Tag: NaBloPoMo

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Jus Post Bellum, Oh July

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Jus Post Bellum (Justice After War) are Geoffrey Wilson (lead vocals, guitar), Hannah Jensen (vocals), Zach Dunham (drums, percussion, vocals), and Daniel Bieber (bass, cello, vocals), and they are from Brooklyn, via Minnesota and upstate New York.

Oh July is their second record, and it is some of the freshest and most lovely folk music I’ve heard for a while.

Their sound is traditional, and American, and intended to evoke the period after the Civil War. What distinguishes them from a million bands with the same idea is that they incorporate elements of a kind of folk music not often heard in folk-pop – spirituals – and that their old-timey concept is leavened with a distinctly modern sensibility.

Exhibits A and B: Gimme That Gun and Call to My Jesus. The former is the first song on the record, and is spellbinding live. The latter comes in the middle, and pinned me to my chair the first time I heard it.
 

 

 
And then there is Measure of a Man, which drifts closer to “pop” than “folk”, and is my favorite, because of lines like I’m lost / I’m a wildfire burnin’/ I’m a voice in the Devil’s chorus / I’m a dog / I’m a sleepy morning / I’m love / and I’m coming without warning:
 

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Gary Numan, Splinter (Songs From A Broken Mind)

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There are times when I wish I could transmit the experience of listening to body of music for the first time whole and complete and unfiltered, so that y’all could experience it just as I did.

Because if I could, all of you would be able to stand with me on the subway platform on a crisp cold sunny morning, half-asleep and surrounded by other commuters, while the initial notes of I Am Dust, the first song from Splinter (Songs from a Broken Mind) by Gary Numan rolled over us like a grimy tide coming in. They’re darkly seductive and a little bit intoxicating, like heavy sweet aural smoke.

And perhaps, as I did, you all would smile into your scarves and let the dark tide pull you under.
 

 

Here’s what I think about Splinter, now that I’ve listened to it a few times: it is a dark, dense, contemplative record, rigorously constructed and at times a little chilly. A candle-lit cathedral with broken windows. It is gloomy, but pleasingly so.

And while the slower songs – and there are several – are lovely, the places where the lights that shine most brightly through the gloom are the club bangers, like Love Hurt Bleed:
 

Gary Numan - Love Hurt Bleed

 

Note: there is a remix competition going on for Love Hurt Bleed through November 25, 2013. Get on that, producers in the audience!

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Video: Villebillies, Love is Kind of Crazy

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And continuing the cannibalism theme, or maybe just going off on a little “monsters in love” tangent, here is the video for Love is Kind of Crazy by the Villebillies, of Louisville, Kentucky, which makes excellent use of both a Dusty Springfield sample and a firedancer.

 

Villebillies - Love is Kind of Crazy

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Video: Natti Vogel, Cannibal

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Here is the video for Cannibal by Natti Vogel, directed by Rebecca Rojer, and starring Vogel and porn star Colby Keller.

The song is a cabaret-pop gem about wanting to be consumed by a lover.

The video plays with and explores the definitions and conventions of “food”, “porn”, and “food porn” by simultaneously mashing them together and flipping them inside out. “Boy in a cage” is mixed with “boy about to be dinner” in one scene, while “one partner washes the other” is presented in the context of “human washes his next meal” in another. “Sensual eating” and “food photographed to look luscious” are twined together and exaggerated to the point of grossness as part of a “fattening the kill” montage.

There was also one particular sequence that made me squawk with glee, which comes at 2:40 and I’m not telling you what it is, because that will ruin the surprise.

Meanwhile, while I may never look at pomegranates or savory danishes the same way again, as soon as I recovered from the initial shock of watching this, I had a list of people I wanted to share it with right away.

 

Natti Vogel - Cannibal (Official Video)

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A Good Read A Good Listen and a Good Drink, Chris Jones, Ghost Twins

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It’s a simple yet sublime pleasure, and just thinking about it can make you feel a little calmer, a little more content. Imagine: You bring out one of the good rocks glasses (or your favorite mug or a special occasion tea cup) and pour a couple fingers of amber liquid (or something dark and strong or just some whole milk). You drop the needle on the jazz platter (or pull up a blues album on your mp3 player or dig out that mixtape from college). Ensconcing yourself in the coziest seat in the house, you crack the spine on a classic (or find your place in that sci-fi paperback or pull up a biography on your e-book reader). And then, you go away for a while. Ah, bliss.

In this series, some of NTSIB’s friends share beloved albums, books and drinks to recommend or inspire.

The last time I shared a Ghost Twins song, it was Dream On/Dream Off, which is a zippy up-tempo number. Today I bring you Unknown Animal, which starts off at the other end of the “dream noise pop” spectrum – it’s slower, and a little more unearthly – and then suddenly kicks into gear.

And I’m sharing it in video format because, you guys, this video is kind of dream-like itself. In the sense that it starts off with a “behind the scenes” vibe, detours through trippy and weird and then becomes a concert video.

 

Ghost Twins - Unknown Animal

 
After listening to the tracks, I was curious about the two gentlemen who created them. So joining us today is Chris Jones (vocals/guitar), to share a favorite read, record and drink:

A Good Read: Charles Bukowski – Come On In!

The poem This Machine is a Fountain is stuck up on my desk at work. It’s a great poem to refer back to whenever creating any type of art.

A Good Listen: The Velvet Underground and Nico
This record manages to travel across many, many genres but still retain its focus. Pop, folk, punk, rock n’ roll and avant-garde noise perfectly sit next to each other. Nobody else could have achieved it.
 
http://youtu.be/iLQzaLr1enE
 
A Good Drink: BrewDog Punk IPA.

The name and label drew me to it at first. And even if a lot of Brew Dog drinks are un-drinkable (Tactical Nuclear Penguin for example) the balance of the punk beer is pretty spot on. It also helps that I can get it from Sainsbury’s rather than having to order it from Scotland.

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Video: Fé, Time

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Good morning, NTSIBbers. Here is the video for Time, the first single from Fé, aka Ben Moorhouse and Leo Duncan, of London.

They first started writing together in a meat container under the Westway (elevated highway) that Duncan was living in at the time; he moved there after the houseboat he was living in on the Thames started taking on water.

You’d never know all of that from this song, though. It’s a mellow tune, and the video is sweet casual-stroll-through-a-lush-sunny-cider-farm moment of zen – with a little surprise at the end.
 

Fé - Time (Official Video)

 

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Colornoise, Polychronic

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Colornoise are Sonya Carmona (lead vocals/guitar) and Alison Alvarado (drums/vocals), and they are from Costa Rica. Polychronic is their second full-length record.

As you may have guessed from their name, they play experimental noise. There are aggressive guitars, steady drums, the occasional burst of bright keyboard tones, and just enough fuzz and distortion to make things interesting.

Here is Button, the first song on the record; I like the alternating guitar tones at the beginning and the thudding beat:
 

 
And Pieces, which blends some excellent menacing guitar with Carmona’s eerie vocals:
 

 
And finally, Weblocks, which might be my favorite, and is a heavy, droning meditation on net-censoring software and/or the hidden horrors of the Internet:
 

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Zero Zero, DannytheStreet

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While we’re on the subject of clearing the electronica haze out of my head (albeit briefly) there’s this awesome little piece of rock n’ roll ephemera, which I was reminded of this weekend via the magic of Soundcloud.

Also, while there seem to be a lot of Danny The Streets out there, this particular one is Gerard Way, formerly of My Chemical Romance.

 

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Le Trouble, Reality Strikes

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Le Trouble are from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Their debut EP, Reality Strikes, will be released into the wild this coming Tuesday (November 5), and if you like punk rock dance parties, you should pick it up.

Here are two songs from it, to serve an enticements.

I’ve been an a weird electronica haze lately. Mission Bell was the perfect high energy palate-cleanser. The burst of bracing guitar at the beginning is especially refreshing.
 

 
Real Talk (Part 2) for when you need to break up with your significant other right now. It is probably the bounciest kiss-off I’ve heard for a while.