After establishing themselves as an instrumental post-rock band – albeit one with an predilection for electronica – on their debut album, The Fall Of Math back in 2004, 65daysofstatic have evolved, with respect to both their music, and their musical style, on each subsequent album. On previous albums, this evolution has largely been due to the band's willingness to experiment with the instrumentation and tone of their music, whilst staying within the realms of their own unique style. On We Were Exploding Anyway however, the band have focused less on progressing their style, and have focused on redefining it instead.

On 65daysofstatic's earlier albums, the band's aim was simple; to combine fuzzy, punk-inspired post-rock music, with Aphex Twin-style beats, drum-loops and samples. With each consecutive album, the rock aspect was gradually toned down, while a greater range of instrumentation produced a more measured sound.
On We Were Exploding Anyway – 65daysofstatic's fourth studio album – the band have seemingly left their post-rock past behind them, and have instead produced an album that borders on electronica. In doing so, the band have removed – or at least toned down – the vast majority of the additional instrumentation which peppered their previous albums, as well as curbing much of the standard instrumentation too; conventional guitar and drums have been used sparingly on We Were Exploding Anyway, making way instead for keyboards and samples.

After repeat listens though, it becomes apparent that this paradigm shift isn't the result of the band reinventing their sound, but rather from taking the core idea of their music and turning it on its head; on previous albums, the band's focus has always been on emphasising the rock aspect of their sound whilst using electronic aspects to shape it. On We Were Exploding Anyway the band have taken the opposite strategy, and have used the electronic aspects as the base of their sound, and used rock elements to colour it.
Whilst We Were Exploding Anyway is certainly a departure from the band's previous albums, as well as being arguably a more challenging listen to traditional rock fans, it is nevertheless a fantastic, varied album, and one which commands just as much praise as their previous efforts.

Album opener “Mountainhead”, with its combination of keyboards and guitar, sounds like the soundtrack to a 16-bit era side-scrolling beat 'em up, and sets a suitably high-energy tone for the rest of the album. “Dance Dance Dance” starts slowly, and evolves into a throbbing, bass-heavy, dance music-inspired groove, before blowing up in a mushroom cloud of guitar; this is ironically juxtaposed next to the relative serenity of the layered, competing piano of track “Piano Fights”. Elsewhere, The Cure's Robert Smith provides vocals which accompany the hyperactive music box that is the loop-centric “Come To Me”.
In typical fashion though, the band have saved the best for last, and final track “Tiger Girl” is a suitably epic ten-minute excursion to close the album out in style. Whilst this is another heavily dance music-inspired track, it remains possibly the truest to the post-rock ideal, and the song doesn't so much build over the course of its ten minute duration, but rather evolves slowly until it is virtually unrecognisable from that which it started from.

Whilst it may seem that 65daysofstatic have taken their music off in somewhat of a tangent on We Were Exploding Anyway, on closer examination it's clear to see that the band are still making brilliant music, and still hold true to the post-rock ideal which they started from – they've just found a new way to convey it. In taking the emphasis away from the more traditional rock elements, these suddenly become much more dramatic; much more relevant. Whilst it may be different, We Were Exploding Anyway is a refreshing and vital album. So much so, in fact, that you can't help but wonder what the band will do next.

You can listen to almost all of the tracks from We Were Exploding Anyway right now on the band's Myspace page, and an MP3 of the track "Tiger Girl" can be downloaded free from the band's Website. no comments

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.

An Open Letter To The Scene releases on May 4th on Academy Fight Song Records in the US, and on May 10th on Big Scary Monster Records in the UK

To check out some of his music, visit Walter's Myspace page here, or check out the video for "Wild Pandas" below (courtesy of Beatcast.tv)

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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.

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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.

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Our podcast this week is a short one (that's what she said), but we make up for it with funny things like jokes.

This week is all about America, Heavy Rain, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, God of War Collection, Jaws, and Sword & Poker.

Musical guest: Ambulance LTD

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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.



Release date: September 22nd, 2009 no comments

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.


"Ship Wrecked" from Rock & Roll EP no comments

Hi there! Are you looking for tales of displaced Australians, Pokemans, Ghost Dogs and Achievement cheaters? Well, you've come to the right place!

This week is all about Heavy Rain, BioShock 2, Metro: 2033, Dragon Age: Origins, Pokeman: Heart Gold and We Rule.

Musical guest: Beck

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When we recorded last week's podcast, three of us - Russ, Steve, and Giang - stayed behind to talk Heavy Rain. This is their story.

Major spoilers!!

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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:

I Can Feel His Heartbeats [live]
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