Disappears

Chicago-based band Disappears recently released a new record via Kranky records. Minor Patterns is not from that record. It's from 2012's brilliant Pre Language. Upon first hearing the band last year via Mr. Brown I was immediately struck by the somewhat updated throwback sound. Now, I know "updated throwback" sounds ridiculous but it's something I've really come to like in another group, A Place to Bury Strangers. The meaning of the ambiguous and possibly even pretentious term is really just a nod to the fact that while doing their own thing - quite well in both cases I might add - there is a definite comparison in sound to be made of bands-gone-by. My two-second elevator pitch for A Place to Bury Strangers when I first fell in love with Exploding Head was, "Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste-era Ministry meets My Bloody Valentine meets Bauhaus. Ridiculous? Maybe, but it worked like a charm in selling more than a few records for the band when I had my retail job so I count it a success. Disappears is similar, in that just listening to the opening chords of Minor Patterns I get that same early-Bauhaus feeling of space within the song. Once the song gets going though, as with the rest of the album, there's an aesthetic comparison I feel can be made to both 80's Sonic Youth (or maybe that's just because Steve Shelley is in Disappears) and even 13-Songs Fugazi. It's that small club/loud amp sound and the knack for writing a song together, organically, as opposed to riff-oriented.  It's the definition of what indie used to mean. IT'S GOOD.

Anyway, don't listen to me babble comparisons at you, if you dig Minor Patterns, go buy the whole record Pre Language. Then buy the new one. I need to do that last part yet, but it's on the ever-growing list for sures.

Oh, and when you have a little more time to burrow into something, there's this:

Fugazi Live @ Chicago's Congress Theatre - June 23rd 2001

I was at this show. Shellac opened. The sound on this recording pretty much sucks but I had to post it for posterity's sake.

Another new TV on the Radio Track

Just sent to me via Mr. Brown. Awesome! Full article here.

NIN full set Reading Festival

I found this via Gigwise. I'm excited for the new record but not entirely positive I like some of the newer versions of older songs (Sanctified in particular) that I've been seeing in live sets that have popped up on the youtubes. I'm not saying their bad - I just happen to have an insanely protective relationship with Pretty Hate Machine and can't help but want to only hear the songs - or at least a song like Sanctified which is probably my favorite on the record - exactly as I know them. I fully understand that's my hang-up, not Reznor's problem. We'll see. I'm still really behind this band. I've loved them since Pretty Hate Machine came out and showed me the first glimpses of a poppier industrial sound (compared to Ministry's The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste PHM is poppier) and with the exception of not really ever caring too much for The Downward Spiral and The Fragile (both of which I've come back around to a bit in recent years) I think Reznor has had an amazing career thus far.

And I also think that career is far from over.

If you follow the link to Gigwise above they have some fantastic pictures up of the concert.

Rituals - Our Blood

I like this quite a bit. Brooklyn Vegan has the whole record by Rituals streaming if you go here. Or just go to the band's label One Big Silence's soundcloud.

Some of the colors and editing techniques used here, juxtaposed with very simple imagery create a nice antithesis to all the overblown hype that I unfortunately haven't been able to avoid swimming around the more mainstream aspects of the music industry. Rituals seems to exist deliciously on the fringe of that industry - the fringe of even the underground of that industry. That's the thing - by now even the underground has been assimilated and is a copy of a copy of a copy. That's why it takes sites like Heavenisanincubator and Brooklyn Vegan to help see what else is out there. I'm not saying all major industry stuff is bad - I did just post a doc about Passion Pit before this - but a lot of it is and sometimes even the good stuff therein surrender to spectacle making just for the sake of spectacle making.

image via the band's soundcloud

Passion Pit's Documentary

I still know very little about Passion Pit, but after initially dismissing them they won me over with their very upbeat and endearing song Take a Walk I've been meaning to learn more. Obviously since that was several months ago it's not been a top priority but here's hoping when I finally find time to watch this new doc they released it will help alleviate my cluelessness.

Reading Rainbow - Must Be Dreaming

I know nothing about this band, but am definitely interested in finding out more.