The Beta Band - The Three EPs (320)

For my first post, I thought I'd start with one of my favorite albums, The Beta Band's 1998 album The Three EPs. Compiled from the tracks, as implied by the album title, from the EPs Champion Versions, The Patty Patty Sound and Los Amigos del Beta Bandidos, The Three EPs is, in my opinion, one of the most underrated albums of the 90s.

Combining acoustic instrumentation, such as guitars, trumpets and percussion with looped electronic beats and garage-style electronic effects creates a style self-described as 'folktronica.' The Three EPs takes a lo-fi/jam/experimental/psychedelic approach while still retaining much of their pop sensibility, producing songs which could easily gain radio airtime if they weren't six or more minutes long. Minimalist instrumentation on some tracks often contrasts with the building 'collage of sound' on others; and the catchy, sing-along melodies of some tracks, such as that of Dry The Rain, with less accessible, but still equally as good tracks such as the sixteen-minute Monolith.

This shit gets in your head and doesn’t leave. Strongly recommended.

Favorite tracks: Dry The Rain, I Know, Dog’s Got A Bone, She’s The One, Needles In My Eyes, Monolith

My rating: 9.5/10
Download.

Have A Nice Life - Time of Land EP

Just wanted to make sure you all got this amazing gem of an EP that was released by Dan earlier this year. It was released for free by enemieslist a while back, but it didn't really garner much attention. Go figure.

It's very much the HANL we've all come to know and love, but with a much more drone oriented sound on some tracks, especially Wizard of the Black Hundreds, the opener. Woe Unto Us is a splendid track that also reminds me that lo-fi and home recorded music is still legitimate, although taxed by the scores of bands purposely attempting to get that sound. Anyway, you should probably be getting this instead of reading my drivel. Why haven't you started the download?

Get this now.

RIGHT NOW DAMN IT!

Download.

Women - Public Strain (V0)

Know what, I'm going to let the album speak for itself.

This is Eyesore, by Women, from Public Strain.

And this is the album itself.
2010 has been a good year.

The Mountain Goats - All Hail West Texas (V0)

Coming home from a Los Campesinos! concert seems like the worst timing to want to listen to melancholy guitar on tape recorder folk. Oh, but it wasn't at all.
Not even a bit.
Nope.
It was exactly what I needed right then at that moment, an absolutely perfect ending to a perfect day.
This has to be one of the most emotional and simple albums I've ever heard in my life, nothing but John Darnielle singing and strumming an acoustic guitar while a slight buzz in the background backs up whatever he's singing. If there was an album for your life that you wanted to play while the credits rolled, this would be it.

Download it, because this is the best ever death metal band out of Denton.

Kevin Greenspon & Cloud Nothings - Kevin Greenspon/Cloud Nothings Split EP (FLAC)

1: "We’re going to die in this cave."

2: "No we won't, stop telling me what to do."

A short, nonsense summary (above) of both sides of this new 2010 release from Cloud Nothings and Kevin Greenspon. A split EP with 10 simple short songs (the entire EP totaling up a little more than 18 minutes) all of which are pure (1) hook after hook after hook and then the next song starts and it repeats from (1).

Here’s a taste of both sides of the split: Kevin Greenspon - Carpool Pepsi and Cloud Nothings – You're Not That Good At Anything
If your mouth is watering for more or you're a masochist and hated it, then:
Download V0
Download FLAC

Ameris - Chapter 1 (192)

So one day I happened to somehow stumble upon this, a 6 track demo for a band called Ameris.

The past decade has killed the credibility of the lo-fi sound of cheap homemade recordings. It has taken a lot blunt hits to its once pure face thanks to plenty of bands that have been using it to try and make themselves sound more honest or more authentic or less like the arrogant perfectionists they’ll portray themselves to be(while they really aren’t perfectionists at all, they’re actually just genuinely incompetent). This isn’t me saying that the lo-fi compressed sound should be only kept for those that really have no other option than to go for the cheaply produced album, but I’m saying that making your album in a compressed tape recorder/home recording format doesn’t make you authentic. At one point it may have seemed like it did, but that was because the bands that used it WERE the real thing, they meant what they said, they weren’t playing to appeal- they were just playing.

In this same spectrum is where Ameris lies, playing just for playing. There is something special though that the murky production has on emotive hardcore, like in Sunny Day Real Estate’s debut album Diary, (where the production, while not being in any way low quality was still closer to the lo-fi sound of Pavement’s Debut than it was of a clear cut “I know exactly what is going on” recording) the slight darkness on the recordings make the songs stand out so that it’s not a single instrument that hits the listener, but the entirety of what’s going on- the intensity of what’s around them. In the same way, Ameris’ sound is only further intensified by the mixing, the vocals taking the entire lead throughout this six track EP and leaving the instruments to provide more of the scenery than an event. The band obviously gets a lot of its influence from SDRE though, taking the same feeling of Diary and pushing it with the modern emotive hardcore method.

The EP’s best characteristic and what gives it its entire personality is the piano used in the songs because there’s nothing that really sets contrast to the moods given than the sound that the clear, barely audible (but still there) piano keys hitting down on sweet higher notes as the distorted guitar riffs away, and the drums stick to their crashes.

This is something good, and something you’ll rarely find in this day, a band taking what’s been beaten to death and bringing it back to life, all while it’s still being beaten.

Download here.
Support Ameris at their MySpace.