MONDAY X(-Mas)IV Winter Edition

I really wanted to focus my attention on the Martin Smith memorial post last week therefore, I really did not get a chance to post anything Christmasy or wintery. So this one goes out to all the bad boys and girls out there. Merry Chrimbus!

La Dispute - Winter Tour Holiday CD-R (2008)

This little EP only features two songs but both are very much christmas type holiday songs. One is a very merry La Dispute version of Twas the Night Before Christmas and the other is a song listed as First Snow In Silent Grand Rapids. The tracks were included as part of a limited winter tour edition of Hear, Here II.

Last.fm


Mono - Hymn to the Immortal Wind (2009)

With tracks like Ashes In The Snow, Pure As Snow (Trails of the Winter Storm), Follow The Map and Everlasting Light, this album has become one of my favorites during the winter season. It's chill, soothing yet cold, and very much perfect for the slow and lazy sundays here in these few months of cold as balls time. Especially in Maine.

Every track has a little story that goes along with it and is included in the album itself as a short story. I have not read it, but rather, tried to develop my own little story behind the music and imagery for which I interpret and feel.

Last.fm
Official site


Men As Trees - Weltschmerz (2008)

Weltschmerz is very much a winter album. It features some pretty cold samples of mountain men, slow avalanches of building post rock and brutal season's beatings of aggression and passion. My favorite of the post-rock screamo blend bands and I mostly only listen to them during the winter season because it just clicks more... It makes sense. Go all Bon Iver and find yourself a cabin in Alaska but only listen to this. Bon Iver didn't do that. That would be cool though. Hah. Cool.

Men As Trees now go by Locktender, I believe.

Last.fm
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Also:

iLiKETRiANS have themselves a free Christmas cover. It's Last Christmas. From last Christmas.

Last.fm
Official Site


Fuck the Winterman.

R.I.P. Martin Smith

Earlier this week I learned that the world was missing a really great character. Martin Smith was not just a close friend but also a major influence in my life. His ability and goal to be completely different than everybody else will always stick in my mind as one of the greatest features he (and anyone) could ever have. There will never be another guy like Martin and it is a shame everyone did not know him. He was something of mythes.

In honor of my lost friend, I would like to post some music that he either showed me, liked, or that we both had in common. I'll also post some extra stuffz and some stuff that reminds me of Martin as time goes by. 

Ratatat - 9 Beats

I remember one summer riding around with Martin in his beat up silver Volvo be got from is grandmother. He was one of my first friends I ever knew who could drive and that alone blew me away. At this point he loved to drive around to Ratatat's 9 beats; an unofficial release that included 9 instrumental tracks that were used on their remix albums of famous hip hop and rap stars' songs. The tracks are really bumping and totally get you going! Martin's Volvo's speakers never really worked so for a little bit he would use a dinky portable speaker to project his favorite beats. But none of that bothered me. 

Last.fm

 Pogo - Wonderland (2007)

It made sense that Martin got me in to tons of fun electronic, dancey and beaty music. Martin loved to dance (not like dance but like dance dance) and have a good time with his friends. My friends and I sometimes throw flash "dance parties"in each other's dirty little basements. It's just what we do. A lot of these dance parties have either been put on or featured a whole lotta really cool tracks found by Martin Smith himself. Martin introduced me to many electronic type bands back in the day, like Ratatat, Kraftwerk, Justice, Caribou, and even Pogo. 

Pogo is pretty famous for his special crafting of "Alice" a song using only chords, sound effects and vocal samples from the cartoon version of Alice in Wonderland. Pogo has also played around with more Alice in Wonderland in Wonderland, Disney's Up, Dexter, Harry Potter and many other films and bits of pop culture. Under all the glitch and bloops & woops, it actually sounds really chill and almost trip-hop like. I still remember the first time martin played this to me... Afterwards, I think I may have listened to it a hundred times that week.

Last.fm

Jamie T - Kings & Queens (2009)

Martin ripped this album for me a little after its release and I really enjoyed it.  I drifted away from this album and Jamie T for a bit but came back to listening to him after hearing his first album, Panic Prevention again. Jamie T definitely appeals to many people and could absolutely have a larger success here in the states some day. Nowadays I just like listening to the sadder songs on this one. 

Martin was always a giving person. Cliché, I know but he was! He would gave me a lot of weird things sometimes from a container of teeth to a little pink Jesus ring to a bunch of condoms after pretending to be a college and winning a big box of 500 prophylactics. But most of all, he would try to give himself to everyone of his friends including me! He would always try to entertain me every time we were together. Even when I was having a wonderful time just hanging around in his company, he still felt I was not having enough fun and would try his hardest to change that and thus, make my day. 

Last.fm

Titus Andronicus - The Monitor (2010)

One of Martin's favorites.

Last.fm

Pussy - Sings the Hits (2011)

Matin and Friends (Dx2, Will Horseman and Thee Jesse Gertz) singing the hits with meows. It's music for the kitties in all of us. The hits include: Ring of Meow, Pokemeow Theme, Pur the Magic Dragon, Just a Feline and The National Anthem among many others!

Martin will always be remembered for his cat art, pink CATS hat and all the other cat type creations and placements.

Some of Martin's finest works:

Empty Suit by Martin Smith

Martin Smith's House of Spaghetti House

RIP

Monday XIII

Down with the sickness. It's monday.


Damascus - Salutations, Distant Satellite! (2011)

Sweet ass post metal. Sometimes it even sounds like post rock influenced by heavy metal. \m/

Last.fm

Shapes Like Dinosaurs - Cretaceous Calculus EP (2010)

They twinkle, they noodle, they experiment and they sound mega corky. Despite all this, it took me a little while to fully appreciate the music SLD have put out. I'm not sure if it'll be a grower for you (my humble audience) so I do still recommend these guys for any "Twinkle Daddies" or Math Rock fan.

Last.fm

Sibylle Baier - Colour Green (2006)

The official release of this fine gem may be '06 but the true roots of Colour Green stretches way back to the 70s when Sibylle Baier, an actress at this time, began writing and home recording beautifully sad folk songs starting with the first song she ever wrote, "Remember the Day". It wasn't until her son put all these songs together on a CD and began giving them away to friends and family that the world felt the wraith of Baier's super somber and natural tunes.

This is the kind of album you put on after a long night of partying when everyone has left but your best friend and they're helping you clean the vomit stains out of your carpet. This has never happened to me but I still think it would be fitting. I have listened to this album many times after parties though...

Colour Green is perfect for this time of the year as well with the cold weather and all that. This music may actually be for the depressed saps in all of us but I wouldn't really conceder Baier a sad lady. She just happened to make sad folk songs is all. Like Nick Drake. Except he was really sad, so.... well, you get the point.

She is really quite perplexed by all the attention that her album "Colour Green" has gotten. My father keeps telling her about all the pages and articles that are out there, but she, though smitten, prefers to hear about her accolades through the eyes and ears of her family. The web makes her dizzy, I think. - Her son, Robby from the official site

Last.fm
Official site

Guess I should start posting some Christmas music or THE BEST ALBUMS OF YEAR and jibba-jabba lists like that.

I'll get around to it... I mean Sant Clause has only been at the mall now since November... There's still time.

Faraquet - The View From This Tower

Faraquet were and are a math rock band that successfully mixed together 90's math rock, post-hardcore and indie rock n roll! There's really not too much of any of those styles, so it totally works! Sometimes it reminds me of some kind of math rock Weezer. That's weird, I know. It's definitely awesome though!

Faraquet - The View From This Tower (2000)

Faraquet separated about less than a year after their first and only official release in 2000. After the seperation, 2/3 of the band went on to form Medications and then got back together as Faraquet again in 2007. They also released a couple 7inchers and a split EP with Akarso between 97-99. Anthology 1997-98 was released by Dischord in 2008.

Similar sounds/acts: Medications, Smart Went Crazy, Beauty Pill, June of 44, Sharks Keep Moving, Karate, Make Believe, Q and Not U and more.


Last.fm
Official Site
Dischord Records
Cut Self Not

MONDAY XII

You now the drill, Wayne. It's Monday.

Aesop Rock - Bazooka Tooth (Headphone Science Version) (2005)

The sick rhymes of complicated rap/hip-hop artist, Aesop Rock (not be confused with A$AP Rocky, obviously) mixed with some really the pounding IDM and electronic beats of Headphone Science (Dustin Craig).

Bazooka Tooth itself features some pretty swell tracks including: No Jumper Cables, Babies with Guns, Freeze, as well as tracks featuring El-P (We're Famous) , Mr. Lif (11:35) and more.

I would still recommend the originals if the remixes are too much. I think they give new life to the original tracks, though. They're what the kids call dank, I guess.

Aesop's Last.fm
Headphone Science's Last.fm


Mr Tumnus - Mr Tumnus (2011)

That is not the real artwork. I just prefer this rather than the artwork on the bandcamp but then again, I'm not one to judge a band by its cover...

I am however, one to judge on a band's name. And my judgement is this: I'm going to listen to a band named Mr Tumnus.  Come on!

For sound, Mr Tumnus A.K.A. Alex Thomas, plays a very sparse and soundscape-y type of ambient meets psychedelic music with a lot of samples and drawn out phrasing. Blah Blah Blah. In other words, it doesn't really ever go bang bang bang or faster than a fast crawl. You can put it on right before you go to bed or while you are trying to do work son.

It's definitely interesting if you want to listen to a band named after a creepy faun from Narnia.

last.fm

Conifer - Crown Fire (2008)

Conifer was a Portland, maine band that I never got to become fully aquatinted with during their existence. Yes, unfortunately I missed the boat on this band even after they got their name around all the world with the power of the internet. But luckily for me, these guys have not completely given up on music altogether. No. Two members of Conifer (vox and axe) are now in a new band going by Awaas (or AWAAS) which features some of the same directions and sounds that their previous band has infused, including psych, krautrock, and hard to pin down post-rock. On top all this news, I was actually lucky enough to check these guys out last weekend! It was totally rad considering just getting together resonantly with another legendary Maine band, Ocean's Drummer and putting on a very solid performance, despite the lead singer being sicker than a dog and that most of the other bands there that night were playing completely different music than each other.

AWAAS have yet to put out anything official other than a nice little music video for their song "Burial Ground". An EP is rumored to be recorded and released sometime in the year 2012. So, until they do and I get a hold of it, I have Conifer's Crown Fire to help me catch up on all the racket these guys can produce.

Last.fm
AWAAS's Facebook page

Meanwhile, Back In Communist Russia...

Meanwhile, Back in Communist Russia...  - Indian Ink (2002)

More post-rocky balboa stuff. This time in the form of laid back instrumentation and somber tones and narrative vocals. Female narrative vocals! Provided by singer, Emily Gray. The music that surrounds vocalist Emily Gray, created by keyboards, guitars, samples and drum machines, is very dark and decaying. It flows dramatically over Gray's poetic monologues every time. You soon catch on to what this band was capable of playing but there's nothing wrong with that.

Despite the clever name, they were actually from Oxford, UK. Hence Gray's additive accent. 

The band called it quits in 2004. They released two studio albums, a 7 inch featuring the tracks "No Cigar" and "Morning After Pill", a split with a Moonkat, three Peel Sessions, and a 10 inch. They were also the winners of a "worst band name" poll by BBC Radio 1 in 2003 according to Last.fm. 

Similar sounds/artists: Arab Strap, A Silver Mt. Zion, HRSTA, iLiKETRiANS, A Whisper in the Noise,  Valley of the Giants, Slint and more post rock bands that I could name because they are also post rock...

Last.fm

I've made for you a pedestal that lifts you higher up the harder I try and knock you down.

A Silver Mt. Zion - He Has Left Us Alone

In a post rock/atmospheric/stormy but not ambient/slow/boring mood today.

A Silver Mt. Zion - He Has Left Us Alone But Shafts of Light Sometimes Grace the Corners of Our Rooms (2000)

Efrim Menuck and the gang playing sweet songs for his dead dog, Wanda. All the string and beauty you'd expect from GY!BE minus ten or so minutes on each track and a few less folks kicking around, including Moya. There's also a lot of nice piano! Great post rock from Constellation Records and Hotel2Tango, obviously. 

This is their debut album. At the time they went by A Silver Mt. Zion and later adapted into Thee Silver Mt. Zion, plus Memorial Orchestra & Memorial Band, plus choir, and Thee Silver Mountain Reveries (depending on members or release). They currently go by just Thee Silver Mt. Zion but usually change it yearly or whatever. Sorry to go all Wikipedia on you but that used to confused the living hell at me. The name changing is probably the reason I haven't truly gotten in the band until now.

The song "13 Angels Standing Guard..." gets me every time! Especially with skydivin' nuns! 

Also, The song "Movie (Never Made)" is a nice little look in to the future as it featured Efrim singing for one of the first time... Something he would do prominently (and on every track) on the band's fourth album, Horses in the Sky (2005). 

Last.fm

Constellation Records 

Official Site

God will be your parachute