Rome

last.fm

While looking up stuff about this band, I was introduced to the genre of martial industrial, which Rome apparently fit under. I'm not exactly sure why the need for such a specific genre exists, as Rome could just be described as a neofolk (or even just regular folk) band with a bit of ambient and darkwave thrown in to keep things interesting.

Their latest album was based on events from the Spanish Civil War, and unsurprisingly, is dark and militaristic from start to finish. Jerome Reuter's vocals, whose voice is often compared to Nick Cave, are the focus. The instruments and samples on the album serve in creating a vivid soundscape and atmosphere of a war torn 18th century Spain. I'm always thrilled when flamenco guitar is added to anything, but it fits in here especially well with the whole Spanish Civil War story. The samples of things they've selected - military voices, murmuring crowds, quiet electronic loopings, and various strange, dark noises - are so perfect. Their songs are composed with a beautiful level of restraint and subtlety, carefully constructed to add more depth to the songs without serving as a distraction. The album's totally gorgeous and should be enjoyed by all.





Flowers From Exile, 2009
here (mp3, VBR, 62mb)

Carla Bozulich

last.fm

Carla Bozulich has been recording music since the early 90's, working her way through a variety of genres - grunge, post punk, alt-country, jazz, and industrial. She's covered Willie Nelson and Low. Overall, I'd say she's a fairly diverse lady. At any rate, I'm sharing her latest solo album, Evangelista, with you, but I have other albums if anyone is interested, so just say the word and they'll be posted.

It's a fairly intense album, and kind of lonely sounding, in a way. There's no strong coherency within it at first listen, with songs ranging from emotionally charged, noisy, ten minute epics, to minimal, spooky two minute pieces. I love her singing 'cause she sounds so restrained throughout some of a lyric, and then it like builds up and her vocals get so much more intense as the thought within the lyric draws to a close, and she'll be nearly screaming and screeching before going back to a more professional restraint for the next line. There's tons of echoes, and her voice sounds small in the landscape of all the other musical noise sometimes, which is probably why the album is so lonely and depressing sounding to me - it sounds like she's just losing her mind and singing inside a big empty factory. It's certainly more in the industrial spectrum of musical genres that she's covered, though crosses the line into other genres here and there. This is a noisy, intricate album that basically demands headphones if you want to enjoy it properly, so get out some cheap ear buds or fancy puffy headphones when listening.





Evangelista, 2006
here (mp3, 192kbps, 62mb)

Kitty, Daisy & Lewis

last.fm

Kitty, Daisy & Lewis continues our theme of modern bands stealing their grandparent's music and making it sound better. This trio of siblings from London play 1950's flavored rockabilly/country, and while everything was recorded within the last decade, they used antique instruments and recording equipment to give their album that charming old vinyl feel. The parents of these three are the drummer from The Raincoats and some guy who apparently owns an awesome recording studio, which I imagine gives them a leg up on the competition in terms of musicianship. Despite their vintage sound, all the members are pretty young, as you can tell from their picture - 16 to 21. They play a variety of instruments throughout this album, and I dunno how they do it being so young and I hate them all for it. Anyway, amongst the regular instrumental culprits, there's also harmonica, lap steel guitar, banjo, double bass, piano, ukulele, and some trombone.

The album is just pure fun. There's 8 cover songs, a few of which are traditional old classics that you may already know and love (depending on your musical knowledge), and plenty of new gems that may surprise you as they did me. It's bouncy, sunny, and one of those season specific albums that probably sounds the best in the summer. Really, the entire album is worth downloading if just for the cover of the Johnny Horton song "Mean Son of a Gun", where either Kitty or Daisy sings about how tough she is while sounding like a sweet, slightly menacing school girl. It's one of the most adorable songs I've ever heard and I keep skipping back to listen to it again and again. Aside from the catchy rockabilly and country numbers, there's also a couple Hawaiian flavored surf-like tracks, which I also love. Proper ending statements for essays and blog posts take me like five hours to think up, so instead of making anyone wait longer, here's some youtube videos to win you over.






Kitty, Daisy & Lewis, 2008
here (mp3, 192kbps, 41mb)

(mark lamarr approves of this post - sam)

Belleruche

last.fm

Belleruche combines a smoky, soulful female voice with some minimalistic guitar and plenty of samples to create a sound that's sophisticated and, for lack of a better word, just kind of cool. The internet seems split on filing them under trip-hop or nu-jazz, but either way, I'm unfamiliar with both genres, so my description is a bit iffy at best. But I'm enjoying it! The albums flow so smoothly, and half the time I can barely tell the jazzy instrumental bits are being looped in, though possibly because I'm not very attentive, but I like to think it's because it just sounds so natural together with everything else. Definitely check out their last.fm page, the description there should be enough to pique anyone's interest. IT DID MINE. So yeah anyway, just check 'em out. If you only want one album, I suppose Turntable Soul Music flows better and is my personal favorite, but The Express branches out a bit more and has some really great bluesy tracks.








Turntable Soul Music, 2007
here (mp3, VBR, 43mb)



The Express, 2008
here (mp3, VBR, 39mb)

the strange boys - and girls club (2009)

last.fm

continuing my apparent trend of modern bands who sound like they should've been making music 40 years ago (see: the jim jones revue), i now bring you the strange boys. you will seriously mistake their music for something, say, off any of the nuggets compilations. i hear similiarities to the psychedelic sounds of 13th floor elevators (HA HA GET IT), the surf sounds of bands like beach boys, and the blues influenced rock sound that a number of bands fancied. i even hear some folk-y type influences on some tracks. this album (which happens to be their full-length debut) is basically an assortment of artifacts from a by-gone era. overall, however, their sound is very much like that of the 60s garage rock/pop bands, it's nice and scratched up, the vocals are very distinctive to set them apart from the rest, and it's just fucking awesome. think the black lips for a more modern comparison.

This girl taught me a dance called I don't care
Said to me, it's easy I swear
stand alone over there



and because other people describe things better than i usually can:

"Austin, TX's The Strange Boys evoke a wild-eyed, porcelain-skinned innocence that is capable of summoning the wayward spirit of Brian Jones. The mystery of the South couples with the mastery of rhythm to create a sound completely timeless and familiar, yet absolutely raw and avant-garde. Greg Enlow's syncopated, organ-driven grooves hark back to The Seeds pushing too hard while guitarist Ryan Sambol's voice wavers beyond comparison. Older brother Philip Sambol keeps the pulse with the aptly named Matt Hammer, who unmercifully pounds an old Ludwig set. - here

now do it:

and girls club (2009)
01. Woe Is You and Me
02. They're Building the Death Camps
03. Should Have Shot Paul
04. MLKs
05. This Girl Taught Me a Dance
06. For Lack of a Better Face
07. Heard You Want to Beat Me Up
08. No Way for a Slave to Behave
09. Poem Party
10. To Turn a Tune or Two
11. Most Things
12. A Man You've Never Known
13. Then
14. Who Needs Who More
15. Probation Blues
16. Death and All the Rest

here OR here

mp3 and VBR