Cambridge's Pants Yell! will release their fifth album, Received Punctuation tomorrow courtesy of Slumberland Records. Based on my first few listens, it's another solid batch of jangle pop with that understated charm, that we've come to expect from Pants Yell!. If you've had the fortune to catch the band live over the past few months you've undoubtedly been treated to the strong material featured on Received Punctuation.
As for what the future holds for Pants Yell!, that is a little unclear. Singer/Guitarist Andrew Churchman was recently quoted in the Swedish magazine, Devotion that this will be the final Pants Yell! album. Let's hope something was lost in translation.
The band will celebrate the release of their new long player on Monday November 16th with a Hometown LP Release Party at ZuZu. Tickets are only $3.00, so grab them now.
I wrested with the idea of coming up with a list for the AGP's favorite releases of the last 10 years. After some serious back and forth, I made the decision that the last thing we need is another list. Instead we will feature some of the albums that have made a lasting impact on us. These are the albums that we told our friends to buy, annoyed our spouses with, and ultimately inspired us to launch this blog.
From now until the end of December The AGP will feature our favorite albums of the decade. Each week we will feature posts highlighting our favorite albums of the 00's. We will even have a few contributions from the AGP's extended family. We invite your comments, we want to know why you agree with us or perhaps why you think we're off our collective rockers.
We hope you'll join us as we take a look back at the albums that shaped the past 3,653 days our lives. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Formed in Leeds, England in the winter of 1990. Hood have released 9 records on a variety of different labels, including Domino, Aesthetics, and Mispalced Music. The band has been on a long term hiatus since just after the release of Outside Closer in 2005. While band members have been actively releasing music with their own bands including but not limited to founding members Richard and Chris Adams projects The Declining Winter and Bracken respectively. Hood's absence over the past four and half years has been a hard pill to swallow. A band that defies categorization by blending styles and instrumentation from track to track. From IDM to Post-Rock to Shoegaze to Experimental. The band at one-time described themselves as lo-fidelity avant pop. Regardless of classification, Hood's recorded work from the early limited vinyl singles to their (at this point) final record, is nothing short of impressive.
In November of 2001 Hood hit what I would call their high water mark with the release of Cold House. An album of excellent songs, beautiful arrangements, and flourishes of glitchy electronics for one of the most innovative releases of the past decade. It also features the brilliant collaboration between Hood and MC's Why? and Dose One from San Francisco's Anticon Collective and Clouddead. I flipped out as soon as I heard this record. It was like nothing I had ever heard before or since for that matter. For example take the opening track They Removed All Trace That Anything Had Ever Happened Here, with it's big beats, violins, acoustic guitars and Chris Adams fragile vocals, it's pretty close to perfection and that's just the albums jumping off point. In 2001 Hood seemed destined to be one of the biggest bands in the world. Alas that was not to be but what they did do is cement themselves as one of the most creative and exciting bands I'd ever heard and I anxiously await their return.
Almost nine years later and Cold House still sounds as inspired as it did that fall afternoon I drove home from the record store with my jaw on the floor. A truly stunning album.
Setting the Paces Boat returns with new album and tour
Seattle's Boat are back with their third full length, Setting The Paces. The new album was released this week via Magic Marker and is available on CD and orange vinyl. Setting The Paces finds Boat delivering their best work to date on an album full of messy indie pop and smart ass lyrics. When I first heard Setting The Paces I was immediately transcended back to the early 90's when bands like Pavement, Archers of Loaf, and Built To Spill were ruling supreme, in my world anyway. Comparisons to such 90's indie touch stones are inevitable, but where Boat sets itself apart from those influences is their gift for churning out songs with irresistible pop hooks and lots of them, buckets full in fact.
Boat are setting out on a short east coast tour in support of the excellent Setting The Paces and will play PA's Lounge on November 11th.
Funeral Singers Califone returns to Boston tonight
Over the course of eight full lengths, a hand full of ep's, singles, and compilations Califone have remained one of the most original and consistent bands in America. Their new set, All My Friends Are Funeral Singers comes via there new label Dead Oceans, further proves this point. This is starting to sound like a review, which is not my intention but sometimes these things tend to take a life of there own. On their new album Califone continue to explore the cross pollination off folk, blues, and fractured electronics, for a record full of rich melodies and unforgettable songs. All My Friends Our Funeral Singers is a masterful and devastating album. Highly recommended.
So much for not writing a review. The fact is this record is very easy to get excited about and once you hear it I think you'll agree.
The new album is only half the story. Tim Rutili the bands principal songwriter wrote and directed the film All My Friends Are Funeral Singers as well. A story of a house haunted by aggrieved but mostly friendly ghosts. The music was written and recorded while the film was in production and Califone's music is featured throughout the film, as is the band themselves, fittingly as ghosts.
Califone are currently undertaking it's most ambitious tour to date. They are taking the new film and accompanying album to thirteen city's where they will perform live during the films screening. The band will play a short 30 minute set of older material before providing live musical accompaniment during the presentation of All My Friends Our Funeral Singers.
Califone will play tonight at the Brattle Theatre Doors 8:30/Show 9:00
Show your support for a great cause and one of Boston's most ardent local music supporters as his immediate family deals with this issue first hand. All the information is on the poster below, and what a line up.
The Kia Soul Collective are set to take over the Artists For Humanity space in Southie for 4 days of music, art, and design. Plus (here comes the corporate twist) a chance to test drive the new Kia Soul. It all kicks off tonight when Staten Island's Cymbals Eat Guitars (pictured above) take to the stage at 8:30 to kick this weekend of free music off.
Don't miss your last chance to see The Pains of Being Pure at Heart in one of their last US shows for the foreseeable future. The band will close out this weekends festivities before heading off to Europe to round out what can only be described as an incredible year.
Corporate angles aside, this event is chock full of quality bands performing full sets for free. You can RSVP to each show and get all the details here.
The Venue: Artists for Humanity 100 W. 2nd Street Fort Point Channel South Boston
Cambridge's Pants Yell! will release their fifth album, Received Punctuation tomorrow courtesy of Slumberland Records. Based on my first few listens, it's another solid batch of jangle pop with that understated charm, that we've come to expect from Pants Yell!. If you've had the fortune to catch the band live over the past few months you've undoubtedly been treated to the strong material featured on Received Punctuation.
