For people who are on my friends list, this should look familiar. However for people who are not on my list, let me tell you what this is all about. Every Tuesday, I do a mass send out of an album I"m certain nobodies heard. I started this five weeks ago after I gave "...With the Spirit of a Traffic Jam" by
Gruvis Malt a really good listen and thought that more people should be given the opportunity to listen to it. At first I figured it was just a random act of kindness and that I would revert back to my usual **** head self, but a week later I felt that same desire. After that I decided to turn it into a weekly event, done on a Tuesday as a way of brightening up a rather bland and frankly horrid day. What I hope this thread becomes is a gathering grounds for the people who receive the albums and the people who want to receive the albums. I will post my own mini reviews (one paragraph tops) that explains why I thought I should send out this album. If you wish to post your own then by all means, but I also hope that it can turn into a discussion, talk about the things you liked and didn't like. Also a great way of recommending similar artists and overall lets us do what the website title says and banter about music. I was originally going to put this in the Member Journal section but changed my mind when I remembered that each post must be approved first, I figure this way the thread is a little more productive and the mods don't have to spend all the time approving each post. However, mods, if you feel that this threads place would be better in the Member Journals section then by all means please move the thread and I apologize for putting it in the wrong place, should that be the case. Anyhow, without further ado, here are my first four reviews.
Week 1
Band:
Gruvis Malt
Album: "... With the Spirit of a Traffic Jam"
Year: 2002
Like a good portion of my music, I became aware of this group through a person who I consider to be an older brother. This was the only album he had and gladly passed it onto me. Upon my first listen I wasn't overly impressed, but that was partly due to the fact that I was trying to concentrate on the essay I was writing. However one evening I was going through some of the albums that I had had for quite awhile but didn't know very well and decided to spin this again, but this time with headphones. I was not prepared for the exceptional level of musicianship from each person in the band. The way they blended jazz with hip hop and elements of progressive rock was done so smoothly that I cannot believe I didn't catch it on the first listen. I ended up listening to it two more times after my second hearing and became totally intranced by how amzing this group was. Sadly they are now disbanded, but did leave us with four other equally as amazing albums. The best track on the album would probably have to be the 6th one "Even The Scars Forget The Wounds" which is just so smooth and easy to listen to without being boring.
Week 2
Band:
WarsawpacK
Album: "Gross Domestic Product"
Year: 2001
Ahh
WarsawpacK... possibly one of my favorite political and environmental hip hop groups that incorporate elements of reggae in their work. Ohkasey put it best when she described their sound as "Like if
Rage Against The Machine took a chill pill, but with better grooves". Just as political as RATM, yet they also focus their attention towards things like the environment and the depletion of oil reserves and the ozone layer. One of the things that politcally motivated groups can have issues with is they tend to focus more on the subject matter and the melody tends to float somewhere in the middle. Of course RATM doesn't suffer from this as they've created some of the best songs of the 1990's. Regardless of whether or not you agree with the policies and ideas stated in the songs, you can enjoy them just because of the way they flow, perfect for background music for a nice hot day if you're just chilling and doing whatever helps you relax. Hard to say what the best song on the album is however as they're all pretty good. The one that really got me was "Doomsday Device" but it's rather lengthy running in at over 9 minutes and not everybody has the same opinion on longer songs. However as that song is not on youtube, you'll just have to make due wtih "Attention to Deficit" and I'm sure you'll manage.
Week 3
Band:
Bohren & Der Club of Gore
Artist: "Black Earth"
Year: 2002
This was an album I was a little worried about sharing. I obviously liked it if I thought it was worthy of being shared, but at the same time if it's not listened to under the right circumstances it can be very boring. I made sure to warn everyone ahead of time that this isn't the album you listen to if you want something active to listen to. It's extremely laid back and dark jazz that sounds like a slower version of the type of stuff you'd hear in the TV series
Twin Peaks. I had this album for a good year, but never really gave it much of a listen until very recently. I found that it worked wonders for when I was writing or doing my math homework because it just sat in the background, occasionally letting you know that it's there. I'm not much of a jazz enthusiast, not by dislike of the genre, but there's just so much there that trying to get into it feels like learning to swim during a tsunami. I really liked the dark sound to it, very unsettling yet not threatening.
Week 4
Band:
Two Cow Garage
Album: "Speaking In Cursive"
Year: 2008
I cannot honestly say what made me want to pass out these guys. I like them obviously, but there were other artists I was debating with last Monday. I had just uploaded their album for savannah because of how much they reminded me of her favorite group
Lucero. I suppose I just got lazy and decided it was easy and less time consuming to send out that link rather than uploading something new. The album had some good tracks on it, specifically the third one "Folksinger's Heart". However I felt that most of the songs were pretty easily forgettable. I think everyone really felt that way because I really didn't receive too much in the way of feedback on them. If there was a week I wish I could re-do I think it would've been this one.
*Again, this is not only for the people who received the albums, if you wish to view them and form you own opinion on them please ask and I will hook you up. As I go by friends list each Tuesday, sending me a Friend Request is a good way of ensuring that you'll get the album every week. Also I know this may look like an elaborate scheme to get a higher friends list, and while I do measure my self worth by how many Internet friends I have, this is mainly about my passion for sharing music.