Conor Oberst, You've Done it Again

I just got the new Bright Eyes disk, "Cassadaga", and I'm very impressed. He's thrown off the shackles of his emo/singer-songwriter roots and expanded his sound, adding a full band for all the tracks, strings, and extra studio polish so lacking on most of his back catalogue. He's even managed to learn how to sing! While his voice still has the trademark quaver, it's less prevalent, and overall it works much better in my opinion (although some emo kids may be upset over it. But let's face it, they're always upset.). An overarching tone I've noticed seems to be the fact that the album sounds sort of 'alt-country'. I don't know what Conor Oberst was thinking of, but it seems to work, and so far this has been my favourite work of his.

Here's a few tracks. Four Winds, which seems like it's going to be the first single, and If The Brakeman Turns My Way, because it seems to exemplify everything I like about the album. For all of those that feel like being all legal and shit, the disc drops Tuesday, April 10th. I will likely buy it when it hits, provided I find it for cheap.

Bright Eyes - Four Winds

Bright Eyes - If the Brakeman Turns My Way

What!? Again With the Plugging?

Alright, new song, new pseudonym (Mankind, Take Flight!), same comm tech assignment. This time I was going for a more Ambient/Minimalist/Post-Rock feel, and I think for the most part I succeeded (except possibly the minimalist). I'm really digging the strings, even if there were a few mistakes during it.

On a final note, all of this was done with my sister's keyboard. Woo.

Mankind, Take Flight! - Let Thy Banners Fly, Our Enemies Are At the Gate

Edit: Here's another one, recently recorded.

Mankind, Take Flight! - Revolutionary Acts Breed Revolutionary Acts, Ad Infinitum

This one has been described as: "It Scared the shit out of me"
"What the hell is that voice?" and "Holy Shit that is scary". So watch out.

It's not worth dying alone

Sorry for being away so long! I'm sure all two of my readers were disappointed. A combination of not finding any new music and not feeling like writing contributed to my inactivity.

On a different, more music oriented, note, Wonderful! No, not the exclamation, the band! This Seattle based five-piece make happy, poppy music that evokes The Flaming Lips, The Beach Boys, and a little bit of The Beatles. Use of synthesizers, shakers, horns, guitars, bass, drums, a wonderfully poppy voice and more combine to drive these fun songs forward in a way that will hopefully break them into the mainstream (or at least just under the mainstream). These songs are from their last release "God Bless Our Pad" (which can be found here, and is available for free on their website. Just follow the links, and download either all the mp3s, or the .zip file), and show some of the strengths, though there are some longer and different tracks on the album. Pagoda is by far the strongest track, but Golden Rays is a strong showing as well.

Wonderful are currently recording their next album, which is yet unnamed. Until this drops, be prepared to want to visit the beach, because that's what you will want to do after hearing this album.



Wonderful - Pagoda
Wonderful - Golden Rays