Pink Mountaintops – Outside Love

I think I’m starting to like these short reviews. Instead of writing four long paragraphs and thinking of ten different ways to say an album is really good, I’m just going to ask you to take my word for it and listen for yourself. So let’s spread some love – abridged style.

Pink Mountaintops are the other band (maybe there are others still, who knows) of Black Mountain front man Stephen McBean. So this Vancouverian (Vancouverite? Vancouverer?) has two bands that are excellent while Chad Kroeger still has zero. 

Pink Mountaintops have done it again, that is to say made a great record. They have three, in case you’re keeping score. They’re basically the hippier side of Black Mountain and have a sixties feel to their sound as opposed to BM’s seventies stoner rock. They’ve got some seriously excellent tracks on this record. The standouts for me are Axis: Thrones of Love and Vampire. There’s a host of talented female vocalists on here as well, including the sister of Black Mountain’s Amber Webber. Not surprisingly, she’s also got a great voice.

Bonus time: someone created a video for the song Vampire and I happen to think it’s pretty excellent. The song itself makes me think of Forgetting Sarah Marshall but I suppose there are  a lot of people out there that think of Twilight. Which is sad. Don’t ask me why because you already know. 

Pick up this fantastic album at

Visit their official site right here.

Best of all, they’re playing at the Empty Bottle on June 10th. See you there.

The Pains of Being a Band With an Awful Name

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

It was a few months ago that a friend of mine asked if I was listening to a band called The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. I laughed in his face. Sorry Greg, but I did. Could a band with a name like that be taken seriously? Obviously they take themselves seriously enough to go ahead with it. And so I scoffed and scoffed and blew their house down. I had no interest in listening to band with such a silly moniker.

She Sir – Who Can’t Say Yes

She Sir released an album of songs back in 2006 that my ears didn’t have the pleasure of hearing until earlier in 2009. When I discover something (or when my wife recommends an awesome band, such as this one) from that far back, I automatically assume there is a back catalog or other releases to sink my teeth into. With She Sir that is not the case. There is nothing else. More on that in a moment.

As much as I dislike categorizing bands, there’s really no better way for me to give an idea of what kind of music they play. With that said, I would tag She Sir as a shoegaze band. She Sir has an atmospheric sound

The Appleseed Cast – Sagarmatha

Who the hell put stickers on my xylophone?

One of my favorite bands of all-time is Lawrence, Kansas’ own The Appleseed Cast. I fell hard for them after hearing Two Conversations for the first time. It was one of those moments when you hear something and it’s exactly what you had been waiting for some band to make. This must be where it comes in handy to actually be able to play an instrument competently and write music, but I digress..

A lot of Appleseed Cast fans will claim that their best work is 2001’s Low Level Owl Volume I or 1999’s Mare Vitalis. Since then people like to say they’ve been a good band with moments of brilliance. I don’t share that opinion.

Mastodon – Crack the Skye

 

Epic album cover

Not too long ago, I downloaded Mastodon’s albums Remission and Leviathan from emusic based on a general recommendation. With song titles like Mother Puncher, March of the Fire Ants and Blood and Thunder how could I not like this band? I was pretty certain I was going to be strong armed into liking them because nothing but badassery comes out of the speakers and gives you no choice but to love this band. For fuck’s sake, guitarist/singer Brent Hinds has a face tattoo that make it look like a shark is eating his head. Not something I’d ever do, but badass nevertheless.

Slak’s Classics Part I

I remember when I was a high school kid, about 15 years old or so – I heard the song Stuck On You on the local rock radio station. For those curious, it was the now defunct Rock 103.5. I had no idea what it was and they didn’t announce the name of the song. There was no internet (at my house) in 1996. There was no bit torrent. No iTunes store. I had no way to find this.

I spent weeks listening to that station at night just to hear that song one more time. Finally I heard it. I managed to scrap together enough lunch money and headed to the local record shop and got my first copy of what has ended up being one of the best albums I have ever listened to in my entire life: Fantastic Planet.