me at all knows I have a disgusting obsession with this band/group/collective/etc. And it means a lot when they put out a record I can enjoy more than Born Into Trouble as the Sparks Fly Upward. I'm still kind of undecided about which I like more, but it's very close. For those of you who don't know what this band sounds like, it's not something that is easy to describe. If you like orchestral music, you will enjoy this. If you like folk music, there's a good chance you will enjoy it. If you like "challening" music in general, you will definitely blow your load over this.
There's six songs on here, five of which are just dead ****ing amazing. God Bless Our Dead Marines goes from Russian folk-style music to choir. Mountains Made of Steam is a slowly building, somewhat melancholy sparse look at religion (or faith in general) and its impact on society and our personal lives. Horses in the Sky is an acoustic piece that just reeks of sadness, but also presents some small amount of triumph. Teddy Roosevelt's Guns is...just bad; doesn't fit on the album and shouldn't have been included. Hang On to Each Other has very little actual music (save an organ for melody), and is made up of Efrim taking the vocal lead of the entire group singing/chanting/yelling/screaming about the desparity of life, and hanging on to the people and things you live despite everything. Ring Them Bells (Your Freedom has Come and Gone) is just epic. ****ing epic. This is the loudest and most sound-filled song of the record, but it doesn't even begin to lose it's emotional appeal because of it. I think this may be my favourite song of theirs...ranges everywhere from bass-and-plucked guitar passages with painful, spoken vocals; to full-on wall-of-noise bits with over distorted guitar and lots of violin and the like. Parts of this even remind me of Japanese Hardcore legends ENVY, if you can imagine that.
No MP3s for this. Just buy it.
Now you go.
I've only got two:
Meneguar - I Was Born at Night LP
The Meneguar album is just an incredibly well done example of angular Indie Rock. Some of it sounds like Minus the Bear, some of it sounds like The Promise Ring; but this band definitely has their own sound. Most people would probably say they've come a long way since they were called Sheryl's Magnetic Aura and released handfulls of self-recorded cassettes, but I think that both Sheryl's and Meneguar are great in their own way; none better than the other.
This album is full of great singalong parts, lots of awesome guitar texture, neat arpeggio sections, and just enough aggression to keep it from being totally wimpy. Still, you'd never guess that this band was ex-Books Lie/I am the Resurrection/etc. Highlights include House of Cats, A Few Minutes An Hour and The Temp. The last three songs on this record are taken from the demo, and I feel that it would have been a better decision to record more new material, or at least choose better demo songs (namely the song after which this album was titled). However, these demo songs aren't bad per se, and they don't prevent the album from being highly enjoyable.
MP3s: House of Cats (http://www.magicbulletrecords.com/mp3s/houseofcats.mp3), The Temp (http://www.magicbulletrecords.com/mp3s/thetemp.mp3)
Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-La-La Band - Horses in the Sky 2xLP
Anyone who knows me at all knows I have a disgusting obsession with this band/group/collective/etc. And it means a lot when they put out a record I can enjoy more than Born Into Trouble as the Sparks Fly Upward. I'm still kind of undecided about which I like more, but it's very close. For those of you who don't know what this band sounds like, it's not something that is easy to describe. If you like orchestral music, you will enjoy this. If you like folk music, there's a good chance you will enjoy it. If you like "challening" music in general, you will definitely blow your load over this.
There's six songs on here, five of which are just dead ****ing amazing. God Bless Our Dead Marines goes from Russian folk-style music to choir. Mountains Made of Steam is a slowly building, somewhat melancholy sparse look at religion (or faith in general) and its impact on society and our personal lives. Horses in the Sky is an acoustic piece that just reeks of sadness, but also presents some small amount of triumph. Teddy Roosevelt's Guns is...just bad; doesn't fit on the album and shouldn't have been included. Hang On to Each Other has very little actual music (save an organ for melody), and is made up of Efrim taking the vocal lead of the entire group singing/chanting/yelling/screaming about the desparity of life, and hanging on to the people and things you live despite everything. Ring Them Bells (Your Freedom has Come and Gone) is just epic. ****ing epic. This is the loudest and most sound-filled song of the record, but it doesn't even begin to lose it's emotional appeal because of it. I think this may be my favourite song of theirs...ranges everywhere from bass-and-plucked guitar passages with painful, spoken vocals; to full-on wall-of-noise bits with over distorted guitar and lots of violin and the like. Parts of this even remind me of Japanese Hardcore legends ENVY, if you can imagine that.
No MP3s for this. Just buy it.
Now you go.