Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Band of the Week: Monomen

Background Ramblings: Synth-pop band from Norway (not to be confused with the Mono Men: a garage rock band from Seattle in the 80s and 90s)


Discography: 2007 Monomen LP


Consensus Rating: 2.5/5


Consensus Thoughts: Definitely fun to listen to! They have a very 80s, synth-rock sound...these sounds are evoking such nostalgia – I can’t believe this is a new album! Makes me want to drive/dance. It reminds me of the band at the end of "Revenge of the Nerds".

However, it's also pretty repetitive. It has some great moments on it, but there are also some songs that I just want to skip every time they come on. Most of these songs fall towards the end of the album, so at least they're fairly easy to avoid. One of these songs is a nine-minute instrumental track that doesn’t really go anywhere. Who thought that was a good idea?

The songs that are good are extremely good...but the songs that are bad are pretty bad. It's not a bad album...just terribly uneven.

Favorites: “Neon”, “Drum of Glass”, "Stand Still Jane Fonda"

Least Favorites: "Stand Still Jane Fonda Part II"


The band for this week is The Submarines. Some info...


Background Ramblings: The members of this band (John Dragonetti and Blake Hazard) dated for a while. Before recording their first album (Declare a New State), they broke up, so they recorded the album in shifts…never in the studio at the same time. After recording the album (filled with songs about their relationship and break-up), they realized they still loved each other. So they got back together and got married (awwwwwww!), then recorded their second album.

Discography:

2006 Declare a New State!

2008 Honeysuckle Weeks


Feel free to join in.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Band of the Week: She & Him

Sorry for the lack of writing. I have no excuses. However, Sharon and I came up with a new idea that we thought we'd share with you.
Every week, we will decide on a band to listen to. We'll listen to their albums, talk about what we like/don't like, and post our thoughts on this blog.
We would like for you to join us. We will post which band we'll be listening to. You are invited to listen to them for that week as well, and post your thoughts in the comments. It's like a book club...with less reading.
We did the first week ourselves, but we'll post the next band at the end.

Our first Band of the Week was She & Him. We're going to see them in Nashville at the end of the month, so we thought it would be a good place to start.

Background Ramblings:
Members - Zooey Deschanel & M. Ward

Discography:
2008 - Volume One

Sharon's Rating:
3/5

Sharon's Thoughts:
I like her voice - it has a good, oldies sound. I also like when M. Ward sings...I wish he sang a little more on the album. The music has a good oldies sound, which I like, but it also sounds a bit unoriginal (even though I know they wrote the majority of the songs).

Favorites:
"Sweet Darlin'"

Dusty's Rating:
4/5

Dusty's Thoughts:

Musically, this album covers a lot of genres: jazz, county, girl group pop, and just "regular" pop. Zooey's unique voice fits all these styles perfectly. This sounds like a classic album, only recently unearthed.

Dusty's Favorites:

"Sentimental Heart", "Change is Hard", "Sweet Darlin'"

There you have it. If you have thoughts on She & Him, post them in the comments.

Next Week:

The Band of the Week for next week is:
Monomen.

Here are some notes to get you started.
Background Ramblings:

Synth-pop group from Norway (not to be confused with the Mono Men: a garage rock group from Seattle in the 80s and 90s).

Discography:

2007 - Monomen LP

Happy listening!