Butcher Boy - Rhubarb

Butcher Boy - Rhubarb (2014)

If there's one band this year that deserves your attention it's Portland, Maine's own Butcher Boy. No strangers to this site, Butcher Boy are Maine's leading brand for music groups with no easy label. If there's one tag that can be at least included with a bunch of other sub-genre words like post, freak, or doom - it's folk. But of course Butcher Boy are all of those things and none of those things at the same time.

It's been a little while since Butcher Boy has released anything physically, but their constant appearances at shows and festivals these past two years have made it incredibly easy for anyone to hear what they are up to. From Shoreless Sea released in 2012 to last year's small Rhubarb single, Butcher Boy have found the mystical gel through the power of repetition and are using it to their advantage like no other. They might play pretty much the same songs they did a year ago i.e. Cousin, Empty Ocean, and New Home, but they have mutated them into incredible masterpieces the more and more they are played.

It feels like I saw Butcher Boy 20 times in 2014, but every time, whether it was at the Space Gallery, on an island, at a farm, or in the park I was left out of breathe and completely inspired. That being said, the best advise Bassist Travis Mencher could give to an audience is to make your own creative music. Not only because Butcher Boy never has a song left for encore but also because that's what music should do to you and what Maine needs - more creative music.


I highly recommend picking this up if you get the chance because it rules (of course) and it supposedly glows in the dark! I didn't get a chance to grab a copy yet but I will as soon as they get back from their small tour. 

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Thanks!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm especially thankful for the new Butcher Boy EP...

Butcher Boy - Shoreless Sea (2012)

These boys have come a long way since the first time I laid my ears on them (including two members getting tendinitis), and it's really cool to see that they are still kicking it and even going on big ol' American tours and such!

Their new EP, Shoreless Sea was released yesterday and features 5 new recordings of either new material or some familiar classics of theirs (Hand in the Window/Empty Ocean). Check it out:



For the eyes: check out this sweet video for the opening track, "Hand in the Window" shot by Mike Cunnane (brasscankles.tumblr.com), who I might add, always shoots quality videos of great bands these days in Portland:

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Enjoy and have a filling and thankfully-giving-thanks Thanksgiving!

Okay- Huggable Dust

Okay is the moniker of Marty Anderson of sporadic math rock band, Dilute. While Dilute was filled with start and stop, taps, and distant bloops and blips; Okay is filled with light-hearted indie rock instrumentation with Marty Anderson really displaying his vocals and all around unique voice... this time... without coming off a little creepy sounding. I love the two bands equally, don't get me wrong, but there is a vastly different approach between them that I felt needed pointing out.

Okay - Huggable Dust (2008)

'Huggable Dust' is Okay's (and Anderson's) 18 song, 2008 release. It features many great little indie gems like "Only", "Natural", "Panda", and "Pretend". I don't listen to as many "indie rock" bands that I did maybe a few years back but there's something about Okay and the way Marty Anderson sings over the music. It's almost as if these songs shouldn't be as delicate as they are; like there's supposed to be chaos in it all and instead it was replaced by beautiful major music. The closest it gets to chaotic is the tracks, "Beast" or "Truce" or "Already" I guess, but even then those still feel like the right amount of noise and balance. All of 'Huggable Dust' is like that actually... really well put together and balanced. With 18 songs on it, I don't think there is ever a time when I listen to it all the way through that I really start to get bored.

Along with Okay, Marty Anderson also has been known to call himself Jacques Kopstein. He has released one album under the name and it's called 'A'. It also features "dreamy and damaged folk pop" (Aquarius Records) but a little more stripped down and experimental.

Similar acts/sounds: Dilute, Jacques Kopstein, Natural Dreamers, Sarcastic Dharma Society, François Virot, car seat headrest, Coma Cinema, Misophone, Phil Elvrum, Karl Blau, Kickball, Foot Ox and other stuff I like...

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Charles Manson - LIE

Charles Manson was a tragically misunderstood outsider musician who not only revolutionized stoner music but the indie rock beard.

Manson started his music career while surfing around in Los Angeles where he met Dennis Wilson, the drummer for The Beach Boys, who was riding a dolphin at the time. Soon after their first meeting, Manson and Wilson started up a local stankcore band with Johnny The Bull Stambolli and Asher Roth. The band, known as the Healter Skelters, went on a small tour with Set Your Goals, Four Year Strong and Lostprophets. Well together, the band only released a single called, "I am the Devil, and the Devil always has a bold head" and a split with Three Six Mafia before Manson left the group to pursue a solo career. The others went on to form the super inflectional 90's metal rap horrorcore band, Stuck Mojo.

After leaving the band and Los Angeles all together, Charles Manson moved in to a cabin in Alaska isolated from the rest of the world to record his first album. It wasn't until four years later that people would notice his amazingly stunning and subtle indie rock bliss. Why was he finally figured? Why did it take so long? Some say it was his astonishing one song collaboration with Kanye West, others say it was the great reception he received from indie god websites such as pitchpork,  NPR, Gorilla Vs. Bear, Last.fm, AOL.com, and MTV Music.com (now known as MTV Hive because they forgot that "Music" was already in their name).

Whether it had to do with the phantastic praise Manson was receiving on the internet or his astonishing Kids Choice Awards performance in 1969, Manson was blowing up just like I thought he would.  Everybody knew this men was killing it on the mic. Just a straight up killer musician.

To date, Lie: The Love and Terror Cult is one of his best selling albums with other 300 copies sold worldwide and in China. It was once reissued on Awareness Records, a record company that donates money to those victims of crimes. The cover art is Manson on the cover of LIE magazine, a boy band magazine sold to overly devoted fan girls.

Charles Manson - Lie: The Love and Terror Cult (1970)

The album itself is about society as a whole and what we can do to stop The Lorax from coming.

Manson's music has been covered and sampled by many musicians such as GG Allin, The Lemonheads, The Beach Boys, Front Line Assembly, Marilyn Manson, Devendra Banhart, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Guns N Roses, and Clay Aiken.

Similar sounds/acts: GG Allin, Tiny Tim, Jeff Mangum, Radiohead, Memoryhouse, Kraftwerk, Fozzy, ODB, and Phil Spector.

Despite popular legend, Charles Manson did not addition for a role in The Monkees. He was in the Philippines at this time helping children to read and write science.

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François Virot

François Virot sounds like a busy Frenchmen. Wether he is playing solo shows, playing in Reveille or drumming with his brother in Clara Clara, he is doing something musical.

I may have just gotten into this gentlemen but I feel he has that sound that fits snuggly in my singer/songer collection. Very catchy and playful but not gorgeous or smooth. Perfect.


François Virot - Yes Or No (2007)

Virot could be compared to Animal Collective and Kickball among other things/sounds. 

I Wish I Had You is a nice and fuzzy rendition of a Billie Holiday track by the way!

I want to say more but I'm sleepy and have had sort of a busy weekend. So here's a youtube video of what he sounds like: 

Enjoy. 

I am.

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Joanna Newsom (& Movies I Guess)

Movies are a great way to get your name out in the music industry. I mean, look at all those bands that jumped on the Twilight bandwagon and are now on all your sisters iPods and you're like: "Ah man, my sister likes the same bands as me now... thanks a lot Stephanie Meyer." No? That didn't happen to you? Yeah... me either. Anyways, sometimes movies just hide little gems of bands without you even knowing that they're there! Take the movie, The Strangers (2008), your average Imma spook up on ya horror flick, for instance. If you've ever seen it you might remember that scene where that actually kind of sketchy song that came on the record player during the kind of actually spooky part (if I remember correctly). That's actually Joanna Newsom's "Sprout and the Bean" from her 2004 release, The Milk-Eyed Mender. I literally rewinded the movie and Shazam'd the scene that featured the song to find that out, instantly falling for her like a child.  Newsom is a folk singer-songwriter who is also a quite skillful harp player. She's got a big heart and very obscure voice which makes for a rather interesting listening experience. So yeah, her childlike voice is actually pretty frightening when you put it in a horror movie.

She's the best part of the movie other the fact that Glenn Howerton (Dennis) of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is in it for about a minute before getting himself slashed.


Joanna Newsom - The Milk-Eyed Mender (2004)

(Just look at that album artwork! it's the opposite of a scary movie!)
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Should we go outside?