What Laura Says on tour

Much to my chagrin, Phoenix isn't a city known for it's bustling local music scene (well, unless you like metalcore, I guess), so when I was introduced to the music of What Laura Says (formerly What Laura Says Thinks and Feels) through a friend of mine, I was probably more surprised than I should have been to find that they were actually good. Like, really good. Good enough for me to actually be proud that they call this city home kinda good. Which was even all the more shocking since I'm typically not into the style of music they play. But their particular brand of indie, roots, and blues rock definitely makes them a band to watch.

Terpsikhore Inc., an independent upstart North Carolina-based label, agrees. The label re-released the band's previously self-released debut album, Thinks & Feels, last August. What Laura Says have also just recently kicked off a nationwide tour with Terpsikhore's flagship band, Annuals, which wraps up before What Laura Says heads to Austin to play the South by Southwest music festival in late-March. Check out the remaining tour dates below. I'm not exaggerating when I say that they put on a live show that should not be missed:


Feb 11 2009 8:00P
SPANISH MOON w/ Annuals & Jessica Lea Mayfield,
Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Feb 12 2009 8:00P
WALTER'S ON WASHINGTON w/ Annuals & Jessica Lea Mayfield
Houston, Texas

Feb 13 2009 8:00P
THE PARISH w/ Annuals & Jessica Lea Mayfield,
Austin, Texas

Feb 14 2009 8:00P
PONTIAC GARAGE w/ Annuals & Jessica Lea Mayfield,
Dallas, Texas

Feb 17 2009 8:00P
RHYTHM ROOM w/ Annuals & Jessica Lea Mayfield,
Phoenix, Arizona

Feb 18 2009 8:00P
THE CASBAH w/ Annuals & Jessica Lea Mayfield,
San Diego, California

Feb 19 2009 8:00P
THE TROUBADOUR w/ Annuals & Jessica Lea Mayfield,
West Hollywood, California

Feb 21 2009 8:00P
SLIM'S w/ Annuals & Jessica Lea Mayfield,
San Francisco, California

Feb 23 2009 8:00P
DOUG FIR LOUNGE w/ Annuals & Jessica Lea Mayfield,
Portland, Oregon

Feb 25 2009 8:00P
TBA w/ Annuals & Jessica Lea Mayfield,
Seattle, Washington

Feb 27 2009 8:00P
KILBY COURT w/ Annuals & Jessica Lea Mayfield,
Salt Lake City, Utah

Feb 28 2009 8:00P
HI-DIVE w/ Annuals & Jessica Lea Mayfield,
Denver, Colorado

March 18-21
SXSW
Austin, Texas




"July 23"

Links:
What Laura Says on MySpace
Terpsikhore

Coraline Was Pretty Awesome

Yeah, this isn't a film blog or anything, but I saw Coraline this weekend and felt like I had to share its total awesomeness at least to some degree. For those who don't know the details, it's a stop-motion animation flick based off of a 2002 Niel Gaiman children's book, directed by the guy who did A Nightmare Before Christmas and animated by Laika: an animation studio who's working to advance stop-motion techniques. They've done quite a job on Coraline, but that wouldn't mean much if the film itself wasn't so well adapted. Thankfully, director Henry Selick did an excellent job on that front. And just so I don't abandon the music focus of this blog altogether, the soundtrack, done by French composer Bruno Coulais (of The Chorus fame), will probably be in my collection at some point. Take a look at the preview:





Links:
Laika
Bruno Coulais

Revisited: Converge - Jane Doe (2001)

Revisited: Converge - Jane Doe (2001)
(Revisited is a feature in which I rediscover old albums in my collection and see how my opinions of them have changed. Today, in honor of the albums' recent induction into the Decibel magazine Hall of Fame, I wanted to post an old writing of mine that chronicles my discovery of the metal masterpiece, Jane Doe.)

People hardly ever recommend me any good music. Yeah, I said it! And I'm totally aware of the snobbish tone that such a comment suggests, and sadly I'm half serious. It's hard out there for a snob. I'm not saying people don't try to recommend music to me, nor am I saying I don't appreciate it when they do, but usually I'm already familiar with the names they mention and I either a) already own their albums, b) am planning on getting their albums, or c) have already decided I hate them. I've recommended many an artist to friends and acquaintances only to have them become obsessed with them (oftentimes becoming a bigger fan of the band than I was). I like providing that resource to people. Like a living, breathing Last FM that will read their musical tastes and give them exactly what they've been wanting to hear. But poor old me has to go about it the hard way: scouring, mainly on the internet, for reviews and mp3's, trying to stumble upon a new obsession. And some people may be thinking: well those are people writing those reviews, aren't they? Well, yes, but that's missing the point of what I desire. I want real people. People I know, who are in front of me. People at concerts or at work or at bars or barbecues, with whom I start a conversation about music and they tell me "Hey, you should really check out this band..." and to have that band be new to me, and to be awesome. Such things happen so rarely with me, or anyone, for that matter. One of those times, though, I found out about a little album called Jane Doe.

Never being one to turn down a music recommendation from an unfamiliar artist, I borrowed Jane Doe from a friend and listened to it as soon as I got home. First impression: "HOLY SHIT!". It was pretty intense, about three quiet moments on the entire thing (and two of them were the two verses of "Hell To Pay"). I couldn't see myself listening to such screaming and nonsense for any extended period of time. Still, I thought the band was decent, and I thanked my friend for the recommendation and gave him his album back.

Long story short: A year passed. I kept thinking about it. Eventually bought my own copy. Became one of my favorite albums of all time.

The very thing that kept me from really getting into the album in the first place was the exact thing that I came to respect about it: that overwhelming intensity, consistent throughout. And it wasn't just noise for the sake of noise. It was the good noise. The songs were good. Everything flowed cohesively and worked so well together as an album. And it's meant to be listened to just like that: as an album, not for just one or two specific songs. I find myself at a loss to describe the actual sound, that towering wall of sound that crumbles and buries the listener for 45 minutes. I hate using words like "punishing", but dammit, it's a good fit here.

What I've come to realize over the years is that Converge have something that other, similar bands don't have. The fact that I'm not at all a fan of metalcore and consider them to be one of my favorite bands, and this album to be one of my favorite albums, speaks to how effectively they do what they do. Many of the recommendations I have gotten from people were for other bands that are like Converge, but they never really captured my attention the same way. They couldn't control their chaos the same way. They were too much where Converge were just right. Converge know what they hell they're doing. And that had never been more obvious than on this masterpiece.



"Thaw"

Links:
Converge Cult
Myspace

Buraka Som Sistema - Black Diamond (2008)

Buraka Som Sistema
Black Diamond (2008)

It's probably foolish to debate how much attention this album would've gotten had M.I.A. not been on the lead single, "Sounds of Kuduro", so I won't spend too much time dwelling on the hypothetical. But the fact that people have actually heard of Buraka Som Sistema can probably thank she of the hottest single of 2008 (only the Amish have not heard "Paper Planes" by this point). Otherwise, this band would've likely remained unknown outside of their territory except by the most astute hipsters, who surely would've used it to throw in the faces of the less aware ("Yeah, M.I.A.'s okay, but I like Buraka Som Sistema's style better").

As the lead single suggests, Buraka Som Sistema specialize in a style of music called Kuduro, born in Angola and popular in Portugal and surrounding areas. You'd be forgiven for never having heard of it, but save yourself the trip to Wikipedia: there's very little to distinguish Kuduro from most other forms of high-BPM electronic music. It's rhythmic, danceable rave-style music, and I'm willing to wager that 4 out of 5 listeners can't tell the difference between Kuduro and any other forms of rhythmic, danceable rave-style music. You could note Kuduro's mild African flavor and the political nature of its lyrics (if any), but you'd more or less be splitting hairs.

Like most rave-style music, Black Diamond comes dangerously close to overwhelming listeners with the beat. The album starts off strong, with the aforementioned "Sounds of Kuduro" as well as "Kalemba (Wegue Wegue)" providing early highlights, but midway through the album it all starts to get tiring, and not necessarily because of a drop in song quality. The album is actually pretty consistent, but with this style of music, rigid consistency often leads to boredom.

Thank goodness, then, for "New Africas Pt. 1 and 2", which comes out of nowhere and gives Black Diamond a much needed change of pace; slowing things down before introducing a dark, brooding, dub-style beat. The two parts of the song only play for about a combined six minutes, but it's more than enough time to save this album from the mediocrity that it had been driving toward.

Buraka Som Sistema is unlikely to follow in M.I.A.'s footsteps in terms of popularity, but a follow up album that improves upon what they've done on Black Diamond may give them a legitimate shot.


Score: 7/10


"Kalemba (Wegue Wegue)"


"New Africas pt. 2"

Digital Good Time: "Night of the Living Dope"

Digital Good Time: "Night of the Living Dope"
(Digital Good Time is a feature in which xoxobra focuses on the visual side of music)

I like this song. It's really quick and energetic and enjoyable even though the lyrics are your typical party-rap fare that basically breaks down to "I like to have sex". Still, the video is perfectly fitted for the song: quick, energetic, and a little ridiculous. Directed by the up-and-coming Lance Drake, the video thrives on randomness: animated eyes composited onto Curtain's face, blatant smoke machine abuse, skittering dropped-frame playback, the crazy moving cutouts with the echo ghosting effect, the mirrored duplicates, etc. It seems the idea was to throw in as many tricks as possible within two minutes but somehow it still works. It's constantly moving, and the cuts often synch with the beat. It also helps that the film quality is great with excellent contrast and lighting. Check it:



Links:
Curt@!n$
Lance Drake

Nomo - Ghost Rock (2008)

Nomo
Ghost Rock (2008)

What lying bastards! There's nothing even remotely paranormal about this music! My research found that everyone involved in this record was alive while recording it. Furthermore, they're still alive now! Preparing for a Spring tour no less!

And just listen to the music; it's full of life! Not at all ghostly in my opinion. Well, the electric buzzing that opens the album on "Brainwave" maybe sounds a little creepy in the right setting, but it certainly didn't scare me! After that, the album just gets more and more upbeat, like a dance album actually; and how many ghosts do you know who dance!? Ridiculous. Just listen to that percussion on songs like "All the Stars" or "My Dear". Ohhhh scaaaarrrry...NOT! How can I be scared when the music just makes me want to bob my head to the beat? Poorly executed, I say. Or how about all those enormously catchy brass parts like on "Rings" and "Three Shades"? They aren't haunting at all, they're infectious. They make me want to bust a move, not piss my pants!

As if the "ghost" part of the title wasn't suspect enough, how about the "rock" part? I mean, maybe jazz-rock or afro-rock at best, but certainly not rock rock. This sounds nothing like Black Sabbath! Now there's a ghostly rock band for you. That cover for their self-titled album gave me the creeps! Plus Ozzy Osbourne dresses in all black and like, ate a bird or some shit. And he usually at least looks kinda dead. I'm sure he wouldn't approve of this Nomo band going around talking about "ghost rock" at all. Not one bit.

I don't know who you're trying to fool with your deceptive album titles, Nomo, but I've got you figured out. I'm onto your game!


Score: 8.5/10


"Round the Way"


"Three Shades"

Revisited: Jessica Bailiff - Jessica Bailiff (2002)

Revisited: Jessica Bailiff - Jessica Bailiff (2002)
(Revisisted is a feature in which I rediscover old albums in my collection and see how my opinions of them have changed)
The problem with trying to review one of my favorite albums is that the words to describe them seem to escape me. I find myself in this position now. While there are many words that can be used to describe Jessica Bailiff's self-titled album -- beautiful, passionate, personal, ethereal, dreamy, psychedelic, heavenly, etc -- none of them seem to work quite as well as I want them to. So I'll just resort to storytelling. I'll call this one Jessica Bailiff: Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love This Album.

It was the spring of 2003. Or maybe summer, I don't remember. It was hot outside and I went to a year round art college in Arizona, so it could've been any season since they're almost all the same there. Between classes I went to the computer lab to partake in the usual routine of finishing design projects last minute while listening to songs on the then functional Epitonic.com (which soon became defunct, and then years later became functional again, and now looks defunct again). I would search for artists I already liked and then view the websites recommendations for similar artists, often times going to the similar artists and checking out their similar artists and so on and so on until I ended up at an artist that sounded nothing like who I started with.

But one fateful day, sometime in 2003, in the middle of a maze of recommendations I stumbled upon Jessica Bailiff's page, where the song "Disappear", among others, were available to stream. One listen to that song and I was hooked. It was the most haunting, disturbingly enchanting thing I've heard...perhaps ever. The kind of song that just makes your surroundings seem to fade away and replaces them with the dead air of another realm. For five and a half minutes, I didn't feel like I was in a computer lab that stank of the wretched body odor of your average Game Design or Computer Animation student, I felt like I was floating at the bottom of an ocean, or maybe to another dimension altogether. It was one of the few times I can remember being truly moved by a piece of music.

Surprisingly, the whole album had that effect -- the effect that made it seem as if it could not have been recorded on this planet -- and it made for the perfect chillout listen. Still, the album hadn't really hit me just yet. I listened to it very often, yet barely considered it when thinking of the best albums I purchased that year. And I listened to it all throughout 2004 and 2005, my musical tastes changing drastically in that time. Listening to less and less indie-rock and replacing it with more and more metal and classic rock and other, more exciting genre's than what indie rock was offering at that time. Yet still I kept coming back to this album. Using it to fall asleep to or study to, the most perfect soundtrack to such things but in the best way possible.

It wasn't until sometime in 2006 where I -- recent college graduate, still in Arizona, still hot all the time, working to pay the bills, working to find a job that means more to me than something that just pays the bills -- came to realize that I've listened to this album more so than any other album in my collection. And also realizing, probably for the first time, just how incredibly good it was. And not just "Disappear". I noticed how "Swallowed" was so effective in how it introduces the album, aptly titled for how it envelopes you in its sound. I realized that "Mary" was every bit as haunting and effective as "Disappear". I fell in love with the very subtle sitar use in "The Hiding Place", and the reversed drum hits in "Time Is An Echo". There was so much to like that had never come to my attention until then. Maybe I had noticed before somewhere in the back of my mind, but now, for some reason, perhaps with the openness of a mind newly freed from the stresses of college, it was all clear.

As I write this, I have yet to buy another album with or by Jessica Bailiff. I'm almost afraid to ruin the effect of the perfection she's reached here. Sometime down the road, I'll more than likely pick up her other albums and her Clear Horizon work, and maybe they won't be quite as good, but at least I'll still have this one to come back to. The same way I've been coming back to it for years. One of the few constants of my collection. Old reliable.



"Disappear"

Links:
Jessica Bailiff at Brainwashed
MySpace