Guest Post: Makes this blog look more impressive than it is.

So this is a guest post by Tanmay Singh who was nice enough to write one for the blog. Just a heads up, he's a lot more adept and a lot more technical when it come to writing about music than me. So don't get used to it. Check out his brilliant blog and you'll have a better idea of what I'm saying. Just come back to my blog after you've been there. 

I'm not Coomar, but I've been told that I look like him. Somehow that translates into guest post rights on his blog, so here we are. Also, I may look like him, but I'm infinitely more badass, because I listen to Metal, so here's one about a metal song.

The band I chose was Orphaned Land, for a variety of reasons. First, Coomar said I could write on whatever I want, so I had to restrict the scope somehow, and I got scared by the idea, this is just what was playing at the time. Second, they're touring India in Feb (next month at the time of writing the post), so they're just very relevant right now. Third, they really are very very good, I promise.

The song I chose was Ocean Land (The Revelation), for two reasons. One, simply because it's my favourite Orphaned Land song. Second, because this is not a metal blog, and the song is not all that metal. There's no crazy blast beats, the guitars are not crassly tuned, the production is not purposely shoddy, and most importantly the vocals are mostly clean, with growls taking a backseat. Not a complete backseat, somethings you just can't do with plain clean vocals.

Wikipedia tells me Orphaned Land fuse progressive, doom, and death metal as well as Middle-Eastern folk music and Arabic traditions in a form of Oriental metal. I generally don't go by Wikipedia genre definitions, but this is spot on. They're four albums old, having released their latest in 2010. The song I'm talking about comes from their third album Mabool: The Story of the Three Sons of Seven.

Mabool is a concept, as are most Orphaned Land albums. The concept discussed here are about the three sons of God, one each corresponding to the three Abrahamic religions (Seven, of course, referring to God). So basically the three sons, try to warn mankind about the sins they're committing, and predict the coming of a great flood as punishment if they don't stop.

And in this theme, Ocean Land serves as the actual warning to mankind. So it's basically this apocalyptic song about how all land that we inhabit will eventually turn to ocean. You should read the lyrics while listening to the song, and keeping the theme and concept in mind. Really chilling.

The lyrics are really awesome too. Consisting of narrative segments (not spoken word though, just in the song), and quotes of what the "three sons" are actually saying to mankind. Some good apocalyptic warning type poetry to be found here. Consider this: "The sand in the hourglass, moves so fast, slow the sand/ And nothing that mankind has strived for will be left in ocean land". Right?

There's a brilliant guitar solo to be found here. Simply unmissable. Goes very well with the theme too. It's a very pleading, persuasive kind of solo. But I guess it just seems that way if you keep the concept album theme in mind. Even if you don't, the solo's still brilliant. So win-win, I guess.

There's very noticeable folk influences, particularly in the beginning and the end of the song, which starts with what I assume Hebrew folk music would sound like. I don't know what Hebrew folk music sounds like, but I expect it wouldn't be much different from the intro to the song. The outro is also extremely Hebrew folkish, and in fact sounds like some sort of shepherd music, I don't know, if you disagree, please drop a line in the comments section. But it really does sound like that, to me.

So basically, there's two ways to listen to this song. One is just as a song by itself. If that be the case, then it's an amazing song, with some great riffing, catchy vocals and very fitting drumming. The overall sound is wonderful, and the production flawless. It's worth headbanging to as well. The second way to listen to the song is to go behind the lyrics, understand the concept, and view it in context with the theme. Whichever method you choose, I'm sure you'll find that you've spent your five minutes very well.

You owe me.

So I had almost decided that I was going to post a blues track track today but I promised a friend of mine that I would post about this track which happens to be one of her favs (Yeah, it's my blog and I can say favs). I also happened to introduce my friend to this track. So friend you owe me. Big.

The track's called "Not for all the love in the world" and it's by this band called The Thrills. They're probably more known than the posts about the bands before (except maybe MGMT, those guys are HUGE). They also happen to be Irish which gives them the presumption of being pretty damn good. Seriously, what is in that beer? 

The song's from their 2004 release Lets Bottle Bohemia. Besides being a wicked cool album name, this song is one for keeps. It starts off with this really nice mix of the synth and the piano. And there's never enough of that going around so kudos to them. But the song comes to life with the crashing of the cymbals. And with Conor Deasy at the same time crooning "Baby lets split tonight, I got a tank full of gas to light", you know you're into something good. The song is full of those laconic sort of lines where those two lines tell a lot more than one would imagine. 

Now about the song. It seems to be about this guy who is  trying to convince the girl to split with him but she says "not for all the love in the world". What a bitch. And it might seem like the guy's desperate and stuff (which is kinda true) but most of all it's about how this girl's probably been hurt in the past ("you left your heart in the hands of a juggling clown") and is scared about getting into anything with this guy. That being said it sort of bites her in the ass later when she see realizes that she fucked up ("But she didn't realize, now that's a lot of love") and kept screwing up with the wrong guys ("and all the underdogs get laid") and that really sums up the melancholy in the song. The song is full of these digs at people and how simple stuff actually is, like when Conor Deasy says "People aren't puzzles to be figured out".  But overall it's one of those songs that tells a complete story which you see playing in your head for those three and a half minutes. And that just adds to the whole after taste of the song which is pretty damn good. 

Cheers,

Coomar.

P.S- If you liked this you should also check out songs like "Teenager" and "Nothing changes around here" by them. 

Status Messages Galore

Hello. So this post is more of the stuff people call Indie than the posts before. It's this song called "First Day of My Life" by Bright Eyes. 

It's amazing what you can do with an acoustic guitar and a mediocre voice, well at least when you've got the lyrics just right. So all you "Juno" loving-"500 days of Summer"-introduced me to Indie bums. This post is for you. There are a few songs you listen to over and over again because you think you can relate to each and every one of those lines or want to be in a place where you can. Conor Oberst has the unique ability to give you that. He's got the sort of vocals that you can relate to while giving you the words, sort of saying here's your song, go on and sing. That's something which is exceptionally underrated. I mean how many of you really think you can pick up a guitar and sound like Chris Cornell. Even if you think you can. You're better off keeping it to yourself. Instead sit down, and give this stripped down young love where everything's okay for those three minutes kind of song a listen. And I'm a big fan of simplicity so this is pretty much as simple as it gets. The band went off their usual stuff for this track. They usually have a heavy influence of the trumpet which is more characteristic of their sound. But for a band that's not entirely comfortable being bare. They do a pretty good job. 

About the title of the post. You'll know when you listen to the song that this is a status message from songs lovers delight. With lines like "With these things there's no telling, we'll just just have to wait and see" and "these things take forever, I especially am slow" you can expect to see them on a gtalk or a social networking site near you. 

I call dibs by the way. 

Cheers,

Coomar.

Cheat on your Girlfriend.

Now that I have your attention, it's important to issue a disclaimer right at the outset that the directive the title seems to give is not a personal opinion of the author. It's actually what "The Walkmen" try to say through a should-listen track called "Little House of Savages". The first two verses basically tell the story of the two women involved. The ignorant girlfriend and the mistress outside. But the song really kicks in with a- Here we go!

The first thing you'll notice about the track is how messed up it is. It's not like one of those Toto tracks (A 70's band, we'll discuss later) where the notes are exactly where they're suppose to be. And that's what's so fuckin brilliant about it. Hamilton Leithauser's very coarse vocals just add to a song that's played and sung in a way that really gets the message across. It might seem as though he's telling you how to cheat on your girlfriend  (By making sure there's a car outside) but in reality the Walkmen capture what no Toto or Lily Allen song (Smile) or any other songs about cheating significant others do. That though cheating might not be the right thing to do, when you're doing it you know what you're risking and that thrill (So I've heard) is worth a song.

I guess you might be interested to know that this track played on The OC. Teenage drama about hormonal boys and girls seems like a perfect fit for the track. But most of all the track conveys something pretty significant. People are rough around the edges and so is their (Walkmen) sound. And life would be a lot less colourful if either of that was untrue.

Cheers!
Coomar

P.S.- Stay faithful.

Congratulations.

Congratulations. No I'm not congratulating you for making the very smart decision of checking out this blog probably because I've forced you to. Instead not too surprisingly, if you have been religiously following my one blog old blog you would do well to know that "Congratulations" is actually a song. Surprise Surprise.  

It's by MGMT and if you're still jumping around like a Spaz (God knows I do) to their unbelievably irritating-will keep playing in your head track "Kids" then I suggest you take a seat, close your eyes and listen to this much more mellow acoustic guitar heavy track. It's brilliant. So if you've got a Moot memo submission and are paranoid about it or are generally paranoid about everything (Yup, you.) or if you liked Kids and wanted to be one of the cool kids whose heard something else by MGMT and are the kinds who will shamelessly take credit for telling others about the song. Listen.

Cheers,

Coomar. 

What does Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti mean to you?

As a first post I'm kind of glad it's not about  how I'm so happy about finally blogging and contributing to the already much filled blog arena. Seriously some of you need to stop. Having said that. Yay! I'm blogging.
So Coomar's question for the day (yes that's what I'm calling it and I will continue to refer to myself in the third person. Deal with it.)- Have you heard of Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti? If you haven't then you should. If not for the sheer joy of reading the name of their title tracks and the mystery of how it can be a part of a song (for eg: Every Night I die at Miyagi's- How do you make that a part of the chorus?! you might ask. Well go find out by listening to them you lazy chumps.) Also interesting Coomar fact for the day (Oops I did it again) these guys only recorded on magnetic tapes before their latest album which is a studio record. I suggest you listen to the magnetic recording though. It adds to their music. Oh and "Every Night I die at Miyagi's" is my favourite track by them right now. Not just because it reminds me of the Karate Kid and that damn Miyagi but because it's so simple that you realise they were just overcompensating by having a complicated name. Thank God for that.
Cheers!
Coomar.