I've been excited about the reunion of Pavement for some time. They're one of the best alternative rock bands of the 90s, but dissolved in 1999 - when I was thirteen years old, which means I was born a bit too late to ever have a chance to see them perform live.
Last week, I decided that I want to go to the Roskilde Festival next year, which I haven't been to since 2007. And today, Pavement were announced as the festival's first headliners! Very nice pre-Christmas gift.
And speaking of Christmas arriving soon, and Pavement being back soon, here's an amazing classic Pavement song with an OK music video starring all band members dressed as Santa Claus:
Showing posts with label 90s. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 90s. Show all posts
The Beta Band were a commercially underappreciated band from Britain. They performed a blend of psychedelic rock, trip-hop, and electronica that critics creamed over.
Mp3's come from a collection of their early EP's. "Dogs Got A Bone" is a personal favorite.
from The Three E.P.'s (1997)
Metal is an underappreciated genre. Granted, the current trend of lyrical delivery that most contemporary metal bands employ is in many cases an aquired taste, and in many more an immediate deal-breaker. Metal still lies for the most part outside of the mainstream. But underneath all of this lies an abundance of aggressive compositions unexplored in most modern pop music and an emphasis on technical mastery seen little outside of most jazz clubs.
Cynic was one of the most influential and experimental groups to emerge from the early 90's Death Metal scene then experiencing its birth in Florida. Pioneering a complex and innovative brand of what can best be described as jazz-metal, Cynic released a groundbreaking debut, Focus, in 1993. This album explored the aggression, technical prowess, and speed typical to other death metal releases, but set Cynic apart from other bands with smooth clean breakdowns, rhythmically challenging songs, and an interesting mix of death growls and vocoders.
Cynic's most recent release, Traced In Air, takes the band in a much more mature direction, abandoning the laser speed and chug based riffs in favor of slowing down and mellowing out without pussying out, leaving them with a more balanced, and overall much more awesome sound. This band is without a doubt one of the most shining examples of what metal has the potential for. They come with a very high recommendation.
February 13, 2009
WTF Happened To Them? Cocteau Twins
Etiketter:
90s,
non serviam,
shoegaze,
wtf happened to them?
Cocteaus Twins were a highly prolific Scottish outfit active throughout the 80's and early 90's. Extremely influential to both the Post-Punk and Shoegaze bands that followed them, Cocteau Twins had a sound that was like no other, as well as a consistently evolving and maturing style. Walls of effects-saturated guitars propelled by Elizabeth Fraser's impressive and almost nonsensical vocals (buried in the mix, of course) are pretty much the M.O. here.
After a few releases in the 90's, Cocteau Twins broke up, due to creative differences. No dead members, drug problems, just plain ol' fading away.
"Cico Buff" is a track from their fifth LP, Blue Bell Knoll, released in 1988. I consider this their best release, as later albums are more radio-friendly pop than the more dreamy, ethereal 80's releases. The video is of a live performance of "Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops" from 1984.
Dinosaur JR - Just Like Heaven (The Cure cover)
Broken Social Scene - Feel The Pain (Dinosaur JR cover)
No Age - It's Oh So Quiet (Bjørk cover)
I know I'm a bit late, but I'm finally following up Jack and Girl Scout's cover song sharing. First up is one of the 90s best bands covering one of the 80s best. The in-your-face guitar solos, heavy soundscape and raw vocals of Dinosaur JR combined with the excellent lyrics and ingenious melody of The Cure makes for a cover song that truly takes the best from two worlds. The only downside is the very odd ending. Don't start worrying that there's something wrong with you mp3 file - it's the same on the physical album.
Next is Broken Social Scene, a 00s band covering their heroes from when they grew up: Dinosaur JR. I love this cover because the band's just strutting with positive attitude and genuine love for music - it's not hard to imagine how good the atmosphere in the crowd must have been as well during the recording. Also, this song is great because Broken Social Scene here give a rare explicit reference to their "heavier rock" influences. Influences that have only been hinted on in a very few songs, such as Cause = Time, which is quite different from the band's usual post rock and ambient influenced music.
Finally, one of my favorite new discoveries this year doing a cover of one of my absolute favorite female artists. I saw Björk live in Japan in February, and saw No Age at a festival in Norway in August. Both shows were stunning experiences that I'll remember when thinking back on the music year of 2008. Imagine my excitement when I found this song a few months back - No Age doing a spectacular rework of a Björk classic. I became a No Age fan at their concert, and this song made me even more confident about the great potential the young duo has.
I hope everyone survived their final exams, and wish you all happy holidays!
Non-Dairy Creamer
I can't even imagine the flack I'll get for doing a 3eb post, but I think they're a severely underrated band: Jenkins' sense for melody is impeccable and I'm a sucker for his lyrics saturated with sex and drug comments. If you don't think they're underrated, then I'll meet you half-way and call them guilty pleasure.
Non-Dairy Creamer is supposedly the first single chosen for Ursa Major, 3eb's long awaited follow-up to 2003's Out of the Vein. The album has allegedly been in the works for 5 years; most of the instrumentals were completed long ago, the delay was apparently because Jenkins' had writer's block in drafting the lyrics. There have been reports that Ursa Major's lyrics will be more political than the band's prior albums which had me worried (I feel like few bands nowadays can successfully pull off political commentary), but if Non-Dairy Creamer is any indication of how the rest of the album is lyrically, it's definitely a pleasant surprise. The song is classic 3eb pop, catchy as hell, has a ridiculous string-laden breakdown about halfway through, and is lyrically both humorous and clever. I'm excited for Ursa Major.
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