Film School: Shoegaze me in to the new year
Maybe it’s just me, but dark indie pop or shoegazer guitar fuzz sounding music isn’t as depressing as some might say. Perhaps it’s my four years of studying philosophy and determining that existentialism, while depressing to some, is quite enlightening to others. It’s the dark sensibilities and the reality of life that come together for me on certain shoegazer albums and Film School have achieved this quite handedly I may add.
Why I’m just learning about Film School, I don’t know. Perhaps it’s because I don’t read blogs like Bradley’s Almanac enough during the day.
They came out with their sophomore album back in September of this year and hail from San Francisco. According to Brad, it would seem that this band should have either faded away after their first album or shouldn’t have followed up with such an impressive showing. Their gear was stolen in 2006 and went through a major line-up change (3 out of 5 members replaced). Two events that would cause nightmares for any startup band and a second to think about not only their bands direction but their own direction as well.
The first two songs on Hideout, “Lectric” and “Two Kinds“, set the tone for the guitar fuzz heavy and droned out synth sound that the entire album exhumes. I noticed in particular that the synths seemed to be set on Horns as they barrel through some sections of each song.
The third track, “Dear Me“, is a guitar heavy song that includes a strong build up to the chorus.
“Oh, never ending thoughts of you. Time can make it seem alright. why can’t I get you out of view. I follow you now. I follow you.“
A majority of the songs follow a pretty typical shoegazer anthem - a wild and crazy girl or guy gets lodged in to the consciousness of the ever so dramatic indie artist and he/she tries and tries to get them out of their head but every attempt lulls them further in to depression.
On a few occasions, when the vocalist is going with a drone approach, there are comparisons to The Magentic Fields’ Stephen Merritt. Especially at the beginning of “Sick Hipster Nursed by Suicide Girl”. I Googled Film School and Stephen Merritt to see if there were any influences mentioned by the band before but just came up with a bunch of searches that talk about Stephen’s alma mater, NYU film school.
But it’s clear their influences come from such indie shoegazer icons like The Magnetic Fields and My Bloody Valentine.
While I make all these references to shoegazer, I do it only to relate their sound to other bands you’re probably familiar with. However, in big scribble on my notepad I say, “i bet this is a great live show!” In other words, I wouldn’t expect a whole lot of gazing at shoes going on. And according to their myspace page, they don’t want you staring down either as they describe their shows as “loud and dynamic and energetic (no staring at shoes).“
I highly recommend you pick up Hideout today. As for their debut release, I’ve only heard great things about it but have yet to personally hear it for myself. So why don’t you pick it up and tell me what you think.
Happy New Year people.
Download: “Lectric”
Download more MP3’s over at Bradley’s Almanac, including all songs from their live set here in Cambridge, MA back in October (HERE)
Purchase Hideout: Beggars Group (HERE); Amazon (US)
Visit Film School on Myspace (HERE)
Visit their official website (HERE)
Kip from The Square featured at AJI Signal
Head over to AjiSignal.com to read the latest album review from yours truly.
Ajisignal is a new site that pulls together bloggers from various parts of the world (San Francisco, L.A., NYC and even Shanghai) to review bands and artists from their local cities and towns. Their biggest contributor comes from Justin Gage of Aquarium Drunkard fame.
The review from this here blogger was done on the Providence, RI native, Deer Tick.
Read it today - www.ajisignal.com
Josh Ritter - “The Historical Conquest of Josh Ritter”
- MP3 “To the Dogs or Who Ever”
- Myspace
- Official website (Stream full album)
- Purchase Album
- Boston Show - 10/4 and 10/5 at Somerville Theatre (view all tour dates)
Links of Interest:
In the upcoming release by Josh Ritter (out tomorrow, 8/20), “The Historical Conquest of Josh Ritter” (kind of a bold title if you ask me), Josh announces that the “record is an effort to capture moments when they were at their most passionate”. He explains how all the songs have this rawness to them because they were captured on the fly. Instead of tooling around for hours on a song, they would be hanging out and all of a sudden an idea popped in to their heads and recorded it. And didn’t change it.
Why did Josh decide to go this route? Was it because his last record lacked the passion and rawness that he feels this record captures? I would saw yes to the rawness but no to the passion. On his last album, “The Animal Years”, Josh was focused on a political message and wanted to make sure that each song delivered the message he was looking for (like every good politician should do before opening their mouth). But the songs were very clean and straightforward. The one downfall with Josh is that he’s not the most prolific guitar player. He’s know Nick Drake. Then again, who is.
Continue reading after the jump
Ror-Shak: “Deep”
I have a tough time critiquing a full album when there are multiple vocalits. Each vocalist can bring to the table a new vibe, a new technique or a new feel to the album. One good example is Nouvelle Vague, the bosa nova style French female vocalist group that revamps songs by such bands as Sex Pistols, Depeche Mode and Joy Division.
What helps “Deep” hold up as a complete album is the production and mixing of the two members of Ror-Shak, Stakka and DJ DB. Both are very well known in the Drum & Bass world. DJ DB was one of the first supporters of D&B in America and Stakka is a principal in the label that brought Fujiya & Miyagi to our shores. Given their backgrounds, they’re able to successfully meld their beats together and sampled vamps. There is a dark and mysterious element to this album, hence the title. Helping to enhance this feel is the albums guest vocalists - Julee Cruise, Lisa Shaw, Wendy Starland and Chantel Claret from Morningwood. Besides Chantel, you’ve most likely heard these vocalists at some night club as you danced the night away (if clubbing is your thing).
It’s also easy to hear the Zero 7 influence, as both artists site them as inspiration for the album. An interesting point to their story is that they actually started out by producing a dancefloor tune that took hold of many clubs and became a sought after track. After their initial success they agreed to collaborate on a full album but it was during the making of the album that they began moving away from pure dancefloor D&B to more mellow and easier listening grooves.
The two stand out tracks for me are “A Forest” and “Heist”. “A Forest” features Chantel Claret from Morningwood. It starts off sounding a bit like a Depeche Mode song. The same high treble guitar sound with a bunch of reverb. Then Stakka turns the beat up and Chantel’s voice comes soaring in. “Heist”, on the other hand, doesn’t involve any vocals. It’s a real dark moment in the album and we find it towards the end of the album. Some of the beats sampled remind me of the recent masterpiece by Knife. There are also moments during the song that I’m reminded of the movie Labryinth - the part when the young female is in distress, running for her life from Bowie only to find that she has no choice but to face her fear of the labryinth.
It’s nothing mind blowing but I don’t think that’s what these two were going after. I think they were looking to make a record that you could pop on during any number of occasions. Some tracks you could easily see a hundred kids blaring at 3 am waving their glowsticks in the air going nuts while other tracks you can easily see yourself cruising in the car on a nice Sunday afternoon. It allows your mind to drift and for a moment or two to think deep thoughts. Nothing to unfamalier for this philosopher major.
If you’re a fan of Portishead, trip-hop, drum & bass, electronic lounge or just a curious music lover, I would recommend giving this one a shot.
Links of Interest:
MP3 - “A Forest”
