Free Music Friday: False Idle - I Refuse ep

Indie Vision Music is currently hosting a free download of Thumper Punk Record's False Idle and their new ep I Refuse. It's solid, anthemic and reminds me a lot of the early 2000's Tooth and Nail punk roster. There are only four songs and you can stream the tracks on IVM's site (if you don't want to commit to downloading it). A great introduction to a new band.

You can download I Refuse at http://www.indievisionmusic.com/2011/06/07/false-idle-i-refuse/

The Meltdown 32

New music from Blindside, Emery, Death Cab for Cutie, She Wants Revenge, Moving Mountains, and more.

Death Cab for Cutie - Codes and Keys

I'm going to make a statement and I know people will disagree with me but that's ok. I'm going to say it anyway.

Death Cab for Cutie can do no wrong.

I know there are people who didn't like Plans and you can argue that the band's debut, Something About Airplanes is a rough shell of what the band would become. But Death Cab for Cutie has always written incredible indie pop songs that I've loved. And while musically Codes and Keys is different, the band still cranks out great songs.

Home is a Fire is a nice start to the album. It sets a different tone out of the gate. While Death Cab is known for having a nice, slow, low key track to kick off their albums, Home is a Fire has a different feel, like at any moment it could break open into something big and dancey, but it never gets there. The title track is a pretty, piano pop song.

As a whole, Codes and Keys is more laid back, just chill. The switch from guitar based songs to keys and pianos is nice. It fits. The album's first single, You Are a Tourist is super catchy and infectious. The album as a whole is full of great songs.

My only issue is the album plays short. It’s such a good listen that even at 45 minutes long, when the album ends, I want more.

Death Cab For Cutie makes great music and releases great albums and this is another one.

Classic Album: Training For Utopia - Throwing a Wrench Into the American Music Machine

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There are certain records which challenge the listener. By which I mean, they rock and you love them but you never really understand the music. Throwing a Wrench Into the American Music Machine was one such album.

It's not like Training for Utopia were ever an easy band to listen to. Their most "accessible" work was the band's debut ep, The Falling Cycle. But TFU always delivered a brand of metal that was so chaotic and noise driven that even the biggest of heavy music fan would struggle to dig TFU. With Throwing a Wrench, the band really switched things up.

There's not a bar to measuring line for Throwing a Wrench. You might say one part old school Nine Inch Nails, meets any Mike Patton project, meets a blender and drill having sex.... But still sounding like TFU. And if you've never heard this album you're confused, and you should be.

50,000 Screaming TFU Fans Can't Be Wrong is a killer opening track. The static guitar chord being played over a spoken word collection of samples where the phrase Rock and Roll is a message of sin sent from the Devil himself is repeated over and over until Ryan Clark screams "Are You Ready" and he band explodes into a chaotic disjointed metalcore mess. It's a great song and probably the most straight forward track on the album.

But then things get odd. White Boy's Burden, The State of Wyoming Is Worthless, Burt Reynolds Vs Godzilla 1999, and Tennessee Midget are all just different tracks. White Boy's Burden is a techno thrash song, while The State of Wyoming is just weird and noisy. There's a level of math metal to these songs as each track has starts and stops, and calculated glitches that create a lot of textures and styling’s but it's hard for an average metal fan to really grasp and take hold of.

And then Training for Utopia catches everyone off guard with Everything Including the Stars in Falling (Baby), an acoustic song... Right smack dab in the middle of all this chaos and noise and randomness, is one of the most beautiful songs you'll hear. My 15 year old brain wasn't really interested in hearing an acoustic song on a metal record but even back then, there was something so appealing and nice about the song that I never skipped the track.

The best track on the album is the great New York City is Overrated. This track got me hooked on the album and is just a killer song with a great, easy to sing hook.

The guitar riffs are actually great, and the drums take on a drum machine quality on most the album, but there's a technical aspect that just works. Even now Throwing a Wrench can be a difficult listen for me but there's something about this record that just resonates as great with me

Free Music Friday: Echo Broke Alone - My Heart to Heaven

Coming back from vacation with a shortened work week, I didn't get to really spend a lot of time looking for a free album for this week. So I'm doing some self promotion. I know a lot of people who might read this will already have this album, but that's ok.

I released an album in 2010 called My Heart to Heaven and I don’t mind saying, it's pretty good. All ambient music in the vain of Stars of the Lid, Hammock, and Eluvium.

You can download it for free at http://noisetrade.com/echobrokealone (But you could always leave a tip if you feel so compelled to)

She Wants Revenge - Valleyheart

I've always liked She Wants Revenge. Yes, they sound like Interpol. Yes, they're dirty. But the music has always been catchy and so I've found enjoyment in the band.

The band's third full-length, Valleyheart, is a departure in sound from the band's first two albums. And I say departure lightly. The music is similar but the feel is really different. She Wants Revenge always had a great sexually driven driver. Lyrically and musically the band created this great sexual tension. And while that sexual tension was lessened on the band's second album, This is Forever, it was still present. On Valleyheart it's gone.

That's not to say that Valleyheart isn't a good record. Just that it's different, almost sweet. Take the World has some dark undertones and creates a nice texture for the record to come. It's a hint of what the band has done in the past but clearly points in a new direction. Kiss Me is a super upbeat love song. Up In Flames has a familiar feel with a swing vibe.

Where the album really plays with my head is the first single, Must Be the One. It's an absolutely fantastic song, but it's so different for She Want Revenge that I had to listen to it twice my first time through the album. Not Just a Girl is another solid pop song. Reasons is another song that flirts with the band's old sound without fully engaging in that sexual tension.

It took four years for She Wants Revenge to follow up This is Forever and the band matured a lot. Valleyheart is really different but still She Wants Revenge and it's still a great record.

Cave In - White Silence

Cave In’s White Silence wasn’t one of my most anticipated albums of the year only because I didn’t know Cave In was releasing an album in 2011. So catching the release date on the PRP got me pretty excited. Cave In has always done what they want and they always deliver something different on each record. Whether it’s their hardcore masterpiece Until Your Heart Stops, their experimental rock album Jupiter, or their two alternative records Antenna and Pitch Perfect Black, Cave In has always put out solid records.

The band’s reunion ep, Planets of Old, was a perfect combination of everything Cave In had done in their career and it was some of the best music the band had ever released and I had high expectations for White Silence.

The problem is Cave In does whatever they want and they’ve gone too far with that idea on White Silence. The line between experimenting and making quality music has been blurred and it’s almost completely disastrous.

The title track kicks the album off when a pretty unbearable noise/rock sound that’s so odd I thought it was a joke at first. The production seems low budget and I was waiting for the real track to begin. So much so that even when the song ended I though for sure that Serpents was going to be the first real track on the album. And Serpents is better, but it’s clear that Cave In is going somewhere… else on this album.

Sings My Love is more in the vain of Planets of Old and it’s also the best song on the album. The guitar lines are great, the hook is memorable, the vocals outstanding. It’s the only song on the album that holds any semblance to anything remotely Cave In. And even then the song takes 3 and half minutes to kick in and get started. Vicious Circles is a cool stoner metal type song. I like the song but like every other track on the album, it takes you by surprise.

And those are the only two songs worth noting. The album is all over the place in a bad way. Cave In really lost me with White Silence. 6 spins in and I’m just still so disappointed in this album. I don’t even think this album is a must have for die hard Cave In fans like myself.