Thursday, February 28, 2013

My Dad


I'm listening to My Dad for the first time right now. Well, I mean, I'm like halfway through the album, and I listened to some rando tracks the other day, but I'm going through the whole thing for the first time right now. I can't sleep again.

I know two of the dudes in the band, Nnamdi and Dave. I met them both this summer on tour with Itto. Nnamdi plays drums in that band, and Dave came along for the Michigan shows. Shit was cool. Dave has a really dope stick and poke of Bubbles from Trailer Park Boys. Word, right? I looked up pictures of the band and the bassist looks super familiar to me, so I feel like I met him this summer but I can't remember and feel kinda dickish.

Anywho, this shit is dope. Its like post-math rock, if thats a thing. I mean its like there are kind of mathy parts here and there, but then there are spacey parts with verbed out guitar and shit. Its not a weird band, per ce, but it almost is. Its mathy enough to obviously be from Chicago, but not enough to be written off as just another math band. Same goes for the posty parts, and the chill parts too. They transcend genres, is what I am getting at. Oh, and they have two drummers, although I honestly couldn't tell until I looked at pictures.

Dave only gave me this one album, Stunts, so I'm guessing this is all they have out. Maybe there is more, but I can't find it, granted I didn't look really hard. On a side note I'm on a song right now where I can totally tell there are two drummers, and the bass riff is really heavy here too. But yeah, the dudes are going on a lil tour coming up, and then are doing another tour later on, so check that shit out if you like this band, which I generally hope you do. Dave is Chicago's hottest promoter right now, so if your band or whatever is trying to play in the windy city get at this band and he will hook it up. I guarantee it. I looked for a video but all I found was Rush and Luther Vandross, so I guess thats not too bad. Check out the homies, download the homies, support the homies. Swerp. Word.

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Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Father Figure - Jumping Off A Building



The dudes have done it again. Hot off the press. For those of you who don't know, Father Figure is dudes from Two Knights and Tommy from Innards shredding it up. Riffs for days and days. I really like dudes vocals too, shit is sweet. Some of that good screamo. We played with them on tour in Texas but our car fucked up in Amarillo and we got there like at the very end of their set, which was still tight but I wish I saw the whole thing. Shit is hella trill. Check it out and tell all your people about it, cuz its some of the best screams your gonna hear for a while. Real talk. Word.

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Julia Brown



Julia Brown is a super chill band from Maryland that consists of the Teen Suicide kids, and I guess a bunch of their homies too. They say they are pop punk or something but I don't agree. Its like spaced out chill music, with a shit ton of instruments and stuff. Shits poppin though, on the real. I listened to it for the first time the other night when I couldn't sleep, and it was real nice. I guess they have been around for a while, but I hadn't heard about them until kind of recently when I met all those kids, and then I was talking to someone about how Maryland is killing it with music and they said something about JB doing some split on Topshelf. I guess that was when I checked them out for the first time, and by checked them out I mean I bugged Sam Ray until he gave me songs. Had to do the same thing with "Torts" to get the songs from that split thingy too.

I guess I should say something about that split: its a benefit for stopping violence against women or something like that, which is chill. If you have money you should pay for that release, its got one track from Julia, Old Grey, Modern Baseball and The Hundred Acre Woods each.

The JB album, To Be Close To You, is real dope. Its all lo-fi and grainy and shit, real warm and tender. I guess the dudes and their people also make other songs that I always see people putting on Facebook thats like 420 Love Songs or something. I don't really know what the hell it is, but here is a link to it. I can't find any videos, oh well. Below is their stuff, check it out and show the homies some love. Word.

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North Folk



Homies on deck, y'all. North Folk is what happens when mid west emo dogs move up to the great north west. A hot minute ago Jack from William Bonney / Merchant Ships fame moves up to Washington, and then sometime kind of recently homie moved to Olympia, right as I was leaving of course. Dude hooked up with my other dude Austin, who was in Sitka with me, and two other kids who I don't know and started this band. At first when I heard about it, and heard Jack was gonna sing and play guitar I was like "oh, okay cool" but then the other day Austin sent me the songs and I was like "oh, okay cool".

Except by "oh, okay cool" I mean this is the best band I have heard in like two years. Truth. If you don't agree you can suck my dick.

It is a perfect blend of mid west sound with mature emo music, I guess. I mean you have the noodle stuff here and there but it isnt the main focus of the instrumentation, and then you have the obligatory gang vocals and Austin has that one pop punk "Yeah". Jack sings, like use your pretty voice sing. Its nice. And obviously the lyrics are really good, because he is a modern poet. Like if Biggie was white as fuck and made pizza instead of crack.

 It never made sense to me that there weren't more emo bands in Olympia because its so gloomy and stuff, but whatever. I guess its because you can't cry and say hella, less you look like a fool. Anways, the homies are playing their first show Thursday I think, at Le Voyeur, so if you are in town go check that out. They have a blog I think, but its a tumbler and fuck that shit, find it on your own. Below is the demo, not the real artwork but I'm not too worried about it. Word.

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Aleister Crowley



Basically, if you have never heard of Frater Perdurabo then have fun playing the wikipedia game for like 3 hours reading about him. Even if you don't give a shit about his stuff he is an interesting dude. And surprisingly, maybe, a pretty dope poet. The record below is a recording of Aleister reading a handful of poems with the exception of two "prayers" in English and Enochian and an excerpt from the Gnostic Mass. It took me a hot minute to find this record and I listen to it a good bit. My favorite poems are "The Poet" and "At Sea". "Fingernails" is cool too. The quality of the recordings is the best part of the whole thing, in my opinion, aside from the fact that this was recorded about a century ago. Below is just a video consisting of pictures, but I'm posting it because I fucking love the song thats being played for whatever reason. Check it out if you want. Word.



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Bath Salts



Bath Salts is a sick ass dirty power violence band from Maryland. All up on that feedback tip. I saw / played with them on my birthday and shit was 2 dope. I assume they are in other bands but I don't know any off the top of my head, whatever. Check out this band (and the "drug" too), both tight. The homies have two things out right meow: a demo and a tour sampler thingy. The tour guy is one track, so I just condensed both the releases into one download. You can obviously go to their bandcamp and check everything out and get the real album art for your Iwhatever and stuff. The dudes are working on a new release, which I would assume is some of that next level shit. I don't know their schedule or anything, but I'ma be at this show which they are playing, I want to mosh with a bike chain (lookin at you Sam).

I guess the shit I posted yesterday was being wonky for some people so I'm gonna try a new cloud sharing thing. If this one doesn't work let me know, I'm completely dedicated to you. Word.

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Sunday, February 24, 2013

We Were Skeletons & Pianos Become The Teeth / Touche Amore



Hey everybody. So remember when I was like "I'm gonna get my life together and be an adult!"? Well, that shit did not happen. So now I've given up on that shit and I'm back at my parents house until something falls into my lap. Fuck it.

Anyways, I thought that I should get back into the swing of things and start Chugging again. And since I've already started drinking I'm going to put no effort into my first post in a hot minute by simply posting two albums that you probably have. If you don't have them, then you have heard them. Basically people who are into these bands already have this shit, but for those who don't, for whatever reason, here you go. I'll be putting effort into posts soon enough, but right now its a lil HEY YALL I WAS FOR REAL kind of thing.

The We Were Skeletons album, "Blame and Aging" is a post-punk departure from their previous screamo LP, and a natural progression from their four way split on Square of Opposition Records. Shit is cool, and I love the dudes so yeah, get into it if you haven't yet. Its chill.

The Painos / Touche Amore split sounds exactly like you would expect a split between these two bands to sound, honestly. There are kids who are SUPER into these bands so I'm not really expecting to turn anyone on to these bands, but I like Mike and stuff so when I was thinking about easy albums on my car ride to get coffee like twenty minutes ago I figured this would be up there. Buy it from Topshelf if you want to spend money on it.

So yeah, your favorite uncle is back. Cool, right?







Word.

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