It’s the end of March. That is really hard to believe seeing as it feels like just yesterday I was extremely hungover after an all night binge drink in “The Loft”. There was Jagermeister, whiskey, free fireworks around the bay and the Eagles of Death Metal. Quite a bit has happened since then, here’s a brief breakdown.
We moved to town. This has been a very positive thing; albeit terrible for the old bank balance, however, let no one bullshit you, living in the Cape Town CBD is without a shadow of a doubt where it’s at. Except for the wind, now I could bitch and moan about the wind in Cape Town forever, but I won’t, because I am sure you know all about it.
Other than the brutal summer (and the bliss of the decline into winter) and the sleepless nights, things are sweet as to be honest. Now, let’s get down to what I generally lean towards writing anyway, music. I have received quite a bit of new stuff the last couple of months.
Here are some highlights:
Possibly the most surprising of the lot, but my goodness, the album flows effortlessly and spinning it from start to end is as easy as eating a cheese croissant. Unless you happen to be lactose intolerant, then I would compare it to drinking a glass of chilled water on a hot day in the Karoo. When you have time, you can choose - watch “The Notebook” to see Ryan Gosling’s talents or you could put this album on and listen to them, I would recommend the latter.
The new DEP album, Option Paralysis is the perfect blend of technical musicianship, brutality and melody without being too soft to offend or drive away the “I preferred their first album” fans. I am one of these people more often than not I am afraid, but don’t be surprised if this is the album that gets DEP noticed. “Widower” is an epic piece of music, a must hear.
I must confess something else, I have become a fan (not on Facebook though) of True Blood. The missus loves the show and I finally decided to give it a go. It’s bloody, there are naked chicks covered in blood, fang-bangers and vamps (with fangs Twilight fans), what is not to like. Well, maybe Bill, harden the fuck up Bill. But I digress, this got me listening to the theme song writer, Jace Everett’s music and it got me curious “is there more dark country music out there?” I am happy to report that there is. Those Poor Bastards are a “gothic country” band and they sound like the lovechild of Nick Cave and Johnny Cash. They make great use of atmosphere and some of their tracks are truly terrifying. This is not for everyone; I know that, I just really enjoy them.
I am MASSIVE fan of TV on the Radio and am always on the lookout for similar sounds and artists, Wolf Parade is as close as it gets for me, in terms of songwriting ability. That is how I found Spencer Krug’s genius. He is the brains behind Wolf Parade, but also performs with Swan Lake and his of course, my favourite of his projects, Sunset Rubdown; one of, if not the dirtiest band name of all time. It’s a blend of crafty songwriting, whiny vocals and just general enjoyment. I am glad I finally listened to last.fm’s recommendations and if you like indie music, this is definitely something you want to look into.
Those are some of the bands I have been into and I even managed to drop in a mention for True Blood, result. I will also admit that I recently watched “New Moon”. If I can learn one thing from this blog post it would be this -Why do the vampires in the Twilight series not have fangs? No one wants to be an ‘I-don’t-die-in-the-sun-I-sparkle-but-have-no-fangs-banger’, being a good old fashion ‘fang-banger’ is so much better. No?
lekker lekker agreed!
ReplyDeleteDMB FTW!
ReplyDelete