Midlake

There are a lot of bands that have a different sound now than they used to. Sometimes, as such a case with Outkast, they get better. Other times, bands like Kings of Leon start marking cheesy arena rock music. Midlake is a band like that of the latter example. Their new music has a totally different, I would say boring sound. However they used to have a really weird, electronic and symphonic sound. I really liked them because they reminded me of Radiohead. They are mostly piano based. And like OK Computer or Amnesiac, Midlake's first and second albums, Milkmaid Grand Army, and Bamnan and Slivercork, both use a wide array of unique sounding instruments; some that sound pretty weird and electronic. The lead singer's voice is also kinda like Thom Yorke's, although that's what direction indie music took for a while, so a lot of band's singers have a whiny voice like that of Thom Yorke's. (Robot Ate Me, Wolf Parade, Modest Mouse) Midlake uses a lot of piano, but adds in a lot of electronic sounds in there as well. Midlake's sound evolved pretty drastically after this album came out. The singer has said in interviews that he has "natural tendencies as a songwriter" to write songs like Radiohead, but he wants to write Jethro "Tull song(s)."While I value his artistic desire to evolve as a band, I really wish Midlake would have just stayed with their old, weird Radiohead songs. I would guess that Midlake's folky albums influence some Fleet Foxes. In fact, when my friend first showed me Fleet Foxes, I thought it was Midlake. Below are three songs by Midlake, two from their Radiohead period and one from later. Also is a song by Fleet Foxes that features a sound borrowed from Midlake.

The Walkmen

The Walkmen are a band from New York/Philadelphia that came out as a response to the New Wave genre that the Strokes kind of invented. The bands relevance may come into question, because they just announced that they won't be playing any more shows together, however not many of the bands in my blog are still together anyways. As other bands I've mentioned in this blog, the Walkmen took an 80's punk influence and integrated blues, old folk and soul into it. This band's unique sound comes from its inclusion of an organ piano and the distinct guitar that the guitarist uses. As I've listened to them over a pretty long time period, with each new albums comes a more evolved sound. At first their band was very comparable to other new-wave garage-punk bands, but they've always had a different twist -- enhanced by their piano use. Anyways, their sound moved from that to more orchestral with the use of a brass section, to more folky songs. Right now, their latest album incorporates all of those styles of music together and I think they've been listening to Roy Orbison. They both have some beautiful orchestra in their songs. I mentioned Bobby Dylan earlier, and the Walkmen's singer, Hamilton Leithauser, sounds a little like him sometimes. He's got a good voice, and really knows how to screech n yowl. The band has such a wide array of songs, that anyone and everyone is bound to like something they've put out. Sometimes their songs follow odd song structures which, makes their music that much more memorable and original. Their odd sound structure songs remind me of Roy Orbison's, where the beginning of the song is kinda slow and it builds up to a beautiful end with a big wall of sound. Below are some of my favorite songs. They're arranged from their earliest sound to their later sound and they best portray the Walkmen's evolution as a band in general. "On the Water" is an example of a beautiful song with a strange structure that starts slow and builds up to an orchestral-gasmic finish. This song reminds me of Roy Orbison's "Running Scared", which is posted last.

Dr. Dog

Dr. Dog is a band from Philly that apparently has a really big "bro" fan base. I don't actually know this firsthand, but that's the word on the street. Dr. Dog is made up of clearly very talented guys that use a lot of harmonies as well as some controlled chaos, like Man Man (who are also from Philadelphia). But their main sound is heavily based on the piano and their harmonizing voices. The first time I heard Dr. Dog, I actually thought it was an old Beatles song that I had never heard before. While the style of their songs sounds heavily influenced by the Beatles, it really is uncanny how much the lead singer can sound like John Lennon. One specific Beatle's album from which I suspect Dr. Dog draws a lot of inspiration is "Magical Mystery Tour". That CD contains a lot of piano riffs and voice harmonizing at times in songs that Dr. Dog definitely drew from. Take for example, the song "Blue Jay Way" by the Beatles. After John Lennon sings each line in the third verse, his band harmonizes in singing his last word after he does. Very similarly in the second verse of the song Ain't it Strange by Dr. Dog, the lead singer sings his line, and his the rest of his band follows this with a harmonizing "ahhh". While this example is only of one song, many of Dr. Dog's songs follow this kind of singing-backed-with-harmonizing pattern. And although bands do this all the time, Dr. Dog does this in a way significant enough to remind me exactly of the Beatles. Dr. Dog's music sometimes also incorporates other 60's sounds such as doo-wop, but they incorporate other styles that give them their own sound. Dr. Dog is music that you might hear in the summertime by the pool while relaxing. It sounds new, but the reverb or low-fi sound they use for the vocal harmonies is what makes it sound retro as well. Below are three songs by Dr. Dog and two songs by the Beatles. Four of them incorporate back-up harmonizing, which I think are very similar. "Fool's Life" by Dr. Dog is an example of while their sound does borrow from 60's rock, they have their own sound at the same time.

Man Man - Oh, La Brea

 Man Man is a pretty amazing band that uses chaos to create beauty, and they do it oh so well. They don't belong to a genre, Man Man is a genre of its own. They sound like music you would hear from pirates, circuses, doo-wop groups from the 50's, Donkey Kong, gypsies, ballroom waltzes and much more. It's such controlled chaos, I've never heard anyone or any band get it right like Man Man does. It's almost as if their songs shouldn't make musical sense, but it all just goes together superbly. And that alone shows how good of musicians they all are. They're also the most amazing band to see live, anyone that's seen them will agree. Lyrically, the lead singer Honus Honus can write like no one I've heard before. He takes heartbreak and gloom and turns it into anger and amelioration. And even though he sings in an agonized, angry growl, his lyrics are so eloquent that it wouldn't turn anyone away. Man Man can't be analyzed or explained by one song, but I would like to talk about them in terms of their last song on Life Fantastic, their second newest album. It starts off light and happy accompanied by strings and a frolicking piano, but the lyrics are about dead animals buried in someone's (La Brea's) house. The music stays light and Honus wails out his love for La Brea. The way he does it sounds like a doo-wop love song. That is, until the Honus reminds you that he loves no one with a horror movie sounding crash, in which he clarifies he is merely speaking about the tar pit. He's done the same before in "Hurly Burly" with his band chanting "this ain't no love song". The song then goes into some falsetto doo-wops from his band and Honus growls about a love that is no longer there, from which he decides to "drift away". And from there the song carries on without words, it's just beautiful strings that bells that range from sad notes, to ominous notes, to notes that remind you there's still hope. This song is so different from most of the other songs on their new album, but with so many different twists and turns in it, it's easy to tell that this band is one of a kind, and takes influences from all over the musical spectrum. This song being at the end of the album is something worth mentioning too, because their albums have all ended with a heartfelt doo-woppy or beautifully instrumental song.

Honus is also in another band called Mister Heavenly and you can tell what sound he's brought to the band: doo-wop that he's mixed with mayhem. The term for it is "doom-wop", and people have accredited it to Mister Heavenly. But Man Man has had that sound for years, and I think it comes from Honus. A lot of music blogs and reviewers also like to portray Man Man as being heavily influenced by Tom Waits and Frank Zappa. Sometimes I see it, but not enough to say Man Man sounds like either of them. I'm not even going to bother figuring out what specific influences I think this band has built on, because I really don't give a damn. It's so eccentric and original that Man Man stands on its own, and I'm constantly impressed by how their music and style has evolved over the years but still had that controlled chaos, patented Man Man sound. I'm also surprised that Indie Music hasn't gone in the direction that they have created. I think their sound is much more interesting and difficult to create musically than any of this chillwave bullshit that's taken over. Below are all songs by Man Man, including "Oh, La Brea". These are songs that I think exemplify the band's broad spectrum of sounds and influences. It's all over the place -- and it's beautiful because of that.

Cake

Cake is a band that I grew up on, although at the time I never knew how cool and innovative they are. One of my very favorite songs ever since I was a kid is their song "Frank Sinatra" off the album Fashion Nugget. After all these years I listen to it again and I'm shocked by how crazy this song is in terms of mixing genres. It's a mixture of rap, jazz and beatbox with punkcountry guitars. If you pick up any of their cd's it really is easy to pick up on all the different influences they've had over the years.  Cake's influences range from jazz to country, from spoken beatnik poetry rap to barbershop quartets, and from dirty grungy steels guitars to waltz blues. I'd be surprised if I ever heard a band with such a wide array of influences as Cake. Below is my favorite song, "Frank Sinatra". Also below is a song that I think clearly demonstrates their wide variety of influences (including a barbershop quartet), and finally a link to a video of my favorite barbershop quartet.

Barbershop Quartet Video

The Strokes - Hard to Explain

The other day I was singing to the Strokes in my car like I do most days, but this time I stopped and existentially questioned my love for the Strokes. What MADE me like the Strokes? When did I first hear them? I knew the answer right when I asked it, but it was interesting to remember my first exposure to the band. I was in middle school in Atlanta, and my class was in the computer labs doing a creative writing exercise. I don't remember how I came across it, but I clicked on the music video for "Hard to Explain". I turned down the volume as low as I could so that only I could hear it. With my ear up to the desktop speaker, I started the song and kept an eye out to see where my teacher was at all times, so that I didn't get to watch any of the video. The song only had to have been playing for about 45 seconds before I got caught and had to turn if off, but that was all the time I needed. The opening line, "Was an honest maaaaaan" gave me chills. It was a combination of notes I've never heard before and the juxtaposition of the note he is singing with the chord that the guitar is playing had me immediately hooked. I didn't get to listen to any more than that, but when I got home that day I looked it up again and listened to every Strokes song that I could.

The Strokes are a really integral band to today's indie music scene as well as the indie music scene for the last 8 years. By listening to and looking at the Strokes, it seems that they created their own, more elegant version of punk rock from the 70's 80's. They dress like punk rockers, and incorporate similar guitar riffs, but their punk rock is easier on the ears; it's even beautiful sounding at some times. They might have been influenced some by the Ramones or Iggy Pop, but Julian doesn't howl or scream. Instead he almost croons like a less resonant Frank Sinatra. There is a slew of bands that came up right after the Strokes which were all part of new-wave punk. I remember seeing lookalikes on TV and hearing them on the radio throughout both middle school and high school. Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys, the Libertines, Kings of Leon, JET, and Louis XIV are just a few of the more popular bands that had the new-wave sound. And over the years, that sound has evolved and translated into a lot of the bands I listen to today. The Black Lips, the Strange Boys, Spoon, the Walkmen are all bands that have some new-wave punk in their music. In each case though, they bring in another type of genre to pair with it, like blues and punk in the case of the Strange boys. Below is the music video for "Hard to Explain", which is a better version of Lana Del Rey's music videos of random juxtaposed images. Also are similar bands that came after the Strokes, and an example of 80's punk that may have influenced the Strokes.

     

Donald Glover AKA Childish Gambino

Donald Glover is an actor on the mediocre and ever faltering show, Community, but has also used his stardom to somehow forge a rap career these days. He gets a lot of slack from a lot of different people on the internet, but I haven't heard enough of his music to give him much shit. Carles from Hipster Runnoff has written about how bad his music is, as well as how he thinks that Donald is biting Tyler the Creator's style in his new music video. While Childish Gambino may be dressed a bit like Tyler in his video, with the long socks n tiny whiteboy shorts, just look at his picture to the left! This kid seems like the whitest black kid I eva seen with all that nerd apparel! Anyways when I watched his video I noted the the music is pretty unoriginal sounding to me and it's pretty easy to tell who he looked to for making his beats. His beat follows a pattern similar to almost any Lil Wayne song, but in particular A Milli and 6 Foot 7 Foot. (By the way, do you know what song is sampled in 6 Foot 7 Foot? I know everyone recognizes it. The pattern that Childish Gambino's beat follows is a 16 measure snare beat with the beat dropping immediately after that. A lot of Lil Wayne's songs do this exact same thing, although A Milli uses only an 8 measure beat. After figuring out the very Lil Wayne-esque beat, it seems as though Childish Gambino listened to Power by Kanye West and sampled his choir and sirens in the background. Listening to the song, I just plain turned it off early because I've already heard it before Weezy. Below you can compare the sounds of the songs I referenced in order, and see if you hear the similarities.