Keeping with the trend of bands that put out crucial albums in the 90s, Radiohead are one of those bands that you can always count on for amazing material (seriously one of the greatest discographies ever). Another thing you can count on is for them to debut it in ever-increasingly mysterious/interesting ways. The latest to follow this trend is their latest single, titled "These Are My Twisted Words" which originally leaked and had the entire world wide web guessing as to what it was. The boys in Radiohead didn't keep us guessing for too long as they officially released it themselves as a (surprise, surprise) free download from their webstore, complete with neat artwork in a handy lil' RAR file. It's eery and haunting, a great song as per usual... really what can I say? It's friggen Radiohead, of course it's awesome and you owe it to yourself to give it a listen.
Radiohead - "These Are My Twisted Words" (credit: waste.uk.com)
I used to go to a ton of local hardcore shows as Vancouver (and the Pacific Northwest in general) had a booming scene, filled with a good variety of bands, playing a good mix of styles with all sorts of touring bands willing to stop by and play a show. Bands broke up, a *ton* of venues have closed down or moved on and I have found myself generally disenchanted with the Vancouver hardcore scene. This past tuesday I happened to stop by the APC, the newest venue in Vancouver hardcore which is a building in the middle of chinatown whose everyday purpose... I couldn't tell you (I know APC stands for "Anti-Poverty Committee" but beyond that). Regardless, one of my favourite hardcore bands, Lion of Judah were playing after having practically fallen off the map since their last full length, "Universal Peace", was released in November 2006. Not expecting much from the opening acts, I found myself surprised when the band that played second, a group from Vancouver called Damages, absolutely blew me away.
Damages have been around for a few months now and play what can best be described (in their words) as "Early Dischord/Ebullition sounds mixed with Touch And Go style noise rock. Impassioned and abrasive emotional hardcore." What does this all mean? Dark with weird time signatures, chunky riffs that collide with eachother, and passionate vocals that are both abrasive and understandable (and good). If you're a fan of the Jesus Lizard, Shellac or that whole sound from the late 80s/early 90s, this is a band you'll be able to sink your teeth into. Their first 7" is up for pre-order and I highly suggest you support these guys as these kind of bands don't come along all the time. They also have some songs up on their myspace that you can give a listen to get a better idea of what's going on if all the record labels and bands I've compared them to are foreign to you. My new favourite band...
On the subject of hardcore, I can fall out of love with hardcore from time to time but one band I will never grow tired of is the almighty Converge, maybe the greatest band on earth when it comes to covering all facets of the music experience: great records, live show, and imagery/artwork. It's been nearly 3 years since their last work, the underrated "No Heroes" and they're back at it again with a new record titled "Axe to Fall" due out this coming October (October's seriously shaping up to be a great month for releases). Having been aware that a new album was in the works, I can easily say this is my most eagerly anticipated release of the year and things only got more anticipated this past week when Converge unveiled all the details of the album including the artwork and a new song via their myspace. The artwork (see below), as always, is nothing shy of amazing, composed by lead singer/artist extraordinaire Jacob Bannon who has always been behind the bands image, creating some of the greatest album covers going today. The song, titled "Dark Horse" is just another day at the office from these guys, furious and uproarious or as they put it, "sound[ing] like the end of the world", especially when the breakdown hits... holy shit is it heavy and just rad. Give it a listen, and mark my words that it's going to end up on my best of '09 come a few months from now; Amazing stuff.
Wrapping things up this week, I've been trying to mix up my mediums with each post to add a little bit of variety so it's not just a bunch of right clicking and save as-ing going on for you, the readers. I figure a video a week helps keep things fresh but of course no video really caught my eye this week. A band that has re-caught my interest as of late though is The Strokes, ever the beacon of conflicting opinion when they first appeared in the mainstream, 8+ years ago. Things are quieter when it comes to them nowadays, working on a variety of side projects but that doesn't change the fact that those first two records, "Is This It?" and "Room on Fire", completely ruled. Having gone back and listened to them, I was reminded of how awesome some of their videos were, specifically the ones from the first record, even more specifically the one for "Hard to Explain." The video was directed by Roman Coppola (son of Francis Ford), featuring a collage of various images/stock footage flashing before our eyes over the persistent drum machine beat. Hope you enjoy
Hey man, thanks for your blog comment - it made my day! I'll definitely be checking back here. I don't really read a lot of music blogs but damn, you have taste!
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