My Dead Girlfriend - Underdrawing for Three Forms of Unhappiness at the State of Existence

I've been searching for shoegaze that I like for a while now. Some things work and some don't. Loveless isn't what my heart desires, but the harshest parts at the center of Deathconsciousness are basically my dreams come true. Some of my favorite garage rock bands have released amazing shoegaze albums. Jesu aren't bad, and last year three real great albums came out under the genre title: one of them, Iroha's self titled debut LP, was a side project of Jesu front man. The other two were Yuck's debut, a 90's throwback album with some shoegazing and some punk rocking and some real generic shitting about, and The Joy Formidable's first album, which was also a lot alike to Yuck's.

Here's something though. After a few pandering releases (Looking at you, Whirr), the pedal heavy, melody light genre has welcomed me back home with My Dead Girlfriend's debut mini-LP. The title and band concept seems depressing, but the music behind it is hopeful and inspiring, and the vocals are twinkly as fuck. This is about as close as I've gotten to real hard punk shoegaze, you know, the type I really want. Each track punches hard, not despite but because there are only six of them. The band members took all of their energy and shoved it into making six thick, amazing tracks.

It feels like everything leads from the strong opener/title track, as if it was a delta, straight into the tip of the river, which ends up being a split between Nasty Mayor's Daughter - the strongest track here by miles, and one which I promise will have tears down your cheeks - and closing track Aki no Hachiouji, which shuts the book with a real positive note.
This album is basically a fizzy anime. I foresee it staying with me for a long while.
Tier: 2 [Playlist]
[fork on plate]

The Mars Volta - Noctourniquet

I've been a Volta fan for quite some time now. All things considered, my musically conscious life has been a bit longer than a year, and I've been listening to Omar's whittling and Ced's howling for about a year now. It's flown by, probably the fastest year I've ever lived, and for quite a few reasons, not just The Mars Volta.
I'll spare any readers a write up on the bands past and get straight to it: this is one strong album. By the time I get to the first single it feels as if I've already listened to one full album, and I'm only halfway done. And I don't think that's a bad thing. I love it. Noctourniquet fills me whenever I'm starving for something real good. The album is strong across the board.
"The Whip Hand" is a magnificent opener, full of filthy synth-guitar and some really cool vocals (I am a landmiiiine). "Aegis" and "Dyslexicon" manage to keep the cool, electronic vibe and the future-punk genre aesthetic steady, however after them I come upon the first real snag in the album. "Empty Vessels" is more of a feels song than a hears song. It's got a real sentimental sound, and it really drags it out. For some it's a tear jerker, but for me, more often than usual it's a snore fest. Luckily, lead single "The Malkin Jewel" follows, and it brings me back up to speed.
"In Absentia" is an island in the track listing - a major change up, an amazing song, stranded between two mediocre ones ("Lapochka", "Imago"). To be fair, both of those mediocre songs bring that funk hard, but they manage just well enough to become more of a breather or a "time to get a snack" in the album than anything, akin to the boring scene in a summer blockbuster. The real trouble in the album begins here, though, I'm afraid. I've thought about the rest of the tracks on this album real hard. Upon release, they confused me quite a bit but I think I've got 'em down now:
"Molochwalker" is a very typical and yet still a very exciting song. Across the whole album, the chorus of every song has been the big deal, and if by this track you haven't noticed then you probably wouldn't find a bard if it was stuck on the bridge of your nose.
"Trinkets Pale of Moon" is a special track to me. It was the first from the album I had heard, and I enjoy the live version very much, but the studio version is such a chore. It's a very quiet track, and it really shouldn't be the one to follow "Molochwalker". It's chorus is very typical of Volta - spooky. In fact, the whole song is a bit to cliche for my taste.
"Vedamalady" is everything that the album tries to be. It's a real great ride, a funky, groovy, electronic thing, with this amazing chorus that outdoes any song before it except maybe "In Absentia". Luckily, "Vedamalady" is followed by the title track, "Noctourniquet", which is the only track here to really outdo it. These two tracks are yet another island.
The closer, "Zed and Two Naughts" is likely the most talked about track on the album. Volta have always offered, possibly among all else, powerful closers - something melodramatic and over the top. I just wish I wasn't so tired of it, so ready for something new from them. "Zed" has the most derivative everything on this album. The instrument parts are all a bore, and the chorus is really just weak. This is the one track I really can't stand on the whole album. Which is a bit disappointing, all things considered.
Still, this is a mighty listen. Noctourniquet is satisfying despite it's flaws. It might not be another Amputechture, but it's still something from the modern prog rock greats, and I still enjoy much of it.
Tier: 3 [Good Shit]
[Don't Step on Me]

Ancestors - In Dreams & Time

Ancestors are a psychedelic metal band hailing from L. A., and In Dreams & Time is their third record. I've received some questions about these guys since I started sharing them, namely, "psychedelic metal? That exists?" People seem pretty excited to sum Ancestors tag up as progressive metal because psych metal can't possibly be a thing. It's happened to me a few times now.
But here's the thing: Ancestors are a mix of doom metal, gothica, stoner rock, psychedelic rock and a lot of other things. Their previous albums have their own place, but something about In Dreams & Time strikes me as an amazing, stealthy, really strong release.
Where it starts, with "Whispers", a straight up psych doom opener with this amazing, sprawling, destructive bridge, the album flows straight into "The Last Return", a piano led gothica-type thematic interlude, full on with female lead vocals. Afterwards comes the bulk of the album. The following three tracks are all just like the opener, "Whispers", except stronger.
"Corryvecan" stresses a mellow, riding guitar riff with a heavy synth right behind it, all accompanied by the return of singers with beards. "On the Wind" combines the interluding gothic pianos and female vocals with the heavy, full guitars to create something totally opposite the rest of the album thus far: an uplifting song. Or, sort of. The track is uplifting, but so unsure of itself. Well enough, "Running in Circles" follows, and it brings that uncertainty with it, and turns it into an amazing, well planned out jam fest, as well as the strongest hook across the whole album. When it comes, you'll hear it, and you'll scream along. Of course, all of this comes together on the closer, "First Light", a twenty minute epic, as per any band with "psychedelic" and "metal" in it's genre tags.

Tier: 1 [Album of the Year material]
[strap your beard on]

Sigh - In Somniphobia

Sigh are a Japanese extreme metal band. Most of their lyrics are English, if that matters to you. They had their start in the black metal scene (though, I don't know how hardcore the bm scene in Japan ever was) and since then they've tried their best to be something different, and to much success. Their latest release, In Somniphobia, enforces many bits totally unrelated to what we commonly group black metal into. In fact, Sigh's more recent material has all been closer to avant-garde metal than anything - unExpect and Akphaeyza. They've brought up melodies by way of piano, saxophone, and plenty of other things as well.
The unfortunate truth about all bands mentioned though, is that upon hearing them the first time I am surprised and amazed and I go crazy for them, and every listen after that less so. As well, it takes a very specific mood, which is only available in a very small window, for me to really enjoy this type of extreme metal to the best of my ability. This is a really cool release and I like it a lot, but it just isn't consistently enjoyable, or practical.
Tier: 3 [Good Shit]
[call the crazy police]

Cursive - I Am Gemini

Cursive have, to me, never been post hardcore. Ever since The Ugly Organ in 2002, I've heard people label them as such but I've never heard it in their sound. Domestica might have been post hardcore, I could see that. The songs were raw, the lyrics were emotional and were screamed as often as sung. Since Domestica though, Cursive have strayed further and further from that genre. Organ saw Cursive doing their best to keep things fresh, and people applaud the album because at the time they had a cellist in tow, but at the same time they've been almost lauded ever since because after the cellist left they refused to replace her, instead opting to adopt a brass ensemble. To be honest, which I tend to be, Cursive have become a better band with almost each new release in my eyes. Domestica and Organ struck me as spotty and gimmicky, as well as poorly planned, though they do both have exemplary tracks. Happy Hollow has been a favorite of mine for a while - it's like a melting pot of nasty riffs and picking on Tim Kasher's part - who, by the way, happens to have one of the best voices (and sexiest beards) in the industry - alongside a brass ensemble that just seems to push the knobs to over eleven or twelve. It was one of those first albums that really made me feel like time was rushing past me. 44 minutes felt like 20 in 14 tracks. Mama, I'm Swollen managed to keep me impressed and intrigued, and it's also a great album, but it just barely doesn't beat it's direct predecessor. What was interesting about Mama was watching Cursive advance as a group again - this time not by growing by numbers, but instead by growing by ideas and shrinking by numbers.
Another three years have passed and Cursive have released their most bare bones record yet, I Am Gemini, but it's also their most well thought out. Gemini is the first time Kasher has made a concept album on purpose. If you would note, every other Cursive album since Domestica has been a concept album, but not necessarily by purpose. The situations in the lyrics were always told from separate characters views, and the subject was always only the same because it was something that Kasher felt passionate about himself, so much so that it was all he felt the need to write about (or, that's my assumption). Following his divorce, Kasher wrote two albums based around the during and aftermath. Being raised in a catholic school, Kasher then wrote two albums about religion. I Am Gemini isn't about religion, or divorce, or anything that we, as listeners and viewers, can see apparently from the basic details of Kasher's life. The concept is, instead, a story that was thought through from the very start to finish, and it makes sense that this would be the next step for Cursive, especially since now that Kasher has got the adolescence out of his veins he can seriously broach an idea, as we've seen from the other screenplays he's written the past few years.
Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that? I Am Gemini comes as a playbill. As in, it was written for the god damn stage. If you don't know yet, the album follows twin brothers Cassius and Pollock - one an ex-con trying to run from the past, the other a recluse, who has been left undiscovered his entire life. There are quite a few twists and turns in the story and I won't be the guy to spoil it, but here's what I will say: the story is filling, just like the rest of the album.
However, upon starting my first listen of I Am Gemini, I actually found myself quite disappointed. I don't know why, but none of the songs caught my attention at first. It took me a months time to calm down and remember that bands develop for the better to really come back to it and appreciate that Cursive's new release is actually their best yet. A fully thought out concept, and that along side the songs - which grow (This House Alive, Eulogy for No Name), which are tense (Warmer, Warmer, The Cat and Mouse, Wowow), which are destructive (A Birthday Bash), which are hoppin' (The Sun and the Moon, Twin Dragon/Hello Skeleton) and which are fierce (Drunken Birds, Double Dead, Gemini). The album is all around surprising, especially in how Cursive have grown as musicians, and how they've developed their dynamic on song writing. Kasher manages to pick on be insane on most songs while bassist Matt Maginn - who shows how truly badass he is on this release - syncs up with percussionist Cully Symington to bash the fuck out of every song as if they together were a blunt object. I do really applaud their musician ship. I haven't heard a bass and drum duo so well thought out and so in tune with eachother since Morgan Henderson and Mark Gajadhar of The Blood Brothers - who happen to be a post hardcore band. And all of this while rhythm and keyboardist Ted Stevens acts as the centerpiece - providing the themes and really, sort of connecting all the pieces to each song.
That's right. After years of intense conceptual pieces, yelling but not screaming, and being god damn catchy, Cursive have managed to piece together what I can truly call a post hardcore album. And it does the genre justice. These ideas are classic, and yet they are unique. I feel familiar with them, and yet my body wants to dance how it has never danced before. Cursive have proven once more that they are a band whom posses more character, more creativity and more excellence than most bands applauded in the scene today, and for that I thank them. I thank them dearly, for being consistently surprising and different and new while at the same time not terrible. I thank them dearly for being themselves, and for fucks sake, I thank them for thinking.
Tier: 2 [Playlist]
[Gotta get those forty winks]
[Introducing: Cursive's I Am Gemini, starring Cassius and Pollock]

Consent - Conception

There's not much to say about this except that it's loud, and the vocalist is kind of poor. Fortunately, some very well placed and well thought out riffage saves this album from being terribly poor. It's only ten minutes, so if you really are interested, take a peak.
Tier: 5 [Deleted]
[fuck this guys voice though]

Children of Nova - Impossible Landscape

I'll get to the Mars Volta. Don't worry. For now, though, I think it's appropriate that I share some lesser known and yet impossibly talented bands first. Children of Nova are a lot like The Mars Volta and The Dear Hunter. They're a modern progressive rock group, and they're also quite well associated with the post-hardcore scene. The difference is that both Volta and Dear Hunter had their roots in post-hardcore because they were birthed from it - those groups At the Drive-In and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart were good for a reason - while Children of Nova are a bit backwards. Children, instead of being either one genre or the other, basically just pushed both of them into each other, seeing as though they're so alike.
From the start you can hear it. Erratic houses some great opening "wake the fuck up" shredding, and introduces us to our vocalist - who, along with the atmosphere the band puts off, will definitely remind you of other groups, like Casey Crescenzo and Claudio Sanchez. This might be their debut album, but Children of Nova pulled out all the stops. They're out to really perfect sounds that we've already heard. "Moments of Clarity" feels like a perfect Muse song. "First Signs" is the song you put on when you're driving in a space ship towards the sun in a last wise guy attempt to save the world from a meteor that you just left Bruce Willis and a bomb on and your fiance is crying in a space station in NASA, but just before you run into the sun, you dawn your master chief armor and jump out the back with a bomb in tow, then you just figure, "fuck it" and point yourself like a needle towards Earth. And it works.
If at any one time a track doesn't keep the flow moving, it's "Silhouette". This song basically just kind of falls in on itself. Every album needs a soft song, I guess. Even if it just brings the flow of the album to a dead stop and makes us forget why we liked anything in the first place. However, something great about modern prog rock is that our bands today really know how to close an album - just look anywhere. Porcupine Tree and The Volta have been doing it for decades now, and Children of Nova are no exception. On "It's Just a Ride" they pound back into your skull that they are fucking. bad. ass.
Tier: 3 [Good Shit]
[the Russians have got nothing on this]