I'm Not Dead Yet...

... I feel happy! I feel-*thunk*

Yes, I know that updates have been few and far between over here. What can I say? The economy is rotten, and my budget has been in the toilet since long before this blog was ever created.

In the spirit of the holiday, I trust you are all picking out your favorite creepy-gothic-whatsits off the shelf and playing them loud and proud.

Here's to hoping for an improvement in my finances in the near future, because there is tons of stuff that I want to review but just haven't had the scratch for.

In the meantime, here's a little something from NYC's post-punk cult favorites, The Hunt. They put on a hell of a show, so definitely check them out.



Okay, that video is a little cheesy, but shut up, they're an awesome band. See how many independent NYC band members you can count that made guest appearances in that video.



[The Hunt at myspace]

A Quick Retrospective: Swans, The Great Annihilator

First, I would like to state that this entry is late because of computer difficulties due to people in the world being scumbags that do terrible things to other people's computers. Things are sorted out on the hardware end, but unfortunately the budget end is still a tad out-of-whack, so we're going to reach back to the bygone 1995 for today's quick n' dirty coverage.

Swans. I know nothing about the band. A friend loaned me The Great Annihilator, and I am now hooked. I am wishing I had found out about this band back in 1995, when this album was released, so as to have many years and cherished memories. Had I listened to this over a decade ago, I might have been inspired to take up a guitar in my teens instead of now; this is the sort of music I want to make.

Trying to pigeonhole this album is a pain. It varies between outright disturbing art-rock to something industrial to amazingly bright-sounding guitar blasts and so on. Despite it's variety, it works amazingly well as a whole. If anything is wrong with this album, it's the length; The Great Annihilator is too damn long. But in any event, I recommend it highly. It has become one of my new favorites and never stops being a mind-bending experience.

Some favorite tracks: "I Am The Sun," "Mind/Body/Light/Sound," "My Buried Child"


Official Swans website

Okay, I fess up...

... I have nothing for today. Sue me; I'm broke and don't like bootlegging stuff just so I can review it.

Watch this video instead. It's my friend Frank's band Revel Hotel.





Revel Hotel's myspace page.
Frank's music blog, in case you've missed the million other links I've posted to it.

Lower Class Revolt compilation, vol. 2

The Lower Class Revolt is a collective "committed to bringing to the forefront the gifted and the talented via an organization that provides the physical and digital distribution of music related projects, the organizing of live performances and the production of merchandise that helps promote an artist’s ambitions." Or at least that's what they say on their website. Part of this light-shining on gifted artists is the release of a series of compilations showcasing those that fit this group's idea of blast-your-sock-off awesome. Thankfully for those of us on a budget, these compilations are given away as free downloads, presumably so we can go wild with what we're hearing and rush out to purchase the entire discographies of the bands showcased therein.

Unfortunately, I once again have the terrible sensation of picking on the wheelchair-bound leprous retard as I proceed to picking this freebie apart. I hate jumping up and down on free downloads with criticisms, but being free shouldn't absolve anyone from not putting forth the best effort.

Apparently, the people at Lower Class Revolt take the notion of "compilation" quite literally since all the tracks are combined back to back in the form of one huge mp3 instead of giving us a folder with a pack of separate music files to arrange as needed in our media players. This causes a problem in that those of us who zone out for a few moments and loose track of where we are in this audio file, thus having no clue as to who we are listening to when we finally prick up our ears and take notice of what is being fed into our headphones. This also makes it a tad difficult to cut up your own mix from these songs since you'd have to first download a song editor and then laboriously hack this thing up into its separate songs; no one has the patience for that.

The picture file that can be snagged from their website doesn't feature handy runtimes, so you get to play that old game of "Guess What Song You're Listening To" that I thought died with the era of cassette mixes and smudged handwritten labels. This also makes it difficult to skip to favorites since you have no idea when a song ends and the next begins. If I'm listening to music on my computer, I would like to at least pretend I'm in the 21st century and be able to skip directly to a desired song at a moment's notice instead of having to scan through the whole damn thing.

Also of concern is the errors on the "back cover" image. Ignoring the one spelling error, there's also a factual error. Carcrashlander, one of the standouts on this release, is stated as to having their contribution "Killingsworth Frost" originating from a self-titled EP. After some brief research, I find they have released no EPs at all. They have one eponymous album, but the song featured here isn't on that album; instead, the song comes from their second album, titled Mountains On Our Backs. Factual issues don't instill much confidence in me.

The other standout from this release is the song from Rykarda Parasol, "Of Thunder and Light." However, to be completely frank with you, it's not even her strongest work. Songs she has on her myspace page are better. I was already interested in what she's doing, so this compilation has done nothing to further my fascination with Ms. Parasol's art.

Otherwise, I found a number of these songs to be alright, but nothing so spectacular as to blow me down the hall. A compilation is intended to get people interested in new bands they may have not heard otherwise, and you do so by offering up at least their good songs, if not their best. Few things here grabbed me, and the aforementioned annoyances with the formatting drive this down to an unrecommended release.

I'm going to put in more work than I should have to, and list each band featured here, a brief pithy comment on their contributed song, links to their myspace pages, as well as a quick assessment of whether I think they should be pursued or not. Unless otherwise noted, pretty much everything was fairly standard indie rock.

Citay, "First Fantasy": why do I feel like I'm being smacked about the head by Square Enix's collective music department's giant wang? Maybe a subtle association of song title to video game series, but they've got that spacey J-RPG sound to a fine art. Goes on too long. Recommended if you like sprawling atmospheric tripped-out guitar.

Rykarda Parasol, "Of Thunder and Light": Not her best song, but still quite good. Dark and seductive. Recommended for fans of PJ Harvey, Nick Cave. I'd probably kick down many doors to see a live performance.

All Smiles, "Tired Jaws": What the hell is that slapping noise in the background? Nice acoustic opening, but not exactly knocking me out overall. Point in fact, more putting me to sleep, but that might be the desired effect. I'm not going to follow this one.

Shuteye Unison, "Tomorrow's Five Horizons": Not bad indie/shoegaze, but not exactly cooking me up. I like the distortion to it, but it's only mildly grabbing my interest. No opinion at this time.

Carcrashlander, "Killingsworth Frost": A bit heavier than the rest of this compilation. Mildly interested; would probably check them out at a live venue.

Evacuee, "Oneononeness": More indie rock that doesn't blow me away, but with the addition of a voice that is slightly annoying. Not interested.

Harbours, "No Souvenirs": I like the organs on this track; strong 60s psychedelic feel to these guys. The jury's still out, but I'll consider them in the future.

Kelly Blair Bauman, "I See Stars": Light-hearted, bouncy, and breezy. I kind of like this one, and would consider seeing him (yes, it's a he) live.

Kid Mud, "Joey Crown": Kind of like it, I think... maybe? Can't come to a conclusion. Actually, yes I can come to a conclusion: they sound like Modest Mouse. "Nuff said.

Form and Fate, "Tracking, south of 60 degrees latitude": Instrumental, moody, sprawling. Good counterpoint to the comp's opening instrumental. Very post-rock feeling. Like the opening track, this goes on for bloody forever, or at least feels like it. Considered for further investigation.

Maybe this particular brand of indie rock isn't my thing, but most of this compilation just bored me. Only half was mildy interesting, with one that rose above, but I was already interested in that artist to begin with. Net change of zero. And I'm not hanging on to an mp3 that I have to scan through trying to avoid the songs that I don't like to get to the ones I have a passing interest in.

While I'm all for getting exposure for the smaller bands, this compilation doesn't succeed. I wish the best for all these groups, but this release is just flat-out a pain in the neck. You'd be better off just listening to the handfuls they throw up on their myspace pages rather than wasting hard drive space with this. In short: good idea, mediocre execution. I might look into the next Lower Class Revolt compilation, but this hasn't exactly grabbed my attention that well.



Lower Class Revolt's website where you can download this compilation, form your own opinions, and come back here and call me a cheap and opinionated bastard.


Also of important note: due to all problems I've babbled on about in the past (negative cashflow, lack of interesting music coming out, chimpanzees falling from the sky), I'm considering shifting to a once weekly format until such time as things improve. Expect posts to be moved to Wednesday until further notice. Special posts may appear on an irregular schedule.

Pool of Frogs and A Black China, Live @ Oasis 9/18/08

Once again, I forgot to bring a camera to a live performance. I hope your imaginations work well, or you feel like plumbing through these bands' myspace pages for photos from that night.

Anyway, I had heard that friend Johnnie Wang's band A Black China was going to be playing last Thursday, so I decided to clear my calendar well in advance and hit New Paltz since I hadn't seen them play in something like 6 months or more.

I arrived at Oasis about 7 minutes to 10pm. Since the bands were not scheduled to perform until 11, I figured this gave me about an hour to sit around, drink myself at least mildly stupid, and at least entertain the fantasy of chasing attractive young women around the room. As it were, I hadn't gotten halfway through my first beer before members of both bands came in with a rather glorious mountain of gear. That parade of equipment continued for about 10 minutes.

First band up was Pool of Frogs. First thing to note is that they were pretty loud. They started with a very spacey intro, then moved into a high-energy alt/punk/folk/rock sort of thing. Note "high-energy": these guys were so active during their hour or so set you'd think they were blood relatives of the Energizer bunny.

This live performance was the first real experience with this band; since I'm not a fan, I can't give you a run down of songs played. When I first heard them, I thought to myself, "This is the sort of music Weezer would make if they had a set of balls among them." But, I know precious little about Weezer, so perhaps my first impulsive comparison isn't entirely appropriate. The first song played resonated with me; nothing ever changes indeed (it should be on their myspace, go have a listen when done reading). Pool of Frogs is highly erratic, wild, and fun. The players couldn't sit still while playing, which I like since so many bands consist of members who stay in one place throughout a show, as if their feet were held in place by cement. The bass player was jumping off his amp, the drummer kept climbing past his kit up to the frontman's microphone; they just would venture wherever the hell they wanted to at any moment. Spontaneity of performance is a good trait to have. They made good use of some strategically placed feedback, and when singing backup, they knew how far away to be from the microphone to give a good effect.

I found their performance to be immensely fun. I think they had fun too. Pool of Frogs enjoys what they're doing, and it shows. For the approximate hour they performed, they were wild and goofy and just plain had fun. I especially like the Lite-Brite positioned on stage spelling out their band's name. It was a quite a fun show, and highly recommended.

Following Pool of Frogs was A Black China. I originally encountered this band through multiinstrumentalist Johnnie Wang. Last time I saw them perform, it was probably at the beginning of this year and they were still a three-piece band at that point. Since then, they have added another member. The current linup is: Jamal Ruhe (guitar/bass/keyboards/vox), Johnnie Wang (guitar/bass/keyboards/vox), Matt Grande (drums/vox), and Jesse Towey (bass/guitar/keyboards). During their performance, everyone alternated guitar and bass duties, with Johnnie handling keyboards.

Like Pool of Frogs, A Black China began with a spaced-out introduction, very mellow and not particularly suited to the late-night drunken bar set as the din of shouted conversations blended into the music in strange ways. There performance was marred by a classic problem with Oasis: the microphones needed to be turned up. It was difficult to make out vocals over the instruments. I don't know why exactly this is, but more than a few performances at Oasis are like this. Acoustic qualities of the room, equipement, who knows.

Aside from that, their performance was downright awesome. Their songs are a nice blend of romantic singer-songwriter, shoegaze, and, when needed, a solid thrash. There's a lot of wide-ranging influence in their music. They really brought out the thrash with the second-to-last (initially last) song. They were talked into doing one last tune, and brought out this soaring, sprawling, spacey trip into weirdness that lasted for something like 10 minutes (I think; I didn't time it precisely).

All in all, I'm glad I went out that night. Both these bands are quite awesome in their own ways, and I recommend catching them at you soonest convenience. Check their schedules and get out for a show.

Pool of Frogs website and myspace
A Black China website and myspace

Okay, I procrastinated, so sue me.

Alright, since by this time of day it's evident that I'm not posting anything of significance, I just going to push the fact that bands A Black China and Pool of Frogs will be playing at Oasis Cafe tonight (that's September 18th) at some ungodly hour. Come out and have a drink with us!


Oasis Cafe
58 Main Street
New Paltz, NY

(in case you couldn't see the flyer to the right)


A Black China myspace page
Pool of Frogs myspace page

A Little Bit of Nostalgia

That clunking sound you're hearing is the sound of me rummaging around my music collection trying to figure out what to post today since my budget is still AWOL and there isn't much interesting coming out in the next week or so (feel free to prove me wrong or try to excite me about something you have in mind). As such, you can expect some actual content next week, but for now, trip down memory lane.

Music videos were a new thing when I was growing up. Point in fact, MTV is younger than me by about a month (yeah, totally dating myself right there... somewhere between "too old to pass as a youth" and "fossilized"). When we moved when I was about 8 years old, we lost our connection to music videos and television since the new house was in the midst of a fantastic nowhere with no cable. No more music videos for me until about 6 or 7 years later when the family decided on getting one of those big, old-fashioned satellite dishes that now is used as a rust collector.

In the era before we moved, I remember sitting in front of MTV quite frequently. I can't remember many of the videos I saw back then, but a few stand out. One of those standouts is Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing." Maybe it was the computer-generated animation (one of the first music videos to feature such animation), or the awesome opening hook, or Sting's falsetto in the beginning and end, but I never could forget that song and its video.

Anyway, here's the video for your perusal. Hope you enjoy it and fondly recall days of lying on the rug in front of the TV.