The Kidcrash - Discography

Your favorite new post-hardcore band The Kidcrash has put up every single album they've recorded FOR FREE. This included demos and EPs (one that features Beirut's Zach Condon, also a New Mexico resident). No reviews will be linked in this post, but feel free to read my two part interview with Kidcrash's enigmatic and charismatic drummer, Buster Ross.
Discography
Interview Part I - Part II

Circle Takes the Square - Ritual of Names [Live]

When I first heard the rough demos for "Ritual of Names," a 12-minute long track from CTTS' upcoming album, I was highly disappointed. However, after seeing the version performed in Brooklyn that they posted on their studio blog, I have to admit that I'm very impressed. In the live setting, the song has ferocity and build instead of just black metal harmonies, and I imagine when the song is given the proper recording, it'll sound awesome. Sounds great so far.

Girl Talk - Feed the Animals

So I figured, why not be one of the first people to offer up a free download of Girl Talk's new album. The direct link is below but so is the donate link and I expect everybody to do so. So far, I'm struck by how downtempo it can be, especially as the album starts off, as well as how much classic rock is sped up and thrown in. Upon first listen, my favorite is the end of "Set It Off," but it's going to change. My review will be up by the end of the day PST. In addition, I'm linking to my interview/article with Gregg Gillis from this past April. Enjoy! It's great so far!

Feed the Animals [2008] - Direct Download - Donate - Review - Interview

Prime Meridian - Januaries: 2006-2008

Though this may be a little absurd and self-indulgent, I'm posting my own music. I've never really gotten a band together though I write music and sometimes record. My school has a part of the school year called Winter Study, where we only take one ungraded class. I always went out of my way to take classes that fed into recording. The EP I've posted here is a collection of songs I wrote for the various classes I took, the exception being the first track. The overall sound is very ambient though the final track really expands on "ambient" as a genre by have a much longer arc. I even used a click track. There is no review for this album so I'll provide some helpful (and once again, self-indulgent) liner notes for each track.

All songs were composed in Pro Tools using only the following gear: PRS Santana SE guitar, Line6 Pod Processor, Line6 Tonecore Pedal Echo Park.

1. "Rusting a Perfect Day." This track was written outside of the context of a class. I started messing around with different melodic techniques using features of the Echo Park pedal in F# minor and just started layering parts of different lengths that all ended up propelling the song towards its crescendo.

2. "Hexagrams" gets its name because it was done for the class "Math and Music." It uses serial tranformations of the unordered hexachord (01457) and was composed in a loose adaptation of the twelve tone tradition. The general sound of this chord, when treated as a pitch set that can be used in a scalar fashion, is a mix of phrygian and hexatonic giving the song its somewhat "exotic" melodic lines.

3. "Pearl Silos" was written for an independent study on electronic recording styles. A friend and I had written three hip hop / pop songs in Digital Performer and needed another track, so I offered to write another ambient one in the spirit of tracks 1-2. The result was a further refining of the ideas on the first two tracks. It benefits from having the through-composed layering of "Rusting..." with the disassociation from perfectly tonal practices of "Hexagrams," though the piece in indebted to E as a pitch-center, if not a tonal center.

4. "Odalisque" is more sprawling and was composed against a click track. It has a D/A modal flavor. The structure of the song is three-fold. First the song builts up its component parts in the spirit of post-rock. Then the tonality dissolves as the twelve-tone background ambience overtakes the tonal center (though the main repeated guitar remains), and finally the song returns to its post-rock self with a guitar solo in the spirit of "Muffin Man" by Frank Zappa that takes the song to its close.

Januaries: 2006-2008 [2008] - Download

My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges

My apologies for letting this blog fall off the face of the earth. I've been graduating from college so I haven't been paying much attention to the music world. I'll be picking it up again for the summer. But more to the point, My Morning Jacket is a surprisingly major label indie/rock band from Louisville, Kentucky. They have the typical reverby vocals of indie bands like Band of Horses but have a heavier, more rock and roll centric sound, though southern rock influences do emerge a la BOH. My Morning Jacket also have a nice psychedelic edge at times, which makes them appealing to Pink Floyders. This album is recommended though it still hasn't sunk in for me quite like their previous two albums, Z and It Still Moves did.

Evil Urges [2008] - Download - Review

Son Lux - At War With Walls & Mazes

Son Lux's At War With Walls & Mazes is right now my top album of 2008 (probably tied with Have a Nice Life's Deathconsciousness). It's a compelling mix of soul, pop, glitch, and trip hop composed by solo artist Ryan Lott. The production is gorgeous. Highly recommended.

At War With Walls & Mazes [2008] - Download - Review

Polar Bear Club - Sometimes Things Just Disappear

After Polar Bear Club's debut EP came out in 2006, everybody amped them as the next big thing, or at least the next Hot Water Music. This LP is underwhelming but has a few nice track. I have mostly posted this to be a completionist and hook up fans.

Sometimes Things Just Disappear [2008] - Download - Review

Murder By Death - Red of Tooth and Claw

Murder by Death released their fourth LP (if you count the LP released as Little Joe Gould) this past Tuesday. The album is a continuation of their idiosyncratic Johnny Cash meets Cursive style. This album is worse than their amazing 2003 LP, Who Will Survive and What Will Be Left of Them but is still a welcome addition to their discography. Download password is mp3zzz.blogspot.com.

Red of Tooth and Claw [2008] - Download - Review

Trophy Scars - Discography

Download links were removed at the request of the band

Trophy Scars is a band I've been both very hot and very cold with. I've been following them since 2003 and I consider their early stuff to be top notch post-hardcore, and Hospital Music to be one of the best post-hardcore releases of all time (unfortunately it's only an EP). Since that album though I've been decidedly overwhelmed, particularly with the mediocre Alphabet. Alphabets. Here is their discography for better or worse.

Sand in the Sea [2006] -

Note: This album is a compilation of Darts to the Sea plus B-sides and demos from their EPs.

Alphabet. Alphabets. [2006] - - Review


Goodnight Alchemy [2005] - - Review


Hospital Music (for the Aesthetics of Language) [2004] - - Review


Darts to the Sea [2002] -
(No artwork - see Sand in the Sea)

Do Make Say Think - You, You're a History in Rust

Do Make Say Think's You, You're a History in Rust is one of those albums that missed my Top 15 of 2007 list purely by me being slow to the punch (sorry Ghostlimb). This is a gorgeous album that propels its post-rock songwriting with folk, indie, and alternative influences rather than baroque orchestration or grandiose theme and variation style builds. There is always the semblance of a melodic hook or a regularized chord progression underneath the complex, but grounded arrangements.

You, You're a History in Rust [2007] - Download - Review

Have a Nice Life - Deathconsciousness

Truly falling in love with an album usually happens once a year for me. My most recent heart-melting came at the hands of the shoegaze/post-rock/dark ambient/industrial band Have a Nice Life, who released their double-disc concept album last week. It came in a slim DVD case and had a 70+ page booklet explaining the life and writing of a near-mythical 13th century Italian writer and zealot, Antiochus. The music is absolutely stunning. Considering how DIY and heartfelt this release is, I hope everybody actually purchases it. It's only $11 for a very generous and complete package. Go to the label's website to put in an order.

Deathconsciousness [2008] - Review - Review
Disc One: The Plow That Broke the Plains - Download
Disc Two: The Future - Download

The Cape May - Glass Mountain Roads

I heard about The Cape May by way of a press packet. I like Steve Albini and he was producing this album so I decided to give it a few whirls. I'm glad I did. It is really subdued and powerful not unlike an indie version of Engine Down. This band has a wonderful sense of how to brood without being dark or depressive. As far as I know this is their first LP but something tells me it's their second. The second track, "Old & Early Numbers" is one of my favorites of the year.

Glass Mountain Roads (2007) - Download - Review

Top EPs/Splits of 2007

I excluded releases that weren't EPs or Splits from my Best Albums of 2007 list so I made a special feature for all of the great EPs that came out this year. There were mostly sweet skramz stuff. Tera Melos made the list twice and both The Kidcrash and Daitro almost doubled down too. I made the downloads into two packages so that everybody can sample a bunch of stuff.

1. Comadre / Trainwreck Split
2. Drowning With Our Anchors - Demo
3. Tera Melos - Drugs to the Dear Youth
4. Envy - Abyssal
5. The Kidcrash / Coffin Dancer Split
6. Ampere / Daitro Split
7. Tera Melos / By the End of Tonight - Complex Full of Phantoms
8. Twain Harte - A Sunny Place for Shady People
9. Aussitot Mort - Aussitot Mort

Top EPs/Splits of 2007 Albums 1-4
Top EPs/Splits of 2007 Albums 5-9

Top 15 Albums of 2007

Here are my top 15 in a streamlined form. To read little blurbs about my favorite albums go here.

1. The Kidcrash - Jokes - Download - Review
2. Thrice - The Alchemy Index: Volumes I & II - Fire & Water - Download - Review
3. The Pax Cecilia - Blessed Are the Bonds - Download - Review
4. Justice - † - Download - Review
5. Hot Cross - Risk Revival - Download - Review
6. Ghastly City Sleep - Ghastly City Sleep - Download - Review
7. Radiohead - In Rainbows - Download - Review
8. Hopesfall - Magnetic North - Download - Review
9. Minus the Bear - Planet of Ice - Download - Review
10. Meneguar - Strangers in Our House - Download - Review
11. The Dirty Projectors - Rise Above - Download - Review
12. Between the Buried and Me - Colors - Download - Review
13. American Steel - Destroy Their Future - Download - Review
14. Venetian Snares - My Downfall - Download - Review
15. Modern Life Is War - Midnight in America - Download - Review

Honorable Mentions: Ghostlimb - Ghostlimb (only just a mention because I found out about it too late), Burton Wagner - 21, Meet Me in St. Louis - Variations on Swing, The Cape May - Glass Mountain Roads, Little Brother - Get Back

Meneguar - Strangers in Our House

Meneguar is a slick ass indie band from Brooklyn, NY. This was my 9th favorite release of 2007 (I may yet get links for this entire list), beating out The Dirty Projectors' Rise Above as my favorite indie album. These guys play a highly guitar-centric brand of riff-rock. They are really fun not unlike a more serious, genuine version of The Strokes.

Strangers in Our House (2007) - Download - Review