Sunday, April 27, 2008
 

I've been meaning to write an original post, and not just respond to Noah's.  This will not be that post.  Instead, I'm going to be drawing from Noah's post about FREE SHIT from yesterday, in which he calls the blogosphere out for what it really is: a hidden agenda of milking the industry dry of promos. I'll come clean: I'm in this game for the free shit, and I get a lot of it. I once emailed Yamaha and told them I owned a music shop (I do not) so they'd send me a bunch of posters.  Sure enough, a week later I got a tube full of Anatomy of The Violin and Jens Lindeman posters.  But there are some things that never come my way, things that I peek into my mailbox and inbox every chance I get, but never quite find. So consider this post a collective shaking of the music industry, hoping the fruit I want will fall out of it, into the graciously accepting arms of my CD shelf.

:The Low Lows - Sparrow:  The Low Lows are a Georgia band who (basically) used to be another band, Parker and Lily, based out of New York.  I absolutely love bands who have a sound as cohesive as this one; instead of picking out and appreciating the individual instruments, you get to enjoy what feels like a singular energy that flows throughout the song.  Even the vocals seem to melt into the rest of the mix. The band is touring Europe currently, where their new album Shining Violence was released last month.  They've recently relocated to Austin (boo-ya!), and Misra will be releasing the album in the US here in a few months. I'd like an album, and a t-shirt (small, please).

:The Oaks - Masood:  The OaKs' Ryan Costello has the kind of history that makes you feel pretty guilty: a few years back, he moved over to Afghanistan to work with refugees, and generally make the world marginally better than it was.  If you're like me, you define your life on how many CD's you own (hence this post, of course), not how many lives you've made a difference in.  Luckily there's guys like Costello doing enough good for the both of us, and also hopefully adding to my CD collection in the near future.  This track, from their new album Songs for Waiting, has a lot of the same cohesiveness as The Low Lows track before, but what I find most intriguing is Costello's voice, and how it creeps around in the back of the mix, exposing the rest of the instrumentation quite effectively.  I'd like an album and maybe a few buttons (they sound like a button band), though I'd settle for a sticker or two.

:Mom - Skipping Stones:  Mom are a Denton band that I've seen a couple times, mostly at in-stores and things like that.  From what I remember, they had a cello run through some effects, and then a whole slew of other electronics.  This track is off their album Little Bright, which was out last August at a couple of small stores around Texas.  I think Western Vinyl is about to do a bigger run of it, but don't quote me on that.  If that's the plan, I'd damn well better get one, and I ain't payin'.  This track, though, sounds a lot like a peaceful day in the park, perhaps by a pond converted into an ambient electronic masterpiece.  I'll settle for two copies of the CD and a poster.

:Weezer - Weezer:  This is kind of a joke, because no I don’t have the new Weezer single to post, and like John said, if I did the RIAA would probably have my head in a basket by morning.  That being said, it's not really a joke: I'd really appreciate if the new Weezer showed up at my door one morning entirely unannounced.  It's not that I want the album, so much as I need it to keep my collection complete (Yeah, I even own Make Believe.  And no, I don't want to talk about it.).  So Geffen, if you could send me the album, and maybe a few t-shirts as well, just to relive my childhood in its entirety.

- John Michael Cassetta -



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