macfluffers
Or we could use this thread for talking about music. Or for me to gush about music I love. Whatever you guys want.I just recently acquired a PSP, so now for the first time since my iPod died I can listen to music when I'm walking around or at work. (Considering that I walk to class and have a boring job, this is advantageous.) Since I have more opportunities to listen to music, I'm digging around for new things to listen too.My recent addiction is a group called "Your Heart Is Breaking" (have an alternate website if you want), a folk/rock group from Toronto. (Toronto has a big music scene, eh?) You might know the lead, Andrew Huang, through "Songs To Wear Pants To Dot Com". He's a pretty impressive, not just in his skill, but in the scope of his work. He has a side project for electronic (the poorly named "Girl"), another for hip-hop (the okay-named "VS"), and yet another for experimental/progressive stuff (the more well named "The Cloud").I actually only have one music set by them , their album "Fall", which is actually a collection of rejects from their album "Autumn" (with one exception). I like Andrew's stuff, so I figured it was worth a download, and I've been pretty impressed. All the songs are good, but I'm really stuck on "The River & The Valley". It has a really good energy to it; it starts off slow and gentle, then picks up slowly. By the time the first chorus gets around, it's pretty energetic. Then, it drops again and starts over at the original rhythm. It's a great cycle that works well. Also, the poetry of the lyrics is nice and subtle. It kind of drags on at the five minute mark, but it's so good I don't mind.I figured that if the songs on "Autumn" were half as good as the "rejects" in "Fall", then it was worth a buy. I ordered it, as well as one of the last CDs of their first album "Summer" (I wonder what they'll name their albums when they run out of seasons?), but they haven't come in yet. I'll write a review once I get them.The download is free, so you might as well check it out.What's everyone else i
macfluffers
While I already liked some of the bands featured such as MxPx and Yellowcard, I hadn't heard some of the groups beforehand. The two that I want to talk about are The Outline and We Are Scientists. I'll just talk about The Outline for now, and I'll talk about We Are Scientists some other time.The Outline is an indie/experimental rock group based in Los Angeles. Their song on is "Shotgun". It didn't interest me at first, but I quickly grew to like it, and now it's one of my favorite songs. It starts out kind of mellow, with a couple of guitar chords that just echo and fade away. This sticks as the motif for much of the rest of the song, and it's just four measures of echoing chords, but damn, it's a good motif. It works when there's not much going on, as the echo completely removes any tension the music would have, and it also works when the music has more energy, as it provides both the groundwork for the melody (it is just a set of chords after all), and it helps maintain the tempo, as they've ingeniously set the echo to occur once per beat. They turned their guitar into a freaking metronome.Hot damn, that is a good motif. Where was I? Oh, yeah.As I said, the motif is four measures long, and it's the only thing that goes on at first, but a second guitar and the drums come in as the motif keeps on going, and then the energy is ramped up with with a measure long fill, followed by instrumental silence as the singer sings the first line: "It's a shotgun, baby!" It's a great way to start a song, and it goes uphill from there. The verses alternate between instrumentation and singing, which causes a slight loss in momentum (indeed, an instrumental version of this song would be much less exciting), but the energy of the singer makes up for it.However, if you're looking for deep lyrics, then...well, let's just say that The Outline doesn't put a lot of effort into making their lyrics make sense. It sounds good, which is usually good enough for me (although I think good poetry is a plus), but this is one of those bands that isn't trying to tell the world something or make a statement about anything whatsoever. They're just making cool music.The rest of the album this song can be found on is very varied. It's all different and experimental for the most part, so it might take a few listens to get used too, but it's all good stuff. The last track is actually a musical drama, of all things. (With faux British accents to boot!)I would have more albums by them, but I've been trying to get a hold of physical CDs, but apparently they only do downloads now. I prefer CDs, but I guess I'll take what I can get.For those interested, here's a live version of "Shotgun". The band's website can be found here<
