"Oh in the morning/I stumble/my way towards/the mirror and my makeup/it's light out/and I now/face just what I'm made of

There's so much more/left to do/Well I'm not young/But I'm not through"

And so starts one of my favorite albums of all time: Friend and Foe, by Portland art-rockers Menomena (dun dun dun dun dun).  Do you guys know how I am constantly preaching "creativity" as one of my favorite qualities in new bands?  And of course, being me, I grumble all the time about bands that lack it.  The way I see it, these guys are the gold standard for creativity in indie music.  Yet for all their creativity, they remain grounded in some damn good hooks and don't tend to leave the stratosphere like some other more "out there" bands and musicians.

The core members of Menomena are Justin Harris and Danny Seim.  Brent Knopf was with the band up through their third release, Mines, but left in what was a fairly publicized breakup.  It's no surprise, though - each member of Menomena writes songs individually and brings them to the band to flesh out, usually over email.  Naturally, not everyone's songs get picked, so feelings can be hurt.  While the loss of Knopf was certainly sad for fans of Menomena, 2012's Moms (their first sans Knopf) is an excellent record.  It doesn't top Friend and Foe though - their best work - which has the three core members of the band sharing songwriting duties and instrumentation throughout.

Harris plays bass, guitar, horns, and probably 50 other instruments, all of which are add unique layers throughout the record.  Knopf plays guitar and keys, and Seim plays drums and is in general a complete badass.  All three of them are wildly talented musicians, as it should become clear to you from the beginning.

In addition to the many different instruments being played throughout the record, Knopf wrote a computer program called Deeler that they essentially used to pass around the room and record loops one by one, building them into a full song.  So: take a bunch of multi-instrumentalists who all write songs, throw in a homemade computer program, record and send snippets of songs via email, and put them all together.  Somehow, time and time again, Menomena produce cohesive albums out of this chaos.

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Listening to Friend and Foe is a completely nostalgic experience for me.  This was one of the first "indie" albums I ever really loved and have been listening to it constantly since it came out in 2007, when I was 17.  I was a late bloomer, and it would be fair to say that this album has been the soundtrack to my "growing up/growing old" (I know, I'm not old...and it sounds silly, but you definitely start thinking about growing old a lot more once you've been out of college for a couple of years) stage of life, which is why those first couple of lines really resonate with me in the opener.  The album only gets stronger from there.  Standouts like Wet and Rusting, Rotten Hell, Boyscout'n, and Evil Bee are all fascinating songs with simple backbones that are bolstered by intricate layering and musicianship.  Really, the whole album is fucking excellent.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the Grammy-award winning album art, too.  It's amazing.  Google it for more details.  In fact, it's so amazing that when I got my first original pressing vinyl copy of this (now apparently worth 50-100 bucks), and didn't have a record player/care, I hung it up on my wall as art...without protecting it at all.  Amazingly, Vinyl Me Please was able to repress it this year, which got me to join (and eventually quit after 3 months).

This album is pretty close to the perfect artistic package.  I hope you guys like it.

Questions to consider, if you want:

+ Which songs do you like the best?  Each songwriter adds some unique elements to the music, so it's possible you'd gravitate towards a certain set of songs written by one of the dudes in particular.
+ What do you think about the drumming and why are your thoughts all centered around how excellent it is?
+ How tall do you think the drummer is?
+ Thoughts on the use of horns and piano throughout the album?
+ Ron, does this meet Ron's Music Standards™?

6:53 AM

My new found love, Julie Byrne. She isn't super hot, she inst the next Tina Turner, she isnt an advance guitar finger picker like Shana Cleveland of La Luz. What is she? Well, simple. Not overly simple, however. She has a beautiful, wholesome voice that is incredibly comforting and she plays the guitar with this wispy gliding feel. I just recently found this album, Rooms With Walls and Windows, through a live video (here is one, another, and one more) of her and fell in love instantly. She is kind of new to the larger music scene (outside of local), so she is relatively unknown, but is about to go on an international tour.

I feel like the first half of the album has some songs that are very simple and kind of what you would expect from the indie singer/songwriter genre. But in songs like “Attached to Us…” the slight quiver you can hear in voice really adds volumes to the emotion and feel she is trying to convey. The second half of the album has more complete, fuller songs than the first, however, the it lacks the diversity the first half has.

From what I could tell, this album is a collection of EPs she released over the past 3 years, except slightly reworked and mastered. I thoroughly enjoy this album because of its simplistic nature, it’s pure, raw sound, it’s good use of the Lo-fi aesthetic, the dope ass synths, and Julie Byrne’s beautiful, calming voice. I think I enjoy this album so much because I don't listen to much music like this because I often find it boring. I feel like she standouts, but I don't know why. From what I have read off of her site, her lyrics are pretty good. I don't know much about lyrics, but they seem deep and emotional. haha. I think this is a good album to write in journal too, or sit by the creek and ponder (I sadly have no creeks near me). I hope you enjoy this and find the glory in the bits of this album that standout compared to other musicians in this genre. I present Julie Byrne's Rooms With Walls and Windows.

7:20 AM

Ok, crew, this group is about getting out of your musical comfort zone so this week that's what I'm gonna make you do. No, it's not Paramore, sorry to disappoint. This week I've chosen one of my all time favorite albums, mewithoutYou's third album, Brother, Sister. MewithoutYou probably fits most comfortably into the post-hardcore genre, but there has been a clear evolution of sound throughout their six-album discography. While their first two albums relied much more heavily on frontman (and lyrical genius) Aaron Weiss screaming, he made a very successful effort to incorporate more singing into Brother, Sister. Their fourth album made a sharp turn towards indie folk and dropped the screaming completely, creating a sound almost reminiscent of Neutral Milk Hotel (except way better). The fifth album, Ten Stories continued the more subdued trend but with a less folksy vibe and an stronger emphasis on storytelling, as each song was a sort of fable. The album they put out this year, Pale Horses, is an incredible blend of all the sounds they've had over the years.

If I had to choose one thing that makes mewithoutYou such a unique and intriguing band, it would definitely be their lyrics. The Weiss brothers grew up in a Sufi Muslim household with a mother who had converted from Christianity and a father who had converted from Judaism, so they were exposed to a plethora of ideas throughout their childhood which Aaron pulls heavily from in his songwriting. As someone who is intrigued by the ideas of different religions, regardless of personal belief, and especially by the way they can coexist, I completely eat this stuff up. Aaron's lyrics are so layered with allusions to philosophers and various religious texts that they really could be studied and picked apart in an academic manner and I tend to catch something new every time I listen to one of mewithoutYou's albums. So this paragraph was a sort of disclaimer/plea for you to leave any past religious biases at the door when you go to listen to this album and take it as a work of art. If religion is a fairy tale in your eyes, you can still enjoy the rich mythology presented here.

So anyway, your challenge for this week is to give this album 3 good listens. I would HIGHLY recommend sitting down with the lyrics at least once. If it's just not your thing that's cool but give it a chance. If you love it and you can't get enough I can help recommend where to go next in their discography and also talk to you about them forever. They also put on one of the most passionate and energetic live shows I've ever seen so if the opportunity arrises, GO. Thank me later.

(this post was done on behalf of Nora who was having technical difficulties in posting it under her account. cheers.)

6:43 AM

After doing some reading, it seems like Skalpel is pretty known in the Polish Jazz scene (which I unfortunately know nothing about but apparently is a thing?). A lot of their music takes hip-hop beats as well as samples from Polish jazz records of the '50s, '60s and '70s, the result being a distinctive yet rich sound that could be placed under "electronica jazz".

Their self-titled is quite diverse in its sound and gives off a nice live sounding quality that a lot of contemporary jazz records fail in, in my opinion. If you're familiar with styles of jazz, this record has a very retro sound- elements from '50s beatnik and '70s fusion are very apparent. The hip-hop style beats give it a more fresh and contemporary flair. One of my favorite aspects of the record is how crisp (goes back to the live-sounding quality of the record) yet complex the drum playing is, especially in songs like Not Too Bad and So Far.

If y'all enjoy it, I highly recommend checking out Jaga Jazzist and Cinematic Orchestra. Happy listening.

1:35 PM

All the information you need is on the right, including the order.  New posts with albums go up Friday.  If you're not posting, listen to the album as much as you can and give your opinions by the following Thursday as a comment to the first thread.

If you are posting: just tell me the album and I'll take care of the rest.

12:26 PM