Monday XXIV

Everybody do the Warner Bros. Family Entertainment trademark owned region beyond the earth's atmosphere jamboree. It's Monday.

Brave Bird - Ready or Not EP (2010)

Brave Bird is a twinkly emo punk band from Ann Arbor, Michigan. I did some research on Ann Arbor and learned that it is the sixth largest city in Michigan, home of The University of Michigan, and that people from Ann Arbor are called Ann Arborites or townies for the long-termers.

Every track on Ready or Not brings something new to my ears. The vox are nothing I haven't heard before but then again, that's not all they are going for or have to offer. I can't say there is ever a dull moment but I never get more excited then when I hear the first 30 minutes of Scared Enough.

Bandcamp
Last.fm

Treehouse - Treehouse (2011)

Emotionally aggressive and constantly moving, Treehouse brings some life back in to the SLC punk scene.

That's what it would sound like if they needed a really cool quote for the back of their autobiography.

I did some research on Salt Lake City and learned that it is most populous city in Utah, the 45th state and 34th most populous in the US. All the High School Musicals, Independence Day, and Touched by an Angel have all been recorded in Salt Lake City.

My favorite track has to be "Processing..." and it's little whistle solo in the middle there.

Last.fm

Caddywhompus - Remainder (2010)

Caddywhompus mix the ever indulgent sound of noisy pop with the even more indulgent midnight cravings of psychedelic music. Luckily for us, the two gentlemen behind the control pannel of this spiraling out of control music machine gloss on a layer of distortion and lo-fi soot just so our brains don't explode from clean beauty and art. I'm not hating on them for keeping a lo-fi sound where things could just be heard loud and clear and still have the say outcome. That's really no big deal. It's also what sets them apart from the rest in a way, I would have to say...

I gave these guys an honorable mention last year as one of the more interesting pieces of work in 2011 with their release of The Weight, a mention they rightfully deserve in my book. Their 2010 full length, Remainder is just as exciting and definitely something to go all music nerd about.

Community Records

Last.fm

Jordaan Mason & the Horse Museum - Divorce Lawyers I Shaved My Head (2009)

I first learned about Jordaan Mason and his capability of playing some deep folk music from CLLCT and the scattered tracks of his that are up on the current site. My attention wasn't totally attached my this guy all that much, that is, until I heard Divorce Lawyers I Shaved My head, a truly complex tell of "failed marriage between two people of confused genders and identities" along with a bunch of popular topics such as glandolinian war, swallowing shotguns, horses, shaving your head, vomiting and the 1990 apocalypse. With all these different themes it's bound to keep me listening just to figure it all out.

The First time I heard Divorce Lawyers I Shaved My Head was definitely like the first time I heard Neutral Milk Hotel's In An Aeroplane Over the Sea, not just because they both feature singing saw (which I love), stories that only Mason and Mangum could understand, requires a bunch of extras to sit around until they can play a few simple notes on their horn or that the dark depths of the internet eat shit like this up for breakfast - A breakfast that consists of Cookie Crisp and Haterade - but eaten up completely none the less. The internet loves to hate and hates to love things like this; a work of art that no one can really relate to... except (and maybe not even them) it's creator.

That's what I heard at least.

Bandcamp
Last.fm

Some Interesting Albums of 2011

While these albums are 100% approved by NFT, they are not exactly this blog's albums of the year. They are more or less albums I found after the fact, In other peoples/blogs/forums AOTY lists.  Still not your average Bon Iver, James Blake, Radiohead, Fleet Foxes album of the current year we are in kind of list though. No offense to those guys, but...

Caddywhompus - The Weight (2011)

I'm guessing I saw the name Caddywhompus a few times this year but thought they were something else. While, now I know what they are (kind of) and I like it! It's quite fun and groovy on top of some lo-fi recording. The fuzzy layer that causes their sound to become a bit noisy is kind of entertaining but I personally think that if it was a little more clear, their sound could still work and would sound a lot like the suggested artists Last.fm has listed like Adebisi Shank or Shapes Like Dinosaurs. The quality does separate them from those bands and is probably the reason I found them with bands like Headless Horseman, A Lull, Honeydrum and Range Rover. Plus BIRP.

Last.fm

Bandcamp

Community Records

 Dope Body - Nupping (2011)

Unfortunately and fortunately I just found out about this album. It's also fortunate because I missed any and all hype that this album/band may have had which could have distorted my opinion on it and all that.

my current opinion on this album is that it might be one of the most original of any 2011 album. It's right up there with Death Grips (who will be featured in the next album of year list) in that under all its moving parts it is very much something new and refreshing. That being said though, we are in the twenty-first century and after thousands and thousands of years of music, everything's bound to sound like something else, including Dope Body. I'd have to say it almost sounds like a Zach Hill project without the Zach Hill signature over the top drumming. The drumming is still very frantic on Nupping but played more like in-your-face punk music.

I have a feeling I will be playing this album a lot next year!

Last.fm
Soundcloud


The Phantom Carriage - New Things (2011)

I've actually been meaning to post The Phantom Carriage for some time now but felt I would be recycling other blogs posts as it was not my own find but one I came across while awkwardly stumbling through this blog. Other than that though, The Phantom Carriage and their appropriately named 2011 debut release New Things, is pretty fucking metal!

When listening to New Things, I first had a hard time distinguishing if this Five piecer from the what makes these kids so god damn mad France are playing black metal infused screamo or screamo poisoned black metal. Then I listened on and started hearing hardcore and post hardcore and jazz on top of all that! This band is my kind of people; never settling with just blast beats, mathy riffs or sludgy sludge, never letting up on brutality, and most importantly, never sticking with playing generic anything!

These guys experiment with a lot of different sounds and genres in the realm of heavy and metal, and I think it really works out! The band also indulges in accordion playing and piano outros as well as some interesting jazzy bits here and there. There's still some negatives I could say about the album but most of those are merely because this type of progressive metal business is a risky one and can cut off a lot brute force and emotion out of the big picture. Nevertheless, New Things is still one of my favorite metal/whatever album of the year.

Fun fact: The 1921 swedish film also named The Phantom Carriage is known for its axing down the door scene like that of the one in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. Take a look. There is no "here's Johnny" in The Phantom Carriage unfortunately. No talking at all for that matter. As it is from 1921 and all. It is also worthy to note that the picture of Jack at the party from The Shining was said to be from 1921, the same year as The Phantom Carriage's origin. But hey, none of this has to do with The French band, The Phantom Carriage and their 2011 album, New Things...

But wait, it does! The Phantom Carriage (1921) is set on New Year's Eve! So go watch it!

Last.fm
The Phantom Carriage (1921)
Whoever dies on the Eve, must drive the cart of death...


Morne - Asylum (2011)

Post metal sludge. Not the most original album on this list but still very solid. The sound of walls of thick and heavy riffs with bone crushing vocal scrapings mixed in is always something I can get behind even if its been done time and time again. There seems to be some debate about how crusty these guys are and honestly I could care less about it. Whenever I hear the word crust, I think of those nasty bits of sleepsand you get in your eyes after a rough night of being metal.

For some reason I got really excited when I saw that this album had a track with Jarboe on it. I think it was just because I know who she is. The track is called Volition and is the closing song on the album. It is kicked off by pianos and violins and screams Neurosis, an obvious influence on this band. I like the part when stuff happens.

Last.fm
Official site

Guess I just wanted to usher the new year in with some metal.

Next year it'll be with Usher.