The Greenery

The Greenery 

(Long Beach, California)

A show on sunday night is one of two things: Empty or nonexistent. That being said a show on the night before most high schools go back after winter break might as well have been booked on the moon. 

The Scene: A Sunday night show booked the night before San Antonio high schools go back after winter break. Picture this, about three paying customers and a smattering of band members totaling to about 12 people show up to see The Greenery. The young band's first tour supporting it's first EP was on it's third date when it rolled through San Antonio, which is, of course, when I got to sit down and chat with lead singer Matt Lanners about the band's outlook on life: 

"We all decided that we weren't going to be the next Beatles or Rolling Stones but we are going to have a lot of fun."

at which point Brandon Richardson chimed in

"That's our motto, No Music, All Movement"

.. The set was filled with more raw energy then anyone expects to see with such a poor attendence.
The band (Jokingly calling the show their best practice session ever) pulled off an amazing performance,no doubt, fueled by the members astoundingly young ages ranging from 19 to 20.

The Greenery's First EP entitled The Party Animal is available free at the band's Myspace.

Myspace

Pure Volume

For Fans Of: The Bronx

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Grand Ole Party

Grand Ole Party
(San Diego, California)

Grand Ole Party appeared out of nowhere and blew out my brains.

The Scene: I download about 20 new songs a week and I pride myself on the fact that I never, ever, forget a band or song. January 2nd, my iPod on shuffle and the opening lick of "Look Out Young Son" swings in. Immediately I am perplexed and intrigued by this creeping, driving music (Enter Kristen) the young female drummer of the group begins singing "I must be the Devil's daughter". I have never heard this song or this band before and somehow it not only found it's way onto my iPod but ended up stuck in my brain immediately making me a fan of the band after only one song. I check the screen and it was Grand Ole Party who appeared out of nowhere and blew out my brains.

The drums, bass, axe trio leave little to improve upon. Impressing someone with a 7000 track iPod on the strength of one song is not an easy feat but Grand Ole Party did it. Debuting with all the swagger of early White Stripes anf the vocal presence of Joplin on some form of crack or heroin the first album Humanimals should be on everyone's music buying list.. While the sound is laid back and almost bleeds an essence I like to call sexy/cool it manages not to sound too corny or dare I say, gay. WIth big beats, creeping guitars, and most of all the most beautifully rhythmic voice that ever sang Grand Ole Party really is something to keep your eyes on.

Try: Look Out Young Son

Total Downloads: Unfortunately some things in life aren't free. Lucky for us we can bootleg the shit out of those things. There are two concerts on the Internet Archive both from 2006, both at The Casbah.
2006-05-28

2006-03-21

Myspace

{(Addition 3/1/08)}

I found some higher quality live tracks on Daytrotter.

Link

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Explosions In The Sky

Explosions In The Sky
(Austin Texas)

Think-Explosions In The Sky are practitioners of the underrepresented , almost unheard of, Post-Rock Genre. As Wikipedia puts it: "Post-Rock makes use of 'rock instrumentation' for non-rock purposes". What that boils down to is Four Sons of Texas, Three Guitars, One Drum Kit, No Vocals and hours of soaring, emotionally charged music. The idea of instrumental music being emotional may feel strange at first but once you hear EITS, one immediately understands. 

Forming in 1999 Explosions In The Sky originally went under the moniker "Breaker Morant" but after playing their very first show on July, 4th the band decided on its current name after watching the fireworks that night. After four albums the band is still going strong and due to a constant touring schedule the band enjoys a very dedicated fan-base.

Try- Day Six, Yasmin The Light, and Welcome(,) Ghosts

 

Total Downloads- Several Live Performances, Mp3's off all four albums, and a Free Online Album. 

EITS Official Website including Album MP3's as well as an online album.:
http://www.explosionsinthesky.com/albums.html

Link to the first ever preformance/recordings:
http://www.kvrx.org/locallive/performance.php?pid=183

Other Live Preformances, via I.A.:
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=Explosions%20in%20the%20Sky

columbine.

columbine. is a three-man electronic death wish out of Detroit, Michigan. Seriously. This is absolutely, the best, truest industrial music I have heard. The music is the essence of violence and vitriol, in some sense ironic, in some sense not. Take, for example, the track "For the Children", which some would misconstrue as a song glorifying pedophilia. The song is actually a satire/criticism of the "recent" church-pedophilia scandals that are all too common these days. It's this type of thing that gets a band like columbine. a bad reputation very quickly, simply because people refuse to use their heads a little when listening to music.

The music itself is a perfectly executed grating of static and synths. columbine. has not yet put out any album, citing one of the reasons as a refusal to make the same 4/4 beats that the majority of the rest of the industrial community is putting out these days. Sevin and Daniel Columbine (the band's original two members) refuse to put out an album that is anything less than perfect, and their hard works shows. There is currently 1 track available for download on the band's MySpace, and happens to be my personal favorite, "You Should be Ashamed".

If you're a fan, at all, of ebm, industrial, electronica, or any synth-based music, you absolutely have to give columbine. a try. I think this may be the "great gnashing of teeth" that we've been waiting for. Keep an eye out for Religious Equipment, their (eventual) upcoming release to rock the industrial/gothic community.

Think: Ghosts traveling through sound waves, Satan being elected president of USA, gas masks becoming chic, synthetic hair.

Sounds like: Wumpscut with meaning, or a chat with meandering demons.

Recommended tracks: Ask Yourself and You Should be Ashamed

http://www.myspace.com/columbinemusic
vampirefreaks.com/columbinemusic

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