Viking Sized!!!

My friend Stephen was badgering me about post-rock and instrumental bands… well, not badgering, but as recently I have been very worn out on “post-rock”, I felt badgered. Stephen rules BTW, bless his heart. I think it all started at SXSW… which was more fun than I thought it would be but underwhelming in the amount of good music and performances I was able to see and hear, but well save that rant for another post. Anyways we stayed up late after a looong day to see fellow post-rockers Caspian from Boston. We had played with them a few times and we generally regard them as being a very good band, very much the poster-children of independent instrumental post-rock. Good guys… good musicians, bless their hearts.

To make a short story shorter they came on and they did their thing, which amounts to totally unchecked voluminous amounts indie shred rock ala Mogwai , Godspeeed, insert your favorite quiet-loud-quiet instrumental band here (Form and Fate?), fit to boot with nice romantic lighting and synchronized rock moves… I kid, they kinda did this synchronized slow kinda half time body lunge as they played… it was quite striking… I was very entertained, very entertained… for about 3 songs… it was a very good 3 songs and I enjoyed it very much, and then they went into the 4th, 5th, then 6th and so on… I just lost interest… not their fault… the crowd was into it… but I was not… I think these guys are excellent musicians… but I think the post-rock style has become very much predictable… which is good if you know what you are looking for but bad if you are in a post-rock band… I mean, I was listening and I just felt like I was listening to a different version of my own band, or of any number of other post-rock bands. To Caspian’s credit they are absolutely at the top of their game, and can hand most bands their dognuts on a platter any night… but… I just couldn’t find anything to like after the initial 3 songs, i felt like, ok, I got to see the Caspian flavored post-rock, 3 songs is enough, I stayed for six, eh… again, I think I am just a little jaded… a lot jaded… I find my self constantly wanting to hear vocal harmonies and hooky choruses… I find my self thinking about how good the next 20 Minute Loop CD will be… I keep putting in Beach Boys when I am driving… pretty much the opposite of post-rock…

Ehem… ok, well, what the hell, this was supposed to be about my new CD’s… and I have done nothing but rant about my own lameness and unjustly scoffed Caspian, bless their hearts… go see them, they will melt your face… OK… so, “From Bone to Satellite” is one of my favorite “post-rock” records and I have not picked up anything from Tarenetel in some time… so I picked up two of their on the later-ish releases…

Big Black Square & We Move Through Water

I think Jesse even has them, and I probably scoffed when he offered to copy them for me… so they are in my bag, and I have not listened to them yet… Since Adam is going to give me 5 bucks if I keep updating my blog I’ll save the review for another post.

BTW, go buy the new Caspian record, bless their hearts… last time I listened to it I was somewhere between LA and Hell (Texas), it wasn’t bad… that is to say, you will probably like it!

So to sum it up… I suck, so I bought 2 Tarentel CD’s which I haven’t listen to yet… you are getting deep into my world… don’t get lost…

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