Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Exilym - One More Step Before The End




[Last.fm] [Facebook] [Myspace] [Website] [Label (Bandcamp)]
(Albums are available for purchase on their Label's bandcamp page. Hard copies can be purchased on their website.)

Monday, January 30, 2012

Some pages I promote

I guess now is a good time to dedicate a post to pages I'd like to promote, including the new facebook page I just created. There is a list of pages on the right column, but these are ones that I personally view relatively frequently.

RibsOut
[Facebook] [Blog]
Multi-Genre
I've seen a number of blogs and I have to say, RibsOut is among my favourites. There have been a number of artists I've featured on my blog that I had discovered from his. And he updates a lot! (Unlike me, hah hah.) His blog is one of the more broad ranged music blogs I've come across.


Post Rock Community
[Facebook] [Blog]
Post-Rock
Co-ran by my good friends from Our Ceasing Voice, this is a fairly well established post-rock blog.


The Quiet Ambient
[Blog]
Multi-Genre
I actually became friends with this guy through an exchange of our blogs. I don't really remember how we came across each other's blogs, though. Hah, in fact, I just discovered one right now, Carbon Based Lifeforms.


New Post Rock
[Facebook]
Post-Rock
This is easily my favourite post-rock facebook page. I don't have a clue who runs the page, but whoever (s)he is puts that extra effort into his(her) posts, featuring links that allow you to easily find the artists. There have been some really, really unknown stuff on there. I like that, a lot. This is THE facebook page to go to if you're interested in delving into small-time post-rock artists.


My new facebook page!
[Facebook]
Multi-Genre
I told myself, "I'm not going to make a facebook page." And then here it is, a facebook page. I figured this would happen eventually. For my overall goal for this blog, I figured it would be beneficial to have a facebook page. Plus, I can post various updates on bands and such that never make it to a blog post.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

New Album Release: Asfandyar Khan - The North Wind



While it was Talha Wynne that opened me to the Pakistani music scene, Asfandyar Khan was the artist that had first made me intrigued about the scene there. I was listening to some customized post-rock last.fm radio station at work when a particular song came up. I quickly switched over to the last.fm app and jotted the name down. During my break I did some searches and found out that this man is from Pakistan. Like many others in the western world, I was fairly oblivious to anything about Pakistan. So intrigued at my new discovery, I needed to find more. And I've been consistently surprised by the music scene in Pakistan.

I have to thank this man for being my introduction to such an amazing music scene, which I hope to experience in person some day, and all the events that had transpired because of his music.

Anyway, here is his new album!

[Last.fm] [Bandcamp] [Soundcloud] [Facebook] [Myspace]

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Glitter Bones - Spell Legend



I started watching Portlandia. One thing that I really fell in love with, among many things about that show, was the intro. I had to know what that song was. So, after a search I came across Washed Out. "What kind of music is this?" Last.fm reveals, "chillwave." "Oooh, I need to feature a chillwave artist for my next blog post." I typically feature artists that have under 10k listeners (with a few exceptions) so I picked a fairly obscure artist on the chillwave list, Moss of Aura, and tuned into his artist radio. A couple hours pass and I'm finding myself falling in love with this genre. It's like a mix between indie, pop, 80s style synth, and ambient. Then Spell Legend came on. "This is it!" I was loving everything I was hearing, but there are always songs that just stand out.

From Chicago... nice. Since I'll be moving to NYC, I'll be visiting Chicago fairly often (cheap flights to and fro). I'll definitely be seeing these guys.

I don't normally create free upload links. However, after talking to them, they didn't mind people downloading their stuff. However, their stuff isn't exactly that easy to google. It didn't take too long, but it did take some time to find it. I found this particular site from RibsOut. (Check out his blog!!) They also have a very limited amount of cassettes and vinyls to purchase.
Buy Amulet Calls cassettes (shipped from Brooklyn, NY)
Buy Returning The Magic vinyls (shipped from Paris, France)
Download both EPs (file sharing)
Listen/Download newer material (Bandcamp)


On another note, I really hate adding more genres to the already long list. A lot of these genres only feature one band. So soon I will be condensing my genre list into various styles and feel of music. No more genre specifics, except for ones that I feature a lot (like post-rock). I want to allow for people to click on a tag and find various sounds that may have some similarities but will ultimately open them to different kinds of music and musicians. It won't be entirely accurate, but this blog is more about music exploration than music accuracy.


[Last.fm] [Bandcamp] [Facebook] [Myspace]




_______________________________________________________________________________ I will constantly be updating each new post with an anti-SOPA/PIPA post-script (until this gets adequately dealt with) and deleting the post-script of the previous post.

I don't usually follow Maddox' rants but he seems to have the most logical rant about SOPA. I highly suggest reading it. Not only that, he seems to be the only one that is actively attempting to organize a boycott against pro-SOPA companies.

http://maddox.xmission.com/

Someone said this, and it couldn't be more true... ‎"a painless boycott for the participants is painless for the target as well." Don't think that boycotting companies that already don't affect you is going to mean anything. I'm personally voting a boycott to three that affect me the most on that list. And if picked it will suck because I do enjoy the products of those companies, but sometimes creating an impact requires one to give something up.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Bomani "D'mite" Armah - Moment of Silence



I have not been updating much lately. And I really don't have a good excuse. I need to try to keep to at least a 3 updates a week schedule...

Anyway... Bomani's "Read A Book" video became wildly popular. But sadly, it's the type of one-hit-wonder viral videos that doesn't quite bring attention to the rest of its creator. You look on the last.fm page and in 6 months Read A Book received 500+ views and the next one down had received 6. He was in SXSW once, though. That's always a good thing!

I don't usually feature much hip-hop and rap to my blog, not because I don't like it but because I simply don't subject myself to the style of music. I do like this guy's stuff a lot, hence this post.


[Last.fm] [Bandcamp] [Facebook] [Myspace] [Website]
(Albums are available on Bandcamp for purchase, New Classic Mixtape is available for free.)

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

No SOPA/PIPA



Today starts a strike against the US government's internet censorship bills, SOPA and PIPA. While internet piracy isn't something that has been helping the music industry (not just the major labels, of whom I don't give a crap about, but also the smaller labels), these bills are a threat to general human rights. And once you allow the government to take away one of your rights, it's a slippery slope from there. Many companies like LinkedIn, Google, and ebay are in opposition to this bill. Not just that, there are a number of bands that are also in opposition to this, including The Flaming Lips. Think this will not affect you since you're not in the US? When has something big in the US not affected the rest of the world?

How can you fight it?
There are a number of SOPA/PIPA strike sites.

https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/
http://sopastrike.com/strike/

The google site allows for updates on internet legislation.
Sopastrike.com gives options for both US and non-US residents to send Congress or the State Department a petition.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Coma Stereo - Tisoč mest



I had the privilege to see these guys open for God Is An Astronaut in Ljubljana last year. They were goooooooood. I've been meaning to feature them here but keep forgetting.


[Last.fm] [Bandcamp] [Facebook] [Myspace] [Website]
(Albums available for free download on their Bandcamp page.)

Saturday, January 07, 2012

Helms Alee - New Roll




[Last.fm] [Bandcamp] [Facebook] [Myspace]
(Albums available for purchase on Bandcamp.)

Friday, January 06, 2012

Circadian Eyes - When We Float




[Last.fm] [Bandcamp] [Facebook] [Myspace]
(Albums are available for purchase and free download on Bandcamp.)

Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Gangbé Brass Band - Remember Fela



Some more African music for your earholes!

[Last.fm] [Bandcamp] [Facebook] [Myspace] [Website]
(Albums available for purchase on iTunes.)

Toumani Diabaté Symmetric Orchestra - Tapha Niang



It is now 2012. I'm curious what this year will have in store. I think it's a good sign when you delve into a completely different style of music at the very start, heh heh. I have been on an African music kick since the last days of 2011.
I fell in love with this song when I first heard it on Little Big Planet. For a while I didn't check into who played it until just recently. Once I listened to the entire album I had to have more from this area of the world. There will definitely be more African music on my blog from now on!

Normally I don't feature a song that is this popular, and I was about to play Mali Sadio, but after listening to Tapha Niang I had to... I freakin' love this song.


[Last.fm] [Facebook] [Myspace] [Website]
(Albums can be purchased on iTunes.)