matt’s music blog

First off, music video: http://www.weebls-stuff.com/songs/Ultrasound/

Fun from the beginning. The effects on the voice and those phased percussion is just a tad bit amateurish/’default presets’ sounding, but that’s not so much a bad thing – makes me think of the streets, lends some character. And no, not just because of the accent.

If you like it, buy it: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0033T0XXE/ref=dm_ty_adp_rd?ie=UTF8&parent=B0033T1BWQ

I’m not sure weather it was my Uncle Steve that first introduced me to The Faint, or if it was my brother. But ever since I heard Danse Macabre, I was in love. They often get a lot of flack from the punck-rock community for trying to be punk, or being too mainstream. Which is purely ridiculous, because if you pay attention to a lot of their songs, they are punk as hell.

Danse Macabre has always been my favorite of their albums. So much so that I own it on vinyl. But lately I’ve been listening to their third album (Wet From Birth) and enjoying it quite a bit too. One of my favorite tracks is Desperate Guys, the first track off the album. So, lets get down to it, shall we?

We are played in with a brief little violin intro. Then we get into the vocals and a little bit of bass syth, and drums.

Was it more than attraction and a physical lust?
Her loins, my imagination, that first inconceivable touch,
That I was planning, er, I mean wishing, uh..
How embarassed I’d been if you knew what I was thinking of.

Her loins? Nice! That verse is followed by this really cool bass snyth part that sounds something like “Ooo Ooo wah wah wah” Which I really like, and we move on to the next part.

And whoa, when it started, my first thought was love,
Not just lust, because when I heard you speak, I felt warm.
In the evening I saw you, you were warming the bass up.
Your hair covered your face up,
I was acting indifferent at the merch booth, putting on makeup

For some reason, it works really well with the rest of the song it cram that last line in, despite the fact that it’s a bit too long to fit in.

The prechorus, and then we move into the chorus, where the drums get a little more intense, and we get a little more orchestral action.

I crossed my fingers, but I didn’t beg, no ,
Cause I knew you knew,
Cause I knew you knew I liked you.
I knew you knew I liked you,
I knew you knew it,
But I figured desperate guys,
Never had a chance with you.
I figured desperate guys,
Never had a chance with you.

We get another prechorus and the chorus repeats a few more times. Finally we end with a cool little break-down outro.

All in all, this songs is really a pretty good one. I’d highly advise that anyone out there that’s tantalized by it, should investigate the rest of this album, and, indeed, the rest of their work. Except for the remix album, which is, in this man’s humble opinion, not really that good.

-James out

I’m trying something new – rather than pointing out particular songs that I like, I’m going to go through my music library. Hopefully this’ll give me an excuse to post a little more regularly, instead of only when I decide that any particular track is worthy of ‘favorite’ status. Also, this’ll probably result in me reviewing stuff that I don’t actually like – maybe even things that are better off being deleted from my collection.

Myth Takes always plays first by default on my car stereo, by merit of ‘!!!’ (pronounced as making a clicking sound three times in a row, e.g. ‘chk chk chk’) being the first artist name alphabetically. The titular first track is catchy, with percussion that’s precise enough to be attention-grabbing, but there’s enough grittiness that it blends well with the rest of the instrumentation. The low whispery vocals alternating with wide guitar solo lines build anticipation, even though you could argue that the payoff never comes on this track – it’s the next one where you get a climax.

‘All My Heroes Are Weirdos’ is arguably better in the first 20 seconds then in the entire rest of the song – the guitar gets a little too crazy, I think, and it makes it tough to listen to for very long – it’s nothing like the driving intro.

‘Must Be The Moon’ settles into a nice almost disco-y groove as soon as it starts, and holds onto the kick/snare/tambourine pattern throughout the rest of the track – and it’s good stuff. The vocals are interesting too – there’s just enough there to keep things interesting, but they know when to pull back and let the instruments have their turn. The electronic stuff that elbows its way in towards the end of the track is also much appreciated.

‘A New Name’ has some interest growly bass and what might be some bells, as well as occasionally cool  percussive elements, and a neat establishing guitar line, and sort of reminds me of Damon Albarn’s vocal stylings at some points.

I almost feel like ‘Heart Of Hearts’ is sort of a bridge song, I don’t want to say ‘filler’ because that sounds negative, but it just doesn’t work for me out of the context of the album – but within that context, its inclusion was fairly insightful, since it feels like it really ‘fits’ there between the first and second half.

‘Sweet Life’ isn’t all that exciting either, and I guess it kind of continues the ‘bridge’ section.

‘Yadnus’ on the other hand, starts out with a nice ragged synth lead, and one of my favorite percussion patterns – ‘Like It Or Not’ off of Confession On A Dance Floor by Madonna, for instance, sports the same 3/4 rhythm. Something about that sort of swaggering configuration always sounds really good to me. The rest of the song sort of swings around between staccato falsetto and guitar, then back to nice sparse guitar picks, and has a pretty neat finale ending.

‘Bend Over Beethoven’ is like 8 minutes, which is crazy, and it’s pretty standard !!! stuff – it does a good job of exploring all the possibilities that the song’s time affords it. I’ll bet it’d be fun to watch this song performed live.

Not a whole lot happens (apart from some interesting horns and synths) in ‘Break In Case Of Anything’, and I almost wonder if the song’s title is a reference to this track acting as a ‘break’ after the previous one.

‘Infinifold’ is the final track – and it fits in the last slot nicely. The eerie grungy guitar echoing around behind the piano and hushed vocals sound like an ending. Finally, things start to build back up at the end, about three and a half minutes into the song… but it never peaks again, it just fades out. A good way to end things.

It’s tough to pick my favorite song, but I’m gonna say that all three of the first tracks (Myth Takes, All My Heroes Are Weirdos, and Must Be The Moon) plus Yadnus are probably tied for first – Must Be The Moon might be slightly ahead, though, so here it is, for your listening pleasure:

Watch the music video on youtube.

A little bit of ska right up front in the beginning with that snare, some bass guitar, some spacey effect synth, and then the real song at 0:11. “Whoaaa”, ha ha. Right away you know how the groove goes – the fairly simple rock percussion, the bass and lead guitars, and the the shouty-yet-in-tune vocals. The distinctive distorted high guitar line helps tie everything together.

See them creep out to nightlife
You see them walk the streets
These children of the undead look dressed for the endless Halloweens
And this horror like production,
Takes total dedication
Of black clothes and pale complexions
Rock jet black hair and monster makeup

Listen for the zombie vocal accompniment at the end of each chorus line…

And who can blame them?
They walk through asphalt cemeteries
Zombie fashions—
They must have been born that way
So can you hear me?
Can you get hip to what I’m saying?
These fashion zombies don’t walk this world alone…

The instrumentation is solid, but doesn’t do much to distract from the lyrics, which are the real treat. And once you’ve seen the music video, you can’t get the ‘fight’ or ‘performance’ scenes out of your head. The song barrels onwards, past numerous explicit ‘Thriller’ references, until the ending bar, which cuts off after the bendy sci-fi synth.

The whole song doesn’t evolve much throughout, but I’d argue that it doesn’t need to – it comes it fast, says what it needs to say, and then leaves – and it’s fun. That’s what really matters – isn’t that right, kids?

My friend Dan Beyer is a member of the duo known as ‘Speed Suit‘ (Nathanial Oester is the other player). After his first show in a basement somewhere in NE Portland, Dan hooked me up with a sweet bootleg CD of the tracks they performed. The second track is easily my favorite.

So compare the beginning to ‘Map of the Problematique‘ by Muse off of their album ‘Black Holes and Revelations’ – hot, totally danceable percussion right up front, an explosive stand-in for a splash cymbal, and then nearly the same grinding electric guitar sounding synth. The expertly-clipped drum samples and winding synth line drive the whole thing forward.

At 0:36 we get a short little ‘one two three four’ moment where the highhat counts us into the first verse: breathy vocals, the same punchy drums, and a great echoey synth on the off-beat.

show me some evidence, don’t give me lies
when left in the darkness we’re led by our hearts
and our hearts are so easily carried away

this isn’t a carousel ride this is life
so if youre feeling lucky and brave take the reigns

The coupling of the syncopated vocals with the kick at 0:50 doesn’t give us any time to catch our breath – it’s almost impossible to relax, because the song just keeps moving forward. The breathy sigh and vamps into the chorus at 1:10 is another bit of Muse-like sensability, while the break at 1:24 keeps things pretty solidly focused on the dancey percussion.

hey
is passion just a weakness
when were acting out on impulse

Another verse at 1:43, this time with an extra distorted synth lead atop the rest of the instruments, and a neat little bendy break at 1:58, which we didn’t get the first time around. I don’t even know what the lyrics are at this point, and I’m not really sure that it matters – enough words sneak through to give you a sort of general good feeling about things. Everything drops down for another great break at 2:14 – and back into the chorus again, and that Muse-esque bassline.

so take back the heresy unless you’ve got spite
meet me at dusk and we’ll settle this
lets bury the hatchet youre using as if its an axe

Short and sweet, things cut right off at 3:00. After talking to Dan and Nate, both Justice and Muse gave some  cues when they were hashing out the instrumentation for these tracks. If you’re into it, feel free to download and listen to the other Speed Suit tracks- I uploaded a .zip of the show for your listening pleasure. And if you’re interested in the group, check out Speed Suit on Myspace.

update july ‘09 – check out Speed Suit’s website on thehinge.net for some sweet new tracks!

Horse The Band – Bunnies music video

The epic beginning… the synth chords… and then the devolution into screamo madness. Luckily it’s not all bad – occasional breaks make it bearable, which is good, because those synths are hot! And the lyrics are interesting, the delivery is good, the guitars fit in nicely, the percussion is exactly what the doctor ordered… it’s just all too much sometimes. Anyway, the music video fits in nicely both with the oldskool synth sound and Horse The Band’s signature ‘nintendo-core’ sound. What’s the song about? Maybe we care a bit more then Cutsman:

And a beef will rise… again!
broken machine in his hand!

Ten words:
snapping - bunnies - twitching - gurgling – forget – the – bombs – in – your – eyes

Roaring with whispers to the tiny bunnies
SMASH/SPLAT those fucking bunnies.

Send them information in a sensationalist manner, THEY CORRUPT!
Heads snapping and misspelling eyes twitching in response to the sound of the words.

Red world-like words
zooming, boiling
Moons in the shallow sky.

Roaring with whispers to the tiny bunnies
SPLAT/SQUISH those fucking bunnies.

Twitching, bleeding, screaming,
bring the hammer down.
Screaming bunnies bleeding
bloody bunnies smeared across the ground.

Drool spilling down his chin
unto his beard
as he screams red words at
A blank and pointless sky
of mothers.
Red words popping and crackling black.

Ten words:
Snapping – bunnies – twitching – gurgling – forget – the – bombs – IN – YOUR – EYES!

Forget the bombs in your eyes,
Speak the words to crack open the sky.

What’s going on? “forget the bombs in your eyes” is an excellent line, and the breakdown at “drool spilling down his chin” is good too, bringing up the ‘red words’ again, the ‘red world-like words’. The “Send them information in a sensationalist manner, they corrupt! Heads snapping and misspelling eyes twitching in response to the sound of the words.” line seems like the important part. It sounds like people with knee-jerk reactions – paranoid people, people who watch the news and keep their kid inside or out of chat rooms, people who post totally ignorant comments on any news article or piece of online media they run across.

Anyway, you’ve got to admit this song is a wild ride. Due to my general lack of appreciation of the genre, Horse The Band rarely comes up with tracks that I really enjoy, but this one is definite a winner. The music video is cool as well, of course.

Normally I’m not into this kind of music – but this track has several saving graces that round out the harder-to-stand attributes: it starts off with a sample from ‘The Wizard‘ talking about the Power Glove… and then the oldskool synth arpeggio hits you at :18. It’s raw, it’s held together by occasional bursts of percussion and guitar, and slides right into the hardcore instrumentation that populates the rest of the song.

What are they singing about? Do you really care with all the guitar and drums and synthesizer? I don’t! But it warms my heart to know that it’s at least somewhat related to the eponymous megaman boss. Luckily it isn’t all-screaming-all-the-time, and the breakat 1:50 is fun… “cut, Cut, CUT, CUT!”

Luckily, the synth reappears at 3:08, in time to save the song from descending into screamoblivion with some well-placed perky chording, and wraps up with another Power Glove reference from The Wizard. Breath a sigh of relief – we made it! What a ride, amiright?

things start off weird, with some almost wild-west theatrical vocals, which quickly transition into something that reminds me more of The Offpsring. Then, at :29, we get the female vocals:

everyone livin in ghost town
everyone buried in wasteland

we don’t want to we don’t have to
be like that livin in ghost town

all the boys shout it out loud now
all the girls scream it out loud uh,

we don’ t want to
we don’t have to
live like that.

pull me back you know
we’re never gonna back down

Like ‘When Did This Storm Begin’, once the female singer starts belting out those lyrics, time flies by – the backing instrumentation keeps things solid in the background, but it’s really all about the sound of her voice. The male singer jumps in to help out with the chorus: “we’re dead in this ghost town, you’re better than ghost oh, let go let go.”

A break at 2:32 returns to the brief intro, then moves into the bridge, with new lyrical melodies and additional accompaniment, and then a nice big break at 3:02, ending at 3:12 and jumping right back into the chorus. The synths bend around, the guitar jams, and everything stops suddenly as the track ends, leaving the two vocalists hanging in midair.

The nearly minute-long intro for this track sort of makes sense to me – it’s like a bridge from the previous album ‘We Are Pilots’ to this next one. The staccato bass line is joined by occasional bursts of vocal samples and spacey synth sound effects until a short burst of kicks at 1:09 heralds the arrival of the Muse-esque male vocals: ”Call my name, answer me where I stand.”

In the background of this plea, trance pads warm up, until – boom! angry female vocals at 1:34!

Here’s a story of the way I wasn’t meant to be raised,
bright yellow sun that fades away to black and blue every place
There’s a bottle in the shape of your love for me

A little more reasonably, she continues: “Now the clouds are racing higher, blinding arrows away. There’s in darkness off the streets that my electricitay,” before getting angry again:

Gold ( or God?) shatters the sky,
this is the first day of the rest of our lives,
’cause no one really lives or dies.

You can’t help getting caught up in the epic 3/3/2 drum line, the heavy pads and guitar, and the reverbed vocals – the next few minutes go by quickly, droning requests to “call my name, where I stand” are interrupted only once more by the angry girl from before:

Every night you drink the money left to pay all the bills.
No room for us, but there’s another fucking bottle of pills.
Here’s your trophy on my face, it’s just an eye anyway..

Now the clouds are racing higher, blinding arrows away.
There’s in darkness off the streets that my elec-tricity

This will go no further, I swear it dies today.
Your nights will stay forever if you dare once more touch me.

The ‘plot’ is fairly familiar – a girl with an abusive alcoholic of a lover/father finally getting the balls to stand up for herself. But the lyrics go so well with the vocal style, and the whole thing works incredibly well as an introduction to Shiny Toy Gun’s new musical direction on their new album. The track ends with a school bell, but it’s only there to set up the next song. Unfortunately the majority of the other tracks don’t live up to the expectations that this one suggests, with the exception of ‘Ghost Town’, and possibly ‘Ricochet’, both of which are in the same vein.

My other favorite track from Bowie’s ‘Outside’ album, ‘Hallo Spaceboy’ starts out heavy and barely lets up – the crunchy synth line at the beginning keep things on-track while various ambient vocal samples swirl around (similar to the intro to The Heart’s Filthy Lesson), until the percussion hits hard at :25. This relentless pounding lets up just as it edges on annoying, making room for the vocals:

Spaceboy, you’re sleepy now,
Your silhouette is so stationary
You’re released but your custody calls
And I want to be free
Don’t you want to be free?
Do you like girls or boys?
It’s confusing these days
But Moondust will cover you, cover you
This chaos is killing me

At the mention of the murderous chaos, the percussion slams back into the track, along with some more guitar and subtle synths in the background, spreading out into a sort of industrial soundscape, which boils around for a bit until a short break at 2:20. The berse repeats, but this time along with the pounding percussion, which intensifies as the lyrics wrap up, ending in another short break at 3:02 (filled by mutterings about moon dust), immediately stepping back up into the familiar pounding rhythm and guitar exploration. This time things break off at 3:34, as brass stings and spiraling electric piano spread out for a bit, before collapsing back to the default lineup. At this point, the song has given all it has to offer – it continues to rage for another minute or so, ultimately fading out.

The repeated return to the slamming ‘kick and snare on every beat’ pattern doesn’t ever really get annoying, since it’s broken often enough to give the listener time to rest, and the lyrics are obscure enough to catch your attention – is this song about drugs? about sex? about rock’n'roll? Anyway, played through headphones at full volume, it’s inescapably catchy.