Table Top Joe

Black Pus - Discography (2004-2006)

2009-09-06T21:50:00.000-07:00

Black Pus is Brian Chippendale's (Lightning Bolt) solo project. He plays drums and does vocals and effects. It's pretty insane and weird as you would expect. Not as cool as Lightning Bolt but it's fun, wacky noise rock. He has three full albums and a live set up for download, which is pretty cool.

Download

Extortion - Backyard show

2009-08-28T06:35:00.000-07:00

Extortion are easily one of the best bands in Australian hardcore at the moment. They play pretty straight forward hardcore with a lot of influence from powerviolence bands like Infest and Crossed Out. It's just incredibly fast and heavy stuff with brutal vocals and some pretty sick sludge parts. There's nothing particularly inventive about their music and it's so well executed that that's a very good thing. Not much more to say about them. I'm including a youtube set and a download link for the backyard show.

Download

Converge - Dark Horse (2009)

2009-08-25T16:30:00.001-07:00

Converge are pretty much the best heavy band in the world. This is the first song they've released from their upcoming album (comes out in October) and it's pretty ridiculous, just as good as any of the best tracks from No Heroes. It's a pretty good quality mp3 and it's nice to hear a non-MySpace quality version of the song. Enjoy.

Download

Bradford Cox - Live on Dublab/Deerhunter - Live at Noise Pop 2009

2009-06-13T19:50:00.000-07:00

Last night I went to see Deerhunter in Brisbane at The Zoo. I had no real expectations for the show as I've never really understood all the hype that they get, but I was pretty much blown away by the show. I would definitely consider myself a fan of the band at this point and I think they deserve all of the praise they're getting.

This recording is an ambient set that Deerhunter's frontman Bradford Cox played for dublab and it's really pretty. Goes for about half an hour and was the first thing from the group that I really got into.

I'm also posting a video of a full festival set that they played earlier this year. Should give you an idea of how great they are live. Seriously, one of the best shows I've been to all year.

By contrast, I saw Flipper earlier in the week and I was expecting great things given their reputation. It was one of the worst and certainly the most disappointing show I've ever been to. They put absolutely no effort into the performance and I know that they're supposed to sound sloppy but having audience members/members of terrible support bands sing 50% of the songs for you is just lame and lazy. That's not the same thing as having half the crowd on stage singing with you...that actually would have been pretty cool. Also, I dunno, continuing to sing nasty, nihilistic songs and getting trashed on stage when you're well into your 50s (I'm guessing?) seems kinda pathetic to me. I mean, most people seem to grow out of that kind of thing at some point. I still cringe at the thought that I paid $35 for it.

Download - Bradford Cox on Dublab
Watch - Deerhunter @ Noise Pop Festival

Towers - Full Circle stream (2009)

2009-05-21T04:15:00.000-07:00

I don't really know much about Towers, but this is a great album. It's mostly a mathcore sort of release with some elements of screamo and crazy noise guitar stuff. The vocals are pretty intense, they kind of remind me of the dude from Killing the Dream. It's really heavy and pretty dissonant in places. It's a short release (25 minutes) and well worth checking out. Probably one of my favourite heavy releases of the year so far.

Stream

maudlin of the Well - Part the Second (2009)

2009-05-18T03:57:00.000-07:00

Man, I love maudlin of the Well. I first got their album Bath when a friend recommended it to me in 2004 when I was getting into metal. I was into a lot of jazz at the time and Bath was like nothing else I'd ever heard. I still haven't heard anything like it, aside from the other maudlin of the Well albums. While motW fused extreme metal with a lot of softer, 'new age' sounds, jazzy passages and a variety of vocalists and vocal techniques, they disbanded just as they were getting amazing. Fortunately they became Kayo Dot and released two perfect albums (Choirs of the Eye and Dowsing Anemone With Copper Tongue) and one pretty good one (Blue Lambency Downward). Toby Driver also did some side and solo projects which were great. Driver's work is kind of in an interesting place at the moment. His music comes very much from heavy metal and all of the motW albums and the first two Kayo Dot records show that. More recently with BLD, his solo work and the Tartar Lamb side project, he has been focussing on the modern classical side of his music by composing pieces (rather than albums) in movements and moving towards a meandering sound that is reflective of a lot of the avant-garde music coming out of New York at the moment (Zs and Extra Life being two good examples).

This is fine by some fans and not-so-fine by some others. Anyway, this brings us to this record. It's kind of an odd release. It was funded by fans and is basically made up of motW tracks that they liked and never recorded. It was recorded earlier this year by the motW lineup with some guests and from what I can tell, a lot of the songs were finished just before or during recording. This makes it sound more like maudlin of the Well than any Kayo Dot lineup ever has, but more Kayo Dot than any incarnation of maudlin of the Well, if that makes sense.

The first two songs are unreal and as good as anything else Driver has ever done. The rest of the record is great too. It's very mellow, there's not much metal here at all. It also features Toby's crazy style of vocals which wasn't really present on any motW recordings. I've only listened to it a couple of times so far but it's already my favourite release of the year. You can download it in mp3, wav, or FLAC.

Download

Coldplay - Left Right Left (2009)

2009-05-16T01:54:00.000-07:00

Coldplay aren't my favourite band or anything but they do a pretty excellent live show. I saw them earlier this year with a friend who gave me a free ticket and it was definitely one of the better 'big' shows I've been to. I really don't think I need to explain Coldplay to anyone and posting this release here is probably even a bit unnecessary. Anyway, it's free and you should get it. "Glass of Water" and all of the Viva La Vida tracks are the definite highlights, which is pretty much exactly the same as with all of their recorded output. Anyway, check it out.

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Dinosaur Jr - I Want You To Know (2009)

2009-05-02T19:47:00.000-07:00

Dinosaur Jr may be real old dudes now, but with 2007's Beyond, they wrote one of their best records with a few songs that I like better than anything I'd ever heard from them before. This new single is from their upcoming album Farm and it's good stuff. Just a typical loud, catchy Dinosaur Jr song really.

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Mihai Edrisch - L'un Sans L'autre + Un Jour Sans Lendemain

2009-04-23T03:49:00.000-07:00

Mihai Edrisch were a French screamo band that employed the post-rock technique of constantly building to climaxes; kind of a European Envy. But unlike Envy, most of the tension they create is tonal rather than dynamic, which is sort of what a lot French bands in the genre are good at doing (Sed Non Satiata, Aussitot Mort, etc). Their drummer went on to play in Daitro (one of the best bands in the genre at the moment) and their guitarist and vocalist went on to be in Celeste (who are pretty bland in my opinion).

Regardless of future projects, these two albums are amazing. The drummer isn't quite as good as he is in Daitro, but he's still damn impressive. There's a lot of the tom-heavy stuff he does in Daitro and a lot of the really cool/awkward cymbal stuff. The guitars are really quite similar to Daitro as well with fairly bright tones playing droney riffs and high leads. Power chords are pretty rare though they do make appearances. I think the bassist in this band is probably the most impressive member; the parts where he plays really pronounced riffs are always unreal and his tone is really huge, it fills up the space so well even when the parts aren't a focal point of the music.

The highlight of both records, for me at this point is "Conflit" (from L'un Sans L'autre). It just seems to be desparate in a way that replicates the emotion of bands like Funeral Diner and Saetia. This post was probably one of the worst things I've written but these albums are both amazing and both free so download them now!

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Port Royal - Afraid to Dance (2007)

2009-04-21T05:09:00.000-07:00

I picked up this album today in a big clearance sale for $4. It was really worth it. After I investigated them somewhat, I found that you can stream the whole thing from their website for free. It's basically pretty, minimalist ambient/post-rock music. It's mainly electronic but there are some guitars and other acoustic instruments in the mix. The percussion is all electronic. Really nice to listen to with a cup of tea after a long day.

Stream

City of Caterpillar Full Set

2009-04-14T07:12:00.000-07:00

City of Caterpillar are generally acknowledged as one of the first emo bands to incorporate long post-rock build ups akin to Godspeed You! Black Emperor into their music. For most fans, they're a band that never got the appreciation they deserved and who broke up far too early. Still, they managed to release a full length and a few other miscellaneous releases. The LP is one of the best and most influential records in the genre and when looking at recently popular bands in the genre like Daitro and Mesa Verde, it's easy to see how far their influence has extended.

Like pretty much all forms of punk rock, their music is very much suited to live performance. This video is a full 30 minute set that I found on my hard drive. I've had it for a number of years but only recently rediscovered it. It contains mostly album tracks, highlights being "A Little Change Could Go A Long Ways" and "When Was the Last Time We Painted Over the Blood on the Walls?". I really don't know much more about it than that, but it's unreal and certainly worth the download.

Download

Burton Wagner - A Sentinel's Eyes

2009-04-05T06:38:00.001-07:00

This is my third post on this blog about Burton Wagner's music and it'll probably be my last, at least until he makes another album. A Sentinel's Eyes is my favourite of Burton's albums. Consisting of two 30 minute tracks, it's basically one big long piece with news ideas that are constantly being established and built upon while there are a few motifs that appear a number of times throughout the piece. Burton's music is very minimalistic (using only guitar and a couple of really small samples) and quite emotional. Its amateur nature means that there are quite a few imperfections but I think these only add to the sound that the record is going for. There are some fairly depressing sections and also some really pretty ones. They all add to the experience. In my opinion, this is pretty much the compositional peak of what one guy can achieve from his bedroom with a bunch of crappy gear. This was one of my favourite records of 2006 and I still listen to it a lot.

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MMIX: Deathwish/Malfunction/Six Feet Under Sampler

2009-03-27T22:36:00.000-07:00

When it comes to modern hardcore there are absolutely no record labels that come to close to matching the quality and consistency of Deathwish. Deathwish regularly put out samplers but this one is the biggest and most exciting so far. Bands included on it are: The Hope Conspiracy, Narrows, Lewd Acts, Coliseum, Victims, Reign Supreme, Trap Them, Nails, Rot In Hell, Mother Of Mercy, Carpathian, 108, Ressurection, End of a Year, Doomriders, Pulling Teeth, Integrity, Supermachiner, J. Bannon, and Rise And Fall.

Where to start? While pretty much all of those bands are quality, I'm most excited about Mother of Mercy (can't wait for their LP to come out), 108 and Doomriders (both bands released killer albums a few years ago and both have new albums coming out this year).

Samplers are one of the best ways to discover new bands and when it's a label like Deathwish, discovering something quality is pretty much a guarantee. Enjoy.

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These Hands Could Separate the Sky/Arrows - Split EP (2007)

2009-03-11T00:19:00.001-07:00

Hobbledehoy Records are doing something pretty cool at the moment in offering all of their releases for free streaming. Along with releases by Hey Mercedes, Blueline Medic, The City on Film and Mike Kinsella's solo project Owen is this split from Brisbane's Arrows and Melbourne's These Hands Could Separate the Sky. In my opinion, it's one of the best Australian splits of recent years and certainly one of my favourites.

Arrows are a great Brisbane indie band in the vein of The Appleseed Cast and Kinsella bands like American Football. Lots of pretty, clean guitars. Their tracks here are a little different from their newer stuff and if you ask me, not quite as good. Still, they're definitely worth checking out.

The two tracks from These Hands Could Separate the Sky are two of the best Australian post-rock tracks ever put to tape. I had the opportunity to see them played live right around the time that this was released and even though I had a terrible cold, I can still remember how fantastic it was (in contrast, I can barely remember any of the other bands I saw that night). Both songs on this record are a lot more polished than their live versions with strings and piano parts.

This isn't a free download, I know, but it's been a while and I felt like I should post something good.

Stream

Piers @ Fat Louie's (2008)

2009-02-13T22:24:00.001-08:00

Piers is a Brisbane musician and last week I got to see him play a show with the also excellent King of Red Lions. I'd seen a couple of his sets before and they were great, but this one definitely stood out as the best I've seen him play, and the best set of the night. In all honestly, it was one of the best Brisbane sets I've ever seen.

There's not much to this post except for two videos, but I found them both amazing and thought I should share. I especially recommend the first one, which is his first ever performance with vocals.

Gospel @ The Che Cafe (2005)

2009-02-10T19:21:00.000-08:00

Gospel's The Moon is a Dead World has been one of my favourite hardcore records since a friend introduced me to it back in 2005. I listen to it pretty regularly and it rarely gets old. I think the mix of the album's originality, its incredibly raw and heavy production and its abundance of intensely cool parts all contribute to its perfection. The fact that they split before finishing their second album is nothing short of a tragedy.

Of course, their live show was pretty amazing as well. Living in Australia, I never got to see them, but thanks to youtube, archive.org and other websites, I've seen and heard a number of live recordings. Obviously those can never match up to the experience of seeing them in person, but even in videos with poor sound quality, it's hard to deny the intensity of their performance.

My biggest beef with this video is that there's someone standing right in front of the drummer, which means you can't really see him for most of the set. The drummer is easily the most interesting and technically proficient member of the band (which is really saying a lot, because the other three members are amazing as well). Just to listen to the start of "Yr Electric Surge is Sweet" to hear immediately what I'm saying.

That issue aside, this is an excellent video that captures the band just around the time that the LP was produced, before they were playing 25 minute instrumentals. It nearly all of the songs from the LP (Golden Dawn, Congratulations You've Hit Bottom, Paper Tigon, Opium, Yr Electric Surge Is Sweet, What Means of Witchery) and while it's not the best overall experience of the band, it's certainly nothing to complain about.

Download

sleepmakeswaves - In Today Already Walks Tomorrow (2008)

2009-01-27T18:29:00.000-08:00

sleepmakeswaves are a Sydney post-rock ground who have been around for a few years, but they only put out their first EP last year. Being a post-rock release, it's pretty much LP length (at 37 minutes spread over 6 tracks), even though they call it an EP.

Anyone familiar with the post-rock genre will recognise sleepmakeswaves's influences; Mogwai, Isis, Mono, Sigur Ros, Explosions in the Sky, 65daysofstatic, etc. I'm hesitant to say that they do anything 'groundbreaking' or that betters any of those bands, but they certainly do a great job of moving past the really simple riff-based ideas of groups like Mono and Mogwai. Their structures are sometimes more complex and sometimes really simple, but the musical ability on display throughout this release is impressive without ever being overbearing. What I like most about this release is that sleepmakeswaves seem to be able to incorporate more complex structures into their songwriting while still very much basing their sound around upbeat major key arrangements and happy, pretty climaxes.

Whatever. This is a well-crafted, lushly-produced post-rock release that's free for download. That's all you really need to know.

Download

Haloed Eyes - Shadows (2009)

2009-01-21T23:20:00.000-08:00

I have been a big fan of Burton Wagner's music since the first album he put out, In the Realms of the Unreal. Every year he releases an album for free on the internet and it's always something to look forward to. This year, he changed the name of his project to Haloed Eyes (a reference to the Navio Forge song of the same name, I'm guessing) and created probably his most ambitious release to date with Shadows.

While A Sentinel's Eyes was made up of two 30 minute tracks that worked by constantly shifting riffs and building on them until the ideas behind them were fully realised, Shadows has a much more meandering quality about it. It seems less structured and more eclectic. Vocals are used to great effect and to me they make parts of the album sound similar to Have a Nice Life's near-masterpiece Deathconsciousness (which is a 2 hour release that can be purchased from their website for $5). The ending of the album goes into almost metal territory, reminiscent of bands like Nadja.

Overall, Shadows feels like a looser, more experimental release than any of Burton's previous music, which is interesting coming after 21, his pop album. At 40 minutes long, consisting of a single track, it's certainly a draining listen, but also a highly worthwhile one. Shadows was released through Sordo Recordings, an excellent resource for free DIY music.

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Tera Melos - Live Sets + Idioms EP (2008)

2009-01-11T20:13:00.000-08:00

Tera Melos are one of the more bizarre and 'out-there' math rock bands currently active. Simply calling them a math rock band doesn't really do them justice though; their music has bits of jazz, noise rock, ambient music, post-hardcore, electronica and other stuff. Not to mention that they are all absolute freaks at their instruments. They started as a quartet and released one album with that lineup. After that, their guitarist Jeff Worms left to pursue a career in college football and they've continued as a three piece since that time, releasing an EP and a split with By The End of Tonight. A new album is scheduled for this year, I believe.

I like Tera Melos more than pretty much any other band that routinely gets thrown into the 'math rock' genre because, well, basically they capture everything I like about this sort of music. It's ridiculously fast and difficult with a lot of interesting rhythms. It's fun and strange with a lot of weird noises going on and there are plenty of catchy bits to find in their songs (especially the newer ones) amidst all of the chaos. The vocals, where they appear are lots of fun. I guess to put it one sentence, they play ridiculously technical music with a lot of cool that is actually fun because it doesn't take itself too seriously.

It's hard to describe their music in few words, but basically if you like anything really technical, fun and slightly weird, chances are you'll enjoy Tera Melos.

The band's blog has a huge number of live sets available for download. I'll confess that I haven't listened to or downloaded them all. They all come from various stages of the life of the band from very early on to some of their most recent sets. It's really cool to hear them at different stages of their career, particularly the show that was their first as a 3 piece.

The Idioms EP is a covers record that's also available from the band's blog for free if you sign up to their mailing list. Pretty good trade if you ask me.

Download

2008

2009-01-01T00:23:00.000-08:00

Everyone makes lists at the end of the year. I did, and you can read mine here if you want, along with an article that I like a lot more than the list. I won't repeat it here because there's really no point at all. I didn't listen to a whole lot of albums in 2008, to tell you the truth and already that list is really inaccurate, mainly because of its lack of hip-hop. Most, if not all of the musical highlights of the year for me happened at shows. If you want to read more about that, you can at the link above. For now, here are five of the best shows of the year, with video and in no particular order. The first three were the best of the year for me and I couldn't possibly choose between them. Every one of these shows, I believe I will remember for the rest of my life. Special thanks to my friend Yudhis for filming most of these.

Best Shows of 2008

Off Minor @ Ahimsa House

Off Minor have been to Australia 3 times now, but the two shows they played in Brisbane this year were the first ones I've been to. This footage is from the second show, which was probably one of the best nights I've had all year. The show was at Ahimsa House in West End and it was pretty interesting to see the diversity of the crowd. I met a bunch of really cool people that night and I talked to the guys from Off Minor for quite a while. "Everything Explicit" is probably my favourite song from their new album and from memory it was one of the last songs they played before the cops showed up and stopped the show.

Ampere @ Lofly Hangar

This video isn't from the show I'm writing about, unfortunately. On that note though, it doesn't matter too much because I've decided that it's pretty much impossible to accurately capture Ampere on video. None of the youtube videos do it effectively anyway. Ampere are kind of just like a punk band playing 4 times as fast and loud as anyone else. Their songs definitely aren't grindcore or anything like that, there's far too much structure and melody to their music for that. Like the Off Minor show, I had the opportunity to talk to all of the members of Ampere and they were all ridiculously nice people. Also like the Off Minor show, it was just one of those shows where the sense of community made the show feel like so much more than a bunch of people watching a band.

Rosetta @ House on the Hill

Rosetta played a show at Rosie's the night before this one, and it was really good. They were supposed to play a show on the Gold Coast the night after, which would have been convenient for me. Apparently the venue closed down before the show or something, so they moved it to House on the Hill, which is a house (on a hill, funnily enough) in Kelvin Grove, right across from where I go to uni. The crowd there was pretty small, which only made the show feel more special. I liked Rosetta well enough before this show but after it, they became one of my favourite bands. The range of dynamics that they are able to squeeze out of four instruments and a laptop is completely amazing. Towards the end, they asked the dude who was organising the tour what song he wanted them to play (he picked "Wake") and before that, they played one of their songs in the style of Interpol which was quite funny. Really, it was one of those shows where everyone walked out at the end feeling as if they had experienced something truly meaningful. On a side note, I talked to Matt (the guitarist) for a while at the end and he was pretty much the nicest dude ever. His blog is one of the best websites on the internet as far as I'm concerned. Also, towards the end of the video you can see me standing just in front of the PA. How exciting.

Clockcleaner @ Rosie's Upstairs
Just go back a couple of posts to read about this one or ask me about it sometime. This show was one of the most memorable and ridiculous shows I've ever been to for reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with the music. To be perfectly honest, I enjoyed two of the supports (Slug Guts and Snake Run) a lot more than Clockcleaner themselves, though the Clockcleaner set was fun.

Ohana @ Fat Louie's

The video is actually from an Ohana show later in the year but it's just as good as the one I'm talking about here was. The difference, I guess, is that Rosie's is a crappier venue and I had to leave before the end so I wouldn't miss the train. Also, the dude behind the sound desk was playing really bad metal between bands and for some reason they deemed it necessary to put up the barrier. Oh, and some drunk dudes kept yelling at the support bands. If you ask me, Ohana are the Australian band of the year and it makes me way sad that they're on hiatus now. Again, this show was just another one that was more than the sum of its parts. There's not much more I can say than that.

Girl Talk - Feed the Animals (2008)

2008-12-21T15:53:00.001-08:00

I have a pretty weird relationship with the hip-hop genre. Though I would definitely consider myself a fan of it, I tend to ignore or forget about it for the majority of the year and then once summer (and end of year lists) rolls around I realise that I must have missed out on so many great releases and rush around trying to discover them all. The result is that I listen to almost nothing but hip-hop between December and February. So far in this year I have discovered a bunch of great releases; Black Milk's Tronic, Erykah Badu's New Amerykah Part One (not really hip-hop but it still applies), T.I.'s Paper Trail, The Streets' Everything is Borrowed, Flying Lotus' Los Angeles, etc. I could talk about all of these for a while, but none of them are free so I won't.

Girl Talk created one of the most famous mash-up albums ever with Night Ripper and Feed the Animals has him destined for even bigger things. I don't really know what to say about Feed the Animals except what everyone else is saying about it; that it's pretty much the ultimate party album. Sure, there's more to it than that but it's hard to care when its this much fun. I think the best part of Girl Talk is finding your favourite bits in the songs. I think my favourite from this album is when the intro for The Cranberries' "Dreams" comes in towards the end of "Let Me See You". That or the absolutely epic way he uses Kelly Clarkson's vocals from "Since U Been Gone" in "Here's the Thing". That part made me dance in my chair, which I can tell you is no mean feat.

Greg Gillis has done the Radiohead thing and offered his new album for download under a "pay what you like" scheme, which can be $0 if you want it to be. Doesn't hurt to give him a few dollars for it though.

Download

A Short Diversion...

2008-11-28T19:48:00.000-08:00

I'd like to divert your attention for a moment to tell you a story about one of the most fun and outrageous shows I've ever been to.

Clockcleaner are currently touring Australia and I had the opportunity to see their second show in Brisbane on Thursday night. It started off as abrasive as you might imagine; singer/guitarist John Sharkey had the nastiest guitar tone I have ever heard and on top of that, it was incredibly loud. To add to the completely obnoxious nature of it, all of the lights in the venue were turned off except for a large strobe that was placed in front of the drum kit. It was unbelievably irritating but also ind of hilarious.

The show was really nothing special; it was fun but not overly so. During the last song of the set, however, some dude decided to throw an enormous amount of toilet paper all over the front of the room where the band were playing. It was quite funny. Just after that, however, another guy in the crowd lit the toilet paper up with a cigarette lighter and caused a fire about 3-4 feet high. The bar staff panicked and threw jugs of water at it (not a good idea when around a lot of electrical equipment). The audience managed to stamp it out really quickly; there were some ashes floating up to the ceiling but the fire itself was gone. Some dude in the audience apparently didn't get the memo, so he grabbed the fire extinguisher and sprayed it everywhere. The band kept playing during all of this. At this point, I was unable to breathe and I had to run to the back of the room. That didn't stop another guy in the crowd though; who picked up John Sharkey's guitar and started making a bunch of noise with it.

Anyway, we were evacuated from the building, as were the club downstairs and so there were about 300 people standing on Edward Street watching the events unfold. It was about this time that 3 firetrucks, an ambulance and something like 12-15 police officers turned up at the scene. It really was chaos. I leave you with some live footage of the fire extinguisher going off.

Stars of the Lid - Live in Seattle (2008)

2008-11-20T05:45:00.000-08:00

Stars of the Lid are a band completely indescribable to me. Well, how they sound is easy to describe. Long, organic compositions comprised largely of analog synthesisers, volume swells, string arrangements and occasional brass and completely devoid of percussion. One could call them ambient music and in some ways I think that's a more than reasonable classification. However, if the idea of ambient music is indeed as Brian Eno said, that it "must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting", then in my case, the music of Stars of the Lid is about as far away from being "ambient" as you can possibly get. Perhaps moreso than the music of any other artist or composer, with the possible exceptions of Philip Glass, Kayo Dot and Rachel's (and then only a few select works, certainly not the entire catalogues of those artists), the music of Stars of the Lid invariably causes me to focus on absolutely everything that is going on in it. On the other hand, I don't doubt that their music would be able to be used as 'background' or 'mood' music for some people. Certainly, I've read plenty of reviews that would suggest that this is a common reaction to their music.

For me, their music is just incredibly deep and complex in so many ways; not just in terms of its composition but also in terms of the emotion that it carries. It's difficult, verging on impossible to describe what their music does for me with words, so I won't bother any further except to say that the range of emotion that exists in their music is inexpressible and it's almost like emotions (even the word 'emotion' seems a crude way to describe what I'm trying to talk about) exist in their music that I was previously not even aware of, or perhaps don't even exist outside of their music. Even the band themselves seem to be unable to easily express in words what is behind their music; just have a look at some of their song titles. In any case, their music conveys beauty to me on a far deeper level than just about any other artist I am aware of, except for perhaps the three I previously mentioned.

Anyway, enough of that. This recording is of an extremely high quality and it goes for about an hour. Most of the tracks are pretty prominent in the group's discography. The music being live creates an interesting dynamic that isn't really found on any of their records. There's a lot more silence inbetween the swells and sweeps and the strings are generally far more pronounced. A couple of the pieces are slightly different in tempo and overall, each piece feels much more raw and almost spontaneous compared to its album equivalent. The blog post I'm linking to also contains a link to the group's first album that has been out of print for a number of years. As a side note, all of the silly music I've been trying to make lately is an attempt to tap into what I hear in SotL's music. It hasn't happened yet but I'm not giving up.

Download

Explosions in the Sky - Fine Arts Center, Calvin College (2008)

2008-10-15T04:17:00.000-07:00

Explosions in the Sky are a band that I feel are often unfairly accused of being generic, formulaic, vanilla, etc. I won't lie, their last album didn't do a lot for me (except for the first track, which is amazing), but I also feel that such criticisms are unwarranted. Explosions may have taken a few ideas from the likes of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and others, but as I see it, the only reason they're seen as generic now is that their influence has carried over to a huge number of clones who have been more active in the genre since EitS released The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place (sorry for that abominably long sentence). The other thing could just be that I have a soft spot for them, seeing as they were pretty much all I listened to for a few months in 2005. Even while other groups such as Yndi Halda or Pg.Lost may have taken their ideas further, I can still think of few post-rock releases that have such simple beauty or are as solid as The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place.

Whatever the case, Explosions are a difficult band to dislike. Their simple use of dynamics and major key melodies and chord progressions is just so full of warmth and nostalgia that listening to their music always brings up incredibly strong memories whenever I listen to them. This set has most of my favourite Explosions songs and the sound quality is great (though you will need to turn your speakers up). The slow build-up of "First Breath After Coma" is a great way to start off the set and "The Birth and Death of Day" is possibly the best song the band has ever written with just so many gorgeous moments. "Your Hand in Mine" and "The Only Moment We We're Alone" will probably always be my favourite Explosions songs and they are executed masterfully.

This show makes me want to jam with some people and make some generic Explosions in the Sky ripoff songs (obviously a lot of people have had the same idea). Enjoy.

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Mother of Mercy - No Eden and Passing Through the Fire 7"s (2007-2008)

2008-09-20T19:24:00.000-07:00

There's not a lot to say about Mother of Mercy. They're a pretty straight hardcore band with a lot of great riffing and drumming. Really though, the thing about their sound I really dig is the vocals.

They just posted these two 7"s in a MySpace bulletin so I thought the obvious thing to do was share. They're both great and both pretty short so definitely get them both. These guys supposedly have a full length coming out next year, so I'm prety stoked for that.

Passing Through the Fire
No Eden

Eucalypt - assorted songs (2006-2008)

2008-09-12T06:32:00.001-07:00

Eucalypt were an Australian screamo band who only lasted for two years, but were quite influential in that time. I'm pretty sure that Eucalypt are one of the most fiercely DIY bands I can think of; they only played all ages shows and their releases were ridiculously limited. They have a split with Majorca (another great Australian screamo band) coming out in the near future so I'd suggest picking that up if you like any of these songs. I think it's coming out on Yellow Ghost.

Eucalypt's sound is pretty simple; clean guitars, screaming and crazy intense drumming. I was able to see Eucalypt once in Brisbane before they broke up. They played at the No Culture II festival and while my memory of that night isn't very good because I was really sick, they definitely stick out in my mind. Of course Pikelet, These Hands Could Separate the Sky, Quiet Steps, Majorca and To the North were all amazing as well but this post isn't about those bands.

The bottom of this post has a link to their website which has a few songs to download. The best of these is probably "Kepéla"; I remember when they played it live everyone went nuts. I'm also including a link to another blog which has uploaded an mp3 version of their compilation tape. I don't normally do that sort of thing on this blog, but I think that the fact that it seems to be largely unavailable from anywhere makes this a reasonable exception.

Download 1
Download 2

Eluvium - Live @ Debaser (2008)

2008-09-02T05:41:00.000-07:00

I've recently acquired a nifty little program called Citrus that wakes up my computer from hibernation and fades in a random track from a playlist of my choosing to wake me up in the mornings. It's a big improvement from the noise my phone used to make as an alarm, which I would probably liken to a bird having its eyes ripped out of their sockets. I mention this because Eluvium has been waking me up a lot (along with songs like Do Make Say Think's "Chinatown") and it is some of the most perfect music for that task.

Eluvium's Copia was one of my favourite records of last year; it was one of the most 'musical' 'ambient' releases I've ever heard. While probably his best record up until now, his other compositions are still pretty great. That said, I think all of the albums pale in comparison to his live material, whether you actually see it in person or listen to recordings (I've experienced both and I have to say that watching him live isn't much different to listening to this stuff).

This recording I think is a good cross section of his music and the song selection manages to bring together his best stuff. "Radio Ballet" is his best solo piano composition while "Taken" is a masterpiece of ambient guitar work (though probably the only song here slightly inferior to its album version). "Under Water It Glowed > After Nature" is really one of his most elegant pieces of music and the final song "Repose in Blue" is his best composition as a whole; it combines laptop synths and programming with guitar looping and a pretty epic climax.

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David Bazan - Austin, TX (2008)

2008-08-13T04:59:00.000-07:00

There are few songwriters I admire as much as David Bazan. His combination of honesty and skill are matched by only a handful of songwriters. On Saturday night I was able to go to a solo show of his (his first ever in Australia) at one of my favourite venues and he exceeded my expectations by such a long way. While he seems to perform a lot with an electric guitar and a small overdriven amp, at Saturday's show he played a tiny acoustic guitar for the whole show which complemented his vocals and the venue PA perfectly.

In this recording, he uses an electric guitar and plays quite a lot of songs from his upcoming solo album, perhaps the best of which is "When We Fell". Its lyrics are typical Bazan in a lot of ways and the music is some of the best he has ever written. Also included are some Pedro the Lion songs and one Headphones song ("Hot Girls") which he seems to play live a lot.

I have to say that the set here isn't as good as the one I got to see - there's no "Options" or "Priests and Paramedics" in particular (both of which are from my favourite Pedro the Lion album Control), nor is there his cover of "Hallelujah" which is just as good as any other, or the song he opened with at my show, which must be new because I can't figure out the title of it. Regardless, it is one of the best songs I have ever heard. Still, this recording has plenty of great stuff and a short bit of Q&A (which there is normally a lot more of at his shows), not to mention an oh-so-appropriate Shaggy song played over the PA at the end.

One note; the track titled "Harmless Sparks" is actually two songs; that one and "Fewer Broken Parts".

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Nadja - Base Fluid (2007)

2008-08-01T22:51:00.000-07:00

Nadja are one of those bands on a similar wavelength to Earth, Jesu, Isis, Grey Daturas and Boris but the more I listen to them, the more I think they're on another level to all of those bands compositionally. Nadja are a two-piece consisting of Aidan Baker (guitar, bass, vocals, drums, woodwinds, piano) and Leah Buckareff (bass, vocals). Leah joined so they could perform live, I think (it used to be just Aidan solo) but in all the videos I've seen they seem to have a drummer as well (hard to see with the dim lighting) so I don't know how that works. Basically though, Najda's sound is slow, dense and with a lot of melody underneath the noise (in that way they're probably most similar to Jesu).

Nadja are apparently pretty nice people because about 5 of their albums are available for free streaming from the website of their record label. and and Truth Becomes Death, Skin Turns to Glass and Radiance of Shadows are my favourites and the former of those is probably the best one to start with. However, this post is about Base Fluid, which is a free for download 'single' consisting of two songs with 30 minutes of music. It's not as good as any of those albums but at this point I think these guys can't do any wrong, which is to say that it's still pretty great. The title track is the better song, but "Numb" is also pretty great; it's a 20-minute epic that is loud and noisy the whole time and just constantly builds.

Because 30 minutes may not quite be enough, I've included links to some free mp3s from last.fm; "Stays Demons" and "Breakpoint" (from Truth Becomes Death). These two songs make over 20 minuutes together, which is a good chunk of free music. Enjoy.

Base Fluid
Stays Demons
Breakpoint

Bon Iver - Live on NPR: All Songs Considered

2008-07-30T05:39:00.000-07:00

I'm stuck in bed with a pretty bad flu or something. I don't really know what it is but it sucks pretty bad. When I feel sick, I usually listen to a lot of soft music because anything else hurts my head. Justin Vernon (aka Bon Iver) released his solo debut last year; For Emma, Forever Ago. Vernon recorded the album after his band broke up in a cabin where he lived off like deer meat or something, at least that's what one website told me. It has gotten a lot of buzz on the internet and for good reason. Its combination of haunting falsettos, sparse acoustic guitar work and reverb-y production carries with it a sincerity that can be uncommon with music jocked by Pitchfork and probably for this year, rivalled only by Sun Kil Moon's April. As you can see, I'm writing some pretty bad sentences. I blame my flu (or whatever it is).

This particular recording has 7 of the 9 album tracks, including all the best ones (Lump Sum, Flume, Skinny Love, Wolves, Creature Fear) so it's probably a good place to start before buying the album. The vocals are pretty spot on when compared to the album and it has the same ghostly sort of feel to it despite being recorded live. Like I said, this dude is being jocked pretty heavily by Pitchfork and some similar publications but for good reason, unlike some bands this year (Vampire Weekend).

I can't really figure out how to download this mp3 by itself but I daresay it doesn't matter too much because I'm guessing little to no people read this blog. Anyway, just drop this into whatever program you have that can do podcasts (iTunes most likely), find the recording (the date of it is 21/02/08) and download away. NPR has some really great stuff on it so a lot of it will likely be appearing on this blog in the near future.

Podcast

The National - White Session Digital Broadcast (2007)

2008-07-23T06:15:00.001-07:00

January was a pretty good month for me this year and listening to this recording reminds me of my experience seeing The National. At the time there were so many great shows on like Built to Spill and Low and The National kind of took a back seat because I couldn't afford it and tickets sold out. Then they added another show but it was on the same night as Low so I couldn't go. Then for some reason the sold out show wasn't sold out anymore and I got to buy a ticket the day before the show. It was a pretty unreal show and the setlist was a lot better than the one from this recording, it had more songs from Alligator and the like. It was such a great show. Two of my friends and I stood up the front for the whole show to get a spot. I'm sure we looked like douches but it was fun anyway. For their encore, the band brought out all the leftover beers and bottles of water from their rider and one of the guitarists gave me a beer but I couldn't open it and then the security guard wouldn't let me take it out of the venue even though it wasn't opened. I guess there's some law about that but it made me a sad panda.

Anyway, the encore song was "About Today" which has become my favourite National song and is included on this recording. It's not an album track, but the live version is really dynamic, especially with the violin and the delayed guitar that comes in at the end. The lyrics are my favourite of any National song; they're much more sparse and simple than any of their other songs that I can think of. Matt is a great lyricist anyway but I think these lyrics are more perfect than anything else he has written. The rest of the tracks here are from Boxer except for one and they're very well recorded and performed. Again, not the best possible setlist or anything, but "Start a War", "Fake Empire" and "Mistaken For Strangers" are definite gold.

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Blacklisted - Live on WERS (2006)

2008-07-09T08:57:00.000-07:00

The first time I heard Blacklisted, I have to say that I wasn't overly impressed but I've warmed up to them quite a lot since that time. In fact, I thought they were pretty bad, because this sort of hardcore has never really been my thing. I've gotten more and more into it over the past year though. I guess because there are so many uninteresting hardcore bands around where I live and when you don't bother to dig deep into the genre it's hard to tell the difference between a lot of bands.

Deathwish are a pretty nice label and as a result they've started releasing a series of live recordings for free over the internet. This particular recording is the first in the series and, I believe a recording from a radio session the band did at a university. One website described it as 'legendary', which I don't really know about, but it is pretty kickass. It's very well recorded and the band play really damn well on it. My favourite part of Blacklisted has always been George's vocals and he does a pretty exceptional job on this recording I think. "Wolves At My Door" is probably my favourite track if only because the part where he yells "I should have known you were one of the wolves at my door" is so killer.

Tomorrow night I'm going to see Blacklisted play a show in Byron Bay, which is part of their first Australian tour. They're not really my favourite hardcore band or anything, but this recording has more or less everything I like; hard riffs, catchy sections, interesting vocals and a tight rhythm section. I think the show should be a lot of fun at the very least. I'm really glad to see bands like Blacklisted, Have Heart and hopefully Ceremony later in the year touring Australia. I just hope they do a set longer than the 16 minutes we get on this recording.

By the way, if you dig this, I'd encourage you to check out their two newer releases Peace on Earth, War on Stage and Heavier Than Heaven, Lonelier Than God. Both have some really killer moments.

Download

Ohana @ Lawrence's Boatshed (2008)

2008-07-06T04:49:00.000-07:00

I first heard Ohana late last year, but they've quickly become one of my favourite Australian bands by a long way. I guess you could lump them in with the other 'big' bands in Australian DIY hardcore, but their sound is a pretty long way off the sort of bands on Yellow Ghost and the like. I've heard comparisons to At the Drive-In and bands of a similar ilk, but to me a more accurate description would be My Disco with emotion.

I had the opportunity to see Ohana a couple of nights ago on the first date of their tour with To The North for a split 7" that they've done. Some of the songs they played actually made me think of Battles as they had so many of the elements that Battles seem to have in place; minimalism and repitition, fun wordless vocals, nodable beats and singer with an afro. I think I also need to make special mention of the bassist. His tone was the best I have ever heard from any live band ever.

I guess Ohana aren't really danceable like My Disco, but they certainly have the same sort of angular rhythmic ideas in place, not to mention the repitition. That said, I think Ohana are an infinitely more interesting band than My Disco (which says something because I love My Disco); they're far more emotional, they have better lyrics and far better vocals, their sound has a lot more scope for development, from what I can tell they are a lot less hit-or-miss live, they have song titles with references to Jean-Luc Godard films... I could go on and on but I think I've made my point. Listen to this band.

Download
MySpace (go here and check out the song called "Untitled Demo", absolutely my favourite song at the moment)

Kidcrash - Complete Discography (2001-2008)

2008-06-29T13:32:00.000-07:00

Denovali records are one of my very favourite distros on the internet. They specialise mainly in hardcore and they tend to put a lot of their releases up for free download, as well as selling them on cd and vinyl. With Kidcrash however, they've done something even more crazy. Kidcrash themselves say:

"we ask that you make a $5 donation in support of helping us continue to afford to make new records and tour, but obviously our music is and must always be available to anyone who wants it regardless of an ability or a desire to make a donation; knowing as artists that: in the process of creating we produce works that by definition are the property of society, not the artist."

I do have to admit that I haven't heard all of these releases. But Kidcrash released what is now my favourite album of 2007 and a record I constantly come back to even now, Jokes. Jokes is almost like every great emo band wrapped into one, or at least a microcosm of that sort of hardcore. On top of that it is really accessible, not difficult at all to listen to because it's catchy and the songs are pretty short. The vocals aren't overly raw and the production is very good. Basically, it's the best hardcore record since Daitro's Lassiez Vivre Les Squelettes or Gospel's The Moon is a Dead World.

Ultimately, this is the best thing to happen to legally free music in a long time. Well, that and Off Minor's new album Some Blood, but I'll save that for another post.

PS I'm an idiot for writing this, it's 6:40 in the morning and I have to leave right now.

Download

Mogwai - Gothic Theatre Concert Recording (2006)

2008-05-11T04:40:00.000-07:00

The Splendour in the Grass festival may basically be a bunch of boring hipster Triple J bands these days, but back in 2006 it was really something. Sonic Youth, Brian Wilson, TV On the Radio, Mogwai, and others all played and as far as lineups go, it was definitely the best festival I've ever been to. While most of the aforementioned bands put on near-perfect performances, for me, nothing topped Mogwai on the Saturday night of the festival.

This was just a few months after Mogwai released their album Mr. Beast, but the timing is almost irrelevant because Mogwai put together some of the best setlists of any band I can think of. Their shows are faithful to their entire back catalogue, with a number of songs going back even before their first album.

This recording isn't the Splendour performance (though that is downloadable in flac from the Internet Archive), but it does happen to be the best quality live recording of Mogwai I've ever heard, with one of the best setlists to boot (it's really only lacking Mogwai Fear Satan...which admittedly is a fairly big omission). My personal favourites from this set are "Yes! I Am a Long Way From Home" for its mix of gorgeous melody and crushing dynamics, "Hunted By a Freak" for its crazy vocoder sound, "I Know You Are But What Am I?" for sounding way different to the album version and possibly even more awesome and "Helicon 1" for basically being the best post-rock song ever written. Also notable is that this is one of the few recordings from the Mr. Beast tour to include "My Father My King", the band's 20 minute EP consisting of one song of the same name. Basically, this is Mogwai at their finest and it's hard to imagine someone not finding something to like here.

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Kayo Dot - Blue Lambency Downward (2008)

2008-04-29T05:38:00.000-07:00

I had debated whether or not I should post this because it's technically not free to own. But I decided to because a) Kayo Dot are, in my opinion, the greatest band of the decade and Toby Driver is the most forward-thinking composer of our time and b) it's free to stream in its entirety and Hydra Head never take the streams down, I guess they leave them until the domain expires (case in point; the streams for last year's albums from Pelican and Tusk are still online).

In all honesty, I don't know what to make of Blue Lambency Downward. It certainly doesn't have the same punch that Choirs of the Eye and Dowsing Anemone With Copper Tongue had on first release. The heavy moments we saw on both of those albums have almost completely disappeared. At this point, the pieces don't seem to distinguish themselves from one another anywhere near as much as they did on Dowsing... or even Choirs of the Eye, which had a number of moments that were extremely memorable (the solo in "The Manifold Curiosity" being the most obvious example) and the songs seemed to build to huge climaxes and then stop, or end with meandering passages.

On the other hand, I find myself counting down the hours until I can hear this record again. In fact I'm gutted right now that I can't listen to it because someone seems to have exceeded the download limit here.

If you want detailed descriptions of the music on this, I really can't give them to you. The best I can do to sum it up is that its some sort of mix of Toby's solo album, last year's Sixty Metonymies (released under the Tartar Lamb moniker by Toby and Mia) and the sound that Kayo Dot were going for on "Immortelle and Paper Caravelle". Other than that, I don't know what to say. It's going to take me a few months to figure out this record. But dammit if it's not one of the best records I've heard in a long, long time and I have no doubt it will be firmly secured in my top 5 records at the end of the year, even if at this point I don't dig it as much as the last two records.

For now, listen here.

Sed Non Satiata - Le Ciel De Notre Enfance (2005)

2008-04-20T05:50:00.000-07:00

Some of the absolute best screamo in the world is coming out of Europe at the moment and particularly France. By my estimation, there are two bands at the forefront of French emo; Daitro and the band this post is about; Sed Non Satiata. While Daitro wrote possibly my favourite hardcore song of all time with "Nous Sommes D'ici", Sed Non Satiata's album is a remarkable piece of work. It seems to be common in European emo to mix bouncy, catchy rhythms with brutal tones and textures.

By far my favourite song on this record is its centrepiece, the instrumental "En Attendant L'aube". It's possibly one of the most interesting tracks I've ever heard on a hardcore album, mixing some weird sweeping tones with brutal, chunky powerchords and one of the most
gorgeous lead riffs I've ever heard (so much so that I immediately had to learn to play it on guitar when I heard it). I guess you could call it a post-rock song but I feel like it would be doing the song a disservice to use that term, considering how much it gets thrown around and used to describe the most vanilla music in the world.

Though this album is short, it is definitely one of the best European screamo albums I've heard along with Daitro's Lassiez Vivre Les Squelettes and La Quiete's La Fine Non e La Fine. Even if you're not into the genre, I would at least recommend checking out "En Attendant L'aube" as its represents the most masterful use of dynamics I've ever heard on a hardcore album.

Download
SNS website (click on Media > Mp3s)

Low - Live @ East Brunswick Club 2008

2008-04-16T19:57:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year, I had the privilege of seeing Low, one of my favourite bands ever, play a small gig in Brisbane. It was at one of the nicest and smallest venues in city and if I had to guess I'd say that there were probably even less than 150 people there; the show didn't even sell out. I could make a few complaints about it; like about how two dudes decided to stand right in the middle of the seated crowd, forcing every person in the room to eventually stand (it's standard practice at Low shows to sit on the floor), but really, it was an unreal show and pretty much any complaint I make is me being picky.

Brisbane were only treated to one show, but Melbourne got three. At one of those shows, Low performed Things We Lost in the Fire in full, which I was semi-gutted I didn't get to see. Fortunately for me, some nice guy decided to tape all three of their shows and put them up for download on the Internet Archive, which is truly the greatest website in the world when it comes to free music. Apart from this one, of course...*ahem*

I've linked two shows in this post; one is the Things We Lost in the Fire show and the other has a very similar setlist to the show that I was at. If you dig either show, I highly recommend checking out the third one (especially Waltzing Matilda at the end), which you'll be able to find pretty easily if you start at the pages of the other two. I guess I should make special mention to "Dinosaur Act" on the Things We Lost in the Fire set, which is probably even better than the album version. Also look out for "Lordy" on the other set, which was, despite being super quiet, one of the most mesmerising and intense things I've ever seen at a show.

Download
Things We Lost in the Fire show
Third show

E-603 - Something For Everyone

2008-04-12T19:53:00.000-07:00

Mash-ups have always been silly fun and they probably reached their peak in terms of popularity with Girl Talk's Night Ripper album, released in 2006. E-603 doesn't really pull it off as well as Girl Talk (he makes some questionable decisions and mashes some things that don't really go together) in his actual music, but he does go further with the 'nerdy white guy with a laptop' image. He's probably just as fun as Girl Talk, even if his sampled artists are occasionally a little more obscure. He's also from around where I used to live in the USA and he samples The Boss. Good driving or party music.

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Burton Wagner - A Sentinel's Eyes

2008-04-04T18:26:00.000-07:00

Burton Wagner is a DIY post-rock guitarist who makes instrumental music, releasing an album every year for free over the internet. A Sentinel's Eyes is his second of three the releases and in my opinion, his best work to date. A Sentinel's Eyes is made up of two 30 minute tracks that cycle through a number of ideas that range from being incredibly depressing, noisy and chaotic to ambient, melodic and pretty. Burton's album 21 was also one of my favourite releases of last year, being pretty much the opposite in structure to this record. As it is now, I still have a tape of A Sentinel's Eyes in my car that I listen to often. It's an album that truly represents the emotional and artistic peak of what can possibly be produced out of a bedroom by a dude with a guitar, an effects pedal and a piece of recording software.

Download
Track 1 - A Sentinel's Eyes
Track 2 - Beginning's End
Section Names

My Disco - Live At the Espy (2005)

2008-04-03T07:15:00.000-07:00

My Disco are one of my very favourite bands from Australia. Their sound has undergone some fairly serious changes over the years to the point that it has become some of the most colourless, minimalistic music I have ever heard. Their new album Paradise has just dropped and I am yet to hear it but 2006's Cancer is truly one of the best and most interesting Australian albums of the decade. Last year I had the privilege of seeing My Disco open for Deerhoof and their set was incredibly loud, brief and repetitive (and I mean that in the best way possible). This set from 2005 includes a number of the band's earlier tracks, as well as a few tracks from the then upcoming Cancer. The last song of the set is Troubled Receiver, from the group's excellent split 7" with Off Minor, which bridges the gap between their earlier work and their later, more minimalistic leanings.

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Atmosphere - Strictly Leakage (2007)

2008-03-16T05:05:00.000-07:00

Atmosphere - Strictly Leakage

Atmosphere have occasionaly been given ridiculous titles like "emo hip-hop" and while they may, in part, be warranted, the entirely free LP Strictly Leakage is by far their most fun release yet. Strictly Leakage has been described by Atmosphere's own label as "a party album" and it's certainly easy to see why; the music is extremely sunny and the lyrics are largely humourous. Basically, Strictly Leakage is 13 tracks of fun, well-crafted hip-hop and if you are a fan of the genre in any way, there's no reason why you shouldn't enjoy it.

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James Dean - CD-R (2007)

2008-03-15T05:29:00.000-07:00

Hi and welcome to my new blog. I'm going to try to update this at least once a week with a free download. I started this blog because there's a lot of free music on the internet and I've always wished for something that would compile the good stuff in a convenient location. All of the music I post on this blog will have been made free for legal download by the artists. Also, I will pretty much be posting albums, EPs, demos...ful releases basically, though I'm sure there will be the occasional exception. Anyway, I hope someone gets something out of it. First up is...

James Dean - CD-R

While the Australian screamo scene is probably still in relative infancy, there is no doubt in my mind that it is producing some of the best music in the country. James Dean are one of its very best bands, combining clean guitar tones and a strong sense of melody with stripped-down instrumentation and group vocals. Along with Quiet Steps, Quebec, Eucalypt, To The North and plenty of others, James Dean are creating some of the most interesting and impassioned music to come out of Australia for some time.

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