Thursday, April 21, 2011

Coachella 2011



Cali's annual Coachella Arts festival had a lot to live up to this year in particular. Performing acts included Lil B and Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All who have currently been the talk of the hip-hop community, the energetic dance-punk duo Death From Above 1979 reunited for the first time in years, Canadian now-superstars Arcade Fire fresh off their grammy victory, and of course, Kanye flipping West. To put it simply, they all delivered. Coachella '11 may go down as one of the most memorable and quality music festivals in recent memory, in most part thanks to the standout, potentially career-defining moments of the headline acts Arcade Fire and Kanye West. You can view their 100-minute performances below:


And feel free to discuss/share anything Coachella-related right here.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Sleeping Bag- Sleeping Bag (2011)

Sleeping Bag are a local band who I've been following since shortly after they formed last summer. They play a type of indie rock with pop sensibilities but never build to poppy enough levels to really be considered pop. The vocals are intentionally low-key, maybe because that's the only way the drummer/vocalist can sing and play at the same time. I don't know, but I like it. This album, their debut full-length, isn't officially released yet but they have it available for free streaming on Bandcamp.

Listen.
Download old demo.

This is an early demo they were selling the first time I saw them. All four songs on it are on the full-length but I thought some people might be interested in hearing earlier versions. They don't sell it any more so don't feel bad about downloading it.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Saturday, April 9, 2011

The Sugarcubes - Life's Too Good (1988)



Maybe I'm just lazy right now, but this album is a hard one to review in detail. Anyone who's a fan of the 80's alt/indie rock scene will probably like this. With their debut album the Sugarcubes combine upbeat catchy songs with some dark, mysterious undertones in others. It has a nice 80s feel to it without sounding too outdated. And it has Bjork, so that should seal the deal. Highlights of the album for me where 'Motorcrash', 'I want...'and 'Delicious Demon'.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Future Idiots

The Future Idiot or Future Idiots as they call themselves are a band I discovered completely at random when I asked a question men have wondered for ages... "Has anyone ever done a rock cover of Paris Hilton's only hit song Stars are Blind?" and the answer was yes. Yes, they have.

Future Idiots have two sections to their YouTube, one where they have all the covers they have done which range from Blink 182 all the way to Katy Perry and then they have their own original songs. Overall, I like what I hear from these guys and think they're a pretty cool band overall.
So if you feel like listening to some rock covers of current pop songs like me, swing on over to their YouTube and give em a listen.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Yowie - Cryptooology (2004)

The future of music that will never come to pass. The climax of rock music. This is outsider music for our entire dimension. No band has had this sort of vision since Beefheart marinaded us with tales of Big Joan's anatomy (and what a serenade that is). In fact, go look at any performance of Beefheart right now (or listen to Trout Mask... no, both). Catch a note of the spastic rhythms and atypical.. everything. It's a blues-rock, free-jazz, genre-destroying cacophony caught in a blender. But the reason we cherish Beefheart isn't because he's a gimmick that had the crazy idea of making unpop and somehow we ran with it, it's because somehow beneath the blimps and motherships there is an undeniable structure. A brooding intelligence that guides every misstep into a rightful position. A stealthy constructed masterpiece.

But how dare I compare some obscure midwestern punk band to the some of the greatest minds in rock history? But dear reader, this band is no ordinary band, and for better or worse, you will certainly notice that from the first seconds of this swirling masterpiece. "Spastic spidery-thin guitars blurt and blast against each other over an equally spastic, rhythm-busting drummer." There's my review. That's all I can say without twisting my mind as insanely as they twist music. It's relentless and beautiful. It's a fourth dimensional god appearing once before you for a microsecond. You recognize it, and you sense its beauty, but any question about the encounter invariably ends with an apologetic "I don't know".
But something you can relate it to... take your Hellas and Flying Luttenbachers, then cut their music into brief microsecond sections, and spend an infinite amount of timing piecing the pieces together in a post-deconstructionalist masterpiece, and maybe you'd have a fraction of this 30 minute freakout.

I used to get upset that this is all we've seen from this band, three years removed from a projected sequel, but I've noticed that in the dozens of times I've probably listened to this album I've never heard the same album twice. But it won't stop me from begging for them to return from whatever dimension they hang out in.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Cardiacs


This band is relatively new to me (although I have known about them for some time). I Picked up their album Sing To God out of pure curiosity. I have never listened to an album so many times in such a short amount as I have with Sing To God, it really is quite the unique experience and would encourage everyone to at least give it a listen.

Cardiacs music is noted as a balance of the raw energy of punk music, all the while adding the technical aspects of prog. They have established their own sound very well and essentially created their own genre known as 'pronk' (although Tim Smith seems to reject the term). But that's not the end of the list of genres they borrow influences, not gonna go all into detail about that but you get the idea. The music magazine Organ once commented saying that "one Cardiacs song contains more ideas than most other musicians' entire careers."




Stream: Wasting Light- Foo Fighters.

consequenceofsound.com has an exclusive look at Foo Fighter's newest album Wasting Light.
the album is due out April 12th, 2011. It will be the follow up to Echoes, Patience, Silence & Grace. Click the link below to listen to this anticipated album right now. Leave a comment and let me know what you thought.