Some quick news doing the round at The Peninsula:
Do you like British Sea Power? Sure you do! Check out their great new single at spin.com.
Filter is back! Richard Patrick talks about the new Filter record at Blabbermouth.
A new R.E.M. record? Released on april the first? Michael Stipe says it’s a rocker
Oh, my stars and vibratos! Now music gets sponsored. Well, Coldplay sold out anyway, but this sponsored-music program sounds bad. Real bad. For the artists. This does not bode well.
by Sam.
Hello again! Another week, another batch of records to check out!
Electrelane – No shouts no calls This little gem, from the now-extinct group from Brighton, is a bit of a change to their previous works. Not that it matters, since it sounds so good from beginning to end. The greater times kick starts the album and it never lets down on the energy, the wicked organ and the “oooh aahs!”. Cool instrumentals like Between The Wolf and The Dog and The Lighthouse add some extra variation, while nice, soothing voices bring some slight sense of tranquility in Saturday and To the east. These English girls will be sorely missed. Take a bow, girls.
Best tracks: ALL OF THEM! Tram 21, Saturday, The lighthouse.
Check it out if you dig: The Lo-fi genre. I can’t think of a single group to compare with (although those brummie fellas from Broadcast feel like a distant cousin).
Want a second opinion?
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/42641-no-shouts-no-calls
http://www.spin.com/reviews/2007/06/0706_electrelane/
http://www.nme.com/reviews/electrelane/8386
The Grails – The Burden of hope A very solid album that fuses space rock with post rock and some nice little servings of country. Burden of hope (the opening track) permeates slowly, with a menacing slow pace that takes you up by surprise after the one minute mark. The deed sounds like the preamble to a little high noon shoot out in a corridor-filled space station. There’s a very interesting cover of Space Prophet Dogon (originally by Sun City Girls), which is segued in from the previous song, Invocation. This cover gives respect to the original, but they manage to imprint their own kind of madness in an already demented song. If the crew of Firefly ever needed a rocking album, this would probably be doing the rounds aboard Serenity.
Best tracks: Burden of Hope, The deed, Space Prophet Dogon, White Flag, the solemn Canyon Hymn.
Check them out if you like: Post rock groups like Slint, Godspeed! you Black Emperor and Dirty Three.
Want a second opinion?
http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/1297
http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=31624
http://music.barnesandnoble.com/search/product.asp?ean=658457102923
Foo Fighters – Echoes, silence, patience and grace This very mixed album is hard to categorize: it sticks to a formula of “quiet start, then erupt” that is becoming a little too repeated on Foo Fighters’ albums. The album doesn’t feel comfortable until track 3, Erase/Replace, which is a great song followed by another nice little one called Long Road to Ruin. Ruin is where the next song Come alive takes us. Again, the quiet, almost whispered start and then explosive middle, feels too samey and stagnant. It’s done much better on the But, Honestly track. There’s some good tracks in the album (ballad of Beaconsfield miners, Stranger things have happened), but sadly I can’t really recommend it enough. Try their first two records if you are going to start to listen to the Foos. It is step forward from their last two or three albums, in my humble opinion.
Best tracks: Erase/Replace, Long road to run, ballad of Beaconsfield miners.
Want a second opinion?
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/45760-echoes-silence-patience-and-grace
FrillyTwitter!