I haven’t been listening to much new music this summer, mostly new releases from established bands I already like. Surprisingly, I discovered the most interesting band I’ve heard lately on the Urban Outfitters blog.

Battles recently released their first full length album, and the song Atlas has been a lot of fun driving down the road in my truck or trapped in headphones at the office. The song is a high speed juggernaut of indie rock, with relentless pounding drums, and nonsensical chipmunk-like vocals. The music video is very creative and visually stands out as one of the best videos I’ve seen in a while.

This is one of those tracks that most people around you won’t understand. The vocals are strange, there isn’t much of a hook or anything to sing to, and the song is 7+ minutes long. Stick with it though, it’s a fist pounder, and there’s a lot to appreciate here.

Battles - Atlas

I have been so tired lately. It’s the kind of sleepiness that can only come from weeks of short sleeps and forcing yourself into alertness with coffee. I feel like a fishing lure bobber, barely keeping my head above the waves and waiting for a fish to bite the lure.

Last night I had the pleasure of seeing Akron/Family live. As Jasmin described

“That was the best $12 we ever spent!”
–I couldn’t agree more–

The show began with the local Great Lake Swimmers, who were very enjoyable and had me longing for an empty room, or a long lonesome drive through the night. The songs were touching and well written, and I had the pleasure of meeting Tony Dekker between sets to tell him so. Definate favorites were “Song For The Angels” and “I Saw You In The Wild”.

Akron/Family took the stage unexpectedly. As they set up, the drummer began to tap almost out of boredom. Playfully, the rest of the band started to join in with birdcalls, shreiks, and excitement until they each grabbed their instruments and worked themselves into an animal-like frenzy. Their album is brilliant and spastic, with interludes of pure NOISE in unexpected places, but their live performance is almost childlike, and was really fun to be a part of. As they fumbled from “song” to song, occasionally finding melody and lyrics, the crowd really got into it. This was one of the “dancingest” shows I’ve been to in a long time.

Near the end of thier set, the band ventured into the crowd and settled near the center, directly beside us. They broke into a chant that eventually had the entire crowd joining in and clapping, stamping and singing. Apparently their tour has just begun and I highly recommend them to you!

The grey elephant stands outside again. Winter showed up for 3 days and for a while I could even have snow fights with my dog until this curious 12 degree weather appeared and stole it all away. Jasmin and I went to see Rogue Wave last night at the Horseshoe and while they were entertaining, the opening band was a lot of fun and deserves to be my 2nd review.

This review really began in my mind somewhere into the beginning of their song People…

“I’m estranged by the motives of megaphones.
And the plastic bags stuck in trees.
Rolling up every street
Chaotic Sunday shopping sprees.”

I totally dig on those plastic bags stuck in trees. There’s one right behind my apartment and every day I walk my dog I stare at it and consider climbing high enough to pull it down. It’s been stuck there for 3 years now, it’s completely ridiculous.

The Ghost is Dancing live is a sight to see; it’s a raucus, joyous Indie Carnival. I was shocked to read on their homepage that they’ve only been playing together live since August. I was quite impressed that they were able so hold such a tangle of instruments, vocal parts, and interludes together on stage. While I thoroughly enjoyed the show for their energy and creativity, I longed to bring their CD home in the hopes of making sense of the pandemonium I had witnessed on stage.

I must say, I was slightly disappointed but not altogether surprised that the energy and emotion they present on stage was hard to fit into their recording. The production seemed to be lacking, but certainly the music feels better formulated and coherant, ripped to mp3 and queued on my ipod.

The Ghost is Dancing shares a place with other Canadian acts such as The Arcade Fire, Of Montreal, and Wolf Parade in their sound, and while I don’t mean to classify their obvious creativity, they follow in the trend of large orchestral acts like Broken Social Scene. I counted 7 members at the live show including 2 lead guitarists, a bassist, a keyboard/percussionist, a drummer, an accordian player and a saxophonist. Their music contains the high energy, fast and pounding bass drum, slow lamenting accordian and wide eyed lyrics of a team of minstrels playing for their very lives at a satanic bar mitzvah. Each of their songs, while unique, follow down the same garden path into the dark woods at night where the tempo drives us into a frenzy before finding themselves on the trail back home at last.

As a reader, you’ll be happy to know that you can listen to The Ghost is Dancing for free by visiting their MySpace. I suggest you check them out and say hi. Also don’t forget to go see them live, you might even be lucky enough to score a sweet balloon hat.

The sky stands behind the city like a giant grey elephant, both dwarfing and hiding the buildings in the horizon. A layer of fog, like dust, settles in the distance. Everything looks cold, and dull, and silent. The lights and bells of Christmas have just started to decorate the night, but until the snow falls and December laughs it’s first jolly laugh, the days and nights are silent and still behind the back of a great grey elephant.

Joy is to be found indoors. These are the nights of candles and shadows; of dinner served with gravy and evenings spent holding cups of tea beneath blankets and falling asleep before midnight. I can feel Christmas I can’t wait.

Personally I read music reviews like I skim ingredients; I find they are so full of name dropping and vague references that I have to bounce from paragraph to paragraph just to get the main ideas I’m looking for. What other bands does this one bring to mind? Is the album enjoyable to listen to? Is it worth my time? With their Toronto show coming up on November 27th I wanted to write up a quick review for anyone who might want to check them out, and prove that I too can name drop and reference myself like a library.

Having dominated my playlists in the past 2 weeks, Rogue Wave has left an impression on me. Zach Rogue’s songwriting skills are diverse if not lacking in focus. His soft, warbling voice are sometimes all that relate track from track, however the effortlessness of the transition is what makes this a standout album. While bands like Bloc Party and the Arcade Fire completely dominated my iPod for a few weeks and haven’t been played since, Rogue Wave is with me to stay. The album trollops in sounding like the Beetles’ Eleanor Rigby without the strings, and then entertains with at least 5-6 solid tracks before issuing a quiet goodbye.

The accoustic atonement of Salesman on the Day of the Parade is the standout track, a singing apology that which, despite it’s true meaning, echoes “I’m so sorry for what I’ve done” in the heart of every listener who has ever had to make these words their mantra or longed to hear them in their past.

The only track that loses me a bit because of it’s nonsensical hook, Publish My Love also seems to have found it’s way the furthest into the mainstream appearing on The O.C., however despite my annoyance with it, it still remains a solid and catchy song.

Continuing through a diverse transition of sounds an genres, Medicine Ball sounds distincltly inspired by The Decemberists as Zach’s voice suddenly peaks into a punk/country rock which may or may not be the lament about losing weight. Other tracks like California and Temporary round out this album with soft guitar and sentiment.

I highly recommend this album as an unexpected one to pick up for fans of bands like Death Cab for Cutite, and the Shins, and for anyone enjoying this year’s abundance of rookie and sophamore indie talent and looking for something that follows that trend. I give it a 3.8/5.