Bright Eyes, Sometimes a crescendo.

Before I start, 2 things. First i know that this is not the most faithful definition of crescendo. Second this post is a month or so late, but whatever, I still want to write it. My house lost internet access for a few days before and after the concert I mentioned way back in my last post. Anyways, this post will be highlighting songs by Bright Eyes with a rising action.

A stylistic theme that runs through many of Bright Eyes' songs is a rising action culminating in the emotional apex, often followed by a steep decline. For a writer as emotional as he, this is a useful tactic for highlighting the main point of the song. Since all of it is emotional, the meat of the song needs to be differentiated.

Yuck [Updated]

[Update: As time went by since I wrote this post, two songs by "Yuck" which I did not review began to stand out to me, so I am updating this to include those two songs]

Yuck is a band I first heard of while listening to sports talk radio show of all places. The host put on their song "Get Away" as a transition into commercial break. It just goes to show you never know when or where you'll be introduced to a new band. Yuck formed in 2009, but didn't released their first album until February, 2011. They join the countless number of artists whose debut albums are eponymous, seriously there are a ton. To name a few there is Vampire Weekend's Vampire Weekend, Weezer's Weezer, and Nirvana's Nirvana. I was too lazy to go through and count, but there must be over two hundred eponymous albums on the full list. Two of the band members, Daniel Blumberg and Max Bloom, played in Cajun Dance Party before joining Yuck. If you asked me to describe their sound in terms of other band's, I would say they sound like a mix of Smashing Pumpkins, Dinosaur Jr, and some Oasis mixed in for some British flavor. The mixture creates quite a unique sound that is both hard enough to satisfy fans of rock but thought out and raw enough for indie fans.

Explosions in the Sky

Bonnaroo

Explosions in the Sky is a post-rock band formed in Austin, Texas in 1999. Like many artists classified as "post-rock," E.I.T.S relies mostly on instrumentals. The band consists of three electric-guitarists and a drummer, who carry the band through many eight-plus minute odysseys. The songs are structured like a film might be, the song begins slowly but build up to a climax that usually occurs with about two minutes left in the song. I'll admit that I am unfamiliar with most bands who consider themselves post-rock, and my discovery of this band did not come in an ordinary fashion.

Bright Eyes. Sometimes uplifting.

Bright Eyes is the name of the band headlined my Connor Oberst (lead vocals and guitar mostly, occasionally bass and piano), accompanied by Mike Morgis and Nate Walcott (many instruments) and frequently joined by whoever they feel like at the time. Connor is a prolific artist and cranks out about 1 album per year and a half, as well as contributing to many collaborations, putting out solo projects, and other ventures. The tone of his songs vary greatly, but his overall outlook seems to be that life is sad, but worth it; tragic, but funny; and lovely, but lonely. Connor's songs can take you to the darkest depths of human emotion. He has songs about being alone, depression, drugs, death, and suicide. He also has songs that speak to a great hopefulness of trying to live happily in the face of existence's futility. Some songs are just plain happy too. Others still are hard to categorize. This post will focus on some of my favorite happy songs of his.

the Mountain Goats

To preface:
This is the first in a planned series of four posts, which may be reduced as my procrastination sees fit. They are being written with the intention of promoting a show so that one of my friends will go with me. Not only is the main attraction one of my favorite bands, but the opening act is also in the top 20. (Bright Eyes with the Mountain Goats opening to stop teasing you.) So without further ado:

Pomplamoose

Pomplamoose is my first review on what I would call a "YouTube Band."

You may know them as "the annoying couple from the Toyota commercials," as my friend Steve (Not from this blog) described them. They had a few national commercials around Christmas singing traditional carols in their own special way. (FYI, I didn't much like the commercials.) Incidentally, Steve from the blog describes them as "that girl that stares at you with dead eyes." And while she may stare at the camera with the look of a nervous girl giving her first handjob, the music is very enjoyable and creative. (Don't listen to him Nataly, you can stare at me with those dead eyes any day.)

A typical Pomplamoose song will feature Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn performing a song, each playing multiple instruments and singing both lead and back-up vocals. Nataly will often sing the lyrics multiple times for an awesomely harmonious effect. An interesting thing about Pomplamoose is that in the music video you see footage of the instrumentation spliced together on screen, and so you are able to see how they were able to obtain the finished product through hundreds of tiny shots. Things that you probably rarely think about are shown in minute detail. Something as simple as clapping that coincides with the rhythm clearly takes a great deal of time for two people working on such a small budget. Many shots of individual claps are dispersed throughout the video. Though he tries his little heart out, it is pretty clear that Jack isn't proficient enough on the drums to play most songs the whole way through. They get through this with many individual shots of a cymbal crash or snare smash, and fill it in with low budget moves such as drumming their fists on a desk.


There are two general types of Pomplamoose songs: covers and originals; I'll review some covers first.

Jackson Square

A while back, I wrote a post on some of my favorite modern Canadian bands (Located Here). I briefly explored the music of several artists and posted some of their most successful songs. Now, I would like to expand on one band in particular, Arkells. I don't like generalizing bands' sound by classifying them into genres, but if I had to I would describe them as "pop-punk." That doesn't really help you to grasp their sound though, does it? Forget I said it then.

Let's dive into their only album released so far, Jackson Square, which debuted in 2008.

State of the Blog Address

Hello all,

As you have surely noticed by now, we have not been updating the blog as much as we would like in the past few months. It seems like just yesterday that an alive and well Music Box was posting daily. For all intensive purposes, the blog was dead for much of March, April, and May. With the summer season here, we, the writers, find ourselves with free time and a renewed desire to share our musical tastes and experiences.

I would like to announce that we are proudly resurrecting the Music Box from the dark depths of forgotten blogs. We hope to take advantage of the diverse and numerous concerts and shows scheduled this summer in Buffalo and the surrounding area.

Thank you for your patience and continued support of the Music Box through this once dismal but now exciting time.

-Peter

The perfect version.

I tend to discover music on the internet; so I have a constant dilemma. Namely, there are lots of versions of most songs, and a lot of them suck. This is especially true if the artist isn't well known, or the song isn't yet released; however, this can still be a problem with more well known songs.

A song which I have been listening to a lot lately is "You Don't Know Me" by Ben Folds (w Regina Spektor), from the album Way to Normal. Someone posted it on facebook. I loved it upon first listen, and bookmarked the page, and for a while I just listened to that version. I'm pretty sure it was this one:



After listening to that version about 400 times just by loading the youtube video, I decided to download it. And since I really like Ben Folds, I decided to do something I rarely do: pay for it. I was sad to find out that the version I downloaded from iTunes was slightly different. Maybe it was just the settings on my iPod, but the version I have seems to have less bass and Ben's vocals are weaker. So I tried to find a downloadable version more to my liking. In my search I quickly found that there is a version with a music video created by Tim and Eric linked here:

Living Guitar Legend: Trey Anastasio

While speaking with others about whom, in one's opinion, is the greatest guitarist of all time, names such as Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and B.B. King will often come to mind. It is difficult to bring in many modern guitarists into this conversation, save a select few, including Trey Anastasio, best known for his work in one of my favorite bands, Phish. This would be a bold statement trying to put Anastasio in the same conversation as the names mentioned above, but it is not only me that thinks he belongs up there. Rolling Stone magazine would agree, by including him on their top 100 guitarist of all time at number 73. I would like to focus on some of his side projects that he took part in, due to the fact that at a later time I wish to author a separate post on Phish. Just because this is a post about Trey Anastasio, I do find it necessary to include at least one Phish song.

The Canadians Are Coming!

Have you ever had a sudden realization? This post will explain my realization that many of my favorite artists are surprisingly Canadian.

One of the things I enjoy doing in conjunction with listening to a band's music is researching their biography, as to achieve a greater understanding for the band's beginnings and influences. I often find myself undertaking this research while listening to bands whose music I have owned for some time, yet know little about. Today, I found myself listening to Broken Social Scene, a band whose music I have been enjoying for a few months now. While quickly reading their Wikipedia page, (yes I know, wikipedia is frowned upon in academia, but it's so damn convenient!) I discovered that they were based in Toronto, Canada. It then hit me, a good percentage of the bands I listen to are either based or born in America's Northern neighbor, Canada, of course. I thought to myself, "Wow, Justin Beiber, Nickelback, Celine Dion...Canada just keeps producing!" That of course, was sarcasm, and you should read on if you believe that those artists are all that Canadian music has to offer.

Why?

To clarify before the post formally begins, and to avoid a "who's on first?" type of moment, "Why?" (spelled with a question mark) is the name of the band this post concerns.

Why? is a folk/alternative rock band with a splash of hip-hop thrown in at times. They are on the Anticon label, known for alternative hip-hop, but becoming increasingly indie/rock. Why?'s albums are very thematically driven, and their lyrics are more concerned with imagery and emotion than substantive meaning.

Elephant Eyelash (2005) is their first album worth mentioning. Death, disease, decay, and elephants are common motifs. Yeah, I don't understand the specific relevance of elephants, but they are all over this album.

Their most popular song according to the youtubes is "Gemini (Birthday Song)". It starts off strong, but in my opinion kind of burns out with the third verse at the tempo change. The song is sad, and though it's meaning isn't quite evident, it makes me think of someone losing a loved one at a young age to premature death. The lyrics are a recounting of their time together while the singer tries to stay strong. Elephant reference: "and all our body hair pricked up // an elephant eyelash"

The Hold Steady Almost Killed Me

The Hold Steady are a bar band. There's no shame in admitting it. They often reference themselves as one in their lyrics: "She said it's good to see you back in a bar band, baby/ I said it's great to see you're still in the bars." Their lead singer, Craig Finn, looks like a guy who could've been a substitute teacher at your high school or a member of your bowling league.

Craig Finn, Lead Singer of the Hold Steady

The band tours incessantly and frequently chooses to blast their no-holds barred rock in smaller venues with a bar atmosphere. Perhaps it's these modest, everyman circumstances and a lack of pretensions surrounding this band that have made them beacons of hope to the indie rock community as well as being one of my favorite groups.

A Story of Suburban Life By Arcade Fire

Released in late summer of 2010, this third album by Arcade Fire has proved to be their most commercially successful and arguably most complete work. It is a concept album dealing with the childhoods of band members Win Butler, William Butler, and Regine Chassagne, all of whom were raised in suburban Houston and Montreal respectively. In the regular stylings of Arcade Fire, the album has a dark and apocalyptic tone to it. The album was written in a way where the band members seemed to look back on their childhoods on comment on their own experiences. If one examines the lyrics, they can easily relate to the topics dealt with in the songs. For me, many of the songs strike a chord in me as I feel I can easily relate to many of the issues and experiences that are lyrically discussed. I will now divulge my own interpretations of the most important songs on the album, discussing their significance to me personally and to the album as a whole.

Smooth Acoustics: Colin Hay

Not too long ago I stumbled upon an artist that sounded pretty good on an episode of one of my favorite shows, Scrubs. I was curious as to who it was, but did not catch it in the credits and forgot to search the episode online to see who the artist was. A few weeks later, I was watching Scrubs again, and another song by this artist came on, and this time, almost right after the episode, I looked up the artist.

After figuring out that the artists name was Colin Hay, and the song that I liked was Beautiful World, I started looking up some of his songs on the YouTube. I discovered a whole library of his work with each song sounding great.

Menzinger's concert.

For the record, this is written stylistically to sound a little insane, and the run-on sentences are intentional. It is as true as it can be given the circumstances, alcohol may have made my memory fuzzy at some points, but I never blacked out and assure that this has not been exaggerated at any point. The events took place whenever the Ravens Steelers playoff game was this year, I am not going to bother looking up the date.

It was about two O'clock in the afternoon and I was at work. All week time had seemed to slow, the exciting upcoming weekend making time spent at the ol' job seem like molasses making its way down a twisty slide at the park. I had worked either at night or the next morning each day, so I hadn't really had a night to myself to unwind since the previous weekend. Outside the snow was coming down harder and harder, and the prospect of a road trip to Cleveland in a car ill-equipped for a ride to the supermarket seemed less and less likely. I had to take action. Due to the nature of my work and the inclimate weather it wasn't difficult to go home early. Although I had brought clothes to change into I decided to head home for a spare pair of socks, one can never be too careful.

I called my friend Kyle.
"Hello," he said with a hint of despair in his voice.
"Hey," I replied, "I just left work early. When can you get me?" I said.
(Silence) "Dude, that is fucking key, I thought you were about to call the trip off with the snow the way it is," Kyle said.

Less Than Jake

This is the third band that I am writing about, and like I said in my intro, I like a lot of different music. Here I bring you a ska punk band that is based in Gainesville, Florida. They have been together for about 19 years, starting in 1992. They have gone through a couple different band members through the years, but seem to have settled on a group for now. In their music they have a guitarist, bassist, drummer, and include a person on the trombone and someone on the saxophone. The band does an excellent job using the horns mixed in with the other instruments.

Less Than Jake has released 9 studio albums, which my favorites include Losing Steak, Borders and Boundaries, and Hello Rockview. These albums include a lot of songs that I would for sure recommend checking out like "Johnny Quest Thinks We're Sellouts", "Gainesville Rockcity", and "Scott Farcas Takes It On The Chin". The song "Gainesville Rockcity" is actually about their hometown and has a pretty cool music video that shows a lot of places that have to do with the history of the band. The biggest of the videos below is the music video I am talking about.

The xx

Formed in London, England, this indie-pop band quickly grew to fame after their self-titled debut album was released in 2009. Their sound is difficult to describe with words, but it is very eclectic and soothing without sacrificing drive and punch. The band features two main singers, Romy Madley Croft (female), and Oliver Sim (male). The vocalists will often sing different verses of songs, and then come together to harmonize the choruses. Its the perfect music to listen to during a late night drive or a relaxing evening. I actually enjoy listening to them in any situation, as their music is soothing but it has a punch to it with a hint of aggressiveness on a few of their songs. No, its not just you, that last description made no sense. I suppose you will just have to listen to understand what I mean. The xx is very popular in England, as they are up for best British album at the 2011 Brit Awards. I think that it is only a matter of time before Americans fall for this band like the British have. Have a listen.

Here is a song you may have heard at or advertising for certain sporting events. Its an instrumental called "Intro"

Another song I like from the album is arguably their most popular song, called "Crystalised."

Get Funky: Soulive

Here is a band that I have been listening to for the past year or two, and I think they are really good. They are a little more funky with their work with a little bit of jazz mixed in. Their songs mostly are just instrumental, which include guitar, drums, and different keyboards. They also are known for inviting some different horns such as a trumpet or saxophone to play with them. This band definitely has a little bit of a unique sound, but it sounds great.

My favorite albums of theirs that I think is worth checking out are their albums Doin' Something and Break Out. If you plan on checking out either of these albums, I would recommend the songs "Hurry Up...And Wait", "Doin' Something", "One In Seven", "Vapor", "Take It Easy", and my current favorite song by them, their cover of "Crosstown Traffic". In their cover of the song, the guitar sounds awesome. They are a little bit different than what has been posted so far, but they use a great blend of all their instruments to make it sound great. I have posted a couple of their songs below for your convenience.

The Fratellis

For my first post I'd like to talk about the Fratellis. I got into the Fratellis because of their song Flathead, which was featured on an iPod commercial.

At first I just downloaded that, and it shot up the most played list for my family's computer pretty quickly. I have literally danced by myself to this song, I don't know what it is about it, but I like it. I later got the whole album (Costello Music), and was pleasantly surprised. At this time their next album (Here We Stand) was just weeks away from release, and I got it as soon as it did. I can honestly say that there is not a single song by them that I dislike. When I want to listen to them on my ipod, I just choose artist, select all songs, and hit shuffle.

Another song you have likely heard is Chelsea Dagger. The Blackhawks made it their goal/victory song a few years ago, and a lot of other arenas/stadiums have started to play it. You may know it as the doot da doot da da da da da dada doot song. It isn't their best song, but it's still pretty enjoyable.

A Farewell to The White Stripes

Just under a week ago, the world received some very sad news regarding a beloved band. "The White Stripes would like to announce that today, February 2nd, 2011, their band has officially ended and will make no further new recordings or perform live," a post on their website read. "It is for a myriad of reasons, but mostly to preserve what is beautiful and special about the band and have it stay that way."

As far as I remember, and I must say some may find this humorous, but it was in the 2004 movie Napoleon Dynamite where I first heard a song by The White Stripes. It was their acoustic song "We're Going to Be Friends," which played during the opening credits. While I still consider that one of my favorite White Stripes songs, I have grown to realize they are much more than a tune you hear behind the credits of an independent film. One of the things that stands out to me concerning this band is the fact that they were able to make such great music utilizing only a drummer and guitarist/vocalist. The fact that the band employed no bassist actually led the band into a bit of controversy, if you will. On a local radio station I had heard that a fan went as far as recording his own bass tracks onto several White Stripes songs and proceeded to post them online. Guitarist/Vocalist Jack White allegedly listened to and liked the "improved" songs, but still had them removed from the web.

Intro

Hey all, I'm a new contributor here, but it looks like everyone is since this blog is only a few days old. I am one of those billion people on facebook whose musical taste basically says, "everything but country". So while that's kind of clichéd, I think that you can tell just about as much about someone's musical taste by what they vehemently dislike as by what they like. I've been told that I don't actually hate country by my best friend, just the country they play on country radio stations, and that may be true. I also dislike Gwen Stefani, any rap song that talks about how great the rapper is, songs by girls complaining about boys, and Gospel. More to the point I am into classic rock, some alternative, some punk, and some indie rock; really an eclectic mix, but that's a good summary. I go to a lot of concerts and spend a lot of time on the youtubes trying to find new music.

One Man Band: Xavier Rudd

Xavier Rudd is an artist I am a pretty big fan of, but a lot of people I ask have not really heard of him. He is an Australian artist who likes to write songs about environmentalism and the rights of people. At his concerts he usually plays multiple instruments. He is known for playing the guitar, harmonica, didgeridoo, banjo, and the lap steel guitar. When I listen to him, it reminds me of Bob Dylan and Jack Johnson. He plays and sings some Blues 'n Roots and Alternative. His music is very relaxing to listen to, so at stressful times it is nice to listen to him to calm me down. Give him a listen and let us know what you think.

Here is a live version of "Let Me Be."

Posted below is a some more live Rudd, this time performing "Green Spandex."

New Contributor

Hey guys, I am a new contributor to the Music Box Blog. Peter invited me to throw in some stuff that I may think people may find interesting. I do not have a ton of experience with music, I just enjoy listening to good it. I am open to basically any type of music and I find the different types of music to be very interesting. I love looking into the meaning of some lyrics and seeing the different messages that an artist may be trying to get across with their music. I hope I can direct you to some stuff that you may have never heard of or never knew you would enjoy.

Up and Coming Band: Morning Teleportation

I was recently recommended by a friend to check out the band Morning Teleportation. I liked what I heard, especially the song "Expanding Anyways". They have opened for bands such as Cage the Elephant and Modest Mouse, but I could see them headlining shows within the next couple of years. I would compare their music style to that of MGMT and Cage the Elephant, although they really do have their own unique sound. The band has yet to release an album, but their debut album is scheduled for release in the near future. I highly recommend giving them a listen as you may be hearing much more from them in the time to come.  I have posted below the official video for their song  "Expanding Anyways," which I had mentioned earlier. The music video is very trippy and psychedelic, but goes along well with the song. Happy Listening!

video source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKTbbf4z1PQ

photo source : http://www.bonnaroo.com/ImageHandler.ashx?imagepath=~/images/Artists/morning-teleportation-Morning%20Teleportation.jpg&width=480

"Come Around Sundown": A Review

Released in October of 2010, this latest album from the Kings of Leon provided a different, dare I say country-esque sound that varied heavily from their previous works. It does not contain that one "smash hit" as seen in their previous album ,Only By the Night, where both "Sex On Fire" and "Use Somebody" were received well by pop music charts. While it does not contain the hits, it truly is a very solid and complete album with absolutely no filler songs. The first single from the album, "Radioactive," has been the most widely recognizable song from the album. While it is a solid song, it has the most "pop" characteristics of any song on the album and is not the best it has to offer. Overall I believe Come Around Sundown is worth a listen in its entirety, even for those of you who are not fans of the Kings of Leon's previous works.

My top five songs from Come Around Sundown:

Two Hours Traffic

Here is a band that I am just becoming familiar with, but I very much like what I hear so far. Two Hours Traffic is an indie rock band based in Prince Edward Island, Canada. Since their initiation in 2003, the band has released three full length albums as well as two EP's. Their most recent album Territory was released in September of 2009.

Check out these videos to get a taste for Two Hours Traffic.


Here is a very upbeat and catchy song called "Noisemaker":

Here is my current favorite song by them, Stolen Earrings, and below is great live version.

Welcome!

Welcome! Let me first state the purpose of this blog. I will attempt to share artists/bands that you may not be familiar with, or share B-sides from bands that you have heard of. Let me first say that I am no professional music critic, nor do I have any experience in the music industry. I am simply a fan of music in general who enjoys digging deeps into albums and experiencing artists work's beyond their singles or radio hits. With that being said, I hope you find my blog to be enjoyable and also a learning experience as you discover new bands and dig deeper into artists you are familiar with. As time goes on, I hope that this blog is able to grow and expand into an all inclusive site for musical discovery.