Some of Franky Lee's bio material attempts to peg them as an indierock throwback, but there's no comparison to bands such as Tennis Bafra or Culkin. No, Franky Lee is a straight-up turn-of-the-millennium style arena-sized alternative rock act ala Foo Fighters or Jimmy Eat World. Which is by no means a bad thing! The band I'm currently playing with kind of attempts to cop that sound too, for what it's worth, though we probably throw in a few more new-wavey influences. Anyhow, I really do like this sort of stuff despite it being patently uncool in many social circles. It's definitely not punk to aspire to such pop grandeur -- a funny thing to note when you consider Franky Lee's member pedigree (likewise, in my own band's case). I guess there's a freedom in getting old in that those sort of petty things don't seem to matter as much anymore. I'm feeling it, signed: an unapologetic fan of pop convention. Go see Franky Lee when they play Debaser Malmö next week at It's a Trap!'s clubnight.
I fully admit it now: my first impression of Ghost was way off and totally wrong. I went in with false expectations due to whatever hype and backlash was going around at the time and totally missed the fact that they are simply a great heavy rock band with tons of solid hooks. I'm sure a lot of folks are bummed by the occult vibe and costumes, but that stuff doesn't bother me at all. In fact, I am unreservedly excited about seeing them play in Seattle tonight and look forward to seeing an actual show. See you there?
I have no idea how widely it's been reported, but Western Washington underwent some seriously extreme weather this past week, so between working my regular dayjob among itinerant power outages and making sure my family and pets are taken care of, keeping up this site doesn't exactly register on the priority list. So despite the carnage above which shows you the view from my home office window, we are all doing okay, more or less. The fence and the tree, not so much. I'll get back on top of things soon enough.
Apparently it now takes me a full week to dig out of the hole I got myself into by taking time off in December. So while it might not feel quite so timely anymore, I'm going to try and take the time to highlight a few of my top 10 mentions over the next little while before getting back into the Sisyphean task of keeping up with what's new. First: Dödsvarg. The band initially spurred my curiosity because they/he is ex-Detektivbyrån, but when you combine that with the descriptor "a mixture of Meshuggah and Skitsystem," I knew I absolutely needed to hear it. The album "Livet är en dödsorsak" doesn't disappoint either -- the music is crusty, mathy and totally pissed, but they missed one very important note of reference: besides Skitsystem and Meshuggah, Dödsvarg also reminds me a lot of "It's me god"-era Breach. This is not just a good thing, it's a great thing. Don't let Dödsvarg stay overlooked and underappreciated!
Livstid is the rare example of a band that is actually too raging, so much so that I can't make it through the album in one sitting. It's not just wall-to-wall noise either -- there's still plenty of melody and such -- but they are absolutely relentless in their arena-crust/d-beat attack. When a track comes up on shuffle at the gym, I'm stoked (in fact, I just did a set of 30 pushups while pondering this write-up), but there's no way I'm gonna fit this into my regular listening repertoire. So consider this a hesitant recommendation -- you'll know pretty quickly whether or not you need Livstid in your life from one short sample track.
Rising represent to me the direction that Metallica should have gone post-"Black album". Heavy and bellowing, but still incredibly melodic and song-based; the exact sort of qualities that made them one of the biggest bands on the planet, albeit in a more streamlined form. Of course that did not come to pass, but we still have Rising and on their new record "To solemn ash" they take the directness of their hardcore background and put it to good use. Not a single note out of place, just straight-up head-banging riffs from front-to-back. Kinda in the same way that countrymates The Psyke Project stripped out all the bullshit to remake themselves into a brutal war-machine, except that Rising have more melodies than all-out mosh. Denmark must be sick and tired of being the Scandinavian underdogs because they sure sound pissed!
Last year I was all about ugly, apocalyptic hardcore, this year I find that a large proportion of my listening is geared towards getting (back) into industrial/synth/EBM. One group that I've been listening to lots is The Pain Machinery and while I can't post a track from their latest album "Surveillance culture" because their label politely asked me not to, I will share a track off their 2010 release "Urban survival". "Paranoise" lacks the relentless, hard-driving beats that define much of the band's sound, but it's statement of extreme military/technology paranoia is a recurring motif, a concept well-served by the noisy clatter of machines. They can be used to work for you, but they can also work against you -- it's a variation of the same dystopic vision, an ever-present theme in this particular genre and one that comes closer to reality every day. As "Surveillance culture"'s opening track "Shine" states, "We are social media / television / you carry out what we command" -- there are dark forces at work against you, if you let them.
Seems like forever since I heard some gloriously melancholic Swedish rock from a hungry up-and-comer, thank goodness there's still bands like Loud as Light around to fill the gap. A few years back you couldn't throw a rock without hitting some lukewarm Coldplay wannabe, but now that the rubble has settled on that unfortunate trend there's fewer discoveries to be made. On the other hand, it also means far less mediocre sad-sacks to suffer through, so let us rejoice in quality when it can be found! Maybe I'll even go and dust off a few of those old records from The Perishers while I'm at it...
When your bassist is also billed as "drone commander", I'm pretty much sold from the get-go. continues to champion acts that occupy the peculiar space of "drone jazz" -- see also Huntsville or the likewise excellent V. Sjöberg New Jazz Ensemble whose 2010 album "Lover man" was a serious sleeper hit -- and Splashgirl is yet another exemplary example of the genre. Unlike the stereotypical notion of jazz being focused on the individual virtuoso or even the lock-step ensemble arrangements of a big band, this is music that is primarily obsessed with mood and feeling. Dynamics, texture and space are key. More and more I'm finding this to be my go-to music when I can't decide what else to listen to as it's always perfect.
harold | Mon, Feb 6th, 2012 22:42:51