bengt-erik norum

heard a band that i was pretty sure the dj referred to as "the moan", on a reasonably mainstream fm radio station, couple weeks ago. it immediately struck me as something i should be embarrassed to be so excited about. it sounded like a much more heavily produced version of "the donnas." female vox singing campy, trite and formulaic lyrics backed by driving guitars hitting stereotypical power chords; i'm sold.

google search for "the moan" hit a couple restaurants and some other mildly interesting links... but not this band. "da moan" (maybe they spell it dumb?) suggested the spelling "damone". damone.net, that's it! complete with a little streaming flash thing of the single i heard. looks like they have a forthcoming ep "out here all night" that, based on their bio, `rocks harder' than their first, "from the attic".

i pulled down some 192kbps mp3s of the first album and, while i should be embarassed to admit that i love it, i do. it's not artistically unique, talented (but not bad), and the production is a little heavy... but... i love it. i guess there's no accounting for taste.

the lyrics differ from the donnas' `we rock and you don't, so go away' and `i'm a horny teenage grrl' themes, but retain some of the jealous energy i guess i like:

who's that in your chevelle?
is she your girlfriend now?
does she know the hell that comes
and its automatic when your gone.
i feel the fall tonight.
deem me the one denied.
skies come too big too high,
from an understanding crowd to know.
feel bad vibe is coming.
feel bad vibe is coming.
i found the one you tell
keeps all your secrets held.

bonus points for the chorus containing a reference to a muscle car.

2005 was a good year for music discovery. i found bands that'd been around for awhile and i'd missed, albums from bands i knew, and new bands. i'm pretty sure that getting my personal life somewhat straightened out let me pay attention to music. music has always been a big part of my life, but there's a gap where i let myself get distracted with other "stuff".

i made a list of bands and albums that i completely flipped over, when i heard/found them. i couldn't bring myself to rank them, in any way. i'll post about each of the bands on my list, as i have time.

calexico
this was an amazon suggestion from early in 2005. i initially disregarded it, as i'd been disappointed in the amazon suggestions i'd previewed in the past. mid-summer, i decided to take a trip to the record store and ran back through a running list of 'music to check out' that i'd been keeping, amazon suggestions, and soul seek's recommendations. i listened to a couple tracks from 'feast of wire', their 2004 release and almost kicked myself for not buying it earlier. the name conjures images of tex/mex style country-folk. it's not. while the music is dominated by latin rythims and vocals flip-flop between english and spanish, the most infectious tracks let you forget that the band is from tuscon, az (with members from berlin, germany, btw). needless to say, i bought 'feast of wire' on that trip to rasputin. i've since picked up the black heart single, convict pool (2004), even my sure things fall through (2001), hot rail (2001), and scraping (2002). i also found a couple bootlegs on soul seek and some band sanctioned recordings on archive.org.

favorite tracks are 'crystal frontier' and 'black heart.' crystal frontier (off 'hot rail'), particularly performed live, is just flat amazing. the combo of electronics, horns, acoustic guitar and vox force me into involuntary head bouncing and foot tapping. black heart is reminiscent of portishead (really!) with smoking overblown organs and dark lyrics. black heart manages to use strings without manipulating the listener. also check out 'quattro' and 'praskovia' for a sense of the band's range.

i missed seeing them at the warfield with iron and wine a few months back. i'll definately be keeping an eye open for another local-ish show, though.

their album art is reminds me of the linoblock work on the kmfdm album covers done by a man named "brute!"

i said i wouldn't rank or pick a favorite, but the fact that i couldn't wait to spout about how wonderful calexico is? i think they're very near the top, if not the.

if i were to write a movie script? i'd select the soundtrack first and write the screenplay around it.

i'd avoid strings, even tasteful strings in rock songs. they're cheap and manipulative.

back to reading poorly written kb articles on tcp tuneables in windows...

brighteyes
i first heard brighteyes on soundcheck on live 105 (kits fm). soundcheck is a weekly programmed by the music director that tends to play newer stuff from the college circuit and newer music that sometimes breaks on the 'alternative rock' charts. i get the feeling that he plays two types of music: stuff he likes and stuff he wants to gauge the reaction to. he played 'rest of my life' off 'digital ashes in a digital urn'. i was shocked at how truly vulnerable it was. i mean, i was moved by a song on the damn radio. what the hell is that? pecked the name into my phone and downloaded the album that night. i was impressed with the rest of the album, though none of the remaining songs had quite as dramatic an effect as 'rest of my life'. while he's certainly not the only artist i've heard that sounds like a 'solo white guy writing good songs and singing them in his bedroom with a fostex 4 track just trying to be honest' he's certainly not derivitive. i stole copies of 'lifted or the story is in the soil, keep your ear to the ground' and 'fevers & mirrors' from nicole, when she bought them. the former has higher production value (without losing the honest feel to his songs) and, to my ear, holds up to more frequent listening than 'fevers & mirrors'. 'make war' off 'lifted, or...' has a country slide guitar backdrop that makes me smile.

raveonettes
heard 'love in a trashcan', the single off 'pretty in black' on sirius' satellite radio's "left of center" channel. i liked the late 50's/early 60's hollow bodied guitar reverby sound and imperfect two-part harmonies. as it became a staple on a couple of the "left of center" shows, it got stuck in my head and i decided that i'd look them up. they're danish and "pretty in black" is their 2005 release. i grabbed it, right away. the rest of the album is really good, though not as catchy as the single. it has a 50's "teenage dreamboat" sound to it, including the cover of 'my boyfriend's back.' i had to look at the writing credits a couple times, just to verify that the songs weren't all covers. touring heavily, they opened for depeche mode on 'playing the angel' tour. even though i made that show, i missed the raveonettes. my coworkers were all about seeing depeche mode and for all they knew, "depeche mode" had decided to have drunken rodeo clowns open for them. (ok, maybe not. they (and i) would have decided to watch that.) anyway, their 50's-revivalist sound holds up to repeated listens quite well.

music that's made the last few weeks bearable.

billy talent
black strobe
eagles of death metal
hazel adkins
idaho
tortoise
metric
ratatat
dean martin
spiderbait
the smiths
white stripes
elvis
elliott smith
skinny puppy
portishead
fujiya and miyagi
bad brains
the black keys
ladytron
the donnas (yes, still)
the apples in stereo
lisa loeb
yardbirds
reverend horton heat
billy bragg
the knife
neutral milk hotel
cracker
x
johnny cash
bmrc
le tigre
morphine
magnetic fields