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 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 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.
