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Music Moderators: Shinji Ikari
Indie Rock
- Thread starter Pibolar
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coelophysis
Bluelight Crew
Oh man, of montreal are the greatest.
I saw them a few years ago, and their live shows are like full theatre pieces. Muscle men, fake priests, crazy gymnastics, sgt pepper-magical mystery tour esque costumes...and their songs are just divine.
Love their records.
They have this amazing sort of electro take on indie pop, with lyrics that are often really dark with synth pop musical accompaniment.
And great song titles!
One of of montreal's more famous stunts was the singer/songwriter kevin barnes riding into a show on the back of a white horse in new york city.
That gig is here on youtube
Amazing performers, and nice people too.
oM Love! My all time favorite. So many memories of seeing them tons of times. That tour for skeletal lamping was great, the visual circus and barnes' antics were all at a peak of outrageousness. He's hit so many other peaks in his career. Gay Parade and Coquelicot are up there as some of my favorites but it's hard to rate them because I love them all.
A few years ago I got to go on the stage for a little skit during You Do Mutliate.
Best musician ever imo. I see oM as just barnes, with help from people he knows, but never a total solid cast of people for too long.
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Medicine is a great song by Daughter! Here's another classic by them.
Have you heard anything from their newest album? it just came out in January. ALSO, I'm actually gonna see them live this Sunday! I'm stoked.
No, I haven't listened to the new album. I was thinking it would be interesting to hear the lead singer collaborate with a band like explosions in the sky. Her voice is incredible but the instrumentation is sort of bland; monotonous. If you're into remarkable female vocalists you might like 'My Brightest Diamond' - The lead singer is Shara Worden
Oh man, it was really great. A warm evening in an open-air venue set up temporarily along the riverfront for the arts festival.
These ladies really rock. Great songs, great voices - and Carrie Brownstein is a guitar rock god!
She really puts her soul into playing that thing, all the while kicking into the air, ducking, gyrating and holding her telecaster deluxe high into the air to punctuate her strums. Love it.
Reminded me that her stage presence and moves onstage inspired me quite a bit when i was first starting to perform - she does the rock'n'roll showmanship thing, but with sass instead of ego or false machismo, so it doesnt come across as corny or contrived.
Same here - one of the best records of the 90s i think. It's aged well tooalasdairm said:
Correct assumption! Alex Chilton was incredible.alasdairm said:
Yeah, from my understanding of the creative dynamic in Of Monreal, i would tend to agree.Laika said:
This reminds me of another band that truly deserves a mention - The Magnetic Fields.
Stevin Merritt composes such rich, lush musical arrangements and witty poetic lyrics - in much the same league as Barnes IMO - they share a few artistic themes, mixing multiple pop genres and synth electronica - tunes that often have a sort of nightclub dancefloor feel - but with world weary, jaded, pained - but incredibly witty lyrics.
I would have to say the Magnetic Fields are my favourite contemporary act.
Their albums are some of the most inspired concept albums ever made; 69 Love Songs is exactly what it says on the label - likewise the apparent "no synth trilogy" - (I]I[/I] is an album of song titles starting with the letter "I", Distortion is heavily distorted and soaked with feedback, and Realism utilises a lot of acoustic instruments and more organic tonal aesthetics).
Merritt's songs have a distinctive voice - even though other band members often sing them - he's that unique and unorthodox.
His songs are recognisable despite gender ambiguities (love songs to men, from a male perspective - but sung by a woman (and every conceivable variation of those combinations) he writes heartfelt songs that are deliberately detached - full of paradoxes.
One of Stephin Merritt's most obvious approaches is to take a cliche, and base a song around deconstructing or contradicting it. He absorbs and dissects western popular music traditions by identifying their orthodoxies (like songs about longing and lost love - and songs about dancing) and proceeding to savage them with dark humour - or celebrate them, or sometimes both - in the same song.
There is a romantic sort of cynicism in his writing - and his musical compositions are equal parts simple and elaborate. Beautiful melodic flourishes combine with deliberately abrasive synthesizers - rich cello and vocal harmonies accompanying cheap 80s-sounding drum machine. Corny sentiment combined with profound observations.
Some songs are like philosophical bubblegum pop, with elements of countless genres - disco, country, campy show tunes. Some are achingly beautiful string compositions with a deliberately awkward inverted cliche or corny pun. Declarations of love delivered in insults, contradictions and confusion - always unpredictable and different, but self-consciously consistent and recognisable in an aesthetic that is ever changing.
Genius postmodern pop music.
The songs are wrapped in so many ambiguous paradoxes and juxtapositions, narrated with lyrics that are at times profound and understated - other times deliberately too clever and occasionally revelling in the banal, the absurd and the superficially obvious. These elements are melded together with a kind of knowing dry wit that Merritt has developed and refined over the years. His ability to craft songs is incredible - thoughtful and catchy but clever and challenging.
I could go on and on and on...
Here's a couple of favourites:
[video=youtube_share;WVEhNHIzJec]http://youtu.be/WVEhNHIzJec[/video]
[video=youtube_share;NTbMcHAzE0A]http://youtu.be/NTbMcHAzE0A[/video]
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I always liked the instrumentation honestly. I think it's meant to compliment the vocalist, and it does a great job of that, IMO. They accomplish what they set out to do. Also, check out some of their new stuff when you get the chance.
I'll check My Brightest Diamond some time, I've never heard of them. But for now, I'm too goddamn tired to do anything.
i saw big star live in london in 1993. two guys from the posies made up the numbers. somebody told me that teenage fanclub were in the crowd but i never saw them
sleater kinney show sounds like it was awesome!
alasdair
yea, I like it in extreme moderation same with sigur ros, spiritualized, coldplay, many others. def compliments her voice well. I heard some remix of the medicine song if its anything like that I don't want to hear it. It's like electro-bass-disco-indie-pop or something.
Lol no worries it's nothing like that. I recommend first checking out their single Doing the Right Thing. They still cultivate the same sad atmosphere with their sound, seems they're just honing their technique.
So I've recently been listening to a lot of Elliott Smith. Anybody know of him? He makes what could be considered, I guess, indie folk music. His entire discography is impressive, and his personal life story is as interesting as it is depressing.
I've been binge listening to King's Crossing, 2:45 AM, and Angeles. Great songs and I highly recommend you guys take a listen. This man pours so much emotion into his creations. I might post a link to some of these songs later, just for the sake of convenience.
I've been binge listening to King's Crossing, 2:45 AM, and Angeles. Great songs and I highly recommend you guys take a listen. This man pours so much emotion into his creations. I might post a link to some of these songs later, just for the sake of convenience.
coelophysis
Bluelight Crew
Spacejunk, I thought of you when I was putting this together earlier to finally display on one of the walls of my studio room.. It's all always been scattered through binders but it's finally a cool decoration.. Just some of the stuff from over the years that I've managed to obtain from oM shows..
NSFW for size
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mal3volent
Bluelight Crew
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2011
- Messages
- 40,019
I cant listen to of montreal without being overtaken by nostalgia. One of my hippie friends got me into them when i was in the tenth grade. They were pretty much the soundtrack to the hallucinogenic late night odyssey period of my life.
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Oh man thats awesome - so jealous!Spacejunk, I thought of you when I was putting this together earlier to finally display on one of the walls of my studio room.. It's all always been scattered through binders but it's finally a cool decoration.. Just some of the stuff from over the years that I've managed to obtain from oM shows..
NSFW for size
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I've only had the chance to see them the once, but fuck that was a great gig.
Ran into the band and entourage - still wearing their stage costumes - in a club afterwards, and hung out with them which was nice.
JackiePeyton
Ex-Bluelighter
I enjoy this song, and I can place bandages