Don't Look Back, Press On

I don't know which sucks more: finding out that a band I love broke up months ago (I'm looking at you, Harlem Shakes), or finding out that a band I love is breaking up in the near future, are currently on their last tour ever and are coming nowhere near me. Neither is some cataclysmic event, but both are kind of crappy.


Isis - Backlit

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Isis (the latter case above) is calling it quits after over a decade of making great music. For those of you who don't know, Isis in my mind has sort of become the rightful heir to Tool's throne. They've come to play a breed of heavy, dense not-quite-metal that's expansive and a little psychedelic that has been branded by some as "post-metal." Metal loving elitists will tell you that the last good album these guys made was "Oceanic" but disregarding the impressive body of work that came after is doing oneself a disservice. Yeah, Aaron Turner's singing isn't very impressive, but the band's sense for space and textures take them above and beyond most other bands operating in the same mode.


Isis - In Fiction

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I guess my first exposure to Isis came from my friend Alex. We listened to "Panopticon" on the way back from a trip to Tulsa and I was immediately hooked. The unique rhythmic drive coupled with the crushing heaviness of the guitars and Turner's tortured bellowing grabbed me right away. I loved the way they created dense, distorted textures, yet still managed to sound open and harmonious and were able to turn on a dime between this sound and shimmering clean or ambient passages.


Isis - Wrists of Kings

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I was fortunate enough to be able to see them at The Conservatory when they were touring behind "In Absence of Truth" which is still my favorite of theirs to date. Jesu was supposed to open for them but they were unable to get their visas in time to join them on the first leg of the tour. After almost being literally deafened by Torche, Isis brought their perfect sense of dynamic contrast to this small club and the show had to be experienced to be believed. Easily one of the best shows The Conservatory has ever put on.


Isis - Over Root and Thorn

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I'm certainly going to miss these guys, but hopefully the members' other projects (mainly Red Sparrowes) will continue to release quality material as time rolls on. I mean, it's not like anybody died or anything.

Flirted With You All My Life

As hinted at previously, here's a post about some of my favorite artists who are no longer with us. I had actually made this post quite some time ago, but deleted it due to horrendous formatting issues caused by blogger.com's text editor not wanting to make nice with embedded YouTube videos. So, here it is now, minus the sub-par YouTube quality audio.


I guess I'll just start by going all the way back to December of last year. Vic Chesnutt quickly became one of my favorite songwriters over the past few years, so it was disheartening if not all that surprising to learn of his passing, which occurred only days before my own grandfather passed as well. He died on Christmas day after having slipped into a coma from an overdose of muscle relaxants. His songwriting was all accomplished and varied, ranging from personal ruminations on life and death, vivid, sometimes macabre narratives and clever usage of idioms, often skillfully strung together and ultimately turned on their heads. Having been mostly paralyzed from the neck down as a result of a car accident when he was 18, his guitar playing remained minimal, mostly making use of simple chords and he mostly relied on collaborating with other musicians to fill out the songs on his records. Most recently, he worked with members of Theeeee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Mountain Chamber Gamelan Anarchist Collective Orchestra to record the albums "North Star Deserter" and "At the Cut." The song posted below appears on the former and is, in my opinion, one of the most powerful recordings he's ever released.


Vic Chesnutt - Glossolalia

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Most casual music listeners wouldn't know the name Mark Linkous, but many are at least aware of Sparklehorse. Much like Nine Inch Nails, Sparklehorse was a band in name only, essentially being Linkous' method of delivery for a handful of fantastic albums. His first album "Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot" didn't shy away from up-tempo fun 90s rock in the vein of Oasis, but as time went on, his work tended more toward expansive, surreal, dreamscape-esque works, collaborating with everyone from Danger Mouse on "A Dark Night of the Soul" to Christian Fennesz on an "In the Fishtank" session. One of my favorite songs off of his first album appears below, because I like to remember the good times, but all of his stuff is more than worth checking out.


Sparklehorse - Someday I Will Treat You Good

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If you've ever seen "That 70s Show," then you've heard Big Star's song, "In the Street" which serves as the show's theme song. Alex Chilton, who died only days after Mark Linkous,  fronted Big Star as well as The Box Tops earlier on, and was the driving force for both groups. When it comes to power-pop, it doesn't get much better than Big Star. The group influenced everyone from Gin Blossoms to The New Pornographers and even one my own personal favorites, Longwave (you're going to learn from reading this blog that, for me, all roads eventually lead back to Longwave). "September Gurls" from their 2nd album "Radio City" is considered by some music critics to be a touchstone in the power-pop genre and I can't say I disagree.


Big Star - September Gurls

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And last but not least, we have Peter Steele of Type O Negative who died last week. Again, I wasn't really a fan, but their cover of "Summer Breeze" originally by Seals and Crofts is very amusing at least, so you get to hear it here. I'm more partial to the original album mix of this song, but unfortunately, it elides with the next track on the record, so you get this version mixed by Rick Rubin simply because it has an actual ending. It's on the 2-Disc "Top Shelf Edition" of their album "Bloody Kisses" if you're interested.


Type O Negative - Summer Breeze (Rick Rubin Mix)

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Okay, I know I said that was last, but as I'm writing this, the titular song of this blog post came up and I felt I should share it too. It's from "At the Cut." I really miss Vic...


Vic Chesnutt - Flirted With You All My Life

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So... that was a downer. Have a great week everybody!