starrynight

I'm sure I've heard some of this album before, who could forget an album title like 'He Poos Clouds'? But I didn't really rate it much. Anyway this song and video are interesting, but towards the end of the song I find both music and video seem to tail off into something less interesting and bland.

Mr November

I would tend to agree with that. It should be noted also, that the video is a very good fan film, not an official one as far as I know. Thanks for the comment!

Mr November

Entry for Wednesday, March 23, 2011:

Ok so this is more for me to be able to scrapbook some exploring I'm doing. I've recently become interested in finding Indie type bands from places outside the usual North America.

This time, because of St. Pats day and because for various reason the place has sparked my interest, we travel to Eire.



Ok, so here's what I've dug up.



So this first band is called Redneck Manifesto. From what I can tell it's an instrumental band which reminds me of other personal favourites such as Toe (Japanese) and Special Others (Japanese). So I already really like this kind of pure instrumental guitar, bass, drum thing, and this band immediately sounded right to me. For the third band I've found, I'm now optimistic about Ireland's music scene.

(I'm actively searching for music and writing this at the same time)

I also thought their songs music video was pretty sick here.

-------------thisandthenextisnotthesame--somehowtheyisdifferent--------------



This one is Jape. Ok so the name is already good. And after listening to the song, it's not bad either. Kind of Beck-ish, and I like Beck so that's goodish. Wikipediad (is that a word?) "Jape" to confirm it was actually Irish. Turns out, according to this very credible source, Jape is an electric -rock band from Dublin, Ireland (I think that's in Ireland). I'll be checking this out a bit I think.

----------------thisisheretoshowyouthatsomethingnewishappening--------------



Now for God is an Astronaut. First impression, The Police instrumentals. That's not really accurate though. This is another Irish band, this one again instrumental. Seriously good indie music film here too. I like this music, but I have a hard time imagining myself listening to in day to day life. That applies to a lot of other good bands too though. Maybe some others will find this good.

------------------wearemovingon.letgoofthat.it'stimeforsyouhavepolio omethingnew----------



Another Dublin band. The Future Kinggs of SpainI already knew about these guys but they're a mention. They aren't what I'm looking for, but they're a good band. Wont be adding them to my collection probably though. Just not my kind of music. Other people should listen though, because contrary to the consensus of the republic of my own brain, everyone doesn't think the same as me, and no you probably aren't all just pretending to disagree.

-----------------------ifyoudontunderstandnowyouneverwill-----------------------



This would be Cane141. Not sure how well known this one is. Seems like it might be in a bit of a niche market. The band comes from Galway started up in '97. That's all I really know. I liked this particular song.

-------------------------irefusetoexplainthisanymore------------------------------

Other bands that came up:

The Jimmy Cake
The Frames
United Bible Studies
The Rags
Alphastates (Babelfish)


If anyone knows more about these bands (all the way up the page) and thinks they're worth listening more too, let me know please. I don't think all of this is Indie, but as I say, in my personal listening day to day, I completely ignore genres and just listen to music for whatever it is. I basically learned that Ireland makes good instrumental music, and that there is no way I will die having heard all the great bands around the world that I should have

Hopefully I can get some of them though.

Mr November

The other day I was hanging out with a friend and I mentioned that I'd been wanting to listen to some good hip-hop and the like since I thought I'd unfairly written the genre off.

This particular friend and I have a long history of introducing each other too new music and we have extremely similar tastes. Anyway, he said he'd do some searching to see if he could find anything good. A week or so later I jacked all the stuff he'd come up with and It was pretty good even if I'm not sure if you would call it hip-hop. In the end a lot of mixing groups turned up, which was very interesting. Anyway here's an overview of some of it...

Ok so we'll just go in alphabetical order because I'm creative like that. Along with each artist I'll provide some samples of my current favourite tracks from the albums that I've been trying to wrap my head around.

The Avalanches



This band from Australia is well known for their production of "Since I Left You" which is the album that I've now got my hands on. I have to say, it is excellent. Whether or not its hip-hop... I'm leaning towards no? Regardless I'm glad to have given them a serious listen.

Since I Left You is an impressive album where more than 3000 vinyl samples are cleverly mixed to create very groovy and coherent tracks.

The Books



Formed in New York comes "The Books". Again I think my friend found one band that he liked that mixed sound samples and then ran with that idea. This band is also very good, but also not very hip-hop

At any rate this album ("The Lemon of Pink") is basically a bunch of sound clips cut up, and I put to chopped acoustic guitar and vocals. You can get a good idea of the dimension that the voice clips add when you listen to tracks like "PS" or "Explanation Mark". These are less of tracks and more of compilations of awkward noises that people make... I like it. The rest of it can be pretty folksy at times. I recommend giving a few tracks a listen even if you'll ultimately end up not liking it. The guitar style reminds me a lot of Shugo Tokumaru... who might remind some people of a Japanese Stufjan Stevens? But whatever. The two tracks I've left for you here (Tokyo and This Right Ain't ****) are the two most "listenable" tracks both having been used for commercials. Also try "There is no There" some of the sound clips are really good.......... especially the one that I think must be Albert Einstein? I'm probably embarrassing myself with how wrong I am about that...

Nightmares On Wax



So once again... we aren't fitting snuggly into the hip-hop genre here... or at all... but kind of sort of close? In any rate of cases and stable structures of static nature, I also like this artist (who is actually George Evelyn of Leeds UK), although not as much as the previous two. Again we see a lot of sound mixing and old vinyls being smashed and mashed to make something fresh and appealing. This album is oriented on creating one sound that doesn't move around a lot or change too drastically (which is probably a limitation of this kind of music without the application of serious time, effort, and talent). That isn't to say this guy doesn't have talent... but basically some of the tracks get boring so if you're an active listener you may have trouble tolerating it if what your hearing isn't exactly what you want to hear over and over and over and over and over and over. Or at least that's my first impression.

That being said, this album does have a good collection of great sounds and many of the tracks are less repetitive. My current favourite track is probably "Chime Out".


And that's how a search for hip-hop turns into a discovery of electronic mixes. Oh well nothing was lost and something was gained. Instrumentally speaking I'm pretty sure hip hop is largely about sampling and looping so I may not be totally off base here anyway. If anyone has some good hip-hop recommendations that would also be cool - hoping that the above music might provide some kind of reference?

Anyway...

Mr November

I changed my name. Here's some music that sounds good.

TIMBER TIMBRE

A while a go back I did an album review for an album called Creep On Creepin' On by Timber Timbre. I liked that album a lot, and subsequently I've been dipping into a lot of similar stuff by the nature of those other albums by the same band and some similar influences.

I am now in possession of four albums (well the mp3 versions anyway) by the band and they are: Cedar Shakes (2005), Medicinals (2007), Timber Timbre (2009), and Creep On Creepin' On (2011).

It looks like they release an album every two years.

The sound of the band has basically stayed true from the earliest album to the latest, although there's no doubting that the band and the recordings have gotten better by leaps and bounds. This is one of those bands that has graduated from producing songs into producing albums, which I think was achieved with their self titled album. Listening to these two, new to me, earlier albums, there doesn't seem to be as much plot to the albums, although the music is still signature and of high quality.

Samples of the band: Timber Timbre:
< Cedar Shakes
< Medicinals
<Timber Timbre
<Creep On Creepin' On

That last sample from Creep is just to show the kind of instrumental tracks featured on that album. The majority of the album is similar to previous work But when I listen to the album as a whole, I hear the tracks layed out like the plot to a film with a beginning, middle, plot twist, and ending.