Fun Stuff > BAND
YOUR bands.
KharBevNor:
Well, if you know Agalloch, which I'm sure you do, Sol Invictus are basically the biggest non-metal influence on Agallochs first two albums and their concomitant EPs. The song 'Kneel to the Cross' is a cover of them.
Basically, the neo-folk label is a bit wide. They don't actually sound too similiar to Death in June, NON or Current 93. Each is somewhat different. Sol Invictus have a sort of rawer, folkier, more medieval sound than these bands, but they also have a jazz influence, and make pretty heavy use of tape loops. The over-all feel of the sound is very melancholy and entirely hopeless. Lyrical themes are basically the inevitability of death, decline of western civilisation, hatred of capitalism and christianity, dark tales of cannibalism, incest, madness, murder and whatnot, paganism, settings of poetry and folk songs (normally of the morbid variety, ie Twa Corbies) and so forth. I suppose you could call them the most straight-forward of the big neo-folk bands. Lyrically, certainly, there's less of the cryptic, occultic/poetic stuff you might have expected from listening to DI6 or C93, but there's also more of a feel of rawness to the music. Though I must say Tony Wakeford is probably the best composer in neo-folk at this moment, and there are multiple layers of complex instrumentation on a lot of their tracks, there's always strong acoustic guitar chords, or a powerful brass, woodwind or violin line out front leading everything, the subtleties enhance rather than concealing the main thrust of the music.
Just listen to them, tbh. I recommend Hill of Crosses, Death of the West or The Devil's Steed as a starting album.
karl gambolputty...:
--- Quote from: tommydski ---
--- Quote from: karl ---My favorite band is Bedhead.
--- End quote ---
i love this band. matt and bubba kadane also have a fantastic band called the new year and matt also played keyboards for the band silkworm.
--- End quote ---
The New Year is pretty fantastic, I saw them play a few weeks ago, but their drummer just doesn't hold a candle to Trini. I haven't given Silkworm much of a listening to, although Matt is crazy awesome. He played drums in Consanant too. Maybe I'll give them another shot.
Liam:
--- Quote from: tommydski ---
sorry, i have to address this where i see it. there is no band called 'the pixies'. check the albums if you don't believe me! i believe they are called 'pixies'.
--- End quote ---
I've heard the band referred to with and without the definite article, and I have also heard that the band's definitive choice is without, but I just prefer to use it. I figure that as long as it's recognizable, it'll work fine.
And some people like cucumbers pickled.
Huh?
What?
Johnny C:
Okay, when I got home from Winnipeg I wrote about it in one of my three new leather-bound gift journals. This is the entry, and after some deliberation I've decided to post the full writing.
--- Quote ---"Wilco"
It's been four days since I graduated but it's really felt like one.
My grad was, in a word, anticlimactic. I feel like I've gained less than I've lost; in both my personal and scholastic lives, I've encountered some changes with what seem like ill effects, changes I won't print because I know what they are, dammit, and they aren't the point of this entry.
Well, I think I might have been a little hasty, writing that. They're not the point but I guess they are important.
I got a little additional closure this week - additional and unexpected. A friend of mine whom I've been romantically pursuing for a little over a year has, it turns out, a boyfriend. End chapter. Happy graduation.
I wish I could say it surprised me, but it really didn't. You hesitate, you lose, and God damn if I didn't hesitate.
Thank goodness we're still friends, right?
But that is important, because about 21 hours previous to this writing I was in winnipeg with my friend and travelling companion Jim, on foot and headed towards The Forks (a local "mall" with specialty and gift stores, a plaza, tours, etc.). We were a little distance away from some great Sri Lankan food and across the street from a big public Canada Day party when Jim broke my minor daydreams with "Johnny, it's Canada Day, we're in Winnipeg, and in a couple of hours we're about to see Wilco. Everything's right with the world."
And honestly? He was completely right.
Wilco has a place in my heart that was not built for more than one band. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was responsible for veering me away from mall-punk culture and into, well, music culture. Something about that album's supposedly "unmarketable" sound, its cohesive aural microcosm of human experience, resonated with this fifteen-year-old to such an enormous extent that, now eighteen, he is able to recall the exact moment that "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart" made him think, "I've been listening to the wrong music." It was the moment where, for me, electric guitars and bluesy solos and spiked hair and juvenile music videos and jumps and crowdsurfing and flipping one's guitar around one's back and catching in order to show off became not so much irrelavant as just not important anymore. It was new.
(for the record, that moment is at 4:14)
So seeing Wilco - making a drive which, there and back, was about eleven to twelve hours - was phenomenal. What away to close out high school, a semi-failed relationship, a year (as a June baby, I have a right to say this) of my life!
An hour and forty-five minutes worth of material is hard to disappoint with, and Wilco delivered everything I could have possibly hoped for. Had I been thinking I would have copied down the set list - but then again, is that really needed? At every break, I realized that the preceding song was one that I would be eternally grateful to see live, and I think that's what matters.
Oh, fine. They hit the necessary songs from Yankee and A Ghost Is Born, plunged into their back catalogue, bantered, showboated, and sweated. (Rather profusely, I might add.) Both encores were stunning.
I'd been waiting months, and the performance was a definite release. Basically, it was the closure I'd needed.
Thanks, Wilco.
--- End quote ---
It's not as great as the Sleater-Kinney mourning but I think it gets the point across, guys.
Injektilo:
Brilliant idea for a thread. It would seem an easy task to ignore critical examination and declare a favorite, but I found it suprisingly difficult. When I was younger, I had an intense, unflinching love for Radiohead. And while they still do it for me sometimes, I don't get as much out of them as I used to emotionally. I didn't love Radiohead because they sustained me, I loved them because they convery a wonderful hopelessness and detachment. Thom Yorke's mewling falsetto, the computer glitchiness, the space, the dischord. All this was beyond compare for quite a long time. Today, Radiohead aren't "mine" anymore. I still adore them, but they don't have the connection to me they once did.
I put forth a great deal of effort to come up with a single band, but I ended up unable to decide between two disparate groups. To give an honest answer, I have to reply with the odd combination of The Decemberists and Tom Petty (& the Heartbreakers).
The Decemberists -
This band does everything I could ask for lyrically. Not only do we have discussion of pirates, but also of crooked French Canadians, lengthy stories of revenge, peasantry, and turn of the century athletics. Colin Meloy doesn't just mess around with cutesy lines about how neat pirates are. He uses astounding language that would please even Wittgenstein. Meloy also employs some lovely alliteration: "Seraphim in seaweed swim where stick-limbed Myla lies".
There is also a great variety of songs on each album. Though this is not uncommon, each song, no matter the mood or style is done brilliantly. There's no differentiation that leaves me disappointed by the inability of the band to succeed in making the song work. From the touching ("The Engine Driver," "Of Angels and Angles," "Red Right Ankle") to the lush ("Leslie Anne Levine,") to the spriteful ("Sixteen Military Wives," "July, July!") to the epic ("California Youth and Beauty Brigade," "Odalisque," "Mariner's Revenge Song," "The Tain")...all of the Decemberists exploits succeed. I also happen to love Meloy's voice, which matches flawlessly with the musical landscape. Getting to see "The Engine Driver" live was one of the most powerful numbers I've seen performed. When Meloy varies the notes 3 minutes 16 seconds into the song, in the third chorus, my spine is filled with chills. I almost lost it when it was live, it's a perfect musical moment.
Tom Petty -
How anyone cannot flip the hell out about Tom I will never understand. I couldn't care less that "Free Fallin'" is a super-popular song. Do you know why it's so popular? Because it's fucking amazing. The moment when the backup comes in on "...venture boulevard" makes me want to sob. It is one of the most important and powerful moments in any song...ever.
Tom Petty makes music that is consistently baffling in it's simplicity and power. His work with the Heartbreakers and his solo work are impeccable. Even unknown songs like "Up In Mississippi Tonight" are better than anything you'll ever hear. The first time I heard that song I did speak for thirty minutes except to ask my friend who was driving to play the song again...and again.
As if each song is not enough, the albums Petty releases convey such emotional complexity. My favorite, Wildflowers, details an inward emotional journey of a man who is displeased with himself and trying to rediscover who he is and why he should be himself. The song has catchy, peppy moments that lend hope ("You Wreck Me," "Wildflowers"), moments of escapism ("You Don't Know How It Feels"), and moments of self-discovery ("Crawling Back To You" -- my favorite). The closing track, "Wake Up Time," is placed exactly right, bringing the journey, both physical and emotional to a close.
Petty's lyrics can be simple, but there are moments that make me want to scream because they connect with me at such a deep, almost visceral level. When he sings
"Hey baby, there's something in your eyes
trying to say to me
that I'm gonna be all right
if I believe in you
it's all I want to do"
I can't help but feel like my life will be all right.
I could bloviate all day about these bands, but I ought cut myself off at a point. While they are quite different, they're both my personal favorites.
As a closing note, I want to give honorable mention to The Postal Service because innumerable significant occurances have occured with them playing, most all of them during a song that matched the event.[/u]
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