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MP3: Band of Horses - Is There A Ghost?

Labels: band of horses, music video

TGH has a new guest blogger! Alex is here to make up for Kate's slack:
The past month, my playlist has returned consistently to three great albums all released this autumn. The first two, Grand Drive's Everyone and Band of Horses' Cease to Begin are perfect sing-along-in-the-car pop records, but with a slower and more melodic side more similar to the third release, Chris & Thomas's debut Land of Sea.

Grand Drive: Everyone
Grand Drive is a band that lives up to its name. Pretty melodies and simple lyrics, backed with surprisingly complex instrumentation, make a road trip album like I haven't heard since I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning. The first time I heard the album, it filled me with energy like only well-written pop music can. The second time I heard the album, I realized that the lyrics are pretty shallow, and I was annoyed that they didn't live up to the music. By the third time I'd listened through the album, I realized that the lyrics couldn't stand to be any deeper and still match the cheerful whistling tone of the music, and I was happy just to sing along.

As with the other two albums in this post, it was hard to reduce the album to one song for an example. The style varies enough and there are enough excellent songs that I almost want to give ya'll the entire album. But you should buy it instead--music this good ought to be encouraged. My favorite song is the simple and heartbreaking "Plain Sailing," with its two-chord verse and delicate organ counterpoint, but a better example of the overall style here is the midtempo "I'm an Echo." Building from a music-box synth to a chorus swelling with feedback and driven by a clap track, the song could well play over any indian summer afternoon sitting out on the lawn, any lazy drive South. Keep the windows down and enjoy the album with the days as they turn toward fall.

Grand Drive - I'm an Echo
Buy Everyone at amazon.com
Grand Drive's website/myspace

Band of Horses: Cease to Begin
On the subject of clap tracks, I've got to hand it to Ben Bridewell that he's got the style down. Probably my favorite of these three albums, Cease to Begin can be explained by the song "Lamb on the Lam (In the City)". Insistent and infectuous, the music curls up in the back of your head and stays there. While writing, I've been listening to the album, and realizing how many of those not-quite melodies that I find myself humming lately have been from this album. Great stuff. However, there's too much to say, and I can't communicate it nearly as well as the Band can, so just listen to the song, and I hope you'll go get the album. It's worth it.

Band of Horses - Lamb on the Lam (In the City)
Buy Cease to Begin from amazon.com

Both of those discs have a more mellow side to them, which for both is the needed relief and reply to the upbeat pop that makes up the rest of them.

Chris & Thomas: Land of Sea
If you're looking for a whole album of mellow relief, though, there's nothing out there right now better than Chris & Thomas's debut, Land of Sea. Somewhere between Simon & Garfunkel and Iron & Wine, the music sounds bigger than the speakers it plays from--sweeping like the skies the lyrics describe, timeless and folksy like the stories they tell, the songs seem grand and familiar. The harmonies that Chris & Thomas make are beautiful, and there's not a single bad track on the album. The best songs are the title track, "Take these Thoughts," and "Riversong" (which reminds me a lot of Grand Drive's "I'm an Echo", at least lyrically). I've included "Take these Thoughts" because there's an edge to the harmony sometimes lacking elsewhere in the album. Like Iron & Wine, though the music is as languid as a late-night cigarette and a beer, sometimes it gets too laid back and is in danger of putting you to sleep. Perfect for what it is, but not as captivating as Simon & Garfunkel's "Sound of Silence" or "America". I recommend buying all three of these albums, and I'll tell you true that Chris & Thomas are brilliant and exactly what the music business needs right now. The only reason I express my reservation is that I expect Chris & Thomas to be receiving a lot of superlative attention in the months to come. They deserve it, but we still ought to keep perspective.

Chris & Thomas - Take These Thoughts
Buy Land of Sea from amazon.com

Enjoy.

Labels: alex post, band of horses, chris and thomas, grand drive, review

At the beginning of August I complained a bit about the lack of of a leak from the new Band of Horses album, Cease to Begin, due out October 9th. Well, it's here, it's band-sanctioned, and I'd say it tops their previous album's blog-hit, "The Funeral." The word to describe it: Epic.

Band of Horses - Is There A Ghost? [download or die]
Pre-order Cease to Begin at Insound

If you like Band of Horses, I'd say you're pretty much guaranteed to love this track from Middle Distance Runner's upcoming EP. They're DC-based, and I believe once-upon-a-time I caught them live by sneaking into Iota; I had to, seeing how it's a 21 and over sort of establishment...
(thanks for the track goes to Joe over at Instrumental Analysis)

Middle Distance Runner - The Sun and Earth [highly rec'd]
Middle Distance Runner's Website/Myspace

On a really random note, Middle Distance Runner needs to get some better press photos. Just thought I'd mention that.

Labels: band of horses, middle distance runner, upcoming

The Fiery Furnaces: Widow City (October 9th)
Slowly but surely, Widow City has begun to leak. Beyond the good music, I'm partial to the Fiery Furnaces because Eleanor Friedburger is one of just a small number of lead female vocalists in indie bands who (a) isn't a diva - think Jenny Lewis or Emily Haines (b) doesn't have an unrealistically high, silky, or amazingly beautiful voice - think Regina Spektor (c) isn't jaw-droppingly gorgeous - think Feist (d) hasn't released a record that can be described as "alt country" - think Neko Case or Amy Millan. There are so many male-fronted indie bands out there that whenever a female-fronted indie band does well attention swells around the lead singer like she's a foreign specimen, resulting in a lack of focus on the band as a whole (not the case with the Fiery Furnaces), or their music for that matter. This might have something to do with fact that most mp3 bloggers are guys.

Not to mention the tracks I've heard so far from Widow City are top-notch.

The Fiery Furnaces - Navy Nurse (Widow City)
The Fiery Furnaces - Automatic Husband (Widow City)
The Fiery Furnaces - I'm In No Mood (Bitter Tea)
Website/Myspace

Tracklist for Widow City:
1. The Philadelphia Grand Jury
2. Duplexes of the Dead
3. Automatic Husband
4. Ex-Guru
5. Clear Signal From Cairo
6. My Egyptian Grammar
7. The Old Hag Is Sleeping
8. Japanese Slippers
9. Navy Nurse
10. Uncle Charlie
11. Right by Conquest
12. Restorative Beer
13. Wicker Whatnots
14. Cabaret of the Seven Devils
15. Pricked in the Heart
16. Widow City

Band of Horses: Cease to Begin (October 9th)
No leaks yet, so we just have to wait. Which stinks. Everything All the Time was a great album, so my expectations are high.
B-fork put up a link to a YouTube video of the band playing a new song off the record in concert.

Band of Horses - The Funeral (Everything all the Time)
Band of Horses - Weed Party (Everything all the Time)
Website/Myspace


Tracklist for Cease to Begin:
1. Is There a Ghost
2. Ode to LRC
3. No One's Gonna Love You
4. Detlef Schrempf
5. The General Specific
6. Lamb on the Lam (in the city)
7. Islands on the Coast
8. Marry Song
9. Cigarettes, Wedding Bands
10. Window Blues

Tour dates here.

Beirut: The Flying Club Cup (October 9th)
I've been enjoying the Lon Gisland EP, released in June, a great deal recently and am pretty excited about the prospects for a new album.

Beirut - Elephant Gun (Lon Gisland EP)
Beirut - Postcards from Italy (Gulag Orkestar)
Buy Lon Gisland EP from Insound (eMusic also has it)

Website/Myspace
Tour dates here.

Labels: band dump, band of horses, Beirut, brooklyn kids, fiery furnaces