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The M/F Thread 2009: The Quickening

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gospel:
Alasdair Roberts
Neo-Traditional / Folk / Contemporary / Celtic
MySpace


--- Quote from: allmusic ---Scottish songwriter Alasdair Roberts' career as a recording artist sprung into a critically lauded, cult-praised profession when a demo he made with his group Appendix Out found its way into the hands of intimate nouveau folkie Will Oldham. Oldham identified with Appendix Out's similarly calculated sound enough that he released their first recording, the 7" titled Ice Age/Pissed with You, on his own Palace Records label in 1996. The momentum from this release's affiliation with Oldham sparked not only a series of split 7" releases (with the likes of Songs: Ohia and Policecat), but also to a recording contract with credible Chicago indie label Drag City. After Appendix Out's third release for the label, released in February 2001, Roberts immediately recorded and released his first solo album, released on Secretly Canadian and titled The Crook of My Arm. While his output with Appendix Out always referenced the influences of folksingers such as Alex Campbell and Shirley Collins, The Crook of My Arm embraced them via sparse readings of 12 traditional numbers with Roberts only accompanied by his acoustic guitar. For his third release of 2001, Roberts teamed up with Oldham and songwriter Jason Molina of Songs: Ohia under the moniker Amalgamated Sons of Rest, and the three contributed and backed up each other's songs. In 2002, Roberts returned his attention to Appendix Out for the EP A Warm and Yeasty Corner, a handful of well-chosen covers that appear oddly side by side, including a tribute to British folk cult artist Vashti Bunyan with her tune "Window Over the Bay" and a tip of the hat to the Magnetic Fields by way of "Josephine." Roberts followed this a year later with his second solo release, Farewell Sorrow, which garnered more critical acclaim and showcased the development of his songwriting growing tendrils around the roots of the British and Scottish folk traditions. The stark and beautiful No Earthly Man arrived in 2005, followed by the more band-oriented Amber Gatherers in 2007.
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Alasdair Roberts - Farewell Sorrow (2003)


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--- Quote from: allmusic ---From the mid-'90s into the 2000s, the world of indie pop obsessed over the '60s pop production and arrangements pioneered by the Beach Boys and the Beatles, and for a decade it seemed that the culture at large was revisiting the '60s and '70s without much in the way of innovative updates. One can only assume that part of the reason for lack of noticeable advances is that 30 years isn't really enough time to have elapsed for these themes to be revisited from a truly different angle, which is what made Alasdair Roberts' take on indie pop so striking. Farewell Sorrow, Roberts' second solo departure from his band Appendix Out (which this album features members of), highlights his admiration of traditional Scottish folk music along with his involvement in the realm of indie pop, which served to transcend the '60s revival trend by pointing out the relevance and influence of traditional melodies within the annals of modern pop music. He's tracing the same steps that brought Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span into the history books as the innovators of the folk-rock movement of the late '60s, but instead Roberts is integrating those rich elements into the sparse world of indie pop subtly, instead of creating a wild juxtaposition of folk and rock in the way the aforementioned groups chose to do. Immediately, Farewell Sorrow shows its accessibility, its eccentricity, and its innovation with the title track, but it is on track two with Roberts' invitation to "Bring me the fine ale, the cider, and the wine/Link arms and join our lusty chorus!" that seals the necessity for undivided attention throughout the conclusion of the album. Farewell Sorrow is built on the art of restraint and elastic delicacy provided by Roberts' band to bring together the traditional institution of melody and the advance into unmarked territory, and they are wonderfully successful at transforming that steady artistic bridge into a refreshing package.
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Alasdair Roberts – The Wyrd Meme EP (2009)


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--- Quote from: Busted Magazine ---For those still digesting Spoils, Alasdair Roberts’s oft-impenetrable album from earlier this year, the prospect of another Roberts release so soon is kind of intimidating. In my review, I pegged Spoils as “simply another engrossing chapter in an incredible story,” but after spending a few months with it, it’s lyrical tangles and structural shifts still haven’t settled. Unlike the comparatively breezy The Amber Gatherers and the straightforward, brilliant ballad collection No Earthly Man, Spoils remains stubbornly locked within itself, its moments of clarity and emotional connection lost in the storytelling fog. The joy in Roberts’s work is in struggling through the thicket and meeting him at the end of the road, but I have to admit that, with Spoils, I’m still not there, which either makes it his richest work or his first overstep. I’m of the sort that won’t tire of trying to crack the album, but I haven’t been able to think of it with the same fondness as I do the others.

I approached The Wyrd Meme with some trepidation, thinking that Roberts might attempt to further confound, but it’s actually a perfect complement to Spoils. It distills the album’s sprawl into four tales that offer footholds and entry points. Rather than lose himself, Roberts seems more willing to guide.

This isn’t to say that The Wyrd Meme is accessible. No Earthly Man remains the best entry point into Roberts’s world, for it offers both context and the thrill of pure narrative. His other works, The Wyrd Meme included, heavily subject those narratives to myth, dreams, modernity, metaphors, allegories and stark emotion, all with a lightly disorienting psychedelic touch. It’s difficult and tricky listening, but when the fog clears and a track hits, Roberts is untouchable.

more...
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Alasdair Roberts - Spoils (2009)


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--- Quote from: Tiny Mix Tapes ---4/5

The problem with most contemporary folk artists performing in the British Isles tradition is that they often sound a little too, well, traditional, in the most literal sense of the word. If you’re someone who prefers your folk steeped in the no-frills approach of Appalachian roots or the canyon-crawling evocations of the West Coast, the whimsical imagery of this breed from the motherland can make you feel like dancing around a maypole at a renaissance fair — an uncomfortable and sometimes embarrassing sensation if jousting and chowing on legs of mutton are not among your favorite activities. Patriotic leanings aside, it’s refreshing to hear someone like Alasdair Roberts — who, on Spoils, his fifth solo offering — continues to deliver tokens of reverence for his Scottish predecessors while managing to reinterpret the genre into an accessible record that’s sure to please even the most fervent American folk enthusiasts.

The story goes that the omnipresent Will Oldham discovered Glasgow-based Roberts in the mid 90s, when the latter handed Oldham a demo of his then-band Appendix Out at a show. Oldham and Roberts soon became labelmates on Drag City, which issued three albums by Appendix Out (of which Roberts was the sole constant member) before eventually releasing music under his own name in 2001, starting with his debut, Crooks of My Arm. A year later, the two collaborated with Jason Molina to release a lone EP entitled Amalgamated Sons of Rest, and in the seven years since, he has presented the world with four additional albums, vacillating between original compositions and recitations of long-established ballads and shanties.

This time around, Roberts chose to pen his own words and music for Spoils, and the result is his finest album to date. It starts the journey with a seven-minute story song, “The Flyting of Grief and Joy (Eternal Return),” which describes the pilgrimage of the two personified emotions with “a ragged band of Crusaders” in tow, losing one to the Devil at the end of each verse. In “You Muses Assist,” the brogue-tongued singer engages us in a rousing work song where, in Roberts’ strange pasture, it is “sterile rams and simulacra” to which we are tending. “So Bored Was I (Dark Triad)” has Roberts encountering three incarnations of himself — infancy, young adulthood, and old age — one of which sees him masturbating in a beer vat: "Then coming from an old mash tun/ I heard the sound of a young man cum/ I paused awhile and gazed inside/ The cum was mine, the man was I." “Unyoked Oxen Turn” unravels a yarn about a cripple running around in search of his legs, only to be moralized by a mystical savant that he should be looking for his knees instead. (Here’s hoping that’s meant to be open to interpretation.)

more...
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wespeakinmidi:
Nirvana :: Bleach ( Deluxe Edition )




--- Quote ---Bleach is the debut album by the American grunge band Nirvana. It was released on June 15, 1989 through the independent record label Sub Pop. Bleach originally sold a mere 30,000 copies, but following the enormous success of the band's second album, Nevermind (1991), fans discovered Nirvana's obscure debut. It has since been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, making it one of only two albums released on Sub Pop to have received platinum certification.
A twentieth anniversary edition of the album will be released on November 3, 2009 on Sub Pop. The release will be accompanied by a previously unreleased 1990 concert, recorded live in Portland, Oregon.[

01. Blew ( 2:54)
02. Floyd the Barber ( 2:18)
03. About a Girl ( 2:48)
04. School ( 2:42)
05. Love Buzz ( 3:35)
06. Paper Cuts ( 4:05)
07. Negative Creep ( 2:55)
08. Scoff ( 4:10)
09. Swap Meet ( 3:02)
10. Mr. Moustache ( 3:24)
11. Sifting ( 5:22)
12. Big Cheese ( 3:42)
13. Downer ( 1:43)
14. Intro (Live) ( 0:52)
15. School (Live) ( 2:36)
16. Floyd the Barber (Live) ( 2:16)
17. Dive (Live) ( 3:42)
18. Love Buzz (Live) ( 2:57)
19. Spank Thru (Live) ( 2:59)
20. Molly's Lips (Live) ( 2:15)
21. Sappy (Live) ( 3:19)
22. Scoff (Live) ( 3:52)
23. About a Girl (Live) ( 2:27)
24. Been a Son (Live) ( 2:00)
25. Blew (Live) ( 4:31)
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Set Fire To Flames :: Sings Reign Rebuilder




--- Quote ---pretty sure this band has members of GSYBE!... anyway, dig it.. heres a descrip :: set fire to flames are a collective of thirteen musicians from the musical community of Montreal. Brooding and beautiful, haunted and haunting, sings reign rebuilder is so stunningly / lovingly played and skillfully assembled, infused throughout with a massive sense of slow-burning tension and periods of weighty, rousing release.

Initially the idea was to gather a group of folks together in a members montreal apartment and record as much as they could over a five day period. As set fire to flames explains, “…[we wanted] to conduct the whole five day recording session like a series of experiments… to get lost in the sound as it was actually happening… to make the whole recording an exploded intense event… to push tolerance levels and limitations with a group of people sonically… to become shut-ins… to operate on no sleep/confinement/ intoxication… some of us were interested in seeing what would actually happen if we attempted to record improvised drones and textures under those conditions… and what impact that might have on yr. head… how individual/collective tension would play out… and what the end result would sound like… so a lot of experimentation with tolerance, repetition and duration… drones…”

“And so these set fire to flames recordings happened… we piled all of the gear into the first floor (kitchen/living room) of this old, falling down apartment in montreal (the place has a crazy history to it…built in 1878…used to be a 10¢ shoe shine parlour and a brothel in the forties)… the control/mixing room was in a bedroom on the second floor (up a rickety wooden staircase)… you can hear the house all over the recording… (the staircase/ groaning floorboards/creaking chairs/traffic and police cars outside/men coming out of the mosque downstairs)… all of these sounds became an important part of the final recording…”

“Five days of continuous recording netted us roughly twelve hours of raw sound… all of it was hacked apart and later rebuilt… and the final document of that five day period (which was magic and the fucking house was levitating…..) now makes up ‘sings reign rebuilder’… the record is about 60% improvised and 40% composed… the five-day recording stint turned into something more than originally intended… it wasn’t just thirteen people droning aimlessly to infinity… things worked out somehow and we got lucky…”
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The Velvet Underground :: Loaded




--- Quote ---DUH... The Velvet Underground was an American art rock band formed in New York City, New York. First active from 1965 to 1973, their best-known members were Lou Reed and John Cale, who both went on to find success as solo artists. Although never commercially successful while together, the band is often cited by many critics as one of the most important and influential groups of their era and to many future musicians.
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Heatmiser :: Mic City Sons





--- Quote ---In retrospect, the third and final full-length by defunct Portland, Oregon, band Heatmiser, 1996's Mic City Sons, is not just the sound of a band pulled in two directions and on the verge of breakup, it's a blueprint for the late-'90s Northwest "emo-core" sound. This pop-punk act always showed a love for refined-sugar-sweet pop music and Big Star-derived melodies, but it really comes to the fore here--both on renowned singer/songwriter Elliott Smith's songs and those of Neil Gust. (Sam Coomes of Quasi plays bass and sings on the record, as well.) This is a schizophrenic album. Songs veer from peppy anthems to total-downer white-guy angst; luckily, both are pulled off with finesse and real emotional investment. Fans of folkie Smith working backwards through his catalog will be surprised to hear Smith rock out so hard on tunes such as "Get Lucky"; other songs have since become staples of his solo sets. Mic City is among Smith's best records and functions as a swell swan song for this under-appreciated grou
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enjoy.

DarkAvenger:
Okay guys, I've been on a Sleater-Kinney binge all week. So I bring these albums to the table.

For Carrie Brownstein fans:


Excuse 17 - Excuse Seventeen

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--- Quote from:  From Allmusic ---Excuse 17 made it perfectly clear that the band was inspired by the rabble rousers in Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, and Heavens to Betsy, and sure enough, those groups' influences show up all over the Olympia, WA, trio's first full-length. Which isn't to say that the album's 11 jagged 'n' ragged tracks are little but riot grrrl ripoffs. On the contrary, the defiantly unpolished Excuse 17 is an impressive debut, surging forward with a live-wire energy and stark honesty that helped make the riot grrrl scene so compelling in the first place. And though the album can sound tinny and dated at times, tracks like "Carson" and "Imaginary Friend" -- as well as the emotionally resonant "Hope You Feel Bad" and "Code Red" -- have wonderfully withstood the test of time.
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Excuse 17 - Such Friends Are Dangerous

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--- Quote from:  From Allmusic ---For its second and final full-length, Excuse 17 recorded a glorious punk rock racket far more polished and catchier than the band's promising, self-titled debut. Nearly every track here simmers with an overwhelming sense of urgency, and from the opening whiplash crash of "5 Acres" to the more subtly moving "She Wants 3-D," it's an album full of violently emotional catharsis (check out the startling centerpieces "This Is Not Your Wedding Song" and "The Drop Dead Look"). Often mesmerizing in the chaotic call and response between vocalists Carrie Brownstein and Becca Albee -- a rudimentary version of Brownstein's vocal interplay with Corin Tucker in Sleater-Kinney during the years to come -- Such Friends Are Dangerous is a swan song that only hints at what could've followed. Of course, as many fans of the Pacific Northwest scene know, what would follow for guitarist Brownstein is the wildly successful and talented Sleater-Kinney trio.
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For Corin Tucker fans:


Heavens to Betsy - Calculated

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--- Quote from: From Allmusic ---Before her days in Sleater-Kinney, Corin Tucker was belting out screams with her riot grrrl duo, Heavens to Betsy. Along with drummer and bassist Tracy Sawyer, Tucker crafted 12 songs of pissed-off, bitter confusion. As with much material in the genre, the lyrics focus on failed relationships and the hurt feelings having emerged as a result. However, one glaring exception is the song "White Girl," which is a rare introspective look by someone in the indie scene addressing the audience directly about the topic of racism. The rest of the album benefits from a guitar-driven garage music that is paired up with the riot grrrl sound of the Northwest from the early '90s. Intensely fierce, even when the tempo slows down, Sawyer keeps the beats tight and Tucker is always brimming over with passion and the kind of power of which many bands in the hardcore scene aren't even capable. Not so much in an overtly masculine manner, but through intelligently refined viciousness transmitted via the appropriate musical spectrum. While Heavens to Betsy wasn't as well known as Bikini Kill or Bratmobile (largely due to their short career), it hardly means they didn't have the potential to stack up. That being said, Calculated should be included as essential listening for all fans of riot grrrl.
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Harun:
Katatonia - Night Is the New Day



Opeth frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt on the album: "Katatonia's Night Is The New Day Is Possibly The Greatest 'Heavy' Record I've Heard In The Last 10 Years"

I wouldn't go as far as ten years - but's it's definitely the best I've heard all year. RIYL beautiful melancholic hard rock/metal, Mikael Åkerfeldt's clean singing voice (similarity to Katatonia's singer Jonas' voice is pretty uncanny - I'd even say Jonas is better because he has more range), Crystal clear, balanced production, top-notch-songwriting.

also: those of you who are turned off by harsh vocals will be delighted to hear that this album has none, so there are basically no excuses for anyone not to download this album unless you don't like amazing music

part1

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part2

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SWOON! at My Gravitas:
YOU sir, are an awesome human being.

Edit: I can't get the file open.  Darn.

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