Aug 29 2008

The Best of 2008 (So Far….) — The 2/3 Edition

Category: Music In My Ears — dryvetyme @ 09:28

It’s simple — we are two-thirds of the way through the year (isn’t that a scary thought?!?) and it’s time to bring everyone up to speed on what I feel have been the Top 10 Records of 2008. As with my post from earlier this year (The 1/3 Edition), I’ve included some albums that I have loved, but happen to fall just outside of the Top Ten. Think of it not as a Top 20, but more that I’m wanting to give credit where credit is due, even if the album isn’t quite Top 10 material. As usual, I want you, my dear readers, to feel free to chip in your thoughts on my list, and share any albums that would be in your Top 10, but I haven’t included in mine. I’m a fan of group participation. Enjoy!

The Best of 2008 (So Far…)
**In Alphabetical Order**
Continue reading “The Best of 2008 (So Far….) — The 2/3 Edition”

Aug 28 2008

Play> – Play>

Category: Music In My Ears — dryvetyme @ 11:01

Play>
Play>
Self-Released; 2008

Ok folks – we’re going to cast aside the usual random ruminations that typically preface my thoughts on a given album and get right down the music. No muss, no fuss, no frills, and no filler. After the first spin of Play>’s self-titled debut through my car stereo, I was struck by two conflicting thoughts: 1) these lyrics are profoundly cheesy and downright awful; and 2) these guys wholeheartedly believe in what they are singing. I then sent this Portland, OR band’s tunes through my ears a few more times, hoping that there was some sort of ironic twist, some inside joke that I wasn’t quite getting in their music. Surely this band wasn’t singing these songs, with their simplistic rhyme schemes and chord arrangements, with such an intense, sober earnestness, if there wasn’t something deeper, some elaborate practical joke being staged. But I was wrong.

Musically, the band sounds quite non-descript, like a bland union of Cheap Trick, early Matchbox 20, and Counting Crows, minus the abject fun of Cheap Trick, Rob Thomas’ good looks, and Adam Duritz’s skill with emotive wordplay. To top it off, the lyrics come across as truly bad poetry, complete with middle-school-level rhyme patterns (aaaa, aabb, and aaba to name a few more notorious examples), and the singer rarely varies his delivery, choosing to sing/rhyme exactly on the beat. Overall, each song presents the listener with the experience of listening to someone recite sonnets in annoying iambic pentameter over one-dimensional rock/pop/folk motifs. Truly, it’s not my intent to intentionally and crassly slam anyone for their art, but, outside of the fact that their heartfelt delivery is admirable in its intent, it’s difficult for me to find anything positive to say about the maddeningly, barely average music of Play>.

Aug 27 2008

Satin Gum – EP

Category: Music In My Ears — dryvetyme @ 09:31

Satin Gum
EP
Self-Released; 2008

I have waxed poetic before when discussing the emotional status of an eager, fresh-faced new group. Regardless of the genre, there is such an unreserved, unapologetic glee that emanates from such music, a rich combination of pride and self-satisfaction because the band now has a physical manifestation of their hard work to market and parade about to their fans, friends, and families. But what really excites me as both a fan of music and as a critic of music is when the quality of the tunes matches up with the band’s over-the-top joy, and that’s exactly what’s occurred here with Satin Gum. This power-pop trio has recently released their debut EP, a tidy four-song effort possesses sonic goodness, yet leaves the guys room to grow. “Apparitions (Sweet!!!)” is a disarmingly catchy track that combines shimmering pop and sludgy guitars, while “I Got a D.U.I., Babe” comes across as one guy’s drunken, tongue-in-cheek, half-hearted apology to his best girl (including the line, “Anything I ever said about love, it’s just the whiskey talking.”). Serving as the standout track of the project, “No, We Are Not Naming Our Kids After Ikea Products” features lo-fi vocals, droning waves of guitars, and a cleverly syncopated rhythm, and then the EP concludes with its most straight-ahead rock song, “Running Red Lights.” All told, Satin Gum wears its influences very easily, weaving together elements of spazzy, noisy post-rock with up-tempo pop-rock, so it will be interesting to see how these three men progress with the development of their sound. Here’s hoping they can learn to stretch a three-minute pop ditty into a cascading, feedback-soaked six-minute anthem in the near future.

Aug 26 2008

The Great Northwest – The Widespread Reign Of The Great Northwest

Category: Music In My Ears — dryvetyme @ 09:41

The Great Northwest
The Widespread Reign Of The Great Northwest
Kora; 2008

For time immemorial, music has been employed to set the mood, any mood, for whatever any given situation might require. Old-school Christian churches love their choral music, Al Green and Marvin Gaye are perfect for baby-making, and it’s hard to have a hoedown without pulling out some bluegrass. But what about those grey, rainy days when you just want sit about the house and relax with a good book? That would entail a certain sound, one that would perpetuate the quietness of the day, but not lull you into a deep repose. It would have to be something that encourages the peaceful mood, but remains engaging enough to listen to on its own merits.

Hailing from a corner of the globe that has cornered the market on those grey, rainy days, Portland, OR band The Great Northwest has released a breathtaking debut album that’s destined to serve as a soundtrack to a dreamy, wistful weekend. The Widespread Reign Of The Great Northwest calls to mind a mix of blissful slowcore and showgaze topped off with the necessary pop sensibilities required to keep the listener nodding their head in approval and not nodding off to sleep. This wide-ranging collective of musicians has put together a record replete with enough shimmies, swirls, and shimmers to keep The Dandy Warhols disciples entertained, but it also possesses enough deep, droning, ambient spaces to attract fans of Low. With great tracks that include “Chief John,” “Western American,” “Know What I Mean,” and “Ready Or Not,” The Widespread Reign Of The Great Northwest is perfect for the music fan in need of a palette-cleansing and mind-clearing afternoon with their child, lover, journal, or favorite work of literature. Mood-inducing indeed…

Download “Chief John”

Aug 25 2008

Grayceon – This Grand Show

Category: Music In My Ears — dryvetyme @ 09:38

Grayceon
This Grand Show
Vendlus; 2008

Metal is a complicated, yet imminently rewarding, genre, filled with more twists, turns, and permutations than most other forms of rock music. Even though there are some staple sounds and elements that must be present to earn the acceptance of metalheads, there is ample room within the distorted guitars, furiously technical lead lines, epic vocals and lyrics, and thickly pounding drums for a band to carve out a sound that’s all their own. Moreover, it’s simply more entertaining to conduct a debate over the contrasts between Metallica, Pantera, As I Lay Dying, and Sunn O))) than to discourse regarding the differences between The Shins, The Decemberists, Death Cab For Cutie, and Modest Mouse. Metal has always instilled in its fans a passionate dedication that indie rock (and other forms of rock) simply can’t match, and it’s that passion that metalheads always cling to and proclaim loudly when defending their bands over yours.

All of that being said, the music of Grayceon should present a welcome challenge to the hearts and minds of metal fans, as the group brings together crunching guitars and thunderous drums with a cello and dueling female-male vocals with startling efficacy. Based out of San Francisco, CA, this trio is set to release their sophomore full-length, entitled This Grand Show, and the record is just that: a beautiful confluence of neo-classical music, classic metal, and drone, all wrapped up with a lovely progressive bow. It is the cello work of Jackie Perez Gratz that provide the foundation for each song, as she capably weaves her instrument between acting as the lead instrument in some scenarios and the foundational bass line in others. The standout tracks are the opener “It Begins, And So It Ends,” which serves the closest thing to a lead single, complete with the prototypical verse-chorus-verse-chorus-breakdown-chorus-coda construction that is so familiar to metal, and “Sleep,” the epic, twenty-one-minute, three-part piece that features a spacey cello intro and subsequent interludes amongst sections of dense, baroque dirges. Ambitious, open-minded music fans, both metal-heads and not, will find much to acclaim, discuss, and defend with the music of Grayceon, especially if their tastes tend toward complex, ever-building anthems that never tip over into preening pretension.

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