Manchester Orchestra – Cope

I’ll start by saying that I’ve been waiting 3 years for a new Manchester Orchestra release.  It was well worth the wait.  Andy Hull and company are back for the most rocking album they’ve released since 2007, potentially more rocking than anything they’ve put out.

            In the last three years Manchester Orchestra has been busy.  Acting as the backup band for The Dear Hunter’s color spectrum on “Red”, converting an Atlanta, GA house into their recording studio and demoing out 28 songs before narrowing down the choices to the ones that made the cut for their forthcoming album “Cope”.

            The album is full on rock and roll, and is so much heavier than “Simple Math” that it is like they are bypassing its existence and working towards another “Everything to Nothing”.  The instrumentals sound incredibly polished and heavier than ever, in addition to upping the production value on the vocals, they went all out on their record, and knowing that they recorded it themselves makes it all the more pleasing to hear something so well engineered.

            The songs run the gamut from minor to major and move seamlessly between dirty and downtrodden to gritty yet uplifting.  As always, Hull’s vocals are spot on, even when he is harmonizing high above his normal register.  His lyrics are just as full of depth as they have ever been, however he seems to concentrate more on one particular theme than he has in the past.   Hull had this to say at a press release, “Cope, to me, means getting by. It means letting go, and being OK with being OK. You can cope in a positive way when bad things happen, or a negative way, and that blend was a big lyrical theme for me on this album.”  He also goes on to reflect on the idea of the colors red and black being the thematic colors for not only the album cover but for the tone of the record as well. 

            “Cope”releases on April 1st, and you can preorder your copy today.

The War on Drugs – Lost in the Dream

The new “War On Drugs” band name is deceiving.  Not that “Lost in the Dream” sounds like they binged out on acid or anything during the recording process, but it does sound like something that you could drunkenly dance to at the Bug Jar. 

            With an 80’s drum machine beat (but played on real drums) prevalent through the whole album, and ethereal Cure-sounding synthesizers, and Graceland-Era-Paul Simon-esqe vocals, the album launches with an “It’s Friday, I’m In Love” kind of feel.  The song “Under the Pressure” is a perfect opener and gives you an idea of what to expect throughout the rest of the album.  Maybe I am not old enough to know what was cool in the 80’s (I’m not, my idea of the 80’s is neon colors, awkwardly fitting pants, Back to the Future, and my parents getting married), but I think this would’ve topped any of the top 40 bands back then, and I wish it would now.

            Originally founded by guitarist/singer Adam Granduciel and Kurt Vile (who left shortly after to focus on his solo work) the band has grown into something unique among a thousand hipster bands trying to capitalize on the past.  Vile recounts moving to PA and meeting Granduciel, and says of the bands name "My friend Julian and I came up with it a few years ago over a couple bottles of red wine and a few typewriters when we were living in Oakland. We were writing a lot back then, working on a dictionary, and it just came out and we were like "hey, good band name” so eventually when I moved to Philadelphia and got a band together I used it. It was either that or The Rigatoni Danzas. I think we made the right choice. I always felt though that it was the kind of name I could record all sorts of different music under without any sort of predictability inherent in the name"

            With a resume like Granduciel’s (guitarist in Kurt Vile and the Violators, front man for the War on Drugs, and producer of several albums) it is no shock that he and The War on Drugs put out something so unique.  There are times when the album slows down, but always picks up quickly.  It is hard not to imagine a smoke filled dive bar with a rowdy crowd yelling at the band to play cover songs and, in a rebellious response The War on Drugs plays one of their up-tempo songs and even the asshole that asked for a Motley Crue Cover can’t help but dance. 

            Are you looking for something new to make you move in your living room, on the dance floor, or get you through a car ride for work that takes hours?  Look no further than The War on Drugs – Lost in the Dream.
Buy the War on Drugs

Listen to "Under the Pressure"

The Notwist - Close to the Glass

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            Dan walked in last Thursday, and after we exchanged our usual greetings, he immediately proceeded to walk over to the vinyl racks to see if we got in The Notwist’s new album.  He looked at me with excitement that comes about when he is sincerely curious about something new.  I could tell he had no preconceived notions of what it would be.  Dan is a musical jedi.  He is most akin to (in terms of music taste) Obi Wan Kenobi, he is open minded, but can see the “truth” of subjectivity “from a certain point of view”.  If he told me to go to the Dagobah system to train with Yoda I would.  Circumstances however, have landed me at the writers desk, so you all get to deal with my 11^th grade grasp of the English language and lackluster sentence structure.  Now! The Notwist-Close to the Glass.

            The album begins with an array of quiet electronic noises, gliding into glitches and melodic circuit bending.  As it takes shape, the sound coalesces into a sparse but beautiful surrounding for the understated vocal track.  Notwist manages to build those glitches into the sonic backbone of the track. They are even basing the key signature off the initial sounds (which if isolated wouldn’t make sense).  But by the time spaced out Rhodes, reversed/swelled string(ish) sounds, and what appear to be room sounds (perhaps of them dropping pieces of wood or perhaps electrical cable in time to the drums) are layered into the mix, they act as one to provide a textural aura that surrounds their melodic focal point.

            This is an album to listen to through headphones, and a rewarding one at that. I noticed so many gorgeous subtleties to each track on “Close to the Glass”.  To me, this is the first album of 2014 that I am legitimately going to listen to throughout the whole year, and I will definitely be adding it to my collection.  The Notwist takes you for an emotional ride, and if you’re like me, hearing one song will make you crave the album in it’s entirety.  

With such impeccable song craft, “Close to the Glass” is a joy to listen to, will keep you coming back to it to hear all the little details that hooked me.  As spring approaches, “Close to the Glass” is the perfect companion to welcome longer days, drives with the windows down, road trips and reflections on the winter past.

 Get "Close to the Glass" by The Notwist on Vinyl!

Mono Holy Ground Live in NYC

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Those of you not from upstate NY may have a hard time relating to just how brutal our winters are.  Not just in terms of temperatures or precipitation, but the length of time that they last, and the amount that it really does get to us up here.  Granted we all have pretty tough winter skin, and multiple layers of clothing on most of the time, but it does begin to beat you down when the sun is only out till 5pm.   This has been the longest winter for me in recent memory, and I am glad to say that as it (hopefully) is winding down.  As we prepare for the few months of beauty that upstate has each year, it is good to listen to something that reflects on the conflict and beauty of what  almost 7 months of cold can do to us.  Enter Mono (the band, not the ailment).

After being on a post-rock kick for the past two months, I felt like I needed a break.  I figured moody, ethereal and drone-y seemed a little one dimensional to keep writing about.  However…I hadn’t listened to Mono.  Now I have, so anyone reading this will have just ONE more post-rock album blog to trudge through.  Feel free to skip ahead if you think you know how this one goes.

Mono: Holy Ground *Live in NYC* is an incredible journey for the mind.  I can equate it to being stranded in the snow, forced to reflect upon the decisions that have lead up to the present.  A bold statement?  Yes.  But as a proprietor of introspective  head trips, I am all for this type of ambient guitar washy-ness (plus did I mention that there is an orchestra behind them?), and the album builds to so many climaxes that it lets the band’s dynamic range move it along rather than relying production tricks.

   I can only hope that Premier Guitar does a “rig-rundown” (youtube video explaining their pedal boards, amp choices and guitars) on these guys soon.  I want to learn their ways.  The fact that this album is live and sounds so damn good is incredible.

So after today, no more post-rock reviews for a while…I just listened to the new Saint Vincent,  so keep your eyes out next week!

Mogwai - Rave Tapes

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Despite my love for the delay pedal as an integral part of a bands guitar sounds…somehow in all my years of post rocking, Mogwai escaped my ears.  I’m not proud of it, but I’ll own up to it and say this...After listening to “Hardcore Will Never Die…But You Will” and their new album “Rave Tapes”, they will not pass me by again. 

            Post-rock is defined by Wikipedia as “a subgenre of rock music characterized by the influence and use of instruments commonly associated with rock, but using rhythms and ‘guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures’ not traditionally found in rock. Post-rock bands are often without vocals”.  While this is accurate to a certain degree, the genre has certainly evolved since its roots in the early 90’s.  Sigur Ros, Moving Mountains, Mogwai, Don Caballero, Tortoise, and Explosions in the Sky are good jumping off points for those new to the genre. 

             “Rave Tapes” is primarily without vocals.  It is a moody journey through gorgeous textural soundscapes, and an exploration of dynamic contrast.  The band will move seamlessly from drone-rumble guitars into clean delay-laden riffs that force themselves into the foreground.  The rhythm section is joined by synthesized reinforcement and keeps the record sounding fresh and adds excitement certain sections. 

            Mogwai is nothing if not consistent.  They deliver a record that sonically complex and instrumentally sound.  This is a group of incredibly talented musicians and their 19-year career is full of sonic wonderlands to explore.  If you are new to the band, “Rave Tapes” is a good starting point, and opens up the doors to their extensive back catalogue.  If you are a longtime fan, listen to “Rave Tapes” and feel free to post lengthy responses to this about how ignorant I am of the bands true genius from their early years.  Don’t worry, by the time I see any backlash I will have listened to as much of their discography as I can get my hands on, and will have some kind of sardonic reply.  “Rave Tapes” is a great album all the way through.  Mogwai is a band worth knowing well.  Keep post-rocking out.

 Buy "Rave Tapes" On Vinyl

Listen to Repelish

Sigur Ros-Heima and the Importance of Music That Moves You

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I have felt a bit downtrodden recently.   The normal day to day occurrences that cause us all stress, the biting cold of the winters in Rochester, whatever your gloom, it is something we can all relate to.  Some of us lose ones we love, through death or through the end of relationships, and it hurts. It takes the warmth in our chests and replaces it with an emptiness that feels as though it will never be whole again.  We could wallow in self-pity, we could get angry at ourselves, or at the situations we are in.  Or we can accept these things for what they are, and put on a Sigur Ros record.

Towards the end of next month (February 21^st) the Alternative Music Film Society will be screening “Heima”.  A documentary that follows the Icelandic post-rockers back to their homeland to play a series of shows for free, some in fields that look like they were pulled right out of middle earth, some in old defunct bomb shelters, some in the middle of a village.  They decided to go home and remind themselves and their countrymen that they knew where they came from.  I would highly recommend attending this film.  It is life changing.

I can still remember the first time I ever heard Sigur Ros. It was almost 6 years ago now.  I was driving down Norton St. heading towards the 590 on-ramp. This was right after the girl I had been dating for close to a year called me, to tell me she had met someone else.  Cliché?  Incredibly.  However, this is an integral part of the story.  My body felt devoid of feeling.  I felt incredibly alone, betrayed, and confused.  The CD in my car had a mix of songs I had never heard, songs that my older, wiser cousin Pat had recommended to me.  To this day he has never steered me wrong when it comes to music.  He had been telling me about this Icelandic band I had never heard of, and how it would literally change the way I looked at the world, and the way I thought about music. 

I put in the mix CD and turned the volume all the way up (the way you do as a 19 year old whose heart has just been broken).  I heard the first few notes slowly fade in, an ambient wash of bells, reverb drenched guitars and glockenspiel.  It grew and grew, and as I saw the sun over the peak of the hill, the most beautiful piano melody that (to this day) I have ever heard embraced me in its gorgeous intervals.  The song (which I would later discover was called “Hoppipolla”) made this metaphorical light inside me grow, and slowly warm my chest, my hands, and my face.  I felt tears rolling down my cheeks, unrelated to the “heartbreak” I had just experienced.  For a moment I felt as though I was floating.  I felt this huge wall of beautiful sounds lifting me from my seat, and placing me in a world that was devoid of anything ugly or morose.  The song reached its climax and then dropped to just a layer of ambience and a lead vocal line.  The vocalist sang a string of words I couldn’t understand, “Og ég fæ blóðnasir. En ég stend alltaf upp.” At that moment it didn’t matter that I didn’t understand the language, I connected to it.  As the vocal phrase finished, the enormous wave of sound returned more triumphant than before.  I felt goose-bumps form on my arms, I let the unbidden tears flow, I was one with everything.  As an army of trumpets took over the vocal melody I turned onto the 590 ramp, felt the sun’s warmth on my face and smiled through the tears.  I knew someone had felt exactly as I did that very moment, and had captured it in this song.  I knew this was a pivotal moment in my life.  I knew I would never forget it.

Last week, the relationship I had been in for 3 years ended abruptly.  All the emotions I thought I had experienced and understood came back like a storm.  I couldn’t bring myself to get in my car that day.  I walked to work in the snow.  I wanted to feel something, even if it wasn’t pleasant, and as my iTunes shuffle began, the quiet build I now knew well, “Hoppipola” swept me away, and once again I smiled through the tears, through all the pain that I felt inside, and I let it wash over me again. As empty as I felt, as cold as I was, and bitter as that winter morning’s frozen kiss on my cheeks felt, I let the warmth return to me.  I felt at peace.

I know this isn’t my typical blog post.  I apologize to those of you expecting my normal semi-sarcastic-analytical-run-on-sentence laden post.  I am sorry to bear my soul, but in order to understand how powerful the music that Sigur Ros makes is, it needed to be contextualized.  I hope that anyone that is feeling hollow, or broken, or cold can take the same feeling of unbridled joy and sheer awe that I did from Sigur Ros.  My cousin was right.  Sigur Ros changed the way I looked at music.  They changed the way I saw the world.  On the 1 in 7 billion chance that someone from Sigur Ros is reading this, I want to say this...I don’t know your reasons, I don’t know your inspiration, I can’t speak your language, but you have given me something that I will never be without.  You have given me hope, and I will share it with anyone who will listen. 

If you can attend our screening of Sigur Ros’ “Heima” on 2/21/14 I suggest you do so.  It is truly a touching testament to a band who does it for all the right reasons.  If you can’t make it, and want to check them out, come in and see us at Lakeshore, we have their whole discography on CD and vinyl, most of which you will find no where else.  And thank you everyone who read this.  It was very therapeutic, and if nothing else, even if you never agree with my recommendations, I hope that there is music that moves you on this level.  Everyone deserves to have hope.

Browse the Sigur Ros discography

Attend our screening of Sigur Ros' "Heima" by joining the event on Facebook! 

Listen to "Hoppipolla" By Sigur Ros

Mister Heavenly - Out of Love

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                                                         Mister Heavenly – Out of Love

             Every once in a while “super-group” doesn’t mean “super-shitty”.   As rare as a vile of dodo blood, when a truly inspired “super-group” is born, it means we should all take heed. 

             Mister Heavenly is Ryan Kattner (of Man Man), Nicholas Thorburn (of Islands, and the Unicorns), and Joe Plummer (of Modest Mouse).  They released “Out Of Love” in 2011 on Sub Pop Records.  According to Kattner, "It actually sounds like a mash-up of our (Kattner’s and Thorburn’s) two styles. For the Man Man stuff, if you like our doo-wop-y stuff, 'Doo Right' or 'Ice Dogs,' that vein. If you like what Nick does, the stripped-down pop stuff and the Unicorns stuff, it's like that."  In a press release, Mister Heavenly described themselves as “doom-wop”…Totally accurate description.

             The album begins with one of the best opening songs I’ve ever heard on a record.  “Bronx Sniper” eases the listener into the album with Thorburn’s quiet breath-y voice, almost as if it is a calm that will inevitably give way to a total indie-freak-out-nor’easter.  The introduction quickly gives way to dirty guitars, aggressive piano, and Kattners signature melodic growl-crooning. 

            As a whole, the album does a great job of combining the best elements from all three members respective bands, and makes for an exciting listen. 

Listen to "Bronx Sniper"

Buy "Out of Love" by Mister Heavenly On Vinyl