Music You Should Be Listening To, Part One

This is probably going to be a long couple posts. So feel free to skip around as you choose. What I am trying to accomplish with this is to sort of stop and take a look back at the music I've been recommending, both in this blog, in person and over various other forms of social media (mainly, Facebook and Twitter). There's going to be a fair number of bands mentioned in this post, and I realize that having so many names, songs and albums thrown at you in such a short span can be pretty overwhelming. So I'll try to include as many videos as I can, to make it easier for you to dive straight into what I feel is a good entry point for the band. I'll make some kind of effort to group the bands in some sort of logical fashion, so that you aren't going straight from the Low Anthem to Andrew W.K. By the end of this, I hope that you will understand why going straight from the Low Anthem to Andrew W.K. would be a little jarring.



We'll start slow, with The Antlers. I've talked about them before, and posted their video for the song "Two", off of the album Hospice. It's a concept album about a man watching his loved one die of cancer. Along the way, it touches on a number of sensitive issues, such as abortion in this song, "Bear." They're a pretty serious band lyrically and pretty mellow soundwise, so if that sounds good to you, get Hospice.

The Antlers have a little bit of indie-folk in them, which is a whole other genre currently gaining a lot of steam. It takes elements of traditional country and folk music and combines them with an indie-pop sensibility; the most famous example of this is Fleet Foxes, which leans towards the indie side of things; another good example is The Low Anthem, whose album Oh My God, Charlie Darwin is another fine entry point into this genre, and places more of an emphasis on country, folk and acoustic sounds, with some fine vocal harmonies coming into play, as evident on "Charlie Darwin" or "To Ohio". Both of these are fairly subdued and driven entirely by a lightly strummed guitar and vocals. If any of this sounds enticing, look at The Low Anthem's album and Fleet Foxes's eponymous debut.



Frightened Rabbit also takes a bit of folk influence, although it is much less noticeable; they sound much closer to Band of Horses than any of the bands mentioned above. They have two absolutely stellar albums out, The Midnight Organ Fight and The Winter of Mixed Drinks. Midnight is basically a breakup album, with some rather dark lyrics but a bright, semi-epic indie rock sound that is easy to get lost in--see the video above. Winter adds a healthy dose of optimism to the lyrics while adding some focus and polish. Both are well worth your time.

I mentioned Band of Horses just now--if you don't know them, then watch this video. It will be all you need know about them:



They also have two very solid albums available: Everything All The Time and Cease to Begin. "Funeral" comes from Everything, in case you wanted to pick up that song in particular, but it's hard to go wrong with either of these.



Biffy Clyro opened for a band you'll here about later, Manchester Orchestra, and did a fantastic job of it. Do you ever listen to indie rock and wish that there was more rock and a little less indie (maybe it's just me)? Biffy fills this void quite admirably; their album Only Revolutions is smart, indie, heavy in places, melodic in others and one of my favorite finds in a long time (their lives show is pretty kick ass, too). "The Captain" is the opening track, and it's a fine introduction; others to look at are "Many of Horror", (mentioned on this blog previously), "Whorses", and "Bubbles".



These guys also put the "rock" solidly back into "indie rock", for which I am very grateful. Frontman Andy Hull puts so much of himself into each song that it's very hard to not be drawn in, and their live shows are something else entirely. The keyboardist is one of the very best headbangers I have seen in my life, inspring comments from the audience like "Dude, he's losing his shit" and "Is he okay?" and "Jesus, is that guy dying?" It is a sight to see. Both their albums are worth your time but their second, Mean Everything to Nothing, may be a tad better. Check out "Pride", "Tony the Tiger" and "Shake It Out" from that album. If you look into their earlier effort, I'm Like A Virgin Losing a Child, you'll want to hear "Wolves At Night", "Colly Strings" and "Where Have You Been?"

I'm going to take this time to encourage you to look back at the earlier posts on this blog; check out not just the videos I posted but also the other songs I told you to look at, because all of it is completely endorsed by yours truly (and it saves me from having to talk about them here).



Andrew W.K. is a polarizing fellow. Just ask Pitchfork--their founder gave his debut album, I Get Wet, a 0.6 out of 10 when it was first released, yet, it made their Top 200 Albums of the 2000s, placing number 144. The key to enjoying Andrew W.K. comes from accepting him for what he is: a fun-loving, party-loving, unashamed rock and roller who writes songs titled "Party Til You Puke" and doesn't take it seriously while still meaning every word of it. He drags 80s glam and hair metal kicking and screaming into the 2000s and makes it sound better than ever. Let me put it this way: I automatically put on Andrew W.K. when I am getting pumped to start partying, while partying, and after partying when I'm still way to pumped to go to sleep.

If you want more AWK, get his debut I Get Wet and listen to every song. That should about cover you.

This is it for Part One. Expect Part Two tomorrow. Until then, happy listening.