I have a tendency to have no inspiration for writing anything here, yet I’m on the internet a lot. So I figured I’d get the ball rolling with something easy to talk about: music I’ve been listening to this summer.
The easiest way to tell you all what I’ve been listening to is through my last.fm profile, but that doesn’t really do the bands and their CDs justice - because what I’ve been listening to lately has been really good.
Usually I have this habit of saying my favorite band at the moment is the “best band ever” - whether that was Weezer, Pinkerton-era a few years ago, Death From Above 1979 a few months ago, or Yourcodenameis:Milo a few days ago. I’m going to attempt to eliminate most of the bias I have for these bands and review, or at least talk about them, in a subjective way.
Yourcodenameis:Milo - Ignoto/All Roads to Fault
The first thing you’ll notice when you listen to Ignoto is the production quality. This isn’t the shimmering glittery rock of the Foo Fighters. Ignoto sounds raw - there’s no production tricks here, this is Milo playing real music. And what fantastic music it is. For anyone who’s a fan of Fugazi or other early post-hardcore bands, Milo will be right up your alley. Paul Mullen’s voice walks the line between singing and all-out yelling, but has his good moments - the falsetto in “Schteeve” and “Fivefour” as a whole.
Yourcodenameis:Milo is also quite a technically complex band, as would be expected from a band of their genre. Rarely do you hear the band in the standard time signature for rock music, 4/4, instead opting to play in 2/4, 3/4 and 5/4 (see the song “Fivefour” - makes sense eh?). This causes the songs to feel a bit lofty - measures extend longer than you think they would or they end quicker than you would expect. Not that this is a bad thing - the band handles it very well.
But like I mentioned before, the production quality is quite raw. I would love to see a remastered version of the CD where it was a bit easier to understand Mullen, where the guitars were a bit less muddy and the bass is distinctive.
All Roads to Fault is the EP released before Ignoto. The title song, “First Mater Responds” and “Fourthree” are, in my opinion, the best songs Milo ever made. But to each his own, check out both to see which you prefer.
Here’s the music video for All Roads to Fault:
Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Ah, the glorious “indie” genre. Pavement is probably one of the major early “indie rock” artists, one of the few who embodied the indie/punk DiY ethos - self-promote, stay independent, don’t sell out, etc. And they did a good job, because Pavement is extremely popular even with almost no promotion in mainstream media.
Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain is a great example of what began the indie rock craze. Catchy guitar, lyrics that you can relate to (aka not ‘In the hood then the ladies saying “50 you hot”/They like me, I want them to love me like they love ‘Pac”‘ - 50 Cent) and just all-around good music. “Cut Your Hair” is a catchy tune, but under the quirkiness of it is an attack on the music industry of the 90s. Stephen Malkmus knows how to say what he wants to be said while keeping it simple and overall. Even in songs like “Newark Wilder” and “Gold Soundz”, where the tune gets a bit mellower and melancholy, Malkmus manages to write a tune that is catchy and interesting.
Embedded: Pavement - Gold Soundz
That’s it for now. This was a lot more draining than I thought. I’ll be back soon with Moving Mountains’ Pneuma and another CD I haven’t exactly determined yet. Happy listening!
