Music For Nothing

Here is an interesting article from the Onion A.V. Club/Milwaukee where they discuss the seemingly large amount of Milwaukee bands that are giving away their albums free of charge. Ryan Weber from Decibully and Eric & Magill has a nice quote in there.

http://www.avclub.com/milwaukee/articles/music-for-nothing-and-the-records-are-free-why-mil,47971/

I'm really intrigued by their reasoning. I've certainly already decided that I'll be giving away my album for free if/when it is ever written, recorded and given access to the internet. But that has more to do with my determination to prove that I can, in fact, despite what people have told me, give my music (that doesn't yet exist) away.

Eric & Magill: All Those I Know

From "Should We All Wake Up":

"Should we all wake up with nothing but our love, that should be enough".

It's a simple sentence that belies the complexity of its implication, which does a better job of describing what the record sounds like better than I ever could.

It may be an unfair comparison, but it's

the only one I can come up with: Eric & Magill's "All Those I Know" sounds like a Bon Iver record without the bullshit auto-tuned layers of falsetto self-indulgence. Actually, to compare the two at all is kind of weak. My first impression was "this sounds like a good Bon Iver record", but, really, it's far beyond that.

Eric Osterman and Decibully's Ryan Weber have crafted a dizzyingly coherent and tightly expansive record. Listening, it reminds me of early Vanderslice records, of mad scientists in t

heir lab. Not experimenting with tried and true pop sensibilities, but with the process of recording, they have crafted a unique sounding record.

There are influences from all over the place here: Irish folk and, maybe the most glaring Bon Iver comparison on "Vegetable Gardeners"; vocals pushed back in the mix a la early shoegaze; melodies that would make Brian Wilson proud, probably a lot of stuff I don't even know about.

Additionally, the songs are strong. If you were to strip away the layers and effects down to just a voice and guitar, they would be as interesting as their final product. The production of the album isn't used to make up for weak songwriting, but instead creates an environment that these songs live in, allowing the listener to explore and find new treasures with each play.

Download it for free from their bandcamp site:

http://ericandmagill.bandcamp.com/album/all-those-i-know

Thirteen

Most everyone that watched a little television in the past seven years are probably familiar with at least one Big Star song. Maybe not familiar with the actual band, per se, but their song "In the Street" was re-recorded for the theme song of that one show about all those stoners not doing anything in the 70's. It ended up sounding like KISS recorded it.

I've been thinking about this band for a while now. My friend Jeremy has their first two albums and had mentioned to me that I should get them. We were driving from Minneapolis to Des Moines one year, maybe for Christmas or Thanksgiving, when he first played Big Star for me. Somewhere along the way, I picked up their album "Radio City". Since then, I've always wanted to explore the band more, but never manage to keep them in the forefront of my mind.

I asked Jeremy a couple of weeks ago if I could borrow the albums that he owns, but he said he was driving to Des Moines for the weekend and likes to have them on hand during road trips. Until then, I'll have to amuse myself with "Radio City". From what I can tell, their first album, "#1 Record" is a little more nostalgic compared to "Radio City", which is a little darker.

I got thinking about about this band again recently after seeing Wayne Everett preform this song on the Lightbulb Mouth Radio Hour.

Called as Paul

When you think about how many people cite the Beatles as influential, it's largely considered a good thing. I always point to Millie Vanilli as one of my earliest musical influences but it is wholly as a negative as they shattered my innocent ignorance regarding corporate music. I think I was 8 or 9 when I refused to watch an episode of the Super Mario Bros. cartoon because Milli Vanilli made a (unwelcomed) guest appearance.

Even after the Beatles broke up, John and Paul continued to have a monopoly on where popular music was going. Just take a look at how Paul and Wings were completely ripped off in this Ratt video.

Granted that there were some other, less obvious and contemporary influences in Ratt's look and sound. But it's hard to deny that, a dozen years after he sang "Maybe I'm Amazed" at that concert, Paul's influence was all over Ratt like Aquanet on, well, Ratt.

Assembling Pumpkins

The Smashing Pumpkins were a band that I was really into for a while there. Then they broke up. Then they came back, zombie style, and Billy Corgan tried to convince the world that it was still the same band (it wasn't). Then Jeff Schroeder, a founding member of the Lassie Foundation joined the band, piquing my curiosity, if not making me a little worried about the future of one of my favorite bands (hint: not the Smashing Pumpkins).

TSP still haven't done anything to reclaim that Mellon Collie glory, but they've recently embarked on a 44-song project douchely titled TEARGARDEN BY KALEIDYSCOPE, that sounds better than anything Billy has done post-Machina. I'd like to think that Mr. Schroeder had something to do with it(the music, not the title). What do you think?

Road Trip Diary.

We took a drive to Stillwater, a town on the St. Croix. The last stop before Wisconsin.

Laura Veirs played on the muffled car stereo as we drove into town under a brown sky and found a parking spot right on Main Street.

After a day of seeing and doing, we turned down a road we had never been down, played the Stars as we drove through the countryside. Home was only a vague destination.

"Hospice" by The Antlers

I'm always hesitant of new music, especially from new bands. Even more especially when someone tells me I'll love it. Most of the time, it doesn't work out for me so much. This is why I wasn't too broken up about missing the Antlers open for The National a couple of months ago. I had never heard them, so I didn't know what I was missing. But most telling was that a bunch of people told me I'd probably like them.

To be fair, I already didn't like their name, which is a stupid reason to not listen to someone. The Antlers calls to mind a deer and with that a whole slew of bands with "deer" in their name: Deertick, Deerhoof, Deerhunter, Deermolester, etc. One shouldn't judge a band by their name. See: Radiohead, Starflyer 59, and Totally Wrecked (ok, maybe not that last one).

I went out west and my friend Peter was playing The Antler's "Hospice" record, which immediately made me want to know who it was. Peter and I share some musical tastes, but also butt heads on many things. I never really fell in love with Pavement, he thinks that Belle and Sebastian's "Life Pursuit" record blows.

When I came home, I bought the record. It's one that you want to listen to all the way through every time you play it, but also contains strong enough songs to stand alone (although they shouldn't). This is a concept record in the most literal sense. Not only does the album tell a cohesive story through out, but the music plays like a classical piece with themes and variations. The harrowing story tells of a narrator who becomes attached to a dying child as his relationship with his girlfriend falls apart. The imagery is stark and the metaphors are ruthlessly strong (I seriously can't pick one because they're all so good).

Now I'm all bummed that I didn't see them perform these songs live when I had the chance.