If you follow the alternative music scene, chances are you've already heard of Walter Schreifels. Whether it's through his work with hardcore bands Youth Of Today and Gorilla Biscuits, with post-hardcore band Quicksand, or whether it was during the early 2000's, with Rival Schools, he has been a constant in the New York hardcore/post-hardcore scene for the best part of the last twenty years.
It will likely come as no small surprise to learn then, that his first solo album, An Open Letter To The Scene, is not only somewhat of a departure from his roots, but is also a folk album. Whilst this may seem like an odd choice at first, it becomes apparent after the first listen what an obvious choice this was, as An Open Letter To The Scene is an intensely personal, honest, and self-reflective record.
The album, comprised of material written and performed on his acoustic sets over the last couple of years, covers a lot of ground; sometimes it's political in nature, such as his bare-bones covers of Agnostic Front's “Society Suckers”, or CIV's “Don't Gotta Prove It”, whilst at times it's playful and fun, such as on the track “The Ballad Of Lil' Kim”. The album is most impressive though, when Walter is at his most introspective, and tracks like “Shootout”, and “Wild Pandas” are the high points of the album. This is especially true of title track “An Open Letter To The Scene”, which is achingly beautiful in its brutal sincerity, and is the natural choice for the closer to the album.
An Open Letter To The Scene isn't a perfect album by any means, though that isn't the point of it; you get the feeling it was never meant to be perfect, but rather a simple and honest reflection on life, love, and past actions. This is a sentiment which is echoed throughout the album, either by the stripped-down instrumentation, or by Walter's occasionally flawed voice. The result of this, is a simple, beautiful and honest album, which will leave you thinking about it long after the album has finished.
Although I don't know how to play the drums (Rock Band aside), it's probably one aspect that I listen to most in songs. Something about beating on those pads has always intrigued me, because there seems to be an infinite amount of possibility within even a simple time signature. It's something ancestral, carnal, and just downright fun.
These are my top six favorite modern drummers. I made a playlist at the bottom of the post, so listen to it while reading what I have to say about each drummer. Hopefully you'll actually hear what I'm trying to say.
Let's talk Baltimore for a second. Charm City gave a lot of good bands their first break - Animal Collective and Cass McCombs, among others - but they all seem to move away once they gain some success. Not true with Baltimore's lone great band, Beach House. This dream pop duo can't get enough of Chesapeake blue crabs, apparently. And as interesting as all that is, it has nothing to do with their third album, Teen Dream, which came out in January; sadly (for you), I never got around to writing a review until right now.
I like this album more than their previous two, thanks to its focus on melody along with their trademark hauntingly atmospheric sound. This fact alone makes this album infinitely more accessible than their other albums. Each song has a unique and interesting vocal melody to it, especially opener "Zebra", whose hook skirts the song's pitch in an effective way. Singer Victoria Legrand's vocals are low and raspy, and relay a strong sense of sophistication; the vocal tracks are mixed high to ensure they're the focus of each song, and rightly so.
The songs tend to be on the long side (most are over five minutes long), but it's fitting for these slow, measured tracks. However, this results in a long album as well, and usually by the time that the final tracks roll around, I'm ready to listen to something else. I've worked around this by taking the album on in halves, which significantly shortens and improves the experience.
Oh snap, I have no idea how this album made it into my iTunes library. The album dropped last year, and I added it to my library several months ago, but alas, its origin escapes me. Not that I mind, mind you; that's half the allure of this mysterious record.
First of all, let me explain something: "le loup" means "the wolf" in French. The only reason I know that, sadly, is thanks to that movie The Brotherhood of the Wolves, which has nothing to do with this band at all. They hail from Washington DC, and make atmospheric folk/pop, with super-sized portions of reverb and percussion. But unlike many reverb-drenched bands of this current generation (Animal Collective, Here We Go Magic, Grizzly Bear), these guys play on an even sonic keel. There isn't much as far as crescendos or progressions here, just shimmering, coma-inducing greatness. Its consistency invites the listener to do something else with their time - I choose to read - and let the songs seep in as they want to. This shit makes me want to study, man. From a production standpoint, I wouldn't have this album any other way.
After a few dreamlike listens, the songs start to stick and show their grandeur. This isn't an band, or an album, that's going to shatter the music world as we know it; rather, it's simply something that you just can't help but enjoy. There's something both familial and tribal about this album, in that it feels like the group meshed perfectly to create their own unique sound. Oh, and it sounds like tribal music a little bit, too. Either way, it's well worth checking out.
Adrift in the Cosmos is the second album by Seattle indie pop band Slender Means. I first heard about these guys because Sonny Votolato plays guitar for them, and you know how I like me some Votolatos. I was impressed with their debut album, Neon & Ruin, for several reasons: it was light, catchy, short (32 minutes) and inoffensive. It was one of those albums that you could play at a party and about halfway through everyone would start asking about the band. It's the kind of music that you can easily tune out, only to wake up one day needing it. Crack on a disc. I hadn't heard anything about them for several years, but that doesn't mean they weren't doing anything; they released an EP called Rock & Roll EP in 2007, and Adrift in the Cosmos was released in November of last year. Somehow, they had fallen off my radar until just recently, and I was happy to jump right into a new album.
On first listen, it seems like little has changed for the band. The songs are still silky smooth, with fun vocal twists and hooks. There are some moments that really stand out for me, like in "Pitch a Fit", when singer Josh Dawson references the Puget Sound by name; living the first twenty years of my life in Washington state, I was delighted to hear my old stomping grounds mentioned so nonchalantly. And that's when I realized what exactly draws me to this band - it's a group of Washingtonians making music for Washingtonians. I can't explain it, but there's something distinctly PNW about these guys. A friend of mine (yes, a Washingtonian) mentioned once that listening to Slender Means is like listening to The Mountain (KMTT, 103.7 FM), an easy-listening station in, you guessed it, Washington. Although he meant it as an insult, I took it a different way. In as much as The Mountain is comforting for people typing out their days in cubicles all over the Western half of the state, Slender Means is comforting to me because it makes me feel like I'm back home again.
Musically, the album tends to stay within a slightly-swaggering realm of indie rock, but with so much polish that it can't be called anything but pop. I noticed a bulkier instrumentation this time around, and tracks like "Serving Time" and "Pioneers" are more led by the band's dual guitar breakdowns than Dawson's vocals, which is a nice break from the norm. Many sophomore albums are criticized for being more of the same, and though this may be true for these guys, I mean that in the most pleased way possible. All in all, this is an album that shows that Slender Means hasn't gone away, no sir, and we're all a bit better for it.
It's been a while since the last post, but I'm finally back with another free music download, and this time it's the turn of A Genuine Freakshow, a seven-piece multi-instrumental indie-pop, post-rock band from Reading, England.
In the lead up to the release of their debut album, the band have decided to release a 4-track EP which you can get by one of two methods:
1. Get it for free by signing up for the band's newsletter.
2. Buy it using a “pay whatever you like” scheme which lets you decide how much you want to pay for it.
Personally, I opted to pay for it, as after listening to a couple of the songs on offer, I was really blown away by how catchy their music is – so much so, that they have been on non-stop rotation on my iPod for the last couple of days.
To download this EP (which I strongly recommend you do), click here. If you want to check the band out first, check out the track below:
It's a rare occasion that I actually get out of the house and see a band play, which is funny considering I always enjoy myself when I do. Case in point - last night's adventure to The Ottobar in Baltimore, where I saw one of my all-time favorite artists David Bazan (Pedro the Lion, Headphones).
Opening act was Illinois-based indie pop/rock band Headlights, whose sound is characterized by girl/guy vocals, ever-present synth and surprisingly energetic song tempos. I have two of their albums but they never really struck me as a "must-see" band until last night; their bassist, in particular, carried the songs through the night quickly and simply. By the end of their set I had decided to go home and get the rest of their albums.
Believe it or not, the last time I saw David Bazan play (under his own name at the time, as well) was in 1999. Gimme a break, I lived in Hawaii for seven years. No bands come to Hawaii. Last time I saw him play, he had duct-taped a tambourine on the floor and tapped it while playing a clean electric guitar, with an emphasis on the stories he told rather than the song melodies. Things have really changed in the last eleven years; last night, he was accompanied by longtime bandmate Blake Wescott on second guitar, as well as a drummer and bass player, and I've never heard such a full sound from him. They played songs ranging from fairly old ("Bad Diary Days", from 1998's It's Hard To Find A Friend) to fairly new (four songs from his latest album, Curse Your Branches). Overall, it was a good mix of songs, and he ended the set with the confessional "In Stitches" from Branches, which like many of his songs, was a hundred times more effective live than on tape. As is customary for every set, he had a few question and answer sessions. Of course, his favorite TV show of all time is The Wire (fitting, considering where he was playing), and his favorite super hero is Omar Little.
I was hoping for a few of his really affecting songs ("Priests and Paramedics", "Secret of the Easy Yoke", or "The Poison"), but all in all it was a fun, light-hearted set. I really need to catch this guy every time he comes to town.
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If you follow the alternative music scene, chances are you've already heard of Walter Schreifels. Whether it's through his work with hardcore bands Youth Of Today and Gorilla Biscuits, with post-hardcore band Quicksand, or whether it was during the early 2000's, with Rival Schools, he has been a constant in the New York hardcore/post-hardcore scene for the best part of the last twenty years.
Let's talk Baltimore for a second. Charm City gave a lot of good bands their first break - Animal Collective and Cass McCombs, among others - but they all seem to move away once they gain some success. Not true with Baltimore's lone great band, Beach House. This dream pop duo can't get enough of Chesapeake blue crabs, apparently. And as interesting as all that is, it has nothing to do with their third album, Teen Dream, which came out in January; sadly (for you), I never got around to writing a review until right now.
Oh snap, I have no idea how this album made it into my iTunes library. The album dropped last year, and I added it to my library several months ago, but alas, its origin escapes me. Not that I mind, mind you; that's half the allure of this mysterious record.
Adrift in the Cosmos is the second album by Seattle indie pop band Slender Means. I first heard about these guys because Sonny Votolato plays guitar for them, and you know how I like me some Votolatos. I was impressed with their debut album, Neon & Ruin, for several reasons: it was light, catchy, short (32 minutes) and inoffensive. It was one of those albums that you could play at a party and about halfway through everyone would start asking about the band. It's the kind of music that you can easily tune out, only to wake up one day needing it. Crack on a disc. I hadn't heard anything about them for several years, but that doesn't mean they weren't doing anything; they released an EP called Rock & Roll EP in 2007, and Adrift in the Cosmos was released in November of last year. Somehow, they had fallen off my radar until just recently, and I was happy to jump right into a new album.
It's been a while since 
Bloguin is the revolutionary blog network specifically focused on helping bloggers get the most out of their websites. We're currently working on building a large network of online communities and hope to expand our blogging coverage to include a wide range of topics. 
The Bloguin Network allows advertisers to promote their products and services to our ever-growing number of visitors. We offer both site-specific ad placements as well as the ability to run a network-wide campaign. If you're interested in working with Bloguin to meet your advertising needs, please contact us.
The Bloguin Network is always looking to expand. We're specifically looking for blogs in the sports, entertainment, and video games field, but are open to adding any type of quality site. If you're a blogger and interested in joining our network, please fill out our application form.
The Bloguin Login gives you full access to everything our network has to offer. Your name and password will work for each and every one of our sites. Signing up is simple, and will allow you to post in all our forums, create member blogs, and access other cool features! What are you waiting for? Create an Account!