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.