Into It. Over It., The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die, A Great Big Pile of Leaves, SRVVLST

February 27, 2014 • The Basement, Columbus, Ohio

The dreaded two-shows-in-a-row situation! Thank goodness for earplugs or I probably wouldn't be functional today.

SRVVLST

I was pretty excited to see these guys again, as they put on a great show the first time around. I wasn't disappointed here; it was probably a better show, even (it helps that there were maybe two hundred people there instead of a dozen). Not much has changed for them since July, and they were still playing some of the same emo-math-rock material, but their performance skills have definitely gotten better since. Special props to the drummer who is amazing to watch, especially his seemingly-magical double-kick patterns he does with only one foot.
8 • Best Poster of a Tattooed Japanese Dude Award

A Great Big Pile of Leaves

I am of two minds about this set. One one hand, this band played well—their performance was good, nice energy and delivery, all that. On the other hand, I don't like their songs at all. It's pretty generic indie rock, more or less, the really happy-feel-good kind (they sound exactly like their name implies). Definitely not my type of thing, and I couldn't get invested in their music whatsoever. I guess there were plenty of people around who were big into them so it's just me. Oh well.
5 • Biggest Bros Award

The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die

The other band I came to see, and they didn't disappoint either. Admittedly, TWIaBP has a sound that I think works much better in the studio than it does on stage, as their huge, dense post-rock approach doesn't work quite as effectively when you're trying to cram everyone together into a live setting—especially when you have three guitars and lots of vocals to arrange (consequently, for example, the snyth was totally inaudible). But regardless they have the songs to make up for that, and they performed them well and I had a good time. They did a great job playing their newer material and the new spoken word / drone stuff was actually pretty neat, too. Definitely worth seeing.
8 • Most Vocalists (Seriously Five Is Too Many) Award

Into It. Over It.

I'd never heard this guy before either, so I went in without expectations; fortunately it turned out much better than the Leaves did. I was pleasantly surprised by this set, even though it too is normally not really my thing. Kind of an emo-pop-singer-songwriter-indie-rock mishmash; a good mix of soft intimate songs and louder, punkier ones, with some good songwriting across the board. It was a bit too vocal-heavy for me but I guess that comes with the territory (and there were plenty of good instrumental parts to make up for that). Not an artist I'd make too big of an effort to see again, but it was still a fine experience.
7 • He's Right, Red Velvet Is Bullshit Award

Junius, A Storm of Light, Mockingbird

February 26, 2014 • Kobo Live, Columbus, Ohio

The number live shows I've been going to has been a bit disappointingly smaller than usual in the last few months. But I'm never opposed to going to a show where I've already seen the majority of the bands before (if I know they're good, anyway).

Mockingbird

I've seen these guys before and I was more than happy to see them again; they put on a great show. This time was definitely better than the first, as well. I think that since then they must have gotten some new songs written and, if so, they are a sure step up from what they played last year. It's a very heavy and headbangin' doom-sludge hybrid with fantastic riffing. Still some bad mic technique, but that's okay. Good technical playing all around, too, especially with bass and drums. I don't know how much they get around, since they're from Akron and I guess still a bit "local", but they're totally worth checking out.
7 • Still the Best Mutton Chops Award

A Storm of Light

I've only heard a couple of this band's songs before so my expectations of how this set was going to go were a little off. Despite the fact that this band's frontman has been in at least three other bands I'm a fan of (Red Sparowes, Battle of Mice, and Neurosis), and that I really wanted to like them, I just couldn't get into this show at all. They play a kind of alt-sludge style with a nice, heavy, powerful sound, but the riffs and songwriting just seemed a bit boring to me. Neat visuals on the projector, though; that did add to the show in an interesting way.
5 • Most Pedals (Like Seriously, Your Bassist Does Not Need Ten) Award

Junius

Like Mockingbird, I think Junius has gotten even better since the first time I saw them. They've put out quite a bit of new material since then, and the new stuff is really quite good. They're still harping their melodic-atmospheric-post-rock-metal-Khoma-Rosetta style, which of course is great, but there are a few songs that really rock out in a unique way. I really need to check out their latest album and EP at some point. Although, I have to say that the use of incredibly bright audience-facing lights is, while neat, really annoying for anyone standing near the front. Probably contributed to half of my headache.
9 • Still Very Fine Beards Award

Bonus: I noticed someone taping the first two sets; if I ever find them up on YouTube I might post them here as well.

Woods of Desolation – As the Stars

February 14, 2014 • Northern Silence Productions

I love Woods of Desolation's 2011 album Torn Beyond Reason; it's without question a black metal favorite of mine. As followups to fantastic albums usually go, I'm always prepared for disappointment, but fortunately that wasn't the case with As the Stars. While it's not quite up to their standards, it's still a worthy entry to their discography and a fine black metal record in its own right.

Arrangement-wise, the album draws on the many of the same stock formulas on their last album (and those of their contemporaries in the atmospheric black metal scene): dense walls of guitar, clean (and even twinkly) melodic passages, a taste for slower chugging sections. There isn't quite as much blasting here (I think) but the heavy guitar and tortured vocals keep things nice and dark. Interestingly, the songs are on the short side (mostly between four and six minutes), leaving the usual sprawling structures of the genre (and, to an extent, their last album) behind in favor of more fast-paced song progression (although still with a bit of excessive repetition). The riffing is that melancholic, depressive-yet-hopeful style that reminds me of early Alcest and the like, which they've done before and still works fine here. (Let's just hope they don't fall into the same sort of style dilution.)

The album's most noticeable flaw is a major one, though: the mixing. It leaves a lot to be desired as most of the album is absolutely drowning in that dense wall of guitar I mentioned, which has been distorted into a thick, piercing haze that leaves little room for the drums or vocals to pop out. I can see how they might have been going for a more wall-of-sound-like approach with this, as it would mesh with the dense approach to the songwriting, but it's bad enough to the point where it actually detracts from the experience more than just a little bit.

And that's unfortunate, because aside from that there really isn't much to complain about with this album. Yes, it's a bit formulaic and they're definitely not pushing the genre anywhere new, and As the Stars isn't on the same level as Torn Beyond Reason, an album I still listen to and enjoy now and again. But it's still good for a few spins.

Ruined Families – Blank Language

March 11, 2013 • Adagio 830

More and more interesting punk bands have been making their way towards my inbox lately; the latest is Greek experimental hardcore group Ruined Families. While Blank Language's sound should be right up my alley, I'm not totally thrilled with them just yet, although this album is still an enjoyable experience.

Ruined Families has a pretty unique and interesting sound—while it's rooted somewhere in hardcore punk, there are quite a few many other things going on as well. It's incredibly noisy, dense, and sometimes atmospheric, with elements of crust and maybe even black metal with lots of dissonant guitar lines and intense blasting sections. The more standard melodic-punk riffs are very good and meld well with the more abrasive and noisy side of the band, resulting in an interesting contrast between the two conflicting aesthetics.

It's also an album that is a bit difficult to really get into, because of its sound. The songwriting is a bit complex (one might call it "progressive", even) and the songs tend to wander around a bit from riff to riff, making the album come off as a steady stream of hardcore aggression without much structure to it. Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn't; I'm not sure if it does here. It's not bad, but I never like when an album is hard to follow.

Blank Language is a good album—not a fantastic one, but definitely a good one, though it's somewhat niche. But I can tell that Ruined Families would doubtlessly be awesome to see play live, and I'll probably keep an eye out in case they ever make it out this way. In the meantime, if it sounds interesting, Blank Language is an album worth checking out.

L'Orange – The Mad Writer

November 25, 2012 • Jakarta Records

I love few things more than picking out things to listen to almost randomly and being massively surprised by something great. In this case, I've been casually looking for noir-flavored hip hop ever since I heard MF Doom's Vaudeville Villain and haven't found anything good—until I stumbled on this unique and fantastic album by L'Orange.

No point in beating around the bush—the production on The Mad Writer is simply superb, some of the best I've heard in a long time. The beats seem to ultimately derive from the old east coast sampling style with a definite southern-hip-hop flair: simple, hard drums; jazzy piano and winds; smooth and soulful musical and vocal samples; reverb and vinyl crackle topping everything off. It's nothing particularly groundbreaking, but it is very well-arranged and is great at evoking various styles and moods of early 20th century America—not to mention catchy as hell.

A lot of the intrigue (at least for me) comes from the myriad of clips from old-time radio shows and films, giving the album a dark and intriguing atmosphere. I can't really say where most come from, but there are definitely quite a few from hard-boiled-detective dramas, which I've always thought go well with this kind of hip hop. In fact, I was so intrigued by some of these samples that I've started looking into golden-age radio shows and listening to a variety of the dramas and thrillers that were so popular from the '40s to the '60s. It's really great stuff. I don't think there are many albums (if any) that have helped me get into a whole new medium like that. So even if the music sucked (which it doesn't), there's still a positive coming out of this album for me.

The rapping is obviously playing second to the production, as it only shows up on three tracks. And unfortunately while what rapping does exist is well-performed, there isn't a whole lot to comment on and it seems like a lot of it exists just to take up space. I would rather see it go one way or the other—either focus on the production and don't let the rapping distract from it, or feature rapping over most of the album so it doesn't feel out-of-place when it shows up. I do really dig the singing on "Femme Fatale", though; it has a sort of underground-vocal-jazz style that fits in perfectly.

I'm definitely glad I found this album, and hopefully I can use it as a jumping-off point for finding more of the fabled noir-hop I've been looking for all this time. And I really hope there's more from L'Orange to dig through, too.