Music Under Fire

Gliss is a band from Silver Lake, which is about all we know about them. There are two Silver Lakes in the U.S., but I guess they're feeling so important about themselves now that they've made it onto MTV2, that it doesn't matter if they're from Washington State or Los Angeles.

Anyhow, Gliss's "Gimme The Hit" has lots of pop and lots of rock in it to push your music adrenaline through the weekend. My first impression is they're this grown up emo band that will surely capitalize from their stark-like electro-rock sound. The vocals aren't amazing, but the band's collaboration in this song makes it hard to pointpoint what exactly give this song the kick it has. Listen for yourself...

Manchester's Bauer just finished up a live session on BBC radio with lead vocalist Greg Matthews and guitarist Mike Reed doing the dirty work in reaction to the release of their single "Starting Again", which released January 20.

Matthews said,

Bell X1 immediately struck me as an odd name for a band when I first noticed them this week. Its amazing it can take some music to move from overseas to the States, and Bell X1's previous albums, which had no exposure to the US, can be said of this.

Already making an impact on the US market, the Irish band's latest album Flock has been an immediate success. Although the album had been released in the UK in 2006, the recent release of Flock this past Tuesday (February 26th) marked a huge jump for Bell X1.

And as slow as it took for their popularity to grow in the States, their name may be known by their former moniker, Juniper, which the well-documented Damien Rice fronted, and the current lead singer, Paul Noonan, played drums. The amazing transition happened after Rice left the band to go solo, releasing the simply titled O in 2002 with is most riveting song "Blower's Daughter". Since his departure, Noonan hesitantly took the vocalist position and soon found it growing on him. (thanks to http://www.movedigital.com/ for the mp3 for Bad Skin Day)

MP3: Bell X1 - Rocky Took A Lover
MP3: Bell X1 - Bad Skin Day

I highly recommend listening to WXPN's interview and live session, which Bell X1 performs an acoustic set including two of their most beloved tracks from Flock, "Rocky Took A Lover" and "Bad Skin Day". In the interview, Noonan elaborates on the meaning of the song title, "Rocky Took A Lover", which just so happens to be about a homeless drunk, whom the band let sleep behind their house. The acoustic version of "Rocky Took A Lover" is one of the most amazing live sessions I've heard this year.

Check out WXPN's Live at the World Cafe. You can steam it in Real Player or in Windows Media Player.

Buy Bell X1's Flock on iTunes!

Video: Bell X1 - Rocky Took A Lover

The Bell was one of my favorite finds this week. The indie rock band from Sweden has the most peculiar sound, with vocals like that of The Cure, melodies glistening in the background like that of The Raveonettes and a quick-witted drum stream propelling the movement of each song. Their music is unique, they don't like to be compared to other bands and are serious about their music. And to make things better, they've released their new album called Make Some Quiet on February 12th (Make Some Quiet was previously released in Sweden in September 2007)

Since MUF is a long-time supporter of Philadelphia's own The Starting Line, we figure we would send this contest out to all of our readers. Here is what they said:

If you want to see what a bunch of people wearing the same thing Chris Walla wears, particularly his trademark knit hat, this video is for you. For me, it was more of a flashback to when Cake released "Short Skirt, Long Jacket" involving everyone they could find on the street, except this video was done in a much more bland fashion. I'll go back to what I said in my review, but almost everything about this album was bland and that includes this video.

Yellowcard and The Spill Canvas will be hitting the country to play to their 2007 releases. The tour, which starts on March 7 and ends on April 14, is an effort greatly influenced by Neal Avron, who helped produce for both groups. Yellowcard released Paper Walls last July while The Spill Canvas released No Really, I'm Fine in October.

We recently had been urged to check out this band, Your Vegas, whose new EP arrived in December, A Town and Two Cities. We, however missed out on it a few months back, but have one of those feelings that there's something great brewing here. Your Vegas Sounds like an 80s mixture with new age electro-rock.

The lead vocals of Coyle Girelli are truly amazing and can hit every note in the spectrum. The band claims they are from both New York City and Leeds UK, two areas we always find great music emering from - this might explain their EP title. Their three-song EP is available for only .99 cents on iTunes! You can't beat that. Check them out this weekend!

MP3: Your Vegas - In My Head

Your Vegas MySpace Page

Rating: 6.9/10

I find it hard to believe all the hype surrounding reviews from people I have never met. When I listened to Vampire Weekend’s self-titled debut for the umpteenth time, I thought of how differently people would view this work. I digress…

The Columbia University foursome of Ezra Koenig, Rostam Batmanglij, Christopher Tomson and Chris Baio filled this album with an array of African beats, classical instrumentals and lyrics entwined with the knowledge an Ivy Leaguer possesses. Without a doubt, the result is a refined compilation of well thought-out tracks. Unfortunately, the lack of consistency that many indie groups fail to capture when traveling from one recording studio to another beckons once again; this time on Vampire Weekend’s album.

Outside of the consistency drawback, key songs throughout the album string a cohesion that shows their basis for the album- classic instrumentals, such as the violin in “Bryn”, and the raw sound of Caribbean instruments, such as the djembe drum in “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa”. This fusion between classical and Caribbean jamming avoids any repetition on the album, albeit it still doesn’t mesh cleanly together.

Opening up, “Mansford Roof” plays a teetering drum tapping set while Koenig almost carelessly buzzes to the beat. “Oxford Comma” follows with a much slower keyboard and drum-edge rapping rhythm. The third track, “A-Punk”, which plays to its name, refreshes fond memories of the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater soundtrack riffs, which never seem to wear out. The thumping background bass and up-front electric guitar strumming truly are punk, but I can’t remember a flute in those songs.

From this point in the album, the tempo decreases and the songs carry far less energy. “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” mentions how “it feels so natural, Peter Gabriel”, but the real influence to this track could be linked to New Jersey native Paul Simon’s “Graceland” or “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes”. “M79” continues this down-tempo trend, as a slow bass and sporadic guitar-plucking draw this song out to what feels like a long 4:15. Although hardly slow, “Campus” rids itself of the African influence and instead mimics some of the energy that “A-Punk” showed, except without the cut-loose mentality that punk songs entail.

Any bumps in the album are soon forgotten with “Bryn” at track seven. As Vampire Weekend’s most harmonious song, it switches its pace several times from a humdrum drum-based melody to its signature violin-laden refrain. Not only did this song transition well, the lyrics were simple, easy to remember and heart-warming.

The last four tracks on this album didn’t stick out. Perhaps “Walcott” could be considered catchy, but it once again lacked the energy that finely adjusted albums maintain. “One (Blake’s Got a New Face)” came across as annoying because of its most annoying noise in the world type high-pitched singing while “I Stand Corrected” and “The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance” slowly lulled the album to its end.

Koenig’s linguistics, although snappy and fresh with a myriad of new jargon, seem overly sophisticated for such a simple album. His singing style caters to whatever the tempo is although he is rarely heard singing in any solo fashion. He pronounced very clearly and his vocal highlights included “A-Punk” and “Walcott”, both in which he diverted from his straight down the center singing.

Although this album could be the best album of the year for some, I found it incomplete. The lyrics were more riddled with more unknown words than the Vulgate version of the Bible while the constant switching between the African and contemporary sounds hurt the album’s ability to be played cleanly through. The tracks are well done. To each its own, but as a whole this album failed to muster enough gusto to remain in my ears.

According to their web site, Electric President has finished their latest work. Here is what they said:

"The new Electric President record is finished. It's called Sleep Well, it's twelve tracks long, it features songs about boogie men and creatures living beneath your floorboards and the inevitable robot takeover we're bound to
experience in the near future. Thirteen months is a long time to work on the same material. I'm pretty damn sick of these songs. But I'm very glad the album's done. I've been celebrating by getting some sleep, and eating too much.

I still don't have any idea when this record will actually be released. I'll post about it as soon as I know. But it'll likely be out sometime around Summer, which sort of sucks. It's very much a winter/nighttime kind of record. Oh well. Can't win them all. "

Limbeck released their latest video for "Let Me Come Home" on YouTube today. If you've been yearning for a vid to match that country rock, you've gotten your wish. And as happy and carefree as the band looks in this video, this is how they really are. After two sold out shows in Hollywood, the band will catapult themselves across the country and hit Philadelphia on May 5th at the Troc with about a month left on their tour. Be there!

The very ambient and 'shoegaze' Trespassers William is currently working on their fourth full-length album, The Natural Order of Things, which is expected to be released later this year. Besides the time and effort needed to accomplish this, all four group members can claim side projects either underway or on a short hiatus.

New Releases this week include one we have been looking forward to for quite some time, The Raveonettes (Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foowith) with their fourth full length album Lust Lust Lust. American Music Club has also released a new album today, which we wrote a little diddy on yesterday, and so does Ray Davies, lead singer, chief songwriter, and rhythm guitarist from the Kinks.

Below are links to the band's websites, myspace pages and other links. If you haven't gotten up to speed on your albums yet, we highly recommend The Helio Sequence's latest, Keep Your Eyes Ahead, which was released on January 29th. Here are some legal/free MP3s to wet your pallette:

MP3: Apes - Beat of the Double
MP3: Bell X1 - Rocky Took A Lover
MP3: Raveonettes - Aly Walk With Me
MP3: The Mountain Goats - Sax Rohmer #1