It’s often said that music is just organized vibrations.
Most musicians achieve that purpose by using instruments to create those vibrations. But on Low’s Double Negative, it sounds like the group is manipulating the air directly, creating a dense, otherworldly sonic landscape that is as unsettling as it is transcendent.
At some point in college, I decided that I was “over” all of my adolescent tastes. I ignored all of the emo, punk, metal, and whatever else in favor of folk, indie rock, post punk, and “weird” stuff like Krautrock and dub reggae.
I’ve since come back around, but I’m still trying to catch up on all of the stuff I’ve missed during that time (I still haven’t listened to a full album by The World Is A Beautiful Place). In trying to sort out what’s worth diving into and what isn’t worth my time, a friend recommended Basement. And from the first listen, I was absolutely enraptured by the jangling chords, soaring melodies, and dynamic shifts.
A hit song is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it can thrust you into widespread acclaim. But on the other, it can pigeonhole you, your audience forever using your old stuff as a metric. Your work progresses, but your fans are stuck in the past. For a great example, remind yourself that “Creep” is still Radiohead’s biggest hit.
For another example, look to MGMT, who had three such songs. “Time to Pretend” and “Kids” especially were already several years old by the time they appeared on Oracular Spectacular. And overall, that synthpop sound wasn’t very representative of that record. If you just look at the neo-psychedelic freak folk on the deep cuts, Congratulations is a faithful follow up.
Every once in a while, a new act comes around that lands like a nuclear bomb. No matter where you go, you can’t escape them—not that you’d want to.
MGMT was this act. And their debut full-length, Oracular Spectacular was one of those rare records that was as poppy as it was bizarre, as dancy as it was experimental. Tracks from this album appeared on Top 40 radio, TV commercials, and even the most cynical hipster’s year-end list.
It was a groundswell, and rightly so.
Despite my love of mid-2000s Christian post-hardcore (exhibit A, exhibit B, exhibit C…it goes on), I had somehow missed Hopesfall during their heyday. I remember hearing the name tossed around, but I always lumped them into the same pile of hyped bands that I didn’t have any interest in, like Haste the Day, As I Lay Dying, August Burns Red, etc. (someone is going to tell me I need to listen to them now, I can feel it).
So when a friend recommended their most recent release, I was expecting a warmed over Underoath clone (their place on the Equal Vision roster didn’t help).
I was absolutely not expecting the best mix of hardcore and space rock this side of Cave In. Continue reading
A few weeks ago, my friend Ryan Kerr played in my living room with some friends he was touring with.
One of those friends was JD Wright, a singer/songwriter from Detroit who grew up in a small coastal town overrun with tourists.
And as he played alone and unamplified in my living room, that sort of small-town disillusionment was the loudest part of his performance. But on record, he’s joined by a full band that puts some volume to his disenchantment—and with excellent results. Continue reading
Cursive’s Tim Kasher has always had a knack for offering twisted, anguished rock and roll. Throughout their career, he has delved deeply into divorce, corrupt religion, art as masochism, and every neurosis you can think of.
But on Vitriola, he sounds downright demented. Continue reading
I was previously unaware of gates when I discovered 2016’s Parallel Lives. But I quickly fell in love with that album’s blend of tender indie rock songwriting and epic post rock composition.
So when my friend Rob offered their debut full-length up in a trade for a copy of my band’s full-length, I took him up on it.
And while Bloom & Breathe is a little less tight than its follow up, there’s a rawness here that makes it just as rewarding.
For the last few years, it’s been suggested by a number of music snobs (or at least by me) that we’re currently in a post-genre landscape.
While the dividing lines between, say, dream pop and post-hardcore have generally been laid out pretty clear, these days there’s so much cross-pollination between influences that music taxonomy is an almost fruitless undertaking.
Case in point: Death Lust, the debut record from Canadian solo project Chastity. When I went to add the files to my iTunes, the cursor sat in the “genre” tab for several minutes, blinking mockingly at me as I tried to put a name to this (I copped out and settled on “alternative”). Continue reading
After the release of the doomgazy single “Julia” and the subdued [untitled] e.p., speculation was high as to what the forthcoming [Untitled] full-length would bring.
But the similarity of covers between the releases seemed to promise an explosion.
Across social media, that theory seemed to be confirmed. When drummer Rickie Mazzotta was asked if the full-length would be as quiet as the e.p., he said, “that’s porch-sittin’ music. The album is cliff-diving music.”