Molehills of Black Mountain

Black Mountain consits of Matthew Camirand, Stephen McBean, Jeremy Schmidt, Amber Webber and Joshua Wells. They have been opening for the ever popular Coldplay on their recent tour of North America. They have a very interesting sound that harkens back to old school rock music such as Black Sabbath, Led Zepplin, and The Doors. Though they mix in a lot of post-punk influences. The band has an interesting mix of Vancouver musicians, and like many local bands (New Pornographers comes to mind) many of the members are involved in other projects as well (see this Sixeyes post for more info).

Reviews:
Indieworkshop's Grant Capes - If this record doesn’t push Jagjaguwar Records to major-label distribution, then nothing is fair in this world. This record, made by some of the hardest working Canadians this side of the Montreal Constellation crew, is a true smoking gun of rock and roll.

Indieworkshop's Jake Haselman - Black Mountain (formally Jerk With a Bomb) have given the world what most every other 70’s throw back band hasn’t with their debut full-length; soul. The five members of this band live in these songs. This isn’t just a gimmick to appeal to the perpetual hippy, these are legitimate rock songs that burn at your spirit.

Pitchforkmedia's Sam Ubl - 8.3/10.0 McBean's voice is pleasant and instantly recognizable; having such an established songwriter behind a freshman outing is a tremendous advantage, and Black Mountain seem to know it. When the band aren't venturing on plush, static jams, his coy bluesy vocals tether the songs in familiar melodic space.


What other bloggers have to say:
My Old Kentucky Blog
Moroccan Role
Sixeyes
Some Velvet Blog

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Exercises for the reader:
Druganaut
No Satisfaction
No Hits
Heart Of Snow

Check out the band's site, where you can find some other songs to download, send them love/hate mail, or see a list of upcoming shows.

Beats from the Bloc Party

This post has been a long time coming... the Bloc Party's first full length album entitled Silent Alarm hit the Canadian streets back in March and I have grooving along to it ever since. Earlier this month they released a Remix of this album which I couldn't resist picking up. The remix album is good, not as solid/consistent as the original, but fucking good for a remix album.

Reviews: Silent Alarm
Pithforkmedia's Nitsuh Abebe - 8.9/10 When the rhythm section stretches its limbs, they leap a good distance away from the straight-ahead eighth-note riffing of the others in this game. Filter in their timely post-punk moves, Bunnymen gestures, and pop ambitions, and you start to feel like this is what it might have been like to listen to the Police or XTC in the early 80s; the sound of a straight-up rock band just a shade more sophisticated, and a little more interested in rhythm, than most of their peers.

IndieWorkShop's Mark Horan - Basically, you need this album. It rocks, it emotes, and it grabbed me immediately. There's a ton of top-notch songs here and I'd even go so far as to say that Bloc Party is one of the most worthy bands to come out of Britain in a decade. I expect big things from this band.

Reviews: Silent Alarm Remixed
Pithforkmedia's Nitsuh Abebe - 8.0/10 Surprise: It's all a good fit with the sound of the original. It's Bloc Party's old-fashioned "every track a single" aesthetic that makes this project possible; it's their hyper-ambitious "Technicolour" recording and ultra-precise performances that give the remixers so much sharp material to work with.

Purchase from Amazon

Purchase from Amazon

Tunes to enjoy:
Helicopter ------------------------------ Remixed (Whitney Version)
This Modern Love ------------------ Remixed (Dave P & Adam Sparkle's Mix)
Banquet --------------------------------- Remixed (Phones Disco Edit)

Ted Leo Times Two

I already posted about Ted Leo and the Pharmacists here. This time I bring you tidings from an earlier album which I purchased at one of his recent concerts --where he was selling all of his albums for $10 a piece! I shot a few photos as well, you can see the lot by clicking here or the photo below.



The album is Tyranny of Distance:

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Reviews:
Pitchforkmedia's Kristin Sage Rockermann & Chip Chanko - 8.5/10.0 "...he's got a guitar that never sounds confused, and an amazing talent to combine these elements into something that sounds distinctly Ted Leo."

Available for your listening pleasure --or whatever else the great void of the blogsphere does with the Mp3s I put up, besides ignore them:
Timorous Me
The Gold Finch and the Red Oak Tree
Squeaky Fingers

Ringtones of Razorlight

Razorlight's most striking characteristic is that there is nothing at all striking about the band. They are a group of young men who --for whatever reason-- play a very well trodden form of British post punk indie rock, or whatever you want to call it. Perhaps they are attempting to ride the wave created by their immediate predecessors such as The Strokes, Franz Ferdinand, and The Killers, or perhaps they are genuinely interested in playing this wholly un-unique style of music.

Well despite the lack of originality, I can not begrudge them the fact that they do a very admirable job on a few tracks of their debut album Up All Night. I just hope that they will grow a little and come back to the table with more inspired songwriting, because they certainly have a lot of musical talent.

Reviews:
Indieworkshop's Daniel Rivera - "If Razorlight wants people to identify with them they need to find an identity first."

Indieworkshop's Paul Cox - "Razorlight don’t score high on the originality chart, but do a number of unexpected and entertaining things with a formula already presumed dead before they even began."

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On the download:
Rock n Roll Lies (lyrics)
Golden Touch (lyrics)

Pilings of New Pornographers

The New Pornographers, led by front man A.C Newman who's 2004 solo effort The Slow Wonder I blogged about here, are a Vancouver based band who have been consistently writing inspired indie-rock for 8 years. Their latest release Twin Cinema offers solid tunes that both comply to their tried-and-true formula, and also venture out to new horizons at the same time.

Reviews:
Pitchfork media's review by Rob Mitchum who gave it an astounding 9.0/10.0!

Indieworkshop's review by Philip Del Costello who calls the album "a near-perfect collection of songs"

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Up for the listen are the following randomly selected gems ;)
Use it (lyrics)
The Bleeding Heart Show (lyrics)
Star Bodies (lyrics)

Sorry for my absence, school has started... which actually means nothing to me since I am not taking any classes this term... but I have been sick for almost two weeks now :( In any event I plan on doing smaller posts like this one more often, unless I hear complaints.