Nomen Novum 's second full-length album, Paradises , proudly showcases the multitude of strengths of one of Atlanta's most versatile and talented outfits. The 8 song collection sees the experimental rock duo of David Norbery and Mark Godfrey continuing down an arc of trading the guitar-centric, conventional song structure of their Moorish Idols roots for loops, electronics, and pushing boundaries. The record has a terrific balance between Nomen Novum 's more avant-garde tendencies and their brilliant song writing abilities. There are so many minute details that greatly enhance the sum of its parts, like seamlessly weaving [...]
I recently revisited Venice Is Sinking 's full-length album released earlier this year, AZAR , and have totally put it back in my heavy rotation yet again. It has grown on me so much since first hearing it in the spring. It turned out to be good timing to get back on a VIS kick, because they have kept busy this year and just last week dropped a new EP and music video. Both are based around the AZAR song "Okay". The 5 track EP kicks off with the single, then goes into two [...]
Comprised of three quarters of the now defunct One Hand Loves The Other and one quarter of the still awesome Sorry No Ferrari , Atlanta's Tealights are finally unleashing their debut release at the end of this month. The EP is titled Take Us By Sea , and it will be available at their release show with School Of Seven Bells September 29th at the Drunken Unicorn. The EP was recorded by themselves at their place, but it has been mixed/produced by Jordan Jeffares of Snowden and will be mastered [...]
One of my favourite Tennessee bands, Blastoids , are giving away their new album on their myspace page . I picked up a copy of the 14 track, nearly hour long record when they came through Atlanta earlier this summer and have been absolutely loving it. The Animal Collective starting point is very obvious, but this stuff is so unbelievably good that their piggybacking seems inconsequential. Each and every track is a unique experience in itself. There is so much dynamics to the record, and when the energy really picks up, it packs a serious punch. [...]
The Orphins were one of the very first bands to get me interested in Atlanta's music scene. They were really the first band where I thought, I would get into this act even if they weren't local. When I picked up their 2004 full-length release, Drowning Cupid , I listened to it non-stop for months. I had been anxiously awaiting a follow up for 5 years now, and just as I had begun to lose hope and start to believe that The Orphins may just have become a forgotten relic of the scene's past, they have [...]
The Dodos Photo by Charlie Villyard The Dodos ' third album hits stores physically next week, but they have made it available digitally ever since it leaked on the torrents long ago. With Time To Die , they branch out a lot farther from their Sung Tongs starting point and seemed to have come into their own. The Animal Collective influence is still felt here, but it doesn't seem to dominate it like their last record. When this [...]
The two best records to come out of North Carolina so far in 2009: Birds Of Avalon (Raleigh, NC) Photo by Justin Lyon I remember catching Birds Of Avalon open for Beach House a couple of years ago and thinking that they would be something special one day. Well, that day seems to have come with the release of their newest record, Uncanny Valley . The album was recorded completely with analog equipment and their [...]
The Fiery Furnaces and White Rabbits will be hitting the Variety Playhouse tonight. I've been a Furnaces fan for a long time, but it's taken me a while to get into their newest record, I'm Going Away . It is probably their most pop record to date, and it just felt too normal and ordinary at first for such a regularly strange band. But suddenly it is growing on me a lot, and even though I don't prefer this approach from them, they have pulled it off excellently. They are playing in a different [...]
Deerhunter @ Variety Playhouse (Halloween 2008) Ever since Deerhunter 's Lockett Pundt released his The Floodlight Collective under his Lotus Plaza moniker, I had been really hoping I would get a chance to see him do his solo thing live. So I was overjoyed yesterday when I discovered that Lotus Plaza will be opening for The Books next month. While I'm certainly a huge fan of Bradford Cox, I think Pundt's essential contributions to the greatness that is Deerhunter cannot be overemphasized. Here [...]
Atlanta's Spree Wilson , who I mentioned last week, just released an EP today titled Evil Angel . I'm listening to it right now, and I am totally digging it so far. This guy is a very versatile talent. The best part is he is giving this away for free, so you need to go get it right now. Also, look out for a bonus track. Here is a cut from it, a cover of a Jon Brion song: Spree Wilson : I Believe She's Lying (Jon Brion cover) [...]
Atlanta bands playing Nophest: Jungol If you aren't familiar with Jungol , you might be familiar with Liquid Jungle , the band's former incarnation. Centered around brothers Josh and Graham Yoder, this group has actually been soldiering the local scene for most of the decade. I caught them a few times back in the day when jambands ruled a hefty portion of the underground music turf, and while they were certainly part of that scene, I remember there [...]
Sound On Film @ Drunken Unicorn (6/30/09) As I continue to dig deep through the Atlanta underground music scene looking for something new, I'm perpetually surprised that the well never seems to go dry. Just when I think everybody in this town doing something special is on my radar, I discover yet another fantastic artist. The newest gem in the rough that I believe is going to blow everyone in this town away in the coming years is Sound On Film . I've caught two live shows so far, both of which were [...]
I'm back in the ATL now, so after I do a lot of catching up, I should be back to my regular summer blogging schedule soon. I'm going to post a lengthy chronicle of the entire three week experience sometime in the next few days, but until then, here are tracks from two really great bands that This Piano Plays Itself played with over last week that I highly recommend checking out: A Lull : Skinny Fingers A Lull Myspace [...]
One of my favourite Atlanta artists has just released another gem to an ever increasing catalog of stellar tunage. I already discussed the album a bit previously and I've only been enjoying it more and more since then. The record still has that distinct " Slushco sound", but it also diverges away from his four previous 7 track albums and takes on a whole new sphere. I feel like calling it "matured" might do a disservice to his earlier works, but it definitely feels like this is a significant step in a bit of a new direction, [...]
I just ditched the gang to drink some Fat Tires and do some blogging in a sports bar on the Mississippi River. Even though Memphis looked like a dump, the show last night went pretty well, and after talking to the locals, there seems to be a decent scene of good music going on there. The more I travel, the more I am surprised to find that the Internet music revolution is taking hold everywhere. The impression I'm getting is that regionalism in music is waning, and this global sonic renaissance is growing stronger every day. [...]
I had been meaning to post up this incredible remix of a Today The Moon, Tomorrow The Sun song up for a while, but with the holiday and this tour, it fell through the cracks for a second. But if you haven't heard this from every other blog in town yet, definitely grab it. I know I'll be jamming this at dance parties for a long time. The remix comes from a DJ in New York called Free Magic . You can catch TTMTTS with another band I've been meaning to blog about, Jungol [...]
During the summer great albums always drop like rain and I usually seem to have less time to talk about them, so here is a superpost full of tracks from the records I'm loving right now accompanied by a nano-review: Dark Night Of The Soul It seems Danger Mouse 's best work is destined to be illegal, and this teamup with Sparklehorse and a vast cast of music superpowers is going to give the other "dark night" record a run for [...]
The other day I was bragging about how North America was pwning new music these days, but a dark horse in the race to musical world domination is Scandinavia. My newest obsession from vikingland is the self-titled record from Norway's I Was A King . I think they parallel Cymbals Eat Guitars in that each is weaving an intricate tapestry of stellar influences and creating an extremely complex genre hybrid, although those two bands don't really sound like each other at all. While listening to I Was A King , I am reminded at times of [...]
Tonight there is a great post-metal show at The Earl and Isis is headlining. They just released their newest album, Wavering Radiant , and I have been loving it. The band seems to be embracing their melodic post-rock jams now more than ever, tapping into metals' darkness without its brutality. With only one song under 7 minutes, the record is epic, and very much a whole, intricate piece of music rather than a collection of songs. I highly recommend picking it up, and going to see them tonight. Isis : [...]
Photo by Yannick Grandmont Recently, I had been pondering about where the best music this decade, and especially recently, had been coming from internationally. For most of the history of pop music, the UK has been the dominant country in producing the new hits. But around the time Nirvana and Seattle blew up in the '90s, the tide began to turn, although even that decade still saw plenty of great acts spring up from the UK (i.e. Radiohead ) to compete. Now as this decade begins to close, it is hard not to agree that [...]
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Disclosure - 'When A Fire Starts To Burn' [Listen]
The sweet gospel joy of Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros...
Virginia Wing: Red Sails
