Sunday, November 2, 2008

Hope everyone had a good Halloween, I’m writing this in advance of the actual post-date, but I’m sure by the time it goes up I’ll still be nursing a pretty solid hangover.  Halloween’s pretty much my favorite holiday (dressing up like a moron, drinking like a moron, and probably awkwardly ogling scantily clad ladies...like a moron = best day EVER) and I can’t remember the last one that didn’t find me absolutely obliterated for days following.  I was even considering finishing up this little bit of blog post on Saturday night, but I’m worried that I’ll be a shivering blob of alky-sweat come tomorrow evening, so I’m blasting this out for you...now.

Again, for readers who might not have caught my victorious comeback post two weeks ago, I’m switching things up a bit here at Brain Notes Inc.  What I want to discuss is what music is being bandied about on the blogs, and what I think about it - good or bad. I’d love to hear your opinions on the bands I discuss each week as well.  That’s what the little "comment" button down below is for.

So, the structure is three bands I’ve sort of heard of, one band I don’t think is getting nearly enough love.

Enjoy!

State Bird

The good folk over at My Old Kentucky Blog turned me on to this sort of insane collage of a variety of freaky, folky, twangy sounds. In the wake of D. Barnhart, I’m always skeptical about what new band is going to try and take the weirdness factor to the next level, and some of the freak-folk references had me pretty fearful.

Turns out, this band manages to capture a sort of wily, bordering-on-obnoxious level of alt-country madness, without the trappings of modern freak-folk.  The album is all across the board, often times veering to a level of camp that I’ll be honest, some might find a little grating, but there are songs on their debut album Mostly Ghostly, like the title track, that find a balance that is more than encouraging for feature releases. I, for one, dig on the sort of modern day, old-timey franticness of a few of the early tracks on the LP, but camp-phobics, do not fear, there’s something here for everyone one.

VERDICT: Good, bordering on great, a nice change of piece for hipster indy, one that has nothing to do with bleepy electronica. I say yay!

:State Bird - I Saw The Light:

Horse Feathers

In the destructive Godzilla like rampage of the Fleet Foxes, it seems like everyone and their mom are trying to piece together stirring homages to the 1970s.  Lets be honest, you’re a little tired of it.  Sure, maybe it still sounds good, but you’re like, "Oh shit, this band also sounds like the f’n Fleet Foxes? Wow" or something.

Horse Feathers on the other hand are a gentle, soft spoken sort of band that evade the generic Fleet Foxes path and bring a more woodsy, pastoral feel to a similar idea.  It isn’t the most exciting of music, but the emotion and sheer skill this emotion is projected with are extremely impressive.  I wouldn’t be playing this at your 80s dance party, but you could certainly drop it on the boombox in lieu of your trip in to the icy north.

VERDICT: Slower than a brain-dead sloth, but still beautiful.

:Horse Feathers - Curs In Weeds:

High Places

I’ve gone back and forth between absolute hipster icons High Places more times than any. They’re a brand of music that, at least in terms of my idea of listening to music, fits better as a side dish to a walk home or a sonic fog to help get my brain rolling when I’m distracted. At times though I’m just convinced that they’re too cerebral and to artsy hipster for me to care whatsoever.

Seriously, search the blogosphere right now and you’re going to find a million different stories about their sort of fascinating style of music-making, as well as the strange structures of there pieces. I think they’re a bit overhyped, but not a bad band, just not one that I would say gets regular rotation.

VERDICT: Eh, I don’t hate them.

:High Places - From Stardust To Sentience:

- Noah Sanders -



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