The mediaf!re Thread 2010: This Time It's Personal

[scarred]

Damn, I was about to post that.

That Nest album that got swallowed by the pagebreak is quite good so far.

Them Crooked Vultures might've been the most boring thing I've heard all year.

[Zombiedude]

says the guy who posted owl city

[scarred]

Hey, I like my QotSA as much as the next guy, but TCV is like slowcore Era Vulgaris.

And Era Vulgaris was terrible.

Edit: also fuck you guys Owl City is hella rad bro *unf unf*

[minus_the_david]

Hey, I like my QotSA as much as the next guy, but TCV is like slowcore Era Vulgaris.

And Era Vulgaris was terrible.

Edit: also fuck you guys Owl City is hella rad bro *unf unf*

Queens of the Stone Age are badass! and owl city is great too!

[variable_star]

Them Crooked Vultures might've been the most boring thing I've heard all year.

Edit: also fuck you guys Owl City is hella rad bro *unf unf*

I'm with you man!

I'm with you!

[onewheelwizzard]

Aw man, and I was so excited about it.

I still haven't listened to it ... I'm going to as soon as I can.  I hope you're all wrong.

[pogonrudie]

I actually don't care for it that much either, and I love QOTSA (including Era Vulgaris). A lot of the tracks seem to go on 2 or 3 minutes longer than they should, and I can't recall a single discernible hook from the whole damn thing (which for a Josh Homme project, is really odd). I'm hoping my opinion on it will get better the more listens I give, but on the first time through I'm pretty let down.

[ALoveSupreme]

Edit: also fuck you guys Owl City is hella rad bro *unf unf*

I am pretty sure Owl City is easily the biggest rip of Postal Service I have ever heard and the Postal Service is already cheesy (albeit palatable since it sort of defined my early college years).

[ADRIAN WOODHOUSE]

Regarding Death In June. While their lyrics and imagery do sometimes refer to fascism (specially the 3rd Reich). I do not think  that DI6 is a fascist band. They are a band that is fronted by an openly homosexual man who was part of Crisis, a staunchly anti-fascist band, who played the first DI6 show at an anti racism rally, who has worked with several jewish people in his works, who was a member of the International Marxist Group, who has performed in Israel.

Code:

http://www.mediaf!re.com/?zmrmmy

Rose Clouds of Holocaust is my favourite Death In June album

you forgot that one of the founding members (tony wakeford) had conections to clearly facist group and left the band when that fact came out!
and there are also leftwing people who chaneged their opinion aswell as the other way around. just because you are a homosexual or bisexual or whatever and worked wit a person with jewish faith
and have been to israel you still can be a racist and sadly racism isn't that simple to define anymore. there are even facists who like to listen for example to  beastie boys occasionally.
death in june contributed a song for a sampler of a racist magazine as well as interviews for clearly pretty, pretty right wing magazines.

so if you can listen to it, knowing all that stuff...i can't do anything about it, but there maybe some people outthere who didn't know and mind the fact.

[Scarychips]

You're saying that as if cheesy music is bad music.

[DrNil]

so if you can listen to it, knowing all that stuff...i can't do anything about it, but there maybe some people outthere who didn't know and mind the fact.

Oh please. Can we keep the political activism outside the door? Death in June, as Sol Invictus and other neo-folk bands political affiliation and/or leanings should be ignored, and their artistic output enjoyed for what it is. There are plenty of extreme nationalistic bands in the US, for instance, or bands with a clear Zionist stance. Should those bands be defenestrated as well?  If that were the case any German industrial/martial band should be banned from the airwaves. Freedom of speech and being a mature audience have a lot to do with this, as only very young idealists (an utopic stance to take) will take umbrage on whatever these artists think/do in their private lives.

[Kai]

you forgot that one of the founding members (tony wakeford) had conections to clearly facist group and left the band when that fact came out!
and there are also leftwing people who chaneged their opinion aswell as the other way around. just because you are a homosexual or bisexual or whatever and worked wit a person with jewish faith
and have been to israel you still can be a racist and sadly racism isn't that simple to define anymore. there are even facists who like to listen for example to  beastie boys occasionally.
death in june contributed a song for a sampler of a racist magazine as well as interviews for clearly pretty, pretty right wing magazines.

so if you can listen to it, knowing all that stuff...i can't do anything about it, but there maybe some people outthere who didn't know and mind the fact.

Tony Wakeford was asked to leave DI6 because of his involvement with the British National Front (which he later retracted as "the worst decision of [his] life," which you can read right here).

I'm not sure how fascists listening to the Beastie Boys is in any way a relevant (or useful argument).

I've read some of the stuff out there about how Douglas Pierce is a secret racist and a fascist, and is just using Death In June's music as an elaborate plot to secretly bring fascists together to bring Hitler back from the dead or something

and uh
well
it seems a little far-fetched, is all

[Mr. Tool]

Surfer Blood - Astro Coast

It is strange hearing an album and having your first thought being “this is going to be big.” Some bands just give you the feeling that there is going to be a groundswell of support for them. Surfer Blood seems to have taken all of the right notes in compiling their sound to be that band. The vocals, sung with boyish charm by John Paul Pitts, have hints of Jim James’ (My Morning Jacket) space falsetto and really stand out behind the sweltering music created by the five piece Florida band. The music ventures into lo-fi hazy rock that randomly samples some of the best the genre has to offer, especially from many ’90s legends. The group also follows the Vampire Weekend path of incorporating the easily digestible portions of world music. Other sections have a My Morning Jacket/Band of Horses vibe when the reverb drenched guitars swell in bombastic glory.

The album starts with two of its strongest tracks, the dark and charging “Floating Vibes” and “Swim,” which was the first song I heard from the band and the track that really drew me in. The band dives into their world music kick with “Take it Easy,” and revisits the theme later in the album on the instrumental “Neighbor Riffs.” “Harmonix” is a sliding, mid tempo track that features, believe it or not, guitar harmonics backed by a bouncing bass line and up tempo drum beat. “Twin Peaks” finds Pitt’s echoed vocals backed by great guitar work. The next two songs would seem to be paired; “Fast Jabroni” is a great, buzzing song that really finds the band driving their sound forward while “Slow Jabroni” is a slower, more drawn out track that spreads it gloom and doom over songs six plus minute lifespan. A charging riff gives way to a more mundane song with “Anchorage,” which features such lifeless lines as “I don’t want to spin my wheels, I don’t got no wheels to spin.” The album closes out with the straightforward pop song “Catholic Pegasus,” which is a strong rebound from “Anchorage,” and has a strong feeling of loss, both in the somber lyrics and the darkly melodic music.

Astro Coast is a very strong debut album that has all of the makings of a band that is about to be heard by a large number of people. Like Cymbals Eat Guitar did earlier in the year, the band liberally take a pastiche of benchmark influences and adds their own dynamic to make a really strong record. Different people will hear different things when they hear Astro Coast, but I think it is safe to say a lot of people will like what they hear.

Code:

http://www.mediaf!re.com/?zmznj2dzfh0

[youthcant]

i'm going to get an Owl City tattoo.

[Zombiedude]

 

[scarred]

Sinner DC - Crystallized [2009]

If I told you Sinner DC sits somewhere between Sigur Rós, Nathan Fake and The Field with a bluesey, melancholy bent, many of you would run for the hills faster than you can say "Berlin." Hold up.

After all, Matthew Dear circa Asa Breed and Fairmont have shown that just because you're melancholy doesn't mean you're a drippy Converse-wearing teenager hung up on girls you'll never get. Such an introspective bent—tamed and directed by talent and maturity—yields records that reward with repeated listening, giving up their treasures to those willing to switch on, stare out a window at the vast sky and let their minds wander.

Swiss trio Sinner DC's fourth album mixes this inward-looking sensibility with the precision and quality typical of an Ai release, and the effect is enchanting. Each track has an organic feel but with synthetic sounds that could only come from obsessive attention to every synthesized detail. The feeling of fading grandeur is all pervasive, as if you're caught in the distant afterburn of something wonderful but never there to see it actually happen. As a result, it's often not what's going in the foreground that's most engaging, but all the delights in the back, such as the bubbling and fading effects and squeaks on "Sunrized."

What Sinner DC share with The Field is a reliance on repetition—sections are built up to run until the end of the track. But instead of a beautiful phrase worked over until you're in a state of joy/madness, Sinner DC add layers and textures to give their tracks the depth that Axel Willner's loops lack. There's also more variety—from Nathan Fake-esque stormers like "Golden Horses" to "Coast" and "V," which out-Burial Burial for half-lit, post-rave emotionally intense brilliance.

Crystalised does have a few duffers, hence the rating, but they'll quickly be forgotten when you get to "Glass Alley." It's the album's triumph by a country mile and will have you smiling at the sunset, the clouds, the radiator, the shirt on the back of your door or whatever you eyes happen to fall on when it's on. It encapsulates everything Sinner DC are about and, more than that, sums up better than anything you'll hear this year Border Community's mantra of "blurring the boundaries between the bedroom and the dance floor."

Code:

http://www.mediaf!re.com/?zy2jtmdttyh

[kwintpod]

Rome-Flowers From Exile(2009)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJPEqc4N2l0
Flowers From Exile is Rome’s 4th full-length album in what I’ve come to find is an extremely impressive catalog whose Death by June influence is worn like a proudly earned badge. With Flowers From Exile, Rome releases their most realized and challenging outing of their young career.  While Rome’s lyrical scope on Flowers From Exile may still share a lot in common with that Douglas P’s the music is more open to experimenting with who they are as a band. The gentle acoustic guitars and atmospheric tape-loops are now met with the worldly and exotic elements usually reserved for crooners like Nick Cave, Leonard Cohn & Tom Waits. Rome’s willingness to transcend being simply another Martial act gives way to not only an esoteric depth but the sort of haunting charm that’s long been lost from bands mining this sound

Seriously, best album of the year

Code:

http://www.mediaf!re.com/?ndmygjzqzhl

And look what finally leaked
Ken-By Request Only

Code:

http://www.mediaf!re.com/?mlytekj2zgz

Not that recommended 

[Be My Head]

I came in here all ready to post By Request Only, guess I was beaten to the punch!

Anyway, it fucken roxx

[kwintpod]

I came in here all ready to post By Request Only, guess I was beaten to the punch!

Anyway, it fucken roxx

I'm deeply sorry 

What's your favourite track?
My choice would either be" I want to live my life for Jesus" or "Modern Religion"

[Be My Head]

Yeah, "Modern Religion", or "Light At The End of the Darkness". I just like the ethereal feel of that one.

[Bastardous Bassist]

i'm going to get an Owl City tattoo.

On purpose?

[Orcusmars]

i'm going to get an Owl City tattoo.

I'm sorry.

[Scandanavian War Machine]

what's owl city?

[karl gambolputty...]

It's where the owls live.

[Bastardous Bassist]

Apparently they have a pretty sweet postal service in the town.

[Zombiedude]

[aflowerchild]

okay I'm doing something wrong.
I'm still new to this thread, but I'm TRYING to get some of the music on here,
yet whenever I copy the code and
try to go to the page it doesn't work?!?!?!
WTF.
Someone please help!

[scarred]

Replace the ! with i.

[aflowerchild]

THANK YOU!
Wow. Thanks.

[Zombiedude]

The Inclined Plane-I Am Pants
(the album art exists, I just can't find it)

This band already has a few self-released EPs under their belt, but this debut full-length is probably my favorite thing they've done so far. Each of their previous releases has had some great songs on them, but never really worked as a whole, whereas this record does. The band has calmed down a bit for the record, toning down their psychedelic tendencies and pretty much removing their noisier elements (meaning there aren't any crazy freakouts on here), though they're certainly still plenty lo-fi. But even though their sound is tamer, their songwriting is definitely much better now; the most appropriate (albeit obscure) comparison is the Mezzanines, but other obvious reference points include the Gerbils, the Velvet Underground and Pavement's slower moments. Unfortunately, it seems that the album is a bit too subdued overall (and contains a few dull spots), making it feel a bit longer than the 37 minutes it spans; but tracks like "Elbow Job" and the psych-poppy "Killer Roentgens" are definitely worth checking out!

Code:

http://www.mediaf!re.com/file/zc4fzzotytz/I Am Pants.rar

[aflowerchild]

I have just put gbs' worth of amazing music on my computer tonight.
Holy crap.
I'm so amazed, happy, its just fucking orgasmic...
Thank you.
All of you.
(Especially Matt&kim and Travelling Willberrys)

[scarred]

Rome-Flowers From Exile(2009)

If there's such a thing as too good, this is it.

[KvP]

Introducing Skweee Vol. 2

As the skwee universe expands out of Europe to America it is important to remember where it came from. Harmonia were there at the beginning and now 10 releases old, this shows just how much the sound has matured and developed. Awash with bleeps and bass, we now see more clearly the hip hop elements and the dubstep influences that keep this sound alive.

Code:

http://www.mediaf!re.com/?5vyyynmn3tg

Instra:Mental - Leave It All Behind / Forbidden

Code:

http://www.mediaf!re.com/?lyzzvmmfzmz

[medicatesleep]

No offense to poster but that Them Crooked Vultures album is boring as fuck. Doesn't come close to being as cool as the sum of it's members.

[variable_star]

FREE ENERGY EP (2009)

Code:

http://www.mediaf!re.com/?jmznoxowjke

1 - Free Energy
2 - Dark Trance
3 - Something in Common
4 - Dream City

If James Murphy wants us to believe that he's an old man trapped in a young man's game, he's going to have to stop picking from the tree of life at some point. Signing Philly livewires Free Energy to DFA is not that step towards graceful maturity, and for that your coming summer months owe the codger a debt of gratitude. After hearing only "Dream City", a cut from the band's forthcoming debut, Stuck on Nothin', it would be unwise to ignore Murphy's commendation of something this unbridled and, in the spirit of things, totally rad. "Dream City" is a good-time 1970s rock rip of epic proportions, as promises of dancing downtown, cruising around, and getting "lost in the endless sound" weave in and out like the attention span of a drunk in the backseat. It's perfect mood music for a night that looses itself in the afterglow of the inevitable busting of the moontower kegger, leaving everyone a little high, a little bored, and completely enraptured with the endless possibility of youth. The handclaps, the na-na-nas, the maddening twinkle in the eyes-- they're all here, playing like subtle reminders to take note of these things before they pass, or at least until we get to hear the rest of Stuck on Nothin'. - Pitchfork on "Dream City"

If any band deserves the chance to play a concert beneath Dazed and Confused's moon tower, it's Free Energy. The Philadelphia-based quintet's music-- full of glam-rock guitar leads, teenage boy-girl romance, and new-wave Moog bloops-- is a composite of all things groovy and 1970s. There's a strong chance that, one day, they'll write some kid's all-time slow-dance prom song. But "Something in Common", from the group's new digital EP, isn't it. "Come on/ We can find there's something in common between our lives/ I want to hold on all night when I look in your eyes," sings frontman Paul Sprangers. But the commonality he seeks is not immediately forthcoming. Thus, "Something in Common" lumbers onward at mild-tempo for four-and-a-half minutes. The EP's other tracks-- "Dark Trance" and "Free Energy"-- are just as guilty of wanderlust, but meatier hooks make the time breeze by. "Something in Common", on the other hand, finds Free Energy jamming out the timeless classic-rock clichés but failing to deliver a classic. - Pitchfork on "Something in Common"

[TheFuriousWombat]

No offense to poster but that Them Crooked Vultures album is boring as fuck. Doesn't come close to being as cool as the sum of it's members.

Supergroups almost never come close the being as cool as one would hope. Sad truth. Really, name a an awesome supergroup, one you'd rather listen to than any of the individual members. It can't be done!

[valley_parade]

I'd rather listen to The Falcon than Alkaline Trio or Smoking Popes.

But I'd rather listen to the Lawrence Arms over The Falcon.

[SWOON! at My Gravitas]

Broken Social Scene.

Edit: That reminds me, has anyone listened to Shrinebuilder?  Is it worth getting?

[valley_parade]

FREE ENERGY EP (2009)

Not trying to be a dick, but tag your stuff correctly, man.

[medicatesleep]

No offense to poster but that Them Crooked Vultures album is boring as fuck. Doesn't come close to being as cool as the sum of it's members.

Supergroups almost never come close the being as cool as one would hope. Sad truth. Really, name a an awesome supergroup, one you'd rather listen to than any of the individual members. It can't be done!

Yeah but how many super groups have ex-members of LED ZEPPELIN in 'em? It should have been the exception to the rule I tell ya!

[McTaggart]

Led Zeppelin weren't all that.

[DrNil]

Led Zeppelin weren't all that.

You can't be serious.

Just testing, what do you think of The Who?

[McTaggart]

They're alright I guess.

[E. Spaceman]

Broken Social Scene.

BSS is contentious for a supergroup as they were formed before their parent groups found success. The handle is or should be reserved to bands made by members of highly succesful bands; often as quasi vanity projects. The Jicks are not referred to as a supergroup though they have members of Quasi, Sleater-Kinney and Pavement.
If we did count them though, Shellac is the best supergroup ever.

[Zombiedude]

The Accidental?

[KvP]

No offense to poster but that Them Crooked Vultures album is boring as fuck. Doesn't come close to being as cool as the sum of it's members.

Supergroups almost never come close the being as cool as one would hope. Sad truth. Really, name a an awesome supergroup, one you'd rather listen to than any of the individual members. It can't be done!

Yeah, I mean just because all the members are technically proficient and have had success in the past doesn't mean they'll be good together. I got to the breakdown in that first Them Crooked Vultures song and was kind of stupefied when I found myself thinking "man this sounds like Audioslave".

TCV should not sound like Audioslave.

[medicatesleep]

Led Zeppelin weren't all that.

[scarred]

Led Zeppelin weren't all that.

[The Who are] alright I guess.

I support both these statements wholeheartedly.

[Orcusmars]

Led Zeppelin weren't all that.

backin you up.

they were good, but not the penultimate sum of all human effort and achievement.

[medicatesleep]

Wow. Just wow. I can understand if you're sick of seeing the vintage tees and  constant pop culture saturation but for fuck sake, John Bonham beats Keith Moon ANY DAY and Jimmy Page finger tapping with his pinky in his living room is still more relevant than anything Sufjan Stephens will ever do. I mean it's like you guys have never smoked pot and listened to "When The Levee Breaks" or "No Quarter". Life changing shit dudes. You guys need a check up from the neck up.