Artist Spotlight: Shizune

Like last years Mahria, Shizune are a band that has completely blindsided me.  Featuring a brash, aggressive sound, they draw inspiration from a wide range on the emo/post-hardcore spectrum.  Hailing from Japan, they share surprisingly few influences with their fellow countrymen Envy and Heaven in Her Arms.  Instead, Shizune sound quite a lot like Pianos Become the Teeth, Loma Prieta, and even Touche Amore.

Their seven track self-titled debut is a refreshing dose of heavy screamo explosions and cathartic post-hardcore anthems.  "Days of Vaestana" stands out as especially notable, blending the aformentioned sounds into one short, beautiful package.  It displays an intensity not often seen in today's music, whilst also displaying a wonderful sense of passion and emotion.

Shizune aren't well known and that's a shame, becuase if they're debut is any indicator, they're doing screamo better than a swarth of bands out their today.  You can, and should give their self-titled a listen.  They are streaming it for free on their bandcamp.  If you like what you hear, then download it for free as well, and most importantly, spread the word!

Listen and download here

Album Review: Quiet Steps - Secular

Album Rating: B

So, back in 2010 when everyone was listening to The Saddest Landscape, Iselia, and Loma Prieta, did you by chance happen to pick up Quiet Steps rather marvelous Think Aloud?  Didn't think so.  And really, it's hard to blame you, as Quiet Steps haven't really made a big splash anywhere, even in their home country of Australia.  Gliding beneath the surface, this emo troupe has yet again released another remarkable album worthy of the praise and recognition they never received with their debut.  Secular, the band's sophomore record, may not be in quite the same vein as Think Aloud, but it is everything the you could want and more.

Album Review: The Magnetic Fields - Love At The Bottom Of The Sea

Album Rating: B

Although you're safe in the knowledge that you're following one of the most charming and dependable bands in the indie world, being a fan of The Magnetic Fields can still be mightily frustrating. This emotion stems largely from the fact that Stephen Merritt constantly places checks and barriers on his own creativity, and although this has resulted in some wonderful achievements the argument that he's distilling his own outrageous talent is equally compelling. 69 Love Songs is obviously the prime example of this somewhat curious approach paying dividends, but the synth-less trilogy of i, Distortion and Realism released since have fared less well, with numerous instances of Merritt's genius weighed down by a lack of consistency brought about by such restrictions. The gems within those records were worth the price of purchase alone, but all three left a distinct sense of what could have been, and to all intents and purposes, Love At The Bottom Of The Sea is a continuation of that pattern.

Album Review: I Call Fives - Someone That's Not You

Album Rating: B-

New Jersey natives I Call Fives have been a small name in the pop punk scene for quite some time now. After signing to Pure Noise Records, the group has put out an EP to build hype for their debut LP, to be released this summer. After a few years of lurking in the shadows, they’re soon to be right in the spotlight. The pressure is on, but whether or not I Call Fives can deliver is a bit of a mystery.

Someone That’s Not You is a 7" sporting only 4 tracks, and it seems that they weren't concerned about front loading the release. The EP kicks off with a bang as opener and title track “Someone That’s Not You” quickly builds into a ferocious pop punk jam. It's an impressive specimen that highlights the more recent trend toward hardcore influenced songwriting and energy in pop punk (think Veara or The Story So Far). The group goes so far as to incorporate a hardcore shout as an alternative vocal presence, which feels ever so slightly forced, but not out of place enough to really detract from the song. Driven with great purpose, the track sets the tone for the rest of the release.

Album Review: The Men - Open Your Heart

Album Rating: B+

Truth be told, this year has thus far probably spawned as many disappointments as it has true successes, with even previously dependable sources proving prone to the odd blip. Hardcore stalwarts Ceremony are a prime example of such, with their new album Zoo joining the likes of Born To Die and Reign Of Terror among 2012's biggest let downs, and despite their stylistic differences, The Men's third LP draws plenty of parallels with that record. The key point of comparison is that both albums have seen the bands in question sacrifice much of the extremity which characterised their earlier work in favour of new, more accessible sounds, but while Zoo has had to bear the burnt of a mixed critical reception and sheer derision from fans, Open Your Heart sees The Men take strides which are as vital as they are bold, and should establish them as a force to be reckoned with in the modern punk scene.

Album Review: Listening Mirror - Resting in Aspic

Album Rating: B+

Ambiance... If I were to make the cardinal sin of comparing music to art - which, I assure you, I would never even dream of doing - I would liken ambient music to just one curved line on an otherwise blank canvas. The point of it all? To ask that question would be to miss the... idea. Unlike conventional music, ambient does not try to convey a particular message, nor does the message even matter. No, think of an ambient piece as the very beginning on a journey to a point; any point. What matters is how your mind travels from that starting position; which sound-tinted thought it springs to. It’s music for thinking men with time on their hands to think, and this is precisely the rut that Listening Mirror nestles into.

Artist Spotlight: Salad Days

When it comes to making music, you can trace the picture and color in the spaces or you can draw the lines.  Kyle Bogue, the force behind Philadelphia/Pittsburgh based act Salad Days, knows a thing or two about drawing those lines.  Quiet As Its Kept, the result of an extended period of intermittent recording bursts that happened to take place in the bedroom next to mine, is the start of a musically-inclined mind's plunge into the wonderful world of recording.  Swirling, fuzz-laden guitar lines and the most fatalistic of piano interludes all converge with Bogue's angst-fueled songwriting to form a truly refreshing listening experience.  Closer 'Another Decembered Saturday,' takes all the right cues from a track like Bomb the Music Industry!'s 'Future 86' while adding its own spice to the mix and salt to the wound.  I'd be remiss not to proclaim 'Let Down' as one of the most engaging and accessible boy/girl duet tracks since +44's 'Make You Smile'. Its youthful air calling to mind the quintessential jealousy-mired adolescent love story.  Despite falling victim to the quality troubles associated with bedroom-based recording, Quiet As Its Kept presents listeners with a glimpse into the eccentrically musical mind of Kyle Bogue, a mind that hopefully continues to find sonic outlets for its ideas in the future.


Hear Quiet As Its Kept and download it on a name-your-price basis on Salad Days' Bandcamp.

Album Review: GPSYMTH - Ripostes

Album Rating: B

Between my bouts of hardcore and metal listening, and somewhere within the confines of my abhorrent love of post-rock lies a general admiration for all things dreamy and poppy. The hooks, catchy lines and comforting atmosphere always seem to hit me in all the right places.  Memoryhouse's newest found this little fact out last month, and it now seems that GPSYMTH's Ripostes have found it out as well.

Artist Spotlight: Rambos

If there's one thing worth appreciating about a band like Rambos, it's their refusal to take themselves as a band - or anything at all - too seriously.  Considering the fact that the group's Facebook page "likes" include everything from Tom Waits and Stiff Little Fingers to The Daily Show and pseudo-news network The Onion, it becomes readily apparent that the Chicago-based quintet have their heads caught somewhere between bourbon-soaked ballads, classic punk jams, and the comical, self-absorbed tendencies of the human race.  Rock and Roll Monsters is a testament to all three of these things - tracks like 'Hiawatha' and 'Chuck Taylors' are as quick to critique humanity as they are to laugh at it, doing so with the airy and youthful disposition of a group of kids that are, if nothing else, enjoying the hell out of their time here.  Each song reverberates with the openness of an old abandoned foyer, lending an abundantly retro feel to the record, almost as if it was intentionally recorded a generation too late.  For Rambos, the time to shout it out loud is right now; Rock and Roll Monsters embodies this explosive attitude and delivers the funk-tinged, punk-fueled tracks to back it.

Hear tracks from Rock and Roll Monsters on Rambos' Facebook, or head over to their official website for more about the band and their new album.

Album Retrospective: Sigur Ros - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust

Album Rating: A

We use the word beautiful everyday but probably could not come up with a clear definition of what it really means. We cannot come up with a clear definition of what is beautiful because beauty is somewhat conditional. What is beautiful to me might be ugly to another person, and what is beautiful to that person might be something that I think is totally disgusting. It is why we have people who hang crosses in their living room and other people that want to hang them from those crosses, it is why we have people who are addicted to porn and why we have people who get their porn from a PBS special on "The Lost Dinosaurs," and, it is why a snobby white basketball player looks beautiful to Duke fans but looks like a jackass to the rest of America. It is tough to define beauty as anything but conditional.

Artist Spotlight - Beach House

By looking at a lot of artist names and album titles, the words "beach", "teen", and "dream" (chillwave artists are mainly guilty of overusing these words) seem to pop up so often that the mood that they are used to convey in accordance to the music has become so trite to me that I often completely avoid music that attempts to evoke the hazy and carefree feeling of being a teenager spending a whimsical day at the beach with your significant other. But once Beach House (possibly the most quintessential act in dream pop today) dropped their third LP, entitled Teen Dream in 2010, it came off as trying so hard that I just had to give it a listen. And of course, everything from the refreshing production to Victoria Legrand's ethereal contralto completely floored me, especially on tracks such as "Zebra" and the popular song-of-the-year contender "Norway". And now Beach House has returned with a new track, "Myth". From a mysterious news exchange between Exclaim and other publications, it is hard to judge whether the duo's alleged fourth LP, Bloom, is really coming out this May or not, but "Myth" (which appears as the opener on the tracklist that Exclaim reported) is definitely hard evidence that something is on its way. Judging from "Myth", Beach House has not deviated too far from the dream pop formula of Teen Dream. While it would be interesting to see how the duo could have progressed since their 2010 hit, more of the ethereal beauty and teenage dreaminess that the group pulled off so impeccably is certainly no less than welcome.


"Myth" can be streamed here.

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3/8 UPDATE: Pitchfork has reported that Bloom has been confirmed, as well as a spring and summer tour. It will be released May 15 on Sub Pop in the U.S. and Canada. According to a press release, the band says the album was written "between countless sound checks and myriad experiences during two years of tour". A full tracklist and tour dates can be seen here. 

Album Review: Sun Glitters - High EP

Album Rating: C+

Witch house, post-dubstep, dark-chillwave... I think it says a lot about a movement when so many phrases are coined to describe it. Call it cynicism, but it’s my opinion that music has reached a point where we have too many genre-tags to juggle. Whenever a revolutionary album emerges, it seems, we have a handful of journalists eager to be known as “the one who created the term ‘x’”. So how’s this for a handy one-word description? Intoxicating. The swollen landscapes of bass, subtle melodies, and minimalistic percussion topped-off with heavily modified, easy to grab vocal samples results in the kind of music that fills your mind and frees the soul; its steadily encroaching patterns inviting you to lose yourself. This is the genre Victor Ferreria fits neatly into. His debut full-length under the moniker Sun Glitters, Everything Could Be Fine, showed him experimenting with the genre by off-setting the expected dark atmosphere with an almost Boards of Canada-esque optimism. The warmer textures and beautifully endearing vocals helped distance Ferreria from his competition, and while the conflicting motifs caused the album to stall occasionally, it nevertheless remained a captivating and incredibly interesting record.

Album Review: Bruce Springsteen - Wrecking Ball

Album Rating: A-

Bruce Springsteen is 62. That probably shouldn’t come as much of a surprise given that he’s been in the music industry for a good 40 years, but for the majority of Wrecking Ball that’s a fact which beggars belief. Channelling the gulf between American dream and American reality as vivaciously as ever, The Boss appears to have reached a comfort zone in his longstanding existence whereby he’s well over his pre-millennium dodgy spell yet isn’t expected to touch the heights that he reached during his classic period. Such stability has done little to quell the internal fire, though, and as such this seventeenth studio LP finds him addressing his numerous gripes with the same conviction and earnesty that’s made him an icon not just in the USA but the world over.