The release for The Mars Volta’s new album is only one week away (Tuesday, June 23rd), but all the diehards who aren’t complete audiophiles can get their fix early by streaming the album the album online here! Treat yourself today: tune in and turn up!
LISTEN: The Mars Volta, Octahedron (available 6/23)
Minneapolis is showing some love for Mogwai. It’s been a month since the Scottish post-rockers came to play the mainroom in First Avenue, and in the meantime some great audio from their stay in the city is slowly leaking from the city.
Before Mogwai took the stage on May 10th, Barry Burns stopped by U of M’s Radio K for half an hour to take over the dials and give an exclusive interview to our fine University during the broadcast of nowlikephotographs. Check it:
LISTEN: Barry Burns (Mogwai), DJ Set/Interview
And the best find of all? Empty’s Tapes linked to an exclusive live audio bootleg at The Trader’s Den that captures the band’s First Avenue performance in glorious clarity. It’s worth the download for any fan of the band; all you have to do is register for free and you can start torrenting!
DOWNLOAD: Mogwai, Live at First Avenue, 5/10/09 (FLAC Audio Bootleg)
Last week, we were on a bit of a music video kick at Mind Inversion, and it seems that this is turning out to be the week of the album pre-release streams. Yesterday, we were pleased to help spread the word about the first chance to listen to The Eternal from Sonic Youth, and today were are proud to link to a stream of Ox from Coalesce, an album that sees the legendary metallic hardcore reunite as well as reinvent themselves while maintaining their impeccable and unpredictable chops. Listen at the link below, exclusive from the dudes at Lambgoat:
LISTEN: Coalesce, Ox
The release for Sonic Youth‘s new album is only one week away (Tuesday, June 9th), but all the diehards can get their fix early by streaming the album the album online here! Treat yourself today: tune in and turn up!
LISTEN: >Sonic Youth, The Eternal (available 6/9)
No no, not Dark Was The Night, I’m talking Dark Night of the Soul. The beyond mysterious, beyond ambitious, beyond believably good album from Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse, and David Lynch. Yes the highly-acclaimed Director, David Lynch. If those three names weren’t enough to get you to listen, almost every track features a different artist in conjunction to the three main artists and producers. Everyone from the likes of The Flaming Lips and The Shins to Iggy Pop and Suzanne Vega make an appearance on the album.
The mystery that stems from the album is the way it all started. A mere month and a half ago, as posters began popping up at South By Soutwest with the name of the project and the the names of all the contributing artists, there was still very little known about any of it. Nothing leaked (surprisingly), no quotes from any of the producers surfaced, there was only that poster.
So rumors swirled, anticipation bubbled for a week or two, and then it all sort of disappeared. Dark Night of the Soul went the same as it came. It was an apparition, along with the face on the poster. So for those who still had theirs hope high that this album was actually going to happen and wasn’t going to tailspin into obscurity, I’m happy to report that it is happening, and it is as awesome as promised.
The slightly official release, indefinitely stopped by EMI because of licensing issues, will never be released with a real CD. You are more than welcome to order the album from DNOTS website, but you’ll get the over 100 page photo package that David Lynch put together with only a CD-R.
“For legal reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will.” – Danger Mouse Spokesperson
It’s worth damn near every $50 dollars though. You can stream the album over at NPR right now, as I’ve done three times already in the past two days. Although all the talk about album might eventually overshadow the music, it’s a sterling achievement of what contributing artists on an album can truly create. Though each track has it’s own individual touch thanks to the different bands, Dark Night of the Soul feels completely like one entire album, focused.
The Flaming Lips lead the first track on the album “Revenge”. A perfect example of what this album accomplishes, the vocals sound exactly like you would expect them to, and any fan of the Lips will recognize it instantaneously. But it’s the music, the production, the vision and scope of the project that takes Wayne Coyne’s voice and transform it into an echoing and eerie tale of desperation and revenge, of course.
Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse (Feat. The Flaming Lips) – “Revenge”
And that’s how most of the album plays out musically. A sound that’s probably been perfected already, but a sound that is extremely powerful. It’s easy to listen all the way through Dark Night of the Soul, a sentiment I rarely reserve for albums, but here lies one of the best albums this year. The album weaves and bends in and out of different genres at points, sometimes acoustic in the case of “Jaykub” and Jason Lytle, and other times a little blippy and bloppy on the track “Just War” by Super Furry Animals.
It doesn’t come as much of a surprise to hear David Lynch’s “Dark Night of the Soul” as the closing track. It’s slow, droning, hypnotic, and yet perfect. All you year is an echoing voice over top of a piano track that sounds like a crackling vinyl recording from many years gone by. A track that matches the spookiness and absurdity of his films, and track that matches the spookines and absurdity of this album.
Dark Night of the Soul can not go without being heard. Many times I read that an album, “simply needs to be heard by everyone.” Dark Night of the Soul simply can be heard by everyone. It doesn’t ever feel tied to specific genre, and yet the album plays like a focused piece of art. It’s a romp through rock history and modern masters. It’ll most likely be forgotten. But the advertising, the intrigue, the collaborations of all the artists make Dark Night of the Soul a must own.
Their new album, due out March 31st, is absolutely great. Peter, Bjorn, and John have really stepped up their game on Living Things, and I’m so happy to say so. I’ve been slightly disappointed by big releases from popular bands lately, but PBJ have not let me down in the least. So go check out their album and be sure to pick it up when the physical copy comes out. I’d suggest “Nothing to Worry About” or “Lay It Down”. Enjoy!
Entrenched with a musical background, DM Stith had shut music out of his like for some 20 years. Refusing to sing at age of 8 for the next two decades, Stith instead tried focusing on visual arts and writing. An attempted novel in college, along with a children’s book written and illustrated by himself, had failed. Leaving Stith with few options other than to return to the life he seems almost destined for.
With the release of his first full length album, which he began writing and recording while helping friend Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond record Bring Me the Workhorse, Stith attempts to accomplish through song what he has been wrestling with for years: “I’ve been really fascinated by some ideas about the functioning dichotomies of the mind, The crux of this idea… is that these different selves, these voices that influence the way we behave, these bundles of memory and self-protection, are things we can’t rid ourselves of.” This idea shows through in his music as well, undoubtedly so. The twelve track LP, entitled Heavy Ghost, clearly illustrates the kind of beauty and unexpectedness that Stith seeks in life. The album is littered with eclectic instrumentals, yet is grounded in the piano and strings. His vocals create stunning landscapes that match the almost ebb and flow that the album has. Flooding the listeners with tense strings, tribal percussion, and nervous piano, DM Stith is able to captivate the listeners each and every song.
It’s admittedly hard for me to try and write a solid review for this album because it’s so tightly knit. The instruments are bound to the vocals, and vice versa. Each track remains its own, but the album actually feels like an album. The patterns and repetition used throughout keeps the listener in the moment, never allowing you to become lazy or bored. Though Stith remarks about the album title that “Ghost, for me was a metaphor, not mysticism,” the piano keys seem to be a way for Stith to release his inner ghosts. It’s truly an amazing album. Heavy Ghost never lets up either, all the way through its final track “Wig,” DM Stith is able to make his formula work.
And lucky for you, if you haven’t heard any of DM Stith’s album yet, you can stream the entire thing over at Muxtape right now, I’ll post the link below. Interested in some of his other works as well? Two brilliant EPs were released before Heavy Ghost and you can find them on his website as well, below is an mp3 of the breathtaking “Just Once” off of the Curtain Speech EP. Check out his Flickr account as well.
DM Stith – Heavy Ghost 8.5 out of 10
MP3: DM Stith – “Just Once” off of the Curtain Speech EP
If there was ever an album to be described as epic, and in the actual definition of the word, not “epic” as in “cool”, this is that album. Hands down. Whether it’s a good or a bad thing, I can’t truly decide yet. Far and away the most sprawling and expansive album I’ve nearly ever heard, Spirit Animal is a rare treat for all those instrumentalist fans out there. It’s like a modern day Phish or Grateful Dead, minus the drugs and bad music, and with more synthesizers and keyboards. The shortest track runs seven minutes, three of them over 11 minutes, and plenty of tunage in between.
And I can’t tell, for the life of me, whether I like it or not. I mean sure, I can appreciate it musically and acknowledge the fact that the two guys are greatly talented, but I feel like if I was playing this in my room alone I’d rather not be caught doing so. Spirit Animal while at times mesmerizing, can get quote cheesy at time… there I said it. It’s just so, like I said, epic, that you just want to laugh at it and tell Zombi to stop taking themselves so seriously. But hey, maybe that’s it’s charm, that nothing else like this has existed on a mainstream level in a long time.
Another problem that I have with this album is that it become extremely repetitive, whether it’s in the structure of each song, or repetitive as a song itself. What Zombi does well it does very well. Heavy synth that matches the electro guitar, dark bass line, and drums that never stop, often breaking into few minute long jams that astound the listener. And all of that is great, it really is, but Spirit Animal kills it for me, sorry. I would probably be in love with this as a five track 24 minute long EP instead of this hour long five track whirlwind of an album. It’s all crazy stuff, maybe it’s over my head, I don’t know really. But what I so know is that Zombi can jam and put together some impressive material, it’s just that they do it for too long, and in an almost embarrassing fashion. I can be over kill, and it can be genius.
Lucky for you, Zombi is streaming the entire album. Or you can be lazy and grab on of the tracks below. I’d encourage checking out all of their stuff I’ve got posted here. I think you’ll definitely see what I mean about these guys. It’s worth your time.
6.5 never-ending drum solos and synth pedals out of 10
Stream: the entire “Spirit Animal” HERE
Zombi live @ the Empty Bottle in Chicago 4/28/07
From their forthcoming release on Capitol Records, slated to be releases March 24th, The Decemberists have begun streaming the title track to The Hazards of Love. It’s a little slower than some of their other material, and especially more than the other single “Rake’s Song”. The track runs fairly long too, and can become a bit boring. At nearly seven and a half minutes, “The Hazards of Love” is a promising track for the album. Like I said, it’s not overwhelming or mesmerizing at all, but it’s really solid and grounded in being good at what it’s good at. (Kind of reminds me of what I think about the new Andrew Bird album). Anyway, check it out for sure and enjoy!
Myspace stream of The Decemberists – “The Hazards of Love”
MIND INVERSION 