Timber Timbre - Timber Timbre (2009)

I know I know... I slacked off for a whole week already. But I was busy, working, out and about, and writing other stuff and reviews I don't want to post on here. But now, I'm back. And for my first review back, I'm choosing a fantastic simple bluesy, lo-fi, indie rock/folk album. Sadly, apparently I wasn't on top of it because I completely missed this release when it came out in January. Luckily for all you music lovers out there (and me!) it was re-released again today. The band is Timber Timbre, and the self titled album is their third release. I went back and checked out the rest of their catalog, and quickly decided this is their best piece of work to date. Taylor Kirk, lead singer, has a very unique low, warbling voice that he utilizes to the best of it's potential. The music is actually very stripped down, but at the same time it has everything it needs - their is a strings section that occassionally comes in, and besides that the album has everything from a typical synthesizer sound to an organ to electronic sounds. But the main focus stays on the lyrics, which are very well written - Kirk tells some great stories that are not your typical blues. Reflective, dark, and foreboding, this shows blues evolving to keep up with modern day indie rock and folk music. Lay Down in the Tall Grass is a dark song with a syncopated organ rhythym and drum beat playing with a truly bizarre chorus: "I dreamed you found me out in a field / You tripped over my site /And you dug me out of this shallow grave... And only you could revive me,/ so badly decomposed." This leads into Until the Night is Over, a psychedelic tinged song that could almost be something by The Doors, if they stripped down their music a lot and had Kirk as a singer. Magic Arrow is about the settlers coming to America and destroying the land and taking everything from the Indians. The main guitar melody is even the typical riff you would think of as Native American music. The rest of the songs deal with loneliness and isolation, all be it with much more complicated lyrics than much of the blues you could find. While Kirk focuses on simplicity with musical sound, he ends up creating a very complex, genre spanning bluesy indie masterpiece.

Radical Sons - Throwing Knives (2009)

BEST NEW RELEASE WEEK OF 7/7/09

I know, I know... I'm a week late on the gun here. But I hope you can cut me some slack; this came out last week and I just started this blog yesterday; this is my first new release review. Definitely my favorite album from last week, which is way I just this album in particular. Throwing Knives is a group made up of two best friends from St. Louis that got together to enjoy quality music like the Velvet Underground and Television while everyone else around them was listening to crap. They toured with some relatively big name bands after forming, including Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin and Little Joy. This EP has been in the making since last summer and finally it's here! Radical Sons play their own unique blend of early 90's alternative and pop punk, with clear influences from Television, the Velvet Underground and Dinosaur, Jr - just a lot less noisier and a bit poppier. What's more, they successfully capture the feel of those legendary bands; the feel that they are living for their music in a world where they don't really fit in and it's what they live for. They also definitely listened to Built to Spill, and the midwest sort of sound of BTS shows in their music, but they do it a lot better. A nice raw, lo-fi but by no means unaccessible recording sound goes perfectly with the sound Radical Sons were going for, making the album just that much better. The second half of the album is all acoustic, and contains demos of 4 of the 5 full songs included, excluding Throwing Knives, plus a demo of a song called Scavenger. These guys are definitely a band to watch, with a return to a sound I haven't heard many bands get right since the early/mid 90's. And for their debut EP, it's pretty damn amazing.