So I haven't posted anything in a while...

As you can see, this blog has been kind of dead as of the last few months. I'm sorry. I really have no excuse. I have this weird thing where I lose interest in something and then focus on something else. I'm sure one day my interest in writing reviews will come back, but the time isn't really now.

I will have a year end list of my top 100 albums of 2012 as well as a few other fun lists. Other than that, unless I really feel compelled to write a review (that's why I wrote that last one haha), you won't be seeing anything else this year.

I'm sorry.

I love you.

Have a song I like.

Atsuko Chiba - Animalia: Several States of Being

I can pretty much garantee you that you haven't heard of this band. They are a local 5-man experimental post-rock outfit from Montreal and this is their first EP. They opened for The American Dollar a couple of days ago, and announced that they released this EP, and I liked their performance, so I decided to check it out. I don't normally write reviews for local stuff. I usually stick to some of my favorite albums, but I have the sudden urge to talk about them now. Why? Well, I think they're really good. Like, really good. This is pretty damn impressive for a first EP. I didn't notice this until my second listen, but this EP has a really strong Godspeed You! Black Emperor feel to it (in case you don't know, they're my all-time favorite band). They have those ambient and drone moments as well as samples, sorta like those scattered throughout Godspeed's Lift your Skinny Fists. Like, at some points, it's eerily similar, though they're definitely not a copy-cat band. They have their own psychedelic touch to their music. They have their own sound.

Let's look at this track by track. The first track, Carpets Through the Fog, starts out with an excellent ambient drone and then quickly cuts to a quick psychedelic part and then goes back to drone. It's a nice intro. It segues into the second track, Silento Del Dezerto, which is by far my favorite form the EP. The bass in this is so fun to listen to. It has this fluttering synth that reminds me a lot of the fluttering guitar in Godspeed's Sleep (during the Monheim mouvement). Near the end, both electric guitars kinda play off each other with the bass in the background. That fades out and segues into La Mezquita, the third track. This is probably the closest these guys are to a Godspeed sound. The drums in this track really steals the show. It has this really dramatic quality to it. It builds up for 6 minutes with the guitars to a cacophonous climax which quickly fades out and then segues into the last song, Sunset Shirley (La Dee Da). This is a short outro, that has a melancholic feeling. It's a happy end to a journey.

This is certainly an impressive EP and I love what I hear, but I guess I do have some qualms. I know this is an EP, but I felt like some build up could have been a little longer. Some transitions from post-rock to ambience and vice-versa felt a little quick, like in the first track. I also felt that the outro could have used a bit more variety and maybe be a little longer. But yeah, the middle two tracks are definitely great. I'm looking forward for the material these guys put out in the future. They're pretty cool. After the American Dollar set was over and I waited for the bus outside, they passed by with their ironing boards and actually thanked me for coming to the show. That was kind of neat.

7/10 peeps might dig this.

Atsuko Chiba - Animalia: Several States of Being from Anthony Sifoni on Vimeo.

Bandcamp

Shit Worth Getting 2012 (Part 2)

Get this stuff. It's good.

Anathema - Weather Systems
Progressive Rock

Children of Nova - Impossible Landscape
Progressive Rock

Helios - Moiety
Ambient

High on Fire - De Vermis Mysteriis
Stoner/Sludge Metal

Hilary Hahn & Hauschka - Silfra
Improvisational Modern Classical

Natural Snow Buildings - Beyond The Veil
Ambient Drone/Free Folk

Rebecca Brandt - Numbers & Shapes
Electro-acoustics

The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation - Erop
Dark Ambient

Torche - Harmonicraft
Stoner Metal

Xiu Xiu - Always
Art Pop, Experimental Rock

Midori - Aratame mashite, Hajime mashite, Midori desu

Midori is a 4-piece hardcore punk band from Japan. They're in a specific sub-genre of punk that's not too uncommon in japan known as Jazz-punk (well that's what I call it). They have the intensity of a punk band but play jazzy melodies with lots of swing notes. I've always been fascinated by this jazz-punk sub-genre, and I believe that this album may be one of the best of it's genre. The variety on this album really runs the gamut. The first song is a 44-second long acoustic, very lo-fi ballad with a cute pop-esque vocal delivery. It quickly segues into probably the most abrasive song on the album, vocally and instrumentation-wise. I absolutely love that kind of contrast. This album is full of contrast. Generally, when the vocals is more punk with screams and all, the instrumentation falls more under the jazz category, and when the vocals are pop-like, the instruments are abrasive and distorted. You'll also find a wide variety of moods, from happy up-eat sounding songs to more dark and rebellious tunes. Might as well mention some individual songs. My personal favorite is probably Himitsu no Futari, which is the jazziest of all the tracks, I find, and possibly even the most accessible. Chiharu no Koi is a very bass-driven song, starting out with a slow, 30-second plucked bass solo. The last song I wanna mention also happens to be the last song on the album, Muyoku no Muryoku. It's basically a free-form jazz song. It's by far the most experimental and ambitious of their tracks and it's almost all instrumental, so if you don't really fancy the vocalist, you might appreciate this.


9 out of 10 green-haired girls will like this.


Couldn't find any samples on Youtube, sorry. :(


[Mediafire]

Cosmonauts Day - Paths of the Restless

Cosmonauts Day is a rather new Russian Post-Metal/Sludge band. I found them recently on bandcamp and they sounded interesting (and the cover art is gorgeous) so I downloaded it and I'm not disappointed. I got what I expected. They have a very atmospheric post-rock/metal side and they have sludgy qualities. The sludge is actually quite heavy at times, which I like. Some sections can even be pretty fast which caught me off guard at first, but it sounded great. The instrumentation is pretty standard, with the reverb-laden instrumentation. The album by no means treads on unusual or experimental ground. You do get what you ask for but that doesn't mean it's boring though. It has interesting ideas and textures. Certainly worth checking if you're interested in this kind of music.

7 out of 10 cosmonauts will like this.

Bandcamp

Eleanor Friedberger @ Il Motore 05/05/12

Today I went to go see Hospitality, really. Eleanor was an added bonus. I think it's the first time I went to a show were the opening band was the one I really wanted to see. They really a simple but catchy album this year so I wanted to check them out. The first thing I noticed was just how empty the place was. It's a small venue, but still. When Hospitality started playing, there were maybe 5 people there. There were only about 30 by the end of the night. By far the smallest show I've been to.

Both bands played their sets backwards for some reason. Eleanor later explained that because it was a full moon or some shit like that. Whatev. Hospitality was a fun band. Their songs are just as catchy as they are on their studio album. Simple, fun songs. Some of the bass grooves really got my pussy wet. I like how both the guitarist and bassist had solos. Not much else to say. Nice set. I recommend their self-titled release.

It was my first time to really listen to singer/songwriter Eleanor Friedberger. I suppose it was okay, it's just not my sort of thing. I didn't think her songs were all that catchy or memorable, aside one song that had an awesome guitar solo with really solid drumming. I thought the bass was really boring and uninvolved. Even the bassist himself was kind of boring to watch. I can't say they were terrible. It just wasn't for me.

La Dispute @ La Sala Rossa 02/05/12

La Dispute has really caught my attention since their sophomore LP, Wildlife. This was a show I couldn't miss. Three bands were opening for them so let's get right to them. The first was an New York outfit called Sainthood Reps. They were alright to me. Simple songs played with some passion. Their music wasn't my perfect cup of tea. Many songs weren't very memorable and nothing really stood out, aside from the last track they played, which was definitely the loudest and funnest of their setlist. I remember the vocalist got a nasty knock on the head but he shrugged it off. Something also worth mentioning is the lead guitarists pedal board; he had like fifteen different pedals. What.

Next up was All Get Out. They were definitely the most "Indie Rock" of the four bands that shared the stage but they still have their hardcore moments. They started with a rather upbeat song with the vocalist singing in a type of southern accent, which kind of caught me off guard but then transitioned into hardcore. The stand out moment for their set (or hell, maybe even the whole night) was when the vocalist went solo playing softly on his guitar and singing and screaming with such intensity. He even left the mic and simply used his own power for his voice. The room was dead quiet. He let out a huge scream. That feel. At the end of their set, during the climax, he climbed up a few amps and jumped off of them. They were a really entertaining band and I'm really curious to hear their studio work. These guys were easily my second-favorite set of the night.

After them was Balance and Composure. All I can say is that I was pretty disappointed. After a band like All Get Out, these guys were really underwhelming. All of their material sounded the same to me. There were no standout moments, no change in intensity. And the intensity didn't even feel that high to begin with. They had three guitarists that pretty much just made these uninteresting textures that swallowed up everything. The drumming was the only thing that I can say that I liked. Maybe their studio work is better, I don't know. All I can say is that this performance didn't do anything for me and was easily my least favorite set of the night.

And then, the piece de resistance, La Dispute. My favorite part was just of fun the vocalist is, moving like he was having an epileptic episode throughout the show. He also interacted with fans a bunch as well which is something that I like. They mostly played new material from their latest album, but they did play two songs from way back. On one of them, the vocalist actually forgot the lyrics. He was pacing around trying to remember, and finally it came back to him with the accompaniment of the audience. The folk here were hardcore fans (no pun intended) who knew the lyrics to everything. I felt left out. Their live performance sounds a lot like their studio work. Not much difference to note at all. They played King Park for their encore. It was kind of amazing. Anyway, to wrap up, it was an incredibly fun show and I'd recommend anyone interested in Hardcore/Post-Hardcore to try to catch them on the remainder of their tour.