Zero 7

The first time I heard Zero 7 was probably when the majority of the population did, as we watched Garden State. The jazzy, yet mellow "In The Waiting Line," gave the perfect backdrop for the drug ridden scene that Zach Braff presents in his film; the song almost psychedelic, but with feet planted firmly on the ground. It was quickly after that I picked up two of their albums, When It Falls and The Garden.

Zero 7, made up of two Brits, Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker, and a smattering of guest performers, make jazz electronica a thing, and a thing we didn't know we were missing. Their album When It Falls, more electronic, goes back and forth between soft acoustic/synth ballads and upbeat instrumental orchestrations that would have just been hindered with words. No two songs sound the same, but the sound never changes. (Believe me, it's great driving music.)

Their album The Garden, is probably their most upbeat and whole. The jazz influence is most evident on this one with many big band sounds and arrangements. It also has the most impressive vocal lineup of their discography, pulling in acts like Jose Gonzalez and Sia Furler, better known now as the masked pop diva, Sia. Her unique vocals give Zero 7 the powerful balance that the instrumentation needs to be complete. Instantly recognizable, her voice almost fits better with a jazz band behind her than a pop synth group, which is more of her style now. She is still equally as impressive in her new endeavors, however.

While Sia sings a few tracks on When It Falls, one being the better known "Speed Dial No. 2," most of the female vocals are done by Sophie Barker and Tina Dico, their voices floating above the softness of the melody underneath them with a light and airy tone, a little more fitting than Furler's, for the mellow album.

Aside from the vocals, part of the reason Zero 7 are so impressive are for their instrumentations and the arrangements they have on the album without vocals. To this day, they are like no other group that I listen to, or have heard of. It's like a great movie soundtrack that you actually want to listen to without context of a scene in front of it. The duo actually formed an experimental instrumental project called Ingrid Eto after their release of The Garden, and before they made their fourth album Yeah Ghost. It would definitely be worth taking a listen to.

That being said, if you need something to help you get to sleep or space out tonight, I would highly recommend soothing your soul with this group. In the meantime, I have two more albums by them that I need to pick up, and I'm sure they are super rare and hard to find. (If you guys ever see any of their vinyl, please let me know.) Happy hunting!



Songs to drive to:
Home
Passing By
When It Falls
The Space Between
Speed Dial No. 2
Throw It All It Away
The Pageant of the Bizarre
You're My Flame
This Fine Social Scene
Your Place
Crosses
Waiting To Die

Wednesday

So this week is a busy one for me, trying to get everything together for my move this Saturday. And apart from learning the sad fact that the new Maccabees album doesn't come out until August, I made a playlist to get me through the rest of the week. Feel free to peruse and utilize at will, and don't judge the guilty pleasures.

Wednesday

1. David Byrne & St. Vincent - Who

2. Deep Sea Diver - Always Waiting

3. Feist - My Moon My Man

4. The Elwins - Off The Wall

5. Calvin Harris - Pray To God (Feat. Haim)

6. The Maccabees - Marks To Prove It

7. Cub Scouts - Do You Hear

8. Friendly Fires - White Diamonds

9. Little Comets - A Little Opus

10. Peter, Bjorn & John - I Know You Don't Love Me

11. Washed Out - Don't Give Up

12. Phoenix - If I Ever Feel Better

13. The Strokes - The End Has No End

14. The Temper Trap - Rest

15. The Answering Machine - Cliffer

16. The Decemberists - The Perfect Crime #2

17. Yellow Ostrich - WHALE

18. Young The Giant - Eros

19. Zero 7 - The Space Between

20. The Antlers - Hotel

21. St. Vincent - Human Racing

22. Here We Go Magic - A Different Ship

Julian Casablancas + The Voidz

Sorry I missed last week! Last Wednesday night I found myself watching a hilarious movie by the name of What We Do In The Shadows. Everyone needs to see it. Seriously, we laughed literally the entire movie. But I'm back now and super excited to write this week's post.

Since The Strokes are my favorite band, of course I'm going to think that anything Julian Casablancas does is brilliant. This record is no exception, and quite possibly his masterpiece. I really do feel that Tyranny is the record he's been wanting to write his entire career. Quite the collage of sound, the record rollicks from quick synth beats, to harsh guitar, to the sounds of old radio shows, a lot of the time in the same track. Fans of his first solo album, Phrazes For The Young, this record is not that endeavor.

Truth be told, this record isn't quite as solo as his previous project. Teaming with the group The Voidz, he creates a sound much harder than The Strokes, much more complicated and political, but with the same guitar styles that I truly think make up my soul's sound. The two tracks that strike a resemblance to The Strokes would have to be the album's hauntingly beautiful, 11-minute first single "Human Sadness," and the dance-y "Dare I Care," which is my personal favorite from the album.

As one of my friend's frankly put it, as we listened to the album in my car one day, "it doesn't really make sense." And if we're going to be honest, sometimes it doesn't. The guitar will be playing a melody completely erroneous to what's under it. "Human Sadness" is a symphony, going through different movements of sound to come full circle to a quiet end, but shaking you up along the way. And while I love it, many people criticized it when it came out. Personally, I just think he created a record a few years ahead of its time.

I was fortunate enough to hear them play live at Governor's Ball. I didn't know what I would expect, but I hoped he would come out with a blazing "11th Dimension." The show we saw was quite different. Since he was with The Voidz, he didn't touch anything from his previous record, and this was before Tyranny came out, so I stood there in New York City, amongst the biggest Strokes fans in the world, and no one knew a single word or a single note that any of them played. I vaguely remember them playing "Where No Eagles Fly." I mean, the chorus is Julian yelling "meat, predators eat meat!" It doesn't just leave your head. But, oh, how I wish I could hear it again now that I know the album.

Tyranny is an electronic whirlwind, and not one for the weak hearted or lover of dance beats. Take "Father Electricity," for example. The song is a ball of energy, almost seeming to stimulate all five of the senses, but it doesn't lack musicality or catch. It layers rock synths over African drums, and it does it well. And personally I believe that "Xerox" actually sounds like a xerox machine. If that's what they were going for, then they nailed it.

My personal goal is to learn most of the words to the album, but it's a doozy. Julian is famous for his muffled vocals and forgetting the words onstage in his performances, but you literally can't understand a single word he says on this album. I've even tried following the official lyrics and I'm not convinced he's actually saying some of the things I'm reading. But the vocals just blend in with the tumult of sounds and act as the roof to hold all of them in.

Julian strove for perfection on this record, and you can tell. Every song is like a puzzle piece with nothing out of place. From start to finish, the album is long, but you don't want it to end. It just makes me so excited about what he can do next.

"Beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field, I will be meeting you there."

Songs that sound like my soul:

Take Me In Your Army
Human Sadness
Father Electricity
Johan Von Bronx
Dare I Care
Nintendo Blood

Wye Oak

The way I see it, Wye Oak are the most underestimated indie duo on the scene right now. Five albums down and I've hardly seen their names at any festivals, any tours, anything. I only just discovered them a few months ago with the help of my boyfriend, and with how incredible their newest album is, I can hardly see how.

The joined forces of Andy Stack and Jenn Wasner make up the only members of the group, miraculously playing multiple instruments all at once for their live performances and sounding just like their recordings, if not better. The fifth album, Shriek, more electronic than the previous albums, comes across bold, clean and ethereal, with Jenn's vocals ranging octaves and forming into beautiful melodies that hover over dark, sometimes heavy beats. You go from the sweet, melodic title track instantly into "The Tower" which rages a bass line that continues throughout the song. The transition isn't jarring, however, just enough to push it into the heaviest song on the album, "Glory," that hints electronica riffs enviable of Julian Casablancas.

If I had one criticism for the album, it would be that the lyrics are so muffled you can hardly understand them, and this is only a bad thing to me because I really like to sing along with it and I feel like an idiot singing basically made up words and vowels. (It's actually a really nice effect, it gives the melodies much more attention, although, if you read the lyrics they are as beautiful as the music underneath them.)

Wye Oak's song "Civilian," (from the album of the same name) put them on the map appearing in shows like The Walking Dead and the movie Safety Not Guaranteed (a personal favorite of mine and one that I need to go watch now because I didn't realize they had a song in it until I started writing this post).  With a heavy folk influence, it's different than anything they released in Shriek, but still paves the way into what the album becomes. It's the band's masterpiece thus far and it needs to be heard. And that's why I'm writing a blog post about it, so my millions of readers will see and listen! (Insert silly emoji face here, because, well, maybe someday.) But in all seriousness, give this record a spin, it might be my favorite of 2014. (Julian and the Voidz doesn't count because he's always a trump card. It's the same as me not even counting the Harry Potter movies in my favorites. Am I getting off topic? I'll talk about Julian next time.) Moral of the story, listen to Wye Oak, all of their albums, not just Shriek, and then yell it off the mountain tops and tell all your friends too, because this band needs to blow up.

"This morning, I woke up on the floor thinking I had never dreamed before."

Songs my boyfriend showed me:
Before
Shriek
Glory
Sick Talk
Logic of Color

Civilian

This is a video of them performing for KEXP radio station. It features them playing a full set, and you get to see Andy play drums and keys at the same time. WHAT?!

Belle and Sebastian

While Belle and Sebastian have only been in my life a short while, (I've known about them a long time, of course, the sheer number of their albums overwhelmed me until I had a tad more pocket change) their newest album, Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance, has struck a chord with me like none of the others have. Maybe it's because I'm a fan of upbeat and clean albums. I like raw sound, their old albums have a charm of their own of course, but there is something about a certain level of production that my ears are fond of. Or maybe because the album has almost a 1960's vibe that makes me want to solve mysteries (don't know why) and dress like Twiggy. 

Yet, the album takes on many more genre's. There is the straight up disco jam "Enter Sylvia Plath" alongside the song "The Party Line," which sounds like it should be played at night clubs (or the night club that is my commute at least), whilst "The Everlasting Muse" sounds like a cross between "The Girl From Ipanema" and an Irish (they're Scottish) drinking song. (It's awesome, trust me.) The album has a dream-like theme that hangs over it, none of the lyrics really make that much sense, but the music takes over and they don't have to. The tones are soft and a bit muffled, especially on tracks like "The Cat With The Cream." I think I completely lost myself the first time I heard that song, which wasn't good because I needed to be paying attention to my GPS. 

The sheer amount of instrumentation is clear on this album, the use of strings make some songs sound more like a symphony than a pop song, and it's clear that Belle and Sebastian aren't going anywhere anytime soon. With this and the new movie musical God Help The Girl written by the leader of Belle and Sebastian, Stuart Murdoch, they're proving why they're the biggest little indie group around. 

"A subtle gift to modern rock, she says be popular, play pop, and you will win my love."

Songs to solve mysteries to:

The Party Line

The Power of Three

The Cat With The Cream

The Everlasting Muse

Play For Today

Today (This Army's For Peace)

Catfish and the Bottlemen

(PS: Sorry for the shoddy camera work. CATB finishing "Kathleen" at The Firebird in St. Louis)



So...

It's been awhile! Sorry gang! A lot has changed in this past year, including my move to St. Louis, getting settled in and doing some soul searching. And a lot has happened musically while I was away. One of the things I love about St. Louis is how available shows are. Amazing artists come through all the time and my modest paycheck can't quite keep up with them. 

But a few months ago, a friend recommended I check out Catfish and the Bottlemen. Their name sounded familiar, I believe I had seen them on the line-up for Governor's Ball (which was absolutely fantastic and too long of a tale for this post) but I had never heard them. Hailing from a small town in Wales their EP "Kathleen and the Other Three" hooked me in from the first listen. It made me nostalgic for my high school days of listening to obscure indie Brit-pop like The Kooks and The Answering Machine, a more mature-harder sound, but all that British finesse and slang I love so much. (I may or may not have started interjecting the word "deffo" into my everyday vocabulary, sans their song "Pacifier.")

Their LP, The Balcony, implemented all four songs from the EP and rounded out the album with catchy riffs and profanities, even slowing down a notch in the middle to find the soft acoustic treasure  that is "Hourglass," amongst all the ruckus. When I found out they were coming to The Firebird, I bought tickets immediately.

After grabbing a shirt, a free packet that the merch girl was handing out (there were condoms inside) and dancing like a fool to the music they were playing in between sets (apparently no one there knew Earth Wind & Fire's, "September" because we were literally the only ones getting down) the lights went down and the four lads from Llandudno took the stage.

The show was small, but lacked neither intensity, nor performance. The entire crowd knew every word a little to the astonishment of the lead Van McCann who could utter almost nothing but thanks to us. They played only an hour, but with high energy, and with a feeling that they were really enjoying themselves in this little bar near downtown St. Louis, where everybody knew their name.

They finished the set much like their album, with the wailing "Tyrants." A personal favorite of mine and one that did not disappoint live. After Van hung his guitar from the rafters, the band walked off and through the crowd, no doubt to go sell out another venue. They've completely taken England by storm and aren't far behind on the US horizon. With album two confirmed to be on the way, I would jump on this band before only the yard seats are available.

Catchy tracks you should catch:
Homesick
Kathleen
Cocoon
Pacifier
Rango
Tyrants

Ain't It Fun

The new "Ain't It Fun" video has finally arrived! As Paramore set out to break 10 world records in the carefree (and a little violent) video, they are also shooting to get a million views in 24 hours. Watch it here and help them make that happen! 

http://youtu.be/EFEmTsfFL5A