New Rock

So here's something completely different: the prog/psy-rock band The Black Angels from Austin, Texas take two rock styles I love, the psychedelic madness of the 60's and the 'drone' of the Velvet Underground and Brian Jonestown Massacre and combine them in a very good way, dark and grimy like the VU, twisty and screeching like Hendrix or Pink Floyd.
Dig it:
-Doves really brings back the good ol' gritty classic rock memories.
-Mission District has a great build up and a cool riff
-18 Years really reminds me of Velvet Underground
-Deer-Ree-Shee has a nice Sitar touch, almost like the Beatles or Brian Jonestown
-Damn all these songs are awesome; You in Color shines as an emerald in a bag of diamonds
You'll just have to get their album 'Directions To See A Ghost for the rest, of which a 16 minute drone-a-thon is among the best.

Back to some usual fare, electro does not only exist in a purely 'electronic-genre' form. As we have seen in Aaron's previous post, there exists electro-rock which, in my opinion, can often be better for various reasons. Mainly that while some songs may be simpler, they have actual lyrics of verses and choruses, and involve musical techniques and forms that are more from rock than electronic music.


When I saw the Australian The Presets here in Montreal the other week I realized the above to be true. They are more like techno/psych-electro rock than I expected (having only heard of them from D.I.M. remixes) and man do they know how to put on an AWESOME show; especially given that they were sick and had traveled all over North America. The live drum kit was a nice change from grinding mind-numbing drum machines, and the vocals were well performed and had some interesting multilayered distortion. But most markedly the energy of both the performers and the crowd was what made the show: the people were more pumped up than at many straight-up electro sets, noticeably older, more stylish and less total neon noob. They were more there for the music, not the scene.
Anyway here's what you want from the album 'Apocalypso', which is actually worth purchasing (ha!). It should be noted that they are so much cooler live, and I must insist on you seeing them if you can.
-Aeons is a really pretty instrumental that The Presets used to segway between songs live
-Together has some of those distorted vocals I mentioned above, and is a great dance tune
-I wish I could play Yippyo-Ay to the many lovely ladies out there in Montreal, a certain C****** in particular.
-This song, Kicking and Screaming, has probably the best digialized distorted vocals of the album which was amazing to see live. Very catchy too.

Oh yea and here's a fun little song, found in the Computer Set mix but its good by itself: Paradis (Udachi Remix) by Lismore

Enjoy, spread the word and peace out