Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Bruce Peninsula - Open Flames (2011) (1.0)

9/27/11 11:26AM
ENTIRE ALBUM STREAM

*cwthtaw* aka cannot-wait-to-hear-this-after-work

9/14/11 11:24AM


Pre-Order

debating on the Vinyl and the CD, or just the cd. Either way, I'll be placing a pre-order (and looking at HOW it's being shipped i.e. UPS?, lol..long mostly unrelated story with that and the Arch/Matheos pre-order).

The pre-order comes with an immediate download of the single "In Your Light."


7/27/11 5:14PM

story

The Battle Circus news put a damper in my afternoon, but seeing this helps a bit.



Release Date: October 4, 2011

1. As Long As I Live
2. In Your Light
3. Pull Me Under
4. Warden
5. Say Yeah
6. Open Flame
7. Or So I Dreamed
8. Adrenaline
9. Cliffs & Coves
10. Chupacabra

It would be wonderful to see them live of course, but as A Bend in the Road showed, it's not easy for many bands in Canada, BP sadly, not being that much of an exception. I'd be surprised if they ever played a concert in the States. There's not even a date in Winnipeg. Someday, maybe next year they'll finally get out in my part of the Continent.

BRUCE PENINSULA – FALL TOUR DATES, 2011

August 11 – Toronto, ON – Lower Ossington Theatre
September 09 – Sarnia, ON – The Story
September 10 – Hamilton, ON – Christ’s Church Cathedral *
September 15 – Guelph, ON – Ebar * ^
September 17 – London, ON – OH Fest
September 18 – Waterloo, ON – Waterloo Park / Grist Mill *
September 22 – Kingston, ON – Chalmers Church * #
September 29 – St. Catharines, ON – Mansion House
October 01 – Peterborough, ON – The Attic *
October 05 – Montreal, PQ – Casa Del Popolo ^
October 07 – St. John, NB – Pepper’s
October 08 – Sackville, NS – George’s ^
October 09 – Halifax, NS – Khyber
October 12 – Cornerbrook, NL – Backlot ^
October 14 – St. John’s, NL – The Ship
October 15 – St. John’s, NL – The Ship
October 16 – Port Rexton, NL – Two Whales Cafe ^
October 20 – Riverport, NS – Confidence Lodge 100
October 22 – Halifax, NS – Halifax Pop Explosion
October 26 – Sherbrooke, QC – La Petite Boite Noir – 250 ^
October 27 – Toronto, ON – Lee’s Palace 550
* w/ Snowblink
^ w/ The Weather Station
# w/ The Gertrudes
+ w/ Olenka and the Autumn Lovers
3/28/11 11:32PM

Small Update. April 9th, apparently something should be available online to hear. In the mean time, here's a couple of the new tunes live.

Open Flame

Pull Me Under

1/15/11




More background was posted recently in THIS ENTRY.

New artlcie about Neil Haverty's health

The record will be called Open Flames and it contains ten songs. Although any release plans depend on the speed on Haverty's recovery, the band hope to have it out by the fall. Like 2009's A Mountain Is a Mouth, it was produced by the band and Leon Taheny. Sessions took place from May to October of 2010 in three Toronto studios: Nassau, Angles Up and Boombox Sound.

As for what fans should expect from the LP, Haverty said, "People talked a lot about the genre-less qualities of our last record but I really think this one is gonna surprise people even more. Once all the ideas ended up in the pot, we were playing around in a pretty strange genre pool but still without being lost in the trees."

Haverty's current focus is on his health and he hopes to do some fundraising for the hospital once he has recovered. In the meantime, his friend/bandmate Matt Cully is spearheading a benefit show for Haverty and his family. It will take place on January 29 at Toronto's Music Gallery. From 3 to 6 p.m., there will be a bake sale, as well as DJ sets and solo performances from Bruce Peninsula members. Then, in the evening, there will be a ticketed event featuring Timber Timbre, Austra and Evening Hymns.

Haverty hopes to come to the show himself, and added, "I hope people don't mind seeing a grown, likely bald man cry in public!"

See this Facebook event for more details. You can also donate directly here.

Even if you can't make it out the show, Haverty assured fans that they won't have long to wait until he is back with new music. He ended his interview with Exclaim! with this reassurance: "You'll be hearing from Bruce Peninsula soon. Believe me."

So:

1) Neil's Health. The next 3 months I guess is the focus for treatment and the financial side of things.

2) The Benefit show on January 29th

3) How the album gets released. I guess The Fall is a reasonable window of time. Perhaps by the Summer if things go as, if not better than expected. The album has 10 songs on it.

4) He has other music he plans to make. Electronic music.

I'm really looking forward to this, although Neil's health is obviously the most important thing. So the details (track list, artwork, release date) on Open Flames are really 2nd priority at this point.

Radical Face - The Family Tree: The Roots (2011)



1 Names 1:15
2 A Pound of Flesh 3:34
3 Family Portrait 4:40
4 Black Eyes 4:44
5 Severus and Stone 4:28
6 The Moon Is Down 3:18
7 Ghost Towns 3:53
8 Kin 4:04
9 The Dead Waltz 5:23
10 Always Gold 5:55
11 Mountains 4:51

Amazon.com link with samples

I've heard this a few times already, and it's pretty sublime. Drop date was on September 14th (although rateyourmusic has it as October 4th, same day as MuteMath, Bruce Peninsula and Feist, if that had been the case, in some ways, it would have been a bigger release date than September 13th to me).

I'm not going to go too in-depth, but as short as I have time for: this band have a good knack for using acoustic songwriting with piano, vocal harmonies and what not. At least on this record. This album is the 1st of a 3-part The Family Tree series of releases, the other two The Branches and The Relatives are expected in 2012.

Kind of forward-thinking in a way. I do know this group from a couple of years back, and they fall under the category of a band I checked out upon suggestion or stumble-upon, and liked, but sort of forgot about sadly. What I don't recall at this point was how different their last record Ghost, which I believe I previously had heard, differs from this.

More to the point, this album is almost purely acoustic (although that element of it, hardly fully describes it), and with a series titled "The Family Tree" and "The Roots" it suggests music of that approach.

So, in describing Radical Face, I suppose to call them sort of melodic, layered acoustic/chamber rock/pop/folk might be somewhat accurate. Of course hearing the music itself is best, but as a necessary evil, the artists I might compare them to being Punch Brothers, The Age of Rockets and even The River Empires, to name a few.

This album should be given more time from me, even with the heaping pile of 4th quarter records I need to still and will soon have to digest. But certainly this is one of those "coming out of nowhere" or "holy shit, I had no idea this was coming out" albums for 2011. In a lot of ways, the kind I prefer due to absolutely no expectations or anticipation. Its happened literally dozens of times to me over the last 5 years at least, and this is another example of when it happens, I often enjoy it more.

edit: in just reading a little more about it, Radical Face is actually one-man project I guess, from this musician from Florida named Ben Cooper. I suppose why on the homepage, the other bands he's played with are linked. I also find it interesting how Radical Face is playing live with Walking Sleep, a band who I like, although can't say my interest is what I hoped it might be. Perhaps Radical Face's music will inspire them and thus get me more interested in their music again.

Radical Face Homepage
Radical Face on Facebook

song "Welcome Home" from their last album Ghost

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Warpaint - Rough Trade Sessions

Here's some high resolution videos from sessions they did, I imagine recently (They were at the Reading Festival there, was only a few weeks ago), with Rough Trade in the UK. These remind me a lot of those "Live From Abbey Road" that Sundance Channel has aired, save for the little bio/discussion by the band between songs.











My guess is these were made in large part to promote The Fool: Deluxe Edition which is being released next Monday, September 26th in the UK on Rough Trade. It can be pre-ordered here



The Fool (Disc 1)
1 Set Your Arms Down
2 Warpaint
3 Undertow
4 Bees
5 Shadows
6 Composure
7 Baby
8 Majesty
9 Lissie's Heart Murmur
10 Shadows (The Neon Lights Remix)

Exquisite Corpse E.P. (Bonus Disc)
1 Stars
2 Elephants
3 Billie Holiday
4 Beetles
5 Burgundy
6 Krimson
7 Billie Holiday (Steve Mackey Radio Edit)

Three - The Ghost You Gave to Me (2011) (1.0)

9/20/11 10:15AM
Another new song "React" is available to stream here.

I dig. I'd love to hear the rest asap.

9/12/11 11:12PM

Another new song "High Times" can be streamed here

another new tune to dig. Could this be the best 3 album ever?

8/22/11 12:16PM, 8/23/11 3:10PM



Pre-Order link (with the video + soundcloud stream of "Numbers").

another pre-order link



01. Sirenum Scopuli
02. React
03. Sparrow
04. High Times
05. Numbers
06. One With the Sun
07. The Ghost You Gave to Me
08. Pretty
09. Afterglow
10. Its Alive
11. Only Child
12. The Barrier

October 11th................ Official Release Date of the new "3" album: "The Ghost You Gave To Me"

Clip of the Making Of (posted a few weeks ago).


6/29/11 4:30PM

Update with the track list:

Hey all,

We have finally done it... we made THE album we've been working towards for our entire career. Yes, it did take some time, but works of this magnitude often do. "The Ghost You Gave To Me" is our most epic recording yet. It is a perfect blend of our unique brand of musicality, potent melody and lyrical innovation. We have pushed our own envelope beyond formulaic composition and into a realm where songs have a life of their own... Unpredictable twists and turns, striking imagery and passionate precision combine to make each song a journey in and of itself. This record is alive....
We'll keep you posted as far as the release date, it will be some time this fall. For now, here is the track list....

Sirenum Scopuli
React
Sparrow
High Times
Numbers
One With The Sun
The Ghost You Gave to Me
Pretty
Afterglow
Its Alive
Only Child
The Barrier



4/5/11 4:14PM

from the latest Joey Eppard/3 Newsletter (4/5/11)

The mixes are finished, song order established... Still working on the artwork and such but at this point we are looking at a September release... We're really psyched with the record! Album title came down to "React" or "The Ghost you Gave to Me"... after a little research we're going with the latter. As THE most difficult band to search out on the internet we decided that we're better off with an Album title that will actually come up in the search engines!

sounds good. September and the 4th Quarter is looking to be, as it often is, rather busy and deep. Artwork, track list, yep..in the coming weeks/months.

2/10/11 11:52PM


From Three's latest newsletter.


Hey All...

Good News!!!! Four songs are officially mixed for the new "3" record. Everything sounds great and its a pleasure to reunite with Mike Birnbaum and Chris Bittner of Applehead Studio's . This is the team that recorded and produced our first record "Paint By Number" back in 1998 and also produced and recorded Coheed & Cambria's first three albums. We'll be back at it next week to hopefully knock out a couple more mixes. Then its time to finish up the remaining tunes and mix them in march. Good things do take time, and we believe this record will be more than worth the wait...

Meanwhile we'll be making our return to the Bearsville Theater on February 25th. Expect some more sneak peeks at whats to come from the new album... Spread the word!


Also this Saturday will be a musical double feature in Woodstock; at 7:30 a solo set by Joey Eppard at the Varga Gallery followed by a performance of E-G-O at Harmony Cafe starting at 9:30pm.


Saturday, February 12th, 6:00-9:00pm
@ Christina Varga Gallery, 130 Tinker Street, Woodstock
Angry Mother Earth FUNDRAISER...
With a musical appearance by: JOEY EPPARD 7:30pm
Performance by Angry Mother Earth begins at 8:30
Raising money to promote this environmental message for our planet. So it can be seen throughout the world.
View music video@ www.patriciamitchellphotography.com/angrymotherearth.html
questions or donations/917-279-9546




Saturday February 12th, 9:30pm - ?
E-G-O (Joey Eppard, Gartdrumm & Alana Orchid)
@ Harmony Cafe / Wok 'n' Roll
52 Mill Hill Rd., Woodstock, NY
Featuring songs from Paint By Number, Halflife and much more!
Celebrating Mike Lo Re's 21st!




FRIRDAY, FEBRUARY 25th
"3" @ The Bearsville Theater
W/ Special Guests, Nightmare's For A Week
Rt 212, Woodstock, NY
www.bearsvilletheater.com
Doors: 8pm, Show: 9pm, Tickets: $15

Sounds like good progress is being made. When it gets done and is released? My guess would be July/August-ish depending how much promotion and other stuff is required. Interesting how they are working with the guy who they worked with on Paint By Number and who worked with Coheed on their 1st 3 records.

Also not to forget, this album, really goes back a few years given the target in 2009 was to release Revisions and not one but possibly 2 other records that year alone. But everything that went down with being dropped by Roadrunner Records, and then being re-signed by Metal Blade Records obviously impacted those not coming out in '09 or even last year I suppose.

Also, I'd love to see them live again supporting it. Hopefully in Minnesota again.

Here's a sample from "Sparrow"

Friday, September 16, 2011

Ne Obliviscaris - TBA (2011)

9/16/11 8:35AM


rather promising, but still not 100% certain update (no title, track list, label, release date YET.)

Just got an email from Jens Bogren saying that our album should be ready to master on Monday or Tuesday! FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

8/29/11 9:17AM

I'm bumping this entry mainly due to how frequently over the last couple of months the band have been posting on facebook. It sounds like mixing on the yet to be announced-titled debut album should be finished this week.

And presumably, the obvious details about it should come soon after, probably most importantly, how and when it'll be released. Given the frequency and that stuff could come so soon, the odds seem good it'll be released by the end of the year (mid-November likely). If not, sometime in early 2012 (like many others it sounds like).

But for now, it's good to get down the anticipation of this long-awaited information rather soon; esepcially given everything they've gone through and how good this record could potentially be. The Aurora Veil ep/demo is *that* good itself.

5/2/11 1:24PM

Facebook Announcement

NE OBLIVISCARIS ALBUM BEING MIXED/MASTERED BY JENS BOGREN; ALBUM UPDATE & TEASER TRACK

Hey everyone,

Well we are very excited to say that the Ne Obliviscaris album has finally been completed (!) and is being sent off to Fascination Street Studios, Sweden TODAY to be mixed and mastered by one of the world's best metal producers/engineers JENS BOGREN… who some of you may know through his work with such amazing bands as Opeth, Katatonia, Ihsahn, Amon Amarth & Devin Townsend! The album couldn't be in better hands. To finally have this album fully recorded is an amazing feeling. We have had more set backs than we could possibly imagine and it has definitely been tough for us to stay positive all the time, but we thank you all for your continued support and patience. Hopefully when this album is finally released you feel it was worth the wait.

In other news, we recently uploaded a short album teaser to youtube here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/neobliviscarisvids#p/a/u/0/HuuJ3doVSX4

This is the unmixed intro from the song ‘And Plague Flowers The Kaleidoscope’ which will feature on the album. Make sure you go check it out, and hopefully we’ll have some more stuff to show you shortly.

In regards to our lead guitarist, Benjamin Baret’s, visa appeal, unfortunately we are still awaiting a decision from the Migration Review Tribunal here in Australia. Benjamin has been in France since last September and we all miss him so much. Everyone who has met him would agree that he’s the nicest guy in the whole world, and is undoubtedly an incredible musician that we feel so fortunate to have in this band. As soon as we have any further news, we’ll be sure to let you know. Thanks to the 3000+ people from more than 60 countries that signed petitions supporting our appeal! For those that haven’t yet, please head to:

http://www.gopetition.com/petition/40983.html

We’ll be submitting these signatures very soon, so if everyone can please spread the word one final time that would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks again for all your continued support. It’s amazes us that people care so much about this band considering we’ve only released a 3 song demo, and that way back in April 2007. We are incredibly proud of the album that we’ve created, and can’t wait to finally unleash it to the world sometime in the second half of 2011. Stay tuned!

Ne Obliviscaris




Good news, although album title, track list, artwork and release date is still pending. But the odds of this coming out this year look even better now, and hopefully Ben Baret's ability to return to Australia.



3/31/11 12:18PM

This is going to have to be edited/elaborated in the nexx X number of hours as I am about to head out. But this piece of news I just saw them post on Facebook is VERY encouraging.

Facebook post

Ne Obliviscaris
Getting things ready to send the album off to get mixed in the next week or two.... should we fill you in on who is mixing the album yet? Any guesses on who you think it might be?

I haven't mentioned much about them and their guitarist Benjamin Barret, but for those who don't know, he was forced out of Australia for various unfair reasons really. But I'll post something more about that soon.

edit: I may have already posted something a few months ago about that, but if not, more will be added about it and them along with this soon.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Jimmy Gnecco - The Heart X Edition (2011)

I haven't heard it of course given I'm at work. Good to see info about one of the many pending fall releases. I'm rather curious about this.

Thanks to Bright Antenna for answersing my inquiry post on facebook. Hopefully more about this and the Weathervane project will be announced soon.

Jimmy's homepage

FREE MP3 DOWNLOAD OF ‘THE HEART’
Posted on September 8, 2011 by admin
We are delighted to offer fans a FREE DOWNLOAD of the beautiful track “The Heart” from Jimmy Gnecco’s forthcoming album The Heart: X Edition, out November 7, 2011 on Bright Antenna.

Just click the ‘down’ arrow onthe right hand side of the player to ‘download’ for your free track.


Jimmy Gnecco - THE HEART - X by Bright Antenna

Kiimbra - Wandering Limbs (live with Sam Lawrence)

My jaw dropped watching this. I suppose it doesn't hurt that her album is like my favorite thing to listen to right now. But this is totally gorgeous.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Arch/Matheos : Sympathetic Resonance: Track-By-Track Interview

So this interview session Brian Slagel of Metal Blade Records did with John and Jim has been up for about a month, but I didn't want to watch them until I had taken in the record at least a bit, as I and many others finally have since it was released yesterday.

I have of course a lot of potential content to say about this album (not that I already have the past year before hearing it, lol), but just a few noteworthy things from this interview.

-the album was written in the order the songs were put on the album which is pretty unusual

-they likely plan to do more music down the road (although I swear that was said around the time or soon after the release of A Twist of Fate for John, but I can't be certain), so that is certainly something to look forward to, in this age it seems of bands breaking up seemingly every month if not every week; it is good to hear about an artist like John Arch, who I find as enjoyable as any musician making music now or the past 30 years, to be looking to make more music. Especially with the lack of info about his interest in music, really only when info about this came out, since 2003.

-lyrically, this album is going to have to be one to sit down, read, and digest, even with a lot of the lyrics being relate-able and personal-able

-the last song "Incense and Myrrh" being more or less a John-song, in a way makes me feel all the more fulfilled in how it is rather epic, namely the last couple of minutes. And I always wondered with the AToF EP, if a lot of the melodic and compositional ideas were John's or Jim's (or both), and somehow given I love how that track ends, it reminds me of AToF in a way. Also the fact it was included, as Jim was not thinking the album needed more after they finished "Any Given Day," the previous song. Possibly Incense and Myrrh makes this album at least 1/2-star better. I guess I need more time with it obviously to be more certain.











KEVIN GILBERT's The Shaming of the True (Prog West 11/2002)

Here's a clip
of "City of the Sun" and "Suit Fugue" more to add later...

EMBED disabled (lame!)

edit: it appears the embedding is not enabled thankfully. Wow, I have to wait to get home to hear the Long Day's Life. I had a whole thing written up and then the lack of perfect html and Explorer's spazzing out caused me to lose it the other day. I'll try and rewrite it soon in here, especially if more of this footage comes, or even an announcement about a dvd.

Shaming of the True from David Robin on Vimeo.


"Long Day's Life"

Long Days' Life from David Robin on Vimeo.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Revere - These Halcyon Days

These Halcyon Days by Revere

nice song, a bit different. No strings or horns, but so be it.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Arch/Matheos - Sympathetic Resonance (2011) (2.0)

9/9/11 6:06PM

half of it can be streamed here

my disc+shirt hopefully will be at the Post-Office tomorrow.

8/28/11 11:47PM
Interesting interview with Jim and John (even though it appears to be about a month old, I hadn't seen it until tonight). I'll confess, hearing the clip of "Stained Glass Sky" a bit more, I'm a little concerned here. But this discussion helps still, in where John is coming from. John isn't used to singing mid-range, but apparently even as self-critical as he is, he was satisfied on how he was able to sing in that lower of a register.

But it's only a couple of weeks away now from dropping, so all the speculation can finally end soon.



7/11/11 3:33PM
5 minute clip of "Stained Glass Sky" *drool*.



bio:
In 2010, Jim Matheos (current member of the progressive rock powerhouse Fates Warning and OSI) and John Arch (former vocalist of Fates Warning) teamed up to form the new progressive metal band, ARCH/ MATHEOS. The band -accompanied by the talented lineup of Joey Vera on bass, Bobby Jarzombek on drums, and Frank Aresti on additional lead guitar- began tracking the drums for their debut album Sympathetic Resonance on January 12 and continued to record through March with Jim Matheos producing. The technical proficiency of the band’s instrumentalists is apparent throughout the disc's 6 tracks, three of which clock in at over ten minutes each; each musician bringing great depth, complex layers, and powerful harmonies to the table with the end result being as dynamic as it is exciting.

The group's talent and versatility is apparent on their debut long-player, Sympathetic Resonance, which clocks in at just shy of 55 minutes. Jim Matheos notes; "a lot these songs, Neurotically Wired, Midnight Serenade, Stained Glass Sky, and parts of others, started off as material for the next Fates Warning record. Ray (Alder) was unable to commit to a record at that time so I approached John about doing a couple songs together, maybe another EP. We just took it one song at a time and didn't even really consider doing a full length CD until probably over half the record was written."

Jim Matheos offered his insight on the writing and recording process of Sympathetic Resonance; "I think John and I work really well together. There's a lot of mutual respect and trust in what we do. But, we're also both very critical of ourselves, and each other. This can make for a long and, sometimes, tedious process. But ultimately it's one I enjoy because I think it brings out the best in both of us." John Arch added; “When I first heard some of the arrangements Jim had written and recorded, it took quite some time before I could wrap my mind around the odd time signatures and guitar work going on here. There are some long compositions, so putting anxiety and apprehension on the back burner it was time to dissect these numbers into digestible bits. After the lengthy process of lyrics and melodies, listening to the songs now, I can't imagine them any other way."

In terms of the lyrical content on Sympathetic Resonance, John Arch comments; " lyrically -with the exception of ‘Epitaph’ from The Spectre Within- where I am in the first person, there has been a pattern of using characters, imagery and symbolism to create stories, where the characters are in the forefront acting out the story line. This time, much like A Twist of Fate, the man again steps out from behind the curtain without the third person to reveal his human flaws. There are still plenty of metaphors and phrases that are open to interpretation, but just how transparent or relevant the meanings are to those who read the lyrics we will have to see.”

ARCH / MATHEOS debut Sympathetic Resonance will be released September 13, 2011 in North America.

Lineup:
John Arch – vocals (former Fates Warning)
Jim Matheos – guitars (Fates Warning, OSI)
Joey Vera – bass (Armored Saint, Anthrax, Fates Warning, Seven Witches)
Bobby Jarzombek – drums (Halford, Fates Warning, Sebastian Bach, Riot)
Frank Aresti - additional lead guitar (Fates Warning)




http://fateswarning.com



*PRE-ORDER* will ship on or around 09/08/2011
Track List:
1. Neurotically Wired
2. Midnight Serenade
3. Stained Glass Sky
4. On the Fence
5. Any Given Day (Strangers Like Me)
6. Incense and Myrrh

Pre-order CD and T-shirt packages here:
http://www.indiemerchstore.com/b/arch-matheos


Yes, thank you very much. I'd like more please :).

Related: Arch/Matheos - Sympathetic Resonance (2011) (1.0)

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Erick Serna and The Killing Floor - The Grip (2011)

bandcamp pre-order (with mp3 download of the title song)



1. 12 String and Glass
2. The Grip
3. It's Been A Long Time Comin'
4. Hey Sweet Thing 04:10
5. I've Been Walkin'
6. Jet Plane Blues
7. Lies
8. Whiskey Song
9. Bad Bones
10. Dear McKenzie

Erick Serna was one of the long-running members of The Dear Hunter for 3 or more years. He was at one time, the 2nd longest tenured member besides Casey. Anyway, when Casey decided to move The Dear Hunter back home to Southern California, for that and possibly other reasons, he departed with TDH. So, this is his main project since leaving, although I know he was involved with The Color Spectrum and also the great debut album from Mercies a few months ago.

But this sounds a bit different than Mercies just from the samples, and even the song titles and "The Killing Floor" name, it seems to have a blues emphasis. I guess I and anyone else whose interested will know more when this is released on September 20th (digitally, for $5 there on the bandcamp page).

facebook band page with 3 more songs to stream.

Sigmund Droid - Black Motor Boat EP/Single (2011)




1. Black Boat 3:27
2. Night Race 3:41

Black Motor Boat EP by Sigmund Droid

Sigmund Droid twitter post

We're happy to give you the first listen of our new 2 song EP Black Motor Boat. We're very excited about this

no time to elaborate much, but this should be sweet to check out in a few hours after work. Apes and Androids fans probably owe it to themselves to check these guys out.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

The Cloak Ox - Prisen [EP] (2011)

9/6/11 3:28PM

Video for the song "Prison" (nope. I haven't heard or watched it yet)



8/17/11 3:29PM




1 Prisen 3:02
2 Vacuum Cleaner 3:30
3 Artist at the Door 4:42

Being released on September 27th.

I should have more to add once I get to hear this preview and the all 3 tracks from this debut EP from the Minnesota collaboration whose combination of styles easily suggests they're as progressive as any new artist making music today. I'm sure glad I caught their set opening for Menomena last March.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Pain of Salvation - Road Salt Two (2011)

9/5/11 11:13PM
go stream the new song "Conditioned" on their Facebook BandPage

or try the youtube video:
 

  8/25/11 7:19PM

samples of every song



7/21/11 1:30AM- 1:13PM



01. Road Salt Theme
02. Softly She Cries
03. Conditioned
04. Healing Now
05. To The Shoreline
06. Eleven
07. 1979
08. The Deeper Cut
09. Mortar Grind
10. Through The Distance
11. The Physics Of Gridlock
12. End Credits

Supposedly it's coming out on September 28th. Details are pending, but close I guess.

edit: September 26th in Europe, October 11th in the States.

Daniel and co (Hallgren and Hermansson namely) lost me a bit with the 1st one. I guess they are close if not at the same place Dream Theater and others (The Mars Volta) are in that I'll still listen, but not expect them to return to even close-to their peak level of greatness.

But maybe I'll be surprised either with this or with their next record. Also a footnote, they are opening for Opeth in Europe. As I posted on some forums, that tour would be a much bigger deal if it was in the US and/or happened about 7 or 8 years ago. I'd still go if it did come here, but it still wouldn't/doesn't mean what it would have back then.

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Textures - Dualism (2011)

9/3/11 5:25PM

Preview..some moments, but not hearing this with headphones doesn't help.

 





7/28/11 9:02AM - 8/3/11 9:50AM

First Track from forthcoming album streaming now!

Will stream when I get home this afternoon.




sounds good.

7/14/11 7:46PMhttp://www.texturesband.com/



1 Arms of the Sea
2 Black Horses Stampede
3 Reaching Home
4 Sanguine Draws the Oath
5 Consonant Hemispheres
6 Burning the Midnight Oil
7 Singularity
8 Minor Earth, Major Skies
9 Stoic Resignation
10 Foreclosure
11 Sketches From a Motionless Statue

TEXTURES have announced the title of their new album — Dualism — which will see its release in Europe, South America, Australia and Asia on the 23th of September and in North America on the 27th of September via Nuclear Blast Records. The album was recorded at Split Second Sound Studio in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and was produced by guitar player Jochem Jacobs. The first single, “Reaching Home,” will be released on 19th of August through all major download sites.

The artwork of the album was designed by former TEXTURES’ frontman Eric Kalsbeek and the band’s bass player Remko Tielemans. Eric had the following to say: ‘The guys asked me to co-create the artwork together with Remko, for good old times’ sake. Of course I said yes! I might not be in the band anymore, but I’m still involved in some ways. We’re still pretty close, you know. It was a challenge, it had to be ‘different’ but still Textures-like. Hope you like it!’

In support of the album the band will extensively tour the United States, Canada, UK, France and The Netherlands.


So I had read about their upcoming album off and on, but here are the more specific details. September 23rd release date. More cramming at the end of the year of course. 2008's Silhouettes was pretty underwhelming I recall, after I was pretty excited to hear it. I really enjoy 2006's Drawing Circles though.

These guys were doing "djent" before it existed, in a way. But maybe their sound would be best called just groove oriented proggy tech/death. I dunno. It has been a few years since I even really listened to them, so perhaps this new record will renew my taste and memory of them more so. I do know they're light years better than pretty much 99% of any of the other bands described as "djent." But they don't entirely get the recognition they deserve (or as much as many of the "djent" bands..Periphery perhaps?).

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Kimbra - Vows (2011)



1. Settle Down 4:17
2. Cameo Lover 4:03
3. Two Way Street 4:29
4. Old Flame 4:27
5. Good Intent 3:32
6. Plain Gold Ring 4:03
7. Call Me 4:32
8. Limbo 3:52
9. Wandering Limbs 5:27
10. Withdraw 4:06
11. The Build Up 8:21


I've been wanting to write something about her, pretty much when I started listening and then sharing the video for Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know" a couple of weeks ago. And I finally got to hear this debut LP from her this week and am still digesting much of it. But if I manage to add to this entry at some point, I'm just going to give some initial thoughts.

Kimbra (or Kimbra Johnson) is a new, young singer/songwriter from New Zealand (edit: I guess I assumed she was from Australia. Then again, Gotye is originally from Belgium, lol..so nationalities can easily be mistaken).. And there's been much anticipation for this debut album of hers I guess, for even many years. I suppose in many ways, she does remind me of among others, 2010's great discovery artist in Janelle Monáe. But also the style of her music on this album does share things in common with Ms. Monáe. The genre blending, passion, and soulfulness in her vocals especially. The depth and flow of this record. And maybe most of all, she doesn't really come across as another pop-diva (which is what I initially pegged Janelle as). A few other names that I'll admit I'm reminded of that come to mind might be Imogen Heap or St.Vincent in a way as well. Heap perhaps in the use of textures.

Specific songs? I don't skip any track at this point, but perhaps the last 3 tracks "Wandering Limbs" "Withdraw" and "The Build Up/Somebody Please" have stood out the most. "Wandering Limbs" features a male singer named Sam Lawrence, who'll I can't deny, I thought was Daniel Johns from Silverchair/Dissociatives. I suppose like Kimbra in the Gotye song, maybe I should inquire about his music as well.

 But this is definitely an album I anticipate listening to a fair amount over the next few weeks or more, as I keep enjoying more things about it. Very much of an album-lover's album, like The Archandroid and some others. And while I am still enjoying Gotye's new record Making Mirrors, I guess I can already say right now, this is at least a bit better. Although I'd be surprised if I'll find any 1 song as good as "Somebody I Used to Know."

 



Warpaint - Jubilee (and Composure) @ Reading 2011



Well, nice video quality, and of course there's a boatload of live videos of Warpaint on Youtube, but not playing the unreleased track "Jubilee" as they did there recently. Good tune, and one that was being worked on but never finished for The Fool. Although I have heard the demo, it's been awhile. But the song itself isn't a *new* song in the sense it's newly written (post-The Fool), but it's definitely a new, and the final arrangement presumably. Whether it's released on their next LP, or as a single, or EP, etc remains to be seen. I don't believe it's going to be included on the "deluxe" edition of The Fool coming in a few weeks, as it wasn't listed anywhere, plus odds are they have not recorded this arrangement in the studio yet anyway. Also here's one of many great live versions of "Elephants" I just was streaming now. That along with some other videos from the Reading festival are on Youtube. And like I said, the video quality is as much a reason to check them out. Especially given the drought it's been for me to see them with the 1 show they scheduled here in Minneapolis getting canceled due to their difficulty with the Snow last March on the day of their show.