Feb 28, 2008

Yeasayer - All Hour Cymbals (We Are Free, 2007)

There has been much written in music pages recently, about Vampire Weekend and the way in which they have gotten all Paul Simon on our arses and injected afro-rhythms into their much-lauded self-titled debut album. From what I have heard of the album, it sounds like they have done a rather good job of incorporating these rhythms into their particular brand of indie-pop, however, our subject today is not Vampire Weekend. Nay, my friends, today we are here to talk about the band Yeasayer, and the beguiling album which they released a few months ago to quiet acclaim - All Hour Cymbals.
To be frank, when I brought this album home from the record store and threw it into my stereo, I thought I had been duped. I had heard only good things about the album from reliable sources, however, what I heard was... well, it was alright. It certainly didn’t blow me away upon first listen; or even the second listen for that matter.
However, through repeated listens, All Hour Cymbals began to open itself up to me. Instruments that I had not heard on previous listens; strange, engaging Eastern rhythms; layers of sound that danced around one another; a mélange of voices: singing, chanting, moaning. I was stunned that this sound had come from four guys holed-up together in Brooklyn.
Yeasayer’s sound is one that defies easy genre categorization. At times brooding, at others celebratory; thematically and stylistically, Yeasayer are all over the map, which, perhaps, may be their greatest charm. All Hour Cymbals is an album well worth taking the time to explore; and, having seen them put on one of the best shows thus far in 2008, I can vouch that Yeasayer are a band worth seeing live when they pass through your town.

Check Out: www.myspace.com/yeasayer

Key Tracks: 2080, A.H. Weir, Forgiveness

Feb 15, 2008

Black Mountain - In The Future (Jagjaguwar, 2008)

In the 1990s, groups of young men with long hair would often congregate in places where they could go about their business unnoticed (the southern Californian desert was a favored meeting spot); smoke a lot of pot, listen endlessly to riff-heavy rock from the 70s, and, eventually pick up instruments and make music of their own. The music they made, heavily influenced by the likes of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, came to be known as Stoner Rock - and, for the most part, it was good. The preeminent force in Stoner Rock, was the legendary Kyuss, whose lead guitarist, Josh Homme, would later go on to form Queens Of The Stone Age and bring his rock sound to a far greater audience.
While the term Stoner Rock fell out of favor at around the turn of the millenium, the reverberations of the genre's sound are still being felt today. Case in point: Black Mountain.
Released on what is fast becoming In(High)Fidelity's label of choice - Jagjaguwar - In The Future is an album of epic proportions, yet one that never over-plays its hand. This is no small feat, given that one of the tracks - the mighty Bright Lights, clocks in at just under 17 minutes.
To call Black Mountain's sound derivative, would be to sorely under-estimate the power and urgency the band brings to their sound. This is the best of what heavy rock has offered throughout the years, re-imagined for a time where war rages in foreign countries, while our own governments employ scare-mongering tactics to keep the population paranoid and sedate.
Black Mountain, however, are no one-trick ponies, and some of the finer moments on the album, the winsome Stay Free in particular, are those where the band pick up acoustic instruments and expose themselves for what they truly are: fine songwriters who are unafraid to where their hearts on their sleeves.

Check Out: www.myspace.com/blackmountain

Key Tracks: Stormy High, Tyrants, Stay Free, Bright Lights

Feb 6, 2008

MGMT - Oracular Spectacular (Columbia, 2008)

Could this be the first great release of 2008? How about one of the best releases of the new millennium? No stranger to hyperbole, I am inclined to answer both of these questions with an emphatic "Yes".
Having garnered plenty of attention amongst the indie cognescenti in recent months, MGMT have released their debut on the very non-indie label Columbia; which I can only attribute to an Oracular Spectacular decision on the part of their A&R department. Who says major labels don't know their ears from their arses?
While it seems Brooklyn can do no wrong at the moment - see bands such as Yeasayer and The Dirty Projectors - it seems that MGMT are destined to take their sound to a world audience. Immediately captivating, MGMT defy simple genre-categorization, as they incorporate influences as disparate as Bowie, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd and Daft Punk.
The album's lead off track, Time To Pretend, is a ridiculously catchy, psych-pop fantasy of the rock'n'roll lifestyle: complete with models, shooting heroin in Paris, and, inevitably, choking on one's own vomit. Kids, which is the album's centerpiece, is an electronic track with a beat that you can't help but dance to; it should be the dance anthem of 2008.
MGMT jump between styles throughout the album, from guitar rock, to dance-floor filling electronica, to acoustic balladry; and they pull it all of with a finesse that belies the fact that this is their debut album.
Having recently seen the band live and being suitably blown away, I can attest that in 2008, MGMT is the shape of rock to come.

Check Out: www.myspace.com/mgmt

Sounds A Bit Like: An early contender for album of 2008.