Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Mt. Egypt and Band of Horses at the Grey Eagle tonight, June 19

Hey all you hep cats. Don't forget that there's a damn good show at The Grey Eagle tonight (June 19th) with....

...Mt. Egypt

"Travis Graves is the singer/songwriter/frontman/forest ranger for Mt. Egypt, a band of honesty, sensitivity, romance and greatness that nods its musical head in the direction of The Flaming Lips, Willie Nelson, The Walkmen, Cat Power, Will Oldham, James Mercer, Neil Young and Leonard Cohen."

..and Band of Horses

"Guitarist/vocalist Ben Bridwell and guitarist Mat Brooke formed Band of Horses in 2004, after the dissolution of their nearly ten-year run in northwest melancholic darlings Carissa's Wierd. Carissa's Wierd trafficked in sadly beautiful orchestral pop, whose songs told unflinching stories of heartbreak and loss, leavened with defeatist humor. And, Band of Horses rises from the ashes of that well-loved and short-lived band. After playing music with each other for over a decade, Bridwell and Brooke picked up together again when Bridwell began fleshing out his compositions post-Carissa's. "It was really just a natural thing we started doing," explains Bridwell. Buoyed by Bridwell's warm, reverb-heavy vocals (which strangely channel a dichotomous blend of Wayne Coyne, Brian Wilson and Doug Martsch,) Band of Horses' woodsy, dreamy songs ooze with amorphous tension, longing and hope."

Monday, June 19, 2006

New Al Qaeda Head Deemed to Have Sufficient “Crazy-Eyes” to Run Organization.

Asheville Disclaimer News - June 15, 2006: 2:17 PM EDT- Days after the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Al Qaeda in Iraq issued a press release announcing its new leader Egyptian-born Abu Ayyub al-Masri. Members of Al Qaeda are very excited, but are wondering if he will maintain their current sick-day policy or get rid of Hawaiian burqa Fridays.

“Regardless of his leadership skills," said an al Qaeda spokesman, "we felt he had mastered the crazy eye needed to be a great al Qaeda leader. Leadership skills are great, but when you’re cutting the head off a hostage on TV, it’s really about the look. Even more than that, it’s about that “crazy eye” look. We think he’s nailed it.”

In a press release by al-Masri himself, he said that his past beheading experience, his many terrorist workshops, and his BA in Infidel Destruction and The Explosive Arts lets him bring to the table a cache of valuable work experience, not to mention a face full of “crazy eye”.

“I look forward to bringing al Qaeda in Iraq into the new millennium. I see our beheading output tripling. I see many new things exploding. It’s really an exciting time to be in Iraq. I look forward to the short time I have left before I’m martyred by a large American bomb. ”

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Album Review; About - Bongo


About - Bongo
(2006, Cock Rock Disco)

A glance at the cover of Bongo would indicate that it is maybe the product of a rap/rock outfit from your local high school. That assumption is not the least bit accurate by the way. Those poorly drawn animal heads pasted on heroin chic bodies merely represent the cut & paste, deconstructionist nature of the album in question.
About is not a band but in fact a studio and stage project by Amsterdam's own Rutger Hoedemaekers. The album Bongo is the result of three years and several collapsed lungs worth of work.
High energy, creative and catchy to the extreme, Hoedemakers rearranges samples and snippets of collected sounds and lays them next to his own recorded material for an eclectic, indie/electro fun fest. About comes across as playfully disjointed with the starts and stops and the hopping of genres between tracks. That incongruity never really disrupts the pop aesthetic of each individual song however. Trendy as the style is, I can't deny that Bongo is as anjoyable as anything the genre has to offer.
The caveat emptor on this one is that the album comes with a mere 32 minute running time and five minutes of that is cluttered, pointless filler. Songs like " Furry Dice (dangling from the guitar)" and "Boo (Hoo)" are pointless excursions and serve no purpose other than boosting the album's playing length over half an hour.
Still, all gripes about the filler aside Bongo is, for the most part, one catchily dancetastic release. I plan to use most of these songs on various summer mixes for family and friends. However it would've been tighter and had more impact as an EP.

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Album Review: Candy Bars


Candy Bars - On Cutting Ti-Gers in Half and Understanding Narravation
(2006, New Granada Records)

I don't even know where to start. Most people read the first few scentences of an album review, just enough to get the gist of a band's basic style, and then move on. That would be the wrong thing to do in this case. You see a certain musical trio from Tampa called Candy Bars has come along with a debut album that is completely one thing without be everything you're tired of about that one thing. That one thing (and stick with me to the end on this) is dreamy, orchestral dream pop.
You'd be right to say that the genre's resurgence is getting old fast. Most of the groups sound identical and are steeped in cliche. What Candy Bars reminds us is that ANY genre, no matter how stagnant, still has the potential to be thrilling and vital as long as there is genuine effort by the artist to find his or her own voice. In the case of Candy Bars that voice is the menacingly eerie whisper of vocalist Daniel Martinez.
With their debut, On Cutting Ti-Gers in Half and Understanding Narravation, the members of Candy Bars have restored some of the mystery to psychodellic pop. They've made a melancholy album of remarkable textural depth that sinks its hooks deeper into your heart with each repeat listening. The music swells and unfurls in a breathingly loose and organic fashion without transgressing into long-winded freeform boredom. The core instrumentation consists of guitar, drums and cello although there's plenty of auxillary layering throughout the album's 11 tracks making On Cutting Ti-Gers far more rewarding through the magic of stereo headphones.
As for the Martinez's lyrics, they almost make sense some of the time and then suddenly flee from grasp and into a surreal, semi-decipherable haze. With the typical passage being in the vein of, "A closed-eye Houdini with a deck of breath plays silk harp in the morning." you should know that these words have no intention of revealing any sort of meaning. Their true function is that of conjuring of vivid but mysterious imagery which may sort of allude to whatever the song is about if indeed it is about anything....ahem.
At it's lowest point On Cutting Ti-Gers... is still a damn good recording and although the album's second half isn't nearly as rivetting as the first, there's still quite a bit of melody and dreaminess to be enjoyed. It isn't quite slowcore, it isn't quite psychodellia and it isn't quite chamber pop but Candy Bars incorperates elements of all three genres into something at once distinctive and familiar.

Monday, June 05, 2006

Wes McDonald playing this Saturday

Hey folks, just letting you know that Wes McDonald will be playing at Jack of the Wood this coming Saturday (June 10th). If you're unfamiliar with his rock stylings then scroll down and read my review of his new album. Better yet drop by the Disclaimer website website www.ashevilledisclaimer.com and listen to his songs on the music page's jukebox.