Archive for November 11th, 2009
Listing the Best Albums of 2009 by Artist from A to Z: Black Moth Super Rainbow
November 11th, 2009
Posted in Best of 2009
Black Moth Super Rainbow
Eating Us
Released May 26th on Graveface Records
“I’ve always felt like these ideas shouldn’t outstay their welcome. Three or four records is enough, because I get really bored, and I like to keep these bands and ideas as pure as I can, in their places in time, until it seems like I’ve finally gotten it right.” – Tobacco, FMLY interview
Not much is known about the members of the band Black Moth Super Rainbow, as they like to remain an enigma. The members have all taken on various monikers, like Tobacco (real name Tom Fec, main songwriter, plays the vocoder), The Seven Fields of Aphelion (female, plays keys and monosynth), d. kyler (drums), Father Hummingbird (assuming a male, plays keys and polysynth) and Ryan Graveface (guitars). Power Pill Fist (male, bass) left the band in August 2009.
They formed in Pittsburgh in 2002, formerly going by the names Allegheny White Fish (abstract, noisy music) and satanstompingcaterpillars (more melodic and serious music). The current status of the band is that they are known for their distinctive electro/experimental/psychedelic folk pop sound, using analog instruments like the vocoder, Rhodes piano, Novatron and a Moog Prodigy.
BMSR has a catalog featuring four studio albums and four EP’s. 2003’s Falling Through A Field and 2004’s Start A People feature songs from the satanstompingcaterpillars days, while 2007’s Dandelion Gum and 2009’s Eating Us do not.
Their latest effort is their shortest yet, and features singles like “Don’t You Want To Be In A Cult?” and “Born On A Day The Sun Didn’t Rise.” This album has been described as hallucinogenic easy listening, so I can only imagine what that would be like. Distorted and dreamy vocals and catchy hypnotic beats that will take you to a faraway place.
Other Artists I’d Recommend: MGMT, Stereolab
Listing the Best Albums of 2009 by Artist from A to Z: Black Lips
November 11th, 2009
Posted in Best of 2009
Black Lips
200 Million Thousand
Released February 24th on Vice Records
Atlanta’s Black Lips formed in 2000, after longtime friends Cole Alexander, Jared Swilley and Ben Eberbaugh left their previous bands (The Renegades, The Reruns). But just days before their tour was slated to begin in December of 2002, Eberbaugh was struck and killed by a drunk driver while he was parked at a toll booth. The band would continue on, stating that’s what he would have wanted.
Over the next few years, they released a few albums while slowly building a fanbase, but gained national recognition in 2006 from Rolling Stone and Spin magazines, and the New York Times. They broke out at South by Southwest in 2007, playing twelve shows in just three days. With their mix of blues, country, punk and psychedelic garage rock, Black Lips have earned a reputation for crazy and intense live shows that have included vomiting, urination, nudity, kissing, electric mini-car races, fireworks, flaming guitars and a chicken. But as the years have progressed they’ve matured and gotten a little bit away from that, noting that they have at times been kicked out of certain venues. Some of the members also play in a number of side projects, like The Spooks, TheFixedFocus, The Original Three, The Gaye Blades and Ghetto Cross.
Their most recent album, 200 Million Thousand, is their best received work yet. There’s quite a clear transition here from their previous works; where their past efforts were more messy and sloppy like their live shows, Black Lips have developed their sound, creating well crafted hooks and riffs. But it still has that crazy Black Lips personality. Don’t look for this to be one of those bands who goes from living the rock and roll dream, to calming down and concentrating on their art. Black Lips art has forever been noise and mayhem and will always be. Four stars from Spin, three from Rolling Stone, and ratings of 7.3 and 7 from NME and Pitchfork, respectively.
Enjoy the albums’ first single, “Short Fuse.”
Listing the Best Albums of 2009 by Artist from A to Z: Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears
November 11th, 2009
Posted in Best of 2009
Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears
Tell ‘Em What Your Name Is!
Released March 17th on Lost Highway Records
I often think of Austin, Texas as ”the Vegas for Music Lovers” because it really kind of is. The official nickname of the city is “the Live Music Capital of the World” and that would be because there are over two-hundred music venues in downtown and throughout the city. And it’s not just a city that every band wants to play in; they want to live there too. Austin, Texas is home to a number of great bands from Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker and Patty Griffin, to Explosions in the Sky, Spoon and Okkervil River. The latest great band to come from Austin is Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears.
Their debut album couldn’t have come at a better time, being released just in time for the South by Southwest Festival, where they had seven performances. Esquire Magazine called them one of ten bands to break out at SXSW 2009, and that they did, where not even two weeks later that album landed #1 on Austin’s Waterloo Records Top 50 Sellers List.
The album sounds straight out of the ’60s, with a fun, energetic mix of funk, soul and R&B, bringing to mind the great artists of the Stax Record label, or what it may sound like if James Brown had fronted Booker T & the MG’s.
Other Artists I’d Recommend: The Dynamites featuring Charles Walker, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Raphael Saadiq
