Listening Party: August 2009 Edition

08.01.09 | in Music | 1 Comments Share

This month's Listening Party features Canadians, Pinback and other great finds. Come listen!

What's This All About?

Ever notice how you associate songs and artists with certain people? Music discovery can be a social experience; we find new music through friends, and gain a greater appreciation when we discuss what we're listening to.

Listening Party is an experiment—an attempt to recreate the discovery and discussion process via blog post. Each month we'll pick a handful of songs, then talk about what's great about them while listening. Come, queue up the playlist and listen along—and don't hesitate to add your comments about the music, too!

The Participants

La chica mas rica Jennifer Tran, A.K.A. @anotorias; endurance athlete, philosopher, Yalie, metaphysician.

Hella Sound proprietor John Frenette, A.K.A. @HellaSound. Runner, musician, avid carnivore. Se habla español.

This Month's Playlist

Download this playlist from iTunes and listen along.

The Listening Party

0:00 (Get ready to hit "Play")

John at Hella Sound: alright
3
2
1
GO!
John at Hella Sound: wow
Jenn Tran: So, this song and this band I found through my brother
John at Hella Sound: JT gettin' gritty!
Jenn Tran: I LOVE them.
Post-grunge, hard-score "screamo"
hailing from lovely Canada, eh.
John at Hella Sound: Pogues meets Pilot to Gunner meets people that fight in the street for fun
Jenn Tran: I am not usually into melodic hardcore, but these guys have the best melodies.
John at Hella Sound: yeah—it's actually a new one on me
Jenn Tran: I would imagine they fight in the street for fun.
John at Hella Sound: these are nice choruses
Jenn Tran: They've been around for a while, but this kind of music doesn't have a huge following.
John at Hella Sound: loose—even though there's a lot of polish in the production, they're still gritty and sloppy. I like it
Jenn Tran: And they don't get very technical like black metal type of bands, just a little gritty like you said. That's the essence of hardcore
John at Hella Sound: I hear a little P.O.D. in 'em myself
Jenn Tran: just a lot of hard riffs.
YES. Very P.O.D. good call.
John at Hella Sound: is Helmet before your time? remember those guys?
Jenn Tran: Did they do "Ace of Spades"?
(KIDDING)
John at Hella Sound: LOL
Lemmy has the best mustache-and-moles combo ever.
(these guys aren't very much like Helmet, but they had a hellishly heavy riff album)
Jenn Tran: LOL
John at Hella Sound: I don't know what that song was about
NEXT!
Jenn Tran: I've heard of Pinback—but why did you choose this song?
John at Hella Sound: I love Pinback with the passion that burns brighter than thermite
Jenn Tran: Noted.
John at Hella Sound: 1. glorious harmonies as we go—layers of vocals
2. that fantastic beginning plucky sound. love it
and...
John at Hella Sound: ...this chorus
chills
and the layered voices
Jenn Tran: The plucky strings—def a fan. Very big fan of the voices.
John at Hella Sound: those unusual descending notes
I would imagine their lyrics are great, if I paid attention to lyrics
John at Hella Sound: great, stripped down piano-and-voice
PLUS: they're a San Diego band
Jenn Tran: LOL. Oh NICE. Does that give em bonus points?
John at Hella Sound: yes.
one of their albums was recorded in a little house not far from a design agency I worked at
Jenn Tran: they have a SMIDGE of reggae sounding vocals or am I crazy?
John at Hella Sound: great chorus vibe again
absolutely have a reggae feel
which means they're surprisingly great to run to
Jenn Tran: Must be because they are a beach band, they tend to that kind of reggae, jam band influence.
John at Hella Sound: ...and then again at the end—same plucky sounds
Jenn Tran: NICE fade
Jenn Tran: NEXT!
THIS IS MY NIKE PLUS POWER SONG.
John at Hella Sound: YES!
dude I can totally see that
Jenn Tran: I love Metric (another canadian band).
John at Hella Sound: my heart rate just went up 20 beats
what are they about?
Jenn Tran: I really love the backbeat, the vocals and the whole build.
They're a rock band. They're about rock star life.
John at Hella Sound: nice flat strummy acoustic
Jenn Tran: layered vocals too...
John at Hella Sound: I like her enunciation
Jenn Tran: They're kind of like a Paramore—that's the only comparison that comes to mind.
John at Hella Sound: ...yeah
but I like them more
Jenn Tran: I do too! I'm backlogged with all the bands I've met recently though. Yeah, not as teenybopper as Paramore.
John at Hella Sound: they're not pretending to be like Creed-with-a-chick kind of thing
...I kinda feel like Paramore is a marketing scheme myself...
like dreamed up by someone that wanted to sell a lot of albums
but I'm cynical
Jenn Tran: LOL Like Jonas Brothers?
John at Hella Sound: they're good at what they do, but... I feel "sold"
I like the "more & more" repetition
Jenn Tran: Next!
Jenn Tran: WOW! I LOVE THIS SONG ALREADY.
John at Hella Sound: ah yes
Minus the Bear
sorta enigmatic
I can see how people might be annoyed by their gross over-production
Jenn Tran: This song is hella good (like the SF lingo there).
John at Hella Sound: but
they're interesting
his voice has a kind of sincerity to it
to me
John at Hella Sound: dreamy chords
Jenn Tran: well I like that you can actually hear his voice over the instruments, a lot of overproduced songs just drown out the singer.
John at Hella Sound: yeah
or overproduce the voice itself so it doesn't sound like a natural person anymore
Jenn Tran: NICE LOOOOOVE whatever that guitar thing that just happened was.
John at Hella Sound: right
Jenn Tran: *cue musically inspired emotional response*
John at Hella Sound: his little high vocal part—almost like an "outrage" melody
not the happiest of musics
Jenn Tran: I like the break
John at Hella Sound: sorta dark, but interesting
Jenn Tran: I *really* like it.
John at Hella Sound: yay!
Jenn Tran: Next?
John at Hella Sound: NEXT!
Jenn Tran: OK
So also another Canadian.
John at Hella Sound: oooh we have a theme!
you went Canada, I went with bands-that-are-like-Pinback
Jenn Tran: this is City and Colour (aka Dallas Green AKA LEAD SINGER for Alexisonfire)
John at Hella Sound: wow!
wow very different vocal impression
Jenn Tran: This is his side folk project. He's just an amazing artist.
John at Hella Sound: who am I thinking of? Elliot Smith maybe?
that's really pretty
Jenn Tran: Right, now THIS is a musician.
Yes, Elliot Smith, Jeff Buckley
A younger, smooth-voiced Neil Young.
John at Hella Sound: you know what's also great
Jenn Tran: Neil Young?
John at Hella Sound: that the guitar doesn't sound "perfect"
it actually sounds a little beat up
Jenn Tran: Nope. Because he follows his heart.
John at Hella Sound: which adds a little more soul to it all
haha — nicely played!
Jenn Tran: (This clocks in at 162 BPM btw)
You can RUN to it
and CRY
John at Hella Sound: I really dig running to Nick Drake
yeah, seriously
I could see running to this on a beach on a cloudy day
damn he's got a great voice
Jenn Tran: This is indie flick soundtrack music too.
John at Hella Sound: right
the 2 main characters just realized why their spontaneous romance is complex...
...or, like Aunt Diana is going through chemo
that kind of soundtrack vibe
Jenn Tran: City and Colour—seriously—get albums he has way better songs.
I just picked this one because it was faster.
John at Hella Sound: NEXT!
John at Hella Sound: Rob Crow == singer/songwriter for Pinback
Jenn Tran: Nice. Wow...
John at Hella Sound: I believe this song should be mandatory listening
Jenn Tran: love the guitar here
John at Hella Sound: like a 2-minute indie rock version of Bach
Jenn Tran: This song has no meaning huh? It's just for the sound... but really love the repetition.
John at Hella Sound: "my toe—my foot is in the water... my tongue—my head is in the fire"
Jenn Tran: Great pick!
John at Hella Sound: I bet it has meaning, but it's very cryptic
when I first heard that I was wrecked by it. listened to it like 20 times in a row
Jenn Tran: You have to!
It's one of those short songs, that when it's over you're like DAMMIT.
I want MORE.
John at Hella Sound: I want to go back and listen to Alexisonfire again now
just to figure out how it could possible fit with City and Colour
because in my head, right now, they don't even occupy the same state
Jenn Tran: Seriously they are an amazing band.
Well you know
a lot of metal rockers are classically trained musicians
John at Hella Sound: Yngwie J. Malmsteen, anyone?
Jenn Tran: Dallas Green's City and Colour work was concurrent with Alexisonfire new album release
nuts right?
John at Hella Sound: that's hard to process
I think I need to get both albums
my ears, they are expanded.
Jenn Tran: Mine as well!
PS—We LOVE Canada.
John at Hella Sound: dude, how can you not love Canada?
great people, great beer
Jenn Tran: Yes Canada rocks!

Tags: Listening Party, music, bands

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Comments

I love Canada!

JT | August 02, 2009

Let’s keep it polite and on topic. Email address is required but will never be shared, sold or used for nefarious purposes.

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