MODERNSTATE - 'THE BURNING BEARD'

Formats

• LMD37 - CD

  N/A

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THREE YEARS IN THE MAKING, MODERNSTATE'S SOPHOMORE ALBUM THE BURNING BEARD GUIDES US THROUGH ALL FACETS OF ITS CREATOR, SAM SCHAUER. RECORDED IN A LARGE ROOM OVERLOOKING PORTLAND, OREGON'S DARKEST AVENUE, BURNSIDE, THE SOUND OF A WORKING CLASS CITY EMBEDS ITSELF IN THE CONTENT OF THE RECORD. A BUS STOPS, A SIREN WAILS, THE BURNING BEARD IS A DESPERATE RECORD, A LIVING AND BREATHING TESTAMENT TO SELF-DENIAL, DETERMINATION, AND REGRET. HIS STARK MUSICAL CANDOR SURFACES WITH LYRICAL HONESTY THAT IS EASILY MIRRORED BY BROODING MELODIC DRUMS, AND UNDERSTATED GLOCKENSPIEL. AS SAM'S BARITONE JOURNEYS THROUGH THE SHARPLY TRAGIC DOOM FOLK OF THE ALBUM, THE CITY IS PERCHING ON HIS WINDOW SILL, SOMEHOW ACCOMPANYING HIS POCKET SYMPHONY AND HINTING AT THE NOTION THAT THERE IS A LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL. A CONCEPT MAYBE, BUT AS SAM SINGS, "WE'RE ALL DESTINED TO BECOME OUR PARENTS, WE WILL LAUGH LIKE THEM, LOVE LIKE THEM, AND FUCK LIKE THEM. OH MY GOD, WE MUST BE FUCKED." WE BELIEVE HIM. SAM IS SOMEONE WHO EMBRACES THE SACRIFICES OF BEING A GENUINE ARTIST, LIVING THE LIFE HIS LYRICS CONVEY.

SAM SCHAUER: GUITAR, DRUMS, VOCALS, WURLITZER ELECTRIC PIANO, GLOCKENSPIEL, BASS, MICROPHONES. JESSE JOHNSON: GUITAR. DAVIS HOOKER: BASS, WURLITZER. BILL HOLLOWAY: DRUMS. "Modernstate is beautifully delicate and at the same time, strong with lyrical invention. Schauer's dramatic ability to tell an honest story is what carries through and keeps you. It is sure, rudder-like, balanced, and moves forward with honest human emotion. "A rather enticing album, between atmospheric pop and certain soft experimentations. Guitar buckles, of electronic microbeats, a lapsteel, a glockenspiel, a muffled voice that unveils itself in the mediums engrave, here the universe of Modernstate." -Indiepoprock.net "Modernstate is at the forefront of a burgeoning movement of one-man bands in the Pacific Northwest. With a little luck, perhaps it all will be known one day as the ?Modernstate sound.? -Sacramento News and Review "It's an odd contradiction, perhaps opposing modes of release. Clamor begets control; control begets clamor. Tranquility begets noise, and so on, and so on. In the middle is Sam Schauer. In the middle is also a shared attitude of political repulsion, exasperation and anger, a short-circuit across an aesthetic gulf. The subject matter?the "state of things," the war, the administration?remains the same throughout Schauer's output, however different the modes of artistic escape." -Willamette Week

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IT'S FOLK, BUT IT'S ALSO PUNK, EXPERIMENTAL, LO-FI ROCK, AND BLENDS ALL OF THIS INTO SOME SORT OF MUTANT CONFESSIONAL POP." -PORTLAND MERCURY "SAM BLENDS LUSH BEDS OF GUITAR LOOPS, KEYBOARD MELODIES, SAM'S STORYTELLER VOCALS, CASIO BEATS, EVEN A CHOIR OF FRIENDS. THE RESULT IS SOMETHING THAT BRINGS TO MIND THE MOODS OF AERIAL/PAPA M, THE QUIRKY EXPERIMENTALISM OF JOAN OF ARC AND THE DEADPAN DELIVERY OF LEONARD COHEN." -DCM MAGAZINE

Audio & Video

FACTUMS - 'ALIEN NATIVE'

Formats

• SB87 - LP

  N/A

Details

SEATTLE THREEPIECE THAT FEAT FORMER MEMBERS OF A-FRAMES, AND THE INTELLIGENCE. ORIGINALLY RELEASED AS A CD IN 2004, ALIEN NATIVE SHOWS A BAND BURROWED DEEP IN THE MYSTERY AND MENACE OF THE NASCENT. 19 TRACKS OF ELECTRO-JUNKOID RUMBLE, LIMITED VINYL-ONLY PRESSING OF 500 COPIES, WITH HAND-SCREENED JACKETS GNARL OF EXPERIMENTAL ART ROCK. IMAGINE A RECORD COLLECTION CONSISTING SOLELY OF THE RESIDENTS' FINGERPRINCE, CHROME'S ALIEN SOUNDTRACKS, AND CABARET VOLTAIRE'S NAG NAG NAG. A BLAST FROM ANY OF THESE RECORDS COULD CLEAR A HOUSE BACK IN THE OLD DAYS; NOW THEY FILL IT. FORTUNATELY THE FACTUMS DON'T OPERATE ON SUCH A BINARY PLANE. THEY ARE CAPABLE OF RESORTING TO EITHER OPTION, DEPENDING ON THE TIME AND PLACE. ALIEN NATIVE IS A GREAT SWAB OF PAST-SOUNDING ELECTRO-JUNKOID RUMBLE ABSORBED INTO THE MIND AND MATTER OF PRESENT DAY PRE-ANALOG EXCAVATORS.

FACTUMS ARE A CONTEMPO THREE-PIECE HAILING OUT?VE SEATTLE WHO CLAIM TO HAVE TIES WITH (I.E. INCLUDE FORMER MEMBERS OF) AFRAMES AND THE INTELLIGENCE. BUT SINCE WE DON?T SUBSCRIBE TO THE ROCKET OR HAVE LI?L JOHNNY PONEMAN FETCH US OUR LATTES (ANYMORE!), IT?S HARD TO KNOW IF THAT PEDIGREE IS EVEN WORTH MENTIONING. EVERYONE?S ENTITLED TO A PAST, DUBIOUS AS IT MIGHT BE. DIETER MEIER WOULD HAVE YOU BELIEVE THAT HE HAD NO PUNK HISTORY BEFORE YELLO. TAKE THAT, FRESH COLOR! ANYWAY, FACTUMS DON?T SEEM TO RELISH OR RECOIL FROM THE FACTS AND LET?S FACE IT, IF IT HELPS THE RECORDS FLY OFF THE SHELVES, HOW?S THAT A BAD THING?

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DOUBTFUL ANYONE IN THE UK WILL EVEN LISTEN TO THIS AT A PRESS LEVEL, LET ALONE REVIEW IT. ITS A LITTLE TOO RAW / REAL!

Audio & Video

BELAIRE - 'EXPLODING IMPACTING'

Formats

• INDCD006 - CD

  616892910329

Details

DEBUT RELEASE FROM THIS NEW, AND SOON TO BE HUGE AUSTIN BAND: THE BAND MIXES GENRES AT WILL FLOATING FROM BRAZIL FUNK TO ITALIAN MOVIE SCORES TO CARNIVAL MUSIC TO NEW WAVE TO ITALO DISCO AND BACK AGAIN TO FORM A COHESIVE AND INCREDIBLY ADDICTIVE SOUND ALL THEIR OWN. THE UNDESCRIBABLE CREATIVE ASSEMBLAGE THAT IS BELAIRE HAS BEEN SERENDIPITOUSLY PATCHED TOGETHER FROM MEMBERS OF ARKAY, FOZLUR, FLASHLIGHT FICTION, VOXTROT, AND FANCY FEAST. TOGETHER, THE BAND MIXES GENRES AT WILL FLOATING FROM BRAZIL FUNK TO ITALIAN MOVIE SCORES TO CARNIVAL MUSIC TO NEW WAVE TO ITALO DISCO AND BACK AGAIN TO FORM A COHESIVE AND INCREDIBLY ADDICTIVE SOUND ALL THEIR OWN. FOR FANS OF VOXTROT, OF MONTREAL, OS MUTANTES...

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?EVERYONE LOVES TO DANCE AND SMILE. CAETANO VELOSO, AIR, THE MOSQUITOS, AND OS MUTANTES: MELODIC, BOSSA-NOVA INDIE POP.?
? THE AUSTIN CHRONICLE

?IT?S A FANTASTICALLY ECCENTRIC AND DISTURBINGLY CLANDESTINE IMAGE THAT COMES TO MIND WHEN LISTENING TO BELAIRE. INTERTWINING ELEMENTS OF VINTAGE SYNTH, INDIE, POWER-POP, BOSSA NOVA, ITALO DISCO, AND PROG-ROCK, BY VIRTUE OF MULTIFARIOUS ELECTRONIC TOYS AND SYNTHESIZERS, FANCIFULLY INTERLACING GUITAR AND BASS, AND LUSTY DRUMS, THE QUARTET CREATES INTRIGUING TUNES THAT ARE UNDENIABLY CATCHY AND CAREFREE ? THEY SERVE CROWDS NOTHING BUT COMPLETELY ENJOYABLE MACABRE-POP MUSIC THAT THEY CAN?T HELP BUT DANCE TO.?
? THE AUSTIN INDEPENDENT

Audio & Video

ALL OUR GOOD FRIENDS - 'PROMISE'

Formats

• MUMBOCD001 - CD

  5036098007367

Details

"PROMISE" IS THE HAUNTING DEBUT FROM LONDON BASED SOLO ARTIST ALL OUR GOOD FRIENDS. 11 TRACKS OF FRAGILITY AND COUNTRY TINGED DESOLATION. ALL THE SONGS ARE WRITTEN AND RECORDED BY JOHNNY DAUKES, ONCE DESCRIBED AS "THE DENNIS POTTER OF INDIE ROCK" AND OF WHOM IT WAS WRITTEN "WHILE PEERS HAVE HAPPILY IMITATED MORRISSEY'S FLAMBOPYANCE, NOBODY HAS COME AS CLOSE TO EMULATING HIS MUSE...". THROW IN THE INTROSPECTION OF NICK DRAKE, THE SONIC PALETTE OF RADIOHEAD AND THE WRY, ENGLISH ENUNCIATION OF ROGER WATERS AND THE IMPRESSION OF ALL OUR GOOD FRIENDS JUST BEGINS TO COME INTO FOCUS. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

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REVIEWS IN THE WORD, UNCUT.
MORE TBC

Audio & Video