Once upon a time, I was really into the whole alt-country/indie folk thing (I blame Bright Eyes’ I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning and Cassadega). But luckily, that window coincided with Jenny Lewis’ best entry into that scene.
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Author: Nathaniel FitzGerald
Record #257: Future Islands – Singles (2014)
Like most people, my first experience with Future Islands was their stellar appearance on Letterman. And friend, you HAVE to watch that video. It is truly one of the most arresting performances of the last ten years.
But if you think Future Islands is just a band with great single and some killer dance moves (seriously, watch that video), you’re only hurting yourself. Continue reading
Record #256: The Gloria Record: Start Here (2002)
Chris Simpson, mastermind of The Gloria Record, started out as the lead singer of everyone’s favorite Sunny Day Real Estate tribute band (fight me). When Mineral broke up, he grabbed a couple guys and started making the same sort of slow, cascading guitar music. Continue reading
Record #240: Further Seems Forever – The Moon is Down (2001)
I never thought I would write this post.
I have looked for this record for years, passing it up because of the price, hoping that their (ill-advised) reunion would bring a reissue with it. Then, Tooth and Nail Records was bought by big bad EMI Christian, dashing any hopes of T&N reissues against the rocks. Continue reading
Record #236: Janelle Monae – The Archandroid (2010)
Janelle Monae is a chameleon of the finest form. She has been leveled comparisons to James Brown, Prince, David Bowie, and Jack White, and trekking through the monolithic The Archandroid, each one of them stands up to scrutiny.
Monae sets her feet firmly in funk and soul and gropes wildly in all directions grabbing a bit of hip hop, a bit of garage rock, a bit of disco, a bit of MPB, all dashed with a healthy dose of afro-futurism.
And the most telling of Monae’s talents is that such a disparate sounding record not only works, but excels, even with such a goofy premise behind it. Because let’s be honest: a genre-spanning concept album about a robot who is also the Messiah who falls in love with her maker in a city where dancing and love are outlawed should be ridiculous to the point of being unlistenable. But it’s actually one of the best records to come out of the last ten years.
Record #235: Deafheaven – Sunbather (2013)
Since my second or third year of college, the surest way to keep me from listening to something has been to drop the word “metal” in its description. Metal (and by extension, hardcore) was something I had enjoyed while I was following the scene, but I had grown out of it and moved on to the greener, more mature pastures of folk, electronica, and art rock. Continue reading
Record #231: David Bowie – The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972)
As much as I love David Bowie, I’ve never spent any time with what is widely considered his definitive album and one of the seminal albums of the Glam Rock movement. Continue reading
Record #209: Interpol – Turn On the Bright Lights (2002)
From the opening guitar tremolos to the reverb that rings out at the end of “Leif Erickson,” TOTBL is a perfect statement, and one that would haunt the band for the rest of their career.
Record #203: Collections of Colonies of Bees – GIVING (2011)
In my last CCoB post, I likened the way they built their compositions to a game of Jenga–elements are added then removed and placed elsewhere until they can go no higher (higher in terms of form, not in terms of emotional climax, which they don’t trouble themselves with).
On GIVING (their first release after being brought to a wider audience by Volcano Choir, the band they’re in with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon) the game is a little more direct.
The pieces aren’t as oddly shaped as on Birds, nor do they shy away from sudden dynamic shifts like their brothers on the other end of post rock, Explosions in the Sky. In fact, the end of “Lawns” might even find a place in a movie trailer some day—but for an art house indie drama rather than a football movie.
That’s not to suggest (as some have) that GIVING finds CCoB taking the easy way out. There’s still plenty avant-garde textures: “Lawns” itself has a strange vocal part created on a sampler. “Vorms” features an interlude of no fewer than a dozen looped instrument).
In the end, GIVING is just as masterfully crafted as Birds, deciding instead to use combine that experimentation with more immediacy.
Record #194: Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven (2000)
And on Lift Yr. Skinny Fists like Antennas to Heaven, the strength of the work matches the height of their ambitions. The record is two discs, and each side is a single work with several movements. While much of the album arranges and rearranges the same eerie, droning textures, guitar-based post rock, and vocal samples, Lift Yr. Skinny Fists… mostly showcases the vastness of GY!BE’s template.
The opening minutes present the some of the purest jubilance that post rock has ever offered the world. Later, mourning violins and a screwdriver-fretted guitar weep under a pastor’s homily. “When you penetrate the most high God, you will believe you are mad. You will believe you’ve gone insane,” he proclaims. And as the record traffics through neo-classical, downtempo guitar jazz, sludging stoner rock, thrash metal, it seems that perhaps GY!BE really has seen the face of God. And it is their duty as artists to show what they have seen.