South By Southwest (SXSW) Band:
Sometimes in my search for good music I find an album that starts off strong and has everything good going for it and then just falls flat. Some Nights by the band Fun is one of those albums. Recently the song “We Are Young” from this album was featured in the commercial for the Chevy Sonic and at least here in Austin, Texas is being overplayed and coming close to being another “Pumped up Kicks” by Foster the People. Unfortunately, that seems to be the strongest song this album features. Granted there are a few tracks that are OKAY like the first track of the album Some Nights which has a beginning vocal from the band that reminds me of Kansas’ “Carry on My Wayward Son” The track itself has a good beat to it and is very percussion-heavy. As the album continues, though, it seems to fall flat. After the track ironically called “It Gets Better,” the album slowly falls short. Overall the instrumentation seems to be all over the place from one track to the next, which in some cases works, but in this case it doesn’t do it for me.
South By Southwest (SXSW) Band:
Last month Hospitality released their debut self-titled album. Rhythmically, they have a good mix throughout the entire album beginning with the slower, mellower sounding tracks followed by more of a groovy undertone that undeniably brings out the Indie-pop feel of the whole album. The whole album not only changes in rhythm throughout but the instrumentation also seems to change with it. The mellower sounding tracks are very percussion-heavy with a lot of bass and the more “dancey” tracks are guitar-driven ones. Regardless of the arrangement, Amber Papini’s voice seems to fit perfectly throughout.
Favorite Tracks: Friends of Friends and Liberal Arts
Los Campesinos! W/Parenthetical Girls 2/17/12 REVIEW
Friday I saw Los Campesinos! and Parenthetical Girls at The Parish in Austin, Texas.
I went in not knowing Parenthetical Girls and went out knowing I probably would not listen to them again but would not mind seeing them live again. Let me explain. Their music was not my kind of thing; their sound is experimental pop but lacks quality, very bland, and some pretentious sounding lyrics (I mean look at the band’s name). But the constant theatrics and banter with the audience i.e. Comparing Austin to their current location Portland, Oregon “1. Laziness 2. Suspended Adolescence 3. Good looking people over 30” marching around The Parish, talking about semen smelling trees, and swinging from speakers made their 30+ minute set enjoyable.
I would not call myself a “hardcore fan” of Los Campesinos! I did not particularly care for their latest release Hello Sadness as a whole but have enjoyed the albums in-between their first release. My hope was that they would play enough stuff from their other albums to satisfy my urge, which they did. One of the main things I enjoy about their music is that it has dark undertones mixed with an upbeat sound, even added that one-step dance, hands in the air feel. But not Saturday and it wasn’t for a lack of trying, Los Campesinos! just seemed to lack steam and their sound quality at times seemed to be amiss. They just did not have consistent momentum in their first night of two night performances at The Parish. I did not stay for the encore and I must have looked at my phone a few times during their under 80 minute set. I’ll be honest; if it had not been raining I probably would have left early, which is disappointing because they ARE a good band….just maybe on CD only.
Check out their new video for “Songs About Your Girlfriend” off their new album, Hello Sadness. It reminded me why I went to the show in the first place.
This video came out last week but I didn’t want to flood the social media mediums with this video again as it was being posted back to back to back. So in case you missed it, check out “You Know What I Mean” by Cults. As usual, the video is dark and mildly disturbing (like most of their music videos) but there is story to be told and it’s visually stunning.
