A short but charming one for you this week: Dave Davison does a solo take on his band’s “The Ongoing Horrible” and crams a lot of interesting guitar work into a two minute video.
Archives
All posts for the month July, 2015
Here it is. This should get you pumped for the week. The Interstellar Radio Shower happens in 11 hours (or less by now). And the Hysterics are awesome.
Another new feature for the blog is our week in review post. Here in we pick the favorite song posted by the other (ie. Jim picks his favorite Matt song, and Matt his favorite Jim song) and we say why it’s our fav. Also, quick summaries of our other posts for the week. Basically, herein we navel gaze.
Jim Picks a Matt Song – Week Ending 7/18/2015
This song from Ultimate Painting was perfect. It just completely fit my mood when it went live. As Matt points out, it’s quite Velvet Underground influenced. The Fake Palms post was a close second. And if you really just need to chill I do highly recommend his post of iNSANLAR.
Matt Picks a Jim Song – Week Ending 7/17/2015
It was a toss up with the Astro Children post from earlier in the week, but goddamn if I couldn’t listen to that guitar tone from Web of Sunsets ring out all night long. In fact, that’s exactly what I might do. Great song for wistfully staring out the window of a moving vehicle, right there.
7″ Highlight of the Week – LVL UP’s Three Songs EP
Jim Highlighted LVL UP’s new 7″ dropped on Wednesday. Check out the post, or listen below. And note that LVL UP plays the burgh on Tuesday at the Slit on the North Side. A show that also features post-punk rockers Big Ups.
Sunday, July 12th Radio Show Playlist
You can see our radio show playlist for this week by visiting this post here. Highlights included Cursive, The Telescopes, and a request for My Bloody Valentine.
Big Noble, which counts Interpol’s Daniel Kessler among its members, make music that sounds like the intro to an epic song, but then somebody keeps hitting the back button on your CD player right before the first verse kicks in. It’s a sound that lends itself especially well to the videos that the band has been steadily releasing since First Light came out earlier this year.
This is a bit of a departure for me style-wise, but damn, this is very good. It takes a more traditional blues rock sound and adds this strong Mali influence. And it’s awesome.
This is so damn soothing.
It took a while for Slowdive to get their due, but now I can see their fingerprints on a seemingly infinite amount of bands taking cues from Creation Record’s noisiest, most soaring moments. It’s almost intimidating how many great new bands are emerging that could be classified as “shoegaze” by some measure or another. Fake Palms have a bit of a sinister undercurrent to them, and remind me a lot of the claustrophic psych of Lorelle Meets the Obsolete. Definitely worth paying attention to.
There is a lot of good hip hop out there. I didn’t listen to much when I was younger though, so I kind of have no clue about most of it. But I came across this and it’s just great.
OK, so here is a new feature. Once a week i’m going to highlight a new 7″ release that catches my interest. My tentative plan was to do this on Tuesdays but reality took over so it’s a window post this week.
LVL-UP is a band that caught my interest I think two years ago. I’ve always liked them. Not always totally in love with them. But this is a fantastic 7″ release that went on sale today. The release is called Three Songs and it’s a literal title. So let’s delve into the heart of the matter – the music.
This is a 7″ highlight. Not a review so much because i’m terrible at reviews. So keep that in mind.
The Closing Door is the opener and it’s a great fucking song. It rocks. It’s anthemic. It’s got some good mildish noise. And strong vocal direction.
Blur is also a good song. More classic rock ‘n roll. But i’m really impressed with how LVL-UP has matured with their sound. It’s so complete now.
Proven Water Rites is a nice change of pace and makes this a complete release. It’s a slower paced song. Again, the sound is very full. This is definitely a chill and wait it out song. You might even prefer an additive here.
You can pre-order the 7″ Three Songs here at Double Double Whammy Records. But even better. They are coming to town next Tuesday and playing at The Slit on the north side. And they are playing with Big Ups so that’s a double win. And we can call it an Ups UP show if we ignore the first words in their band names. How convenient.
In another note, one of the members of LVL-UP started making guitar pedals. I have a couple of their pedals and oscillators and really like them. It’s worth checking them out at Totally Ruined Circuits.
Ultimate Painting features members of Manchester-based Mazes and contemporary Slumberland torchbearers Veronica Falls. They put out an extremely underrated self-titled debut last year, and they’re already about to follow it up with Green Lanes. “Sanctioned Blues” finds the duo back in their VUish wheelhouse, with just enough bluesy twang to needle itself into your brain and stay there all day.