My music buying habit could get (more) expensive this year

So it seems almost all of my favourite bands have conspired together to all release new albums this year:

New albums, named and about to be released, sample tracks on myspace:
mewithoutYou - it's all crazy ! it's all false ! it's all a dream ! it's alright
Emery - In shallow seas we sail
As Cites Burn - Hell or high water

Currently recording and you can follow their progress on social networking sites:
Project 86 (twitter)
Switchfoot (twitter)
Thrice (twitter)
Fair (twitter)
Grammatrain (facebook)

rumors of EPs
Stavesacre and Starflyer 59

Oh well, at least now I've moved further away from Real Groovy my habit of buying older albums for reasonably cheap has subsided somewhat.

Albums that actually changed my life:

eh Steve tagged me in a facebook thing and I decided to blog it here instead. The meme said to come up with 25 of "the albums that, no matter what they were thought of musically, shaped your world. "
Rather than listing 25 of my favourite albums, I thought I would identify a handful that actually changed me, and explain how:

So here goes - in approximately chronological order

The Lads- Arbour Day
The first CD I owned, I got it as soon as it came out as I liked their cassette tape "People I Regularly Associate" because of the silly voiced story that went on between the songs. I remember singing many of its songs to myself in my part time job watering someone's garden while they were overseas one summer.

MIC - Superhuman
I went Parachute 98 being a bit of a fan of the lads, but not overly obsessed with music. I came home and got the title song of this album stuck in my head from it being on the Parachute 98 sampler CD. A couple of weeks later I bought the album, and started spending too much time looking at CDs in Christian bookshops— A trait I still exhibit today.

Bride - The Jesus Experience
The first "Heavy" album I owned— and the first album I played air guitar to. Also, great for getting weird looks from European tourists as they walk past while you eat lunch in the middle of the Abel Tasman National Park listening to it on battery powered computer speakers plugged into a walkman.

Project 86 - Project 86
The first good "Heavy" Album I owned on CD. Until I heard this I didn't realise music, Christian or Otherwise could be this Dark/ Loud/ Angry/ Heavy /Brooding/ Powerful and generally awesome. Also talking about how much we liked this and their next album is how I got to know one of my best friends.

Grammatrain - Lonely House
Hearing about how good these guys were from a mate at school (not a Christian) who was mostly into Metallica and Korn is what started off my search for Christian music that was as heavy or heavier than mainstream bands. I started learning to play guitar from my mate Jeremy teaching me bits of songs from this album. I've bought it on tape about 3 times and also eventually acquired it on CD.

Veggietales - Veggietunes
Where the others have mostly only affected the development of my musical tastes and how that is played out in my personality - this album had a massive impact on my life outside of just music obsession. After moving to go to Uni, I'd set a song from this as my answerphone message on my phone in the hostel. The first conversation I ever had with my now wife included sharing our mutual love for silly singing vegetables, and me telling her to call and check it out - She did, left a message, we got to know each other and about 4 years later we got married.

Dead Poetic- New Medicines
This album is the album that broke me into screamo, and then through that into metal/ metalcore with "extreme" vocals. Heh, and I've just realised that as I'm typing this, I'm wearing a t shirt based on the album cover. An honorable mention could also go out to Further Seems Forever's The Moon is Down for making me like emo (without the screaming) at about the same time.

Chances are, being an extroverted music fan/geek, if I know you, I would be interested in hearing about albums that changed your life too. You could leave a comment, post some thoughts on your own blog or facebook or we could chat about it in real life sometime- preferably with coffee. mmmm coffee.

Some music I've been digging lately

Thrice's alchemy index volumes 1 and 2 - volume 1 (fire) is heavy and has screaming, volume 2 (water) is not. Both are amazing and contain some of those songs that just get wedged in your pschye and demand listening over and over again - which hasn't happened to me this much for a while.

As cities burn's come now sleep - Nice guitar tones, emotional vocals, interesting lyrics and songs. Emo with yelling without being screamo perhaps? bought it on the 31st December last year, and marks for me the start of this year's resurgence in actually listening to albums I purchase enough to enjoy them. (whereas last year I brought tonnes of cheap ones, and didn't get into many that much)

Emery's I'm only a man - darker themed than the song titles and some of the sounds suggest. One of the best "heavy" band releases in the christian/alternative genre of the last year or so. Great tones, songs, vocals (both screaming and singing) and generally, just a great album - thanks to my lil brother who brought it for me at parachute for my birthday - still getting played a fair bit on my ipod 5 months later.

Jon Foreman's Fall and Winter - a parachute purchase. 2 discs. We seem to keep at least one in our 5 disc changer at all times. Seriously - we take one disc out, we put the other in. Or sometimes both are in there.

Leigh Nash's blue on blue - One of the highlights of parachute, we bought her album afterwards. I haven't listened to it for a few weeks, but that's cos I intentionally try not to over listen to it as it's so good. Hmmmm, might put it on now, I'm sure joy will enjoy it.

Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child

Is an album by Norma Jean.
I sort of acquired it after church last Sunday. Basically, a mate from Church bought a collection of about 300 CDs from someone off trademe, mostly hardcore/emo/ punk type stuff...
anyway, there were a few he didn't really want, and he thought of me, bought them to church... and there we go... One of them was this.

Norma Jean are a band that in the past, I've kinda wanted to like, but never really got into. A mate at work has their latest album (redeemer) on his itunes share. I've listened to it a little, and liked it... but their earlier stuff, until now, the songs I've heard on compilations have just been a bit too weird/spasmodic/ insanely heavy ... even for me.

Well, I figured I'd give it a listen anyway...

Admittedly, when I'd first heard the song "Face:Face" on the This is solid state volume 4 CD, I was only just discovering a taste for music with screaming in it. It was about the same time as I got Dead Poetic's New Medicines... my first screamo album... and I wasn't really ready for metalcore. New medicines primed me for Underoath, who's They're only chasing safety was my attempt at finding more music along the vein of new medicines, albeit with even more intense vocals. Along the way since then, I'd finally developed a taste for zao (hardcore turned metal turned metalcore), who's music I had been flirting with for about 8 years, but never really loved before. I'd also discovered Blindside's earlier pre silence stuff, so basically I had slowly been increasing my tolerance for the more extreme end of heavy music, be it screamo/ metal/ hardcore punk/ metalcore, whatever. Still, I hadn't been able to get past my first impressions of this song...

In the context of the whole album, coming in at track two, and with my newfound tolerance, it's actually an alright song... featuring crushing riff after crushing breakdown after crushing riff and then track three is FREAKING AWESOME. The song, "memphis will be laid to waste", has some 'ahemming' about 5 seconds in, followed by a crushing riff, then it cuts back to a gentle/ melodic guitar bit, with someone kinda jsut whispering a word every now and then, then a cranking breakdown, with multiple yelled vocals, followed by some machine gun riffage and then... near the end, the guy from mewithoutYou joins in and it's epic. Track 4 is a good short interlude of heavy insanity, before the 15 minute monster that is "Pretty Soon. I don't know what. But something is going to Happen" begins. Fifteen minutes. in the middle of the album. There are only vocals for about 2 of those minutes. It builds and builds. and builds some more. Then cuts back. Then builds somemore. When it gets near closing, at it's most intense, the cries of "it's all worthwhile, it's all worthwhile" serve as a kinda describing that song itself...

Anyway. My wife is not a big fan of heavy music. Thus, I mostly get to listen to it on my ipod on my bike too and from work. which is about a 15 minute journey each way. So I haven't really had a chance to listen seriously to the rest of the album. But basically, it's awesome. nuff said.

Neadtobreathe - daylight

Track one
0.01 - very quiet voice saying 1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4
0.02 - delay driven guitar kicks in - yet another christian band with a strong U2 influence
0.06 - the drums and bass kick in -we're in for some energetic pop rock, with production so shiny you can see yourself in it.
0.20 - The vocals join the mix - and to my ears the singer sounds like a cross between the audio adrenaline guy before his voice was completely wrecked, and both phil joel and Pete Furler from the Newsboys— not quite like any one of then in particular, but it brought those guys to mind as I listened to it walking through Hagley park on the way to work.
0.50 - The chorus - a big, big chorus! with shiny overdive and keyboard synth pads
1.00 - the falsetto harmony - just like phil joel
1.15 - second verse- verse structure is 2 lines at a time with dominant vocals and delay driven background guitar, alternating with 1 line with full on overdrive
1.50 - second chorus hits
2.16 - Instruments drop back a bit, making the gently sung bridge vocal "sing out, sing out" clear and obvious
Builds, builds, builds, builds then...
2.49 - The band drops out completely, leaving just the vocals for this rendition of the chorus
2.52 - The keyboard comes in
2.54 - drum fill
2.57 - The rest of the band come back in - cue impassioned chorus and bridge repeats until song end.

That one track is enough to give you a feel for the rest of the album. Highly listenable, highly polished, highly produced, and highly clichéd upbeat Christian rock.

Blenderhead- figureheads on the forefront of popular culture

This album intrigues me. Do I love it or hate it? Is it Emo or Punk? Are the songs well crafted or chaotic? Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Is all of the above true? The guitar tones and vocals could easily draw comparisons to early Juliana Theory, yet somehow it doesn't seem as likable at first. The songs seem abrasive, and at the first listen are too much. But after a second or third listen, you get past that and you notice the interesting guitar work, and nice guitar tones, the meaning in the lyrics. The instrumental in the middle is quite cool, and the songs in the second half seem a little more conventional— which is both nice and a pity at the same time. I think, when it comes down to it, this is album contains some fantastic music, but is put together in an odd way which hides that. Does that make sense? I think I love it, but I could be wrong.

House of Heroes and Dizmas

So, here are my thoughts on two of the CDs from my 5 CDs for 5 bucks experiment.

House of Heroes by House of Heroes
This is one of those CDs that is good, but not quite good enough to demand I play it instead of one of the other CDs in my ever growing collection. I mean, there's nothing wrong with it, the production is good, the vocals and instruments are good, the songs seem good... It's just not enough to demand my attention, which is kind of a pity, as it seems like it's the sort of album I could really enjoy once I get to know it.
Highlights— in some places it sounds like a younger, punkier muse. Not all the time, but just in some places the singer's wail, and the music behind it comes close to matt bellamy and co.

On a search in America by Dizmas
Wow- based on preconceptions from the cover, I was expecting some kinda pop rock with a folky influence.... Track one hits and it's dirty rock, no folk, lots of screaming. The screaming gets kind of toned down for the next couple of songs, track 5 could almost pass as a church song... and then it kicks in again. From there on in, it sounds more and more like the juliana theory (with extra screaming) every song. Seeing as I quite like the juliana theory, and don't mind a little screaming in my emo, I really enjoyed this album— especially for a dollar.

5 CDs for 5 bucks

So last Thursday (or was it Friday) I went to ye olde real groovy at lunchtime to fuel my CD addiction.

Turns out their sale price CDs are currently only a dollar each... so I bought five.

House of Heroes by House of Heroes
Daylight by NeedtoBreathe
On a Search in America by Dizmas
Figureheads of Popular Culture by Blenderhead
80s Tribute volume one from tooth and nail records.

So, the first three are CDs I've seen around in christian bookshops-- newish releases from the last couple of years, but that I've never listened to. I knew their name, but didn't know what they sound like.
The Blenderhead one I think I'd listened to once before, but didn't want to pay $10 for it at the time- but for only a dollar - well can't go to wrong.
The tribute one has some of my favourite bands on it- unfortunatly I already have most of the tracks by the bands I like on other albums— but I thought I'd pay a buck to get fan mail covering every breath you take.

More thoughts on these albums to come as I actually get round to listening to them.

So anyway

I'm getting a little annoyed that two CDs I want to buy are not out in New Zealand despite having been released in the states in May and June. Thney are Neon Horse, by Neon Horse, and Rival Factions by Project 86.

The late NZ arrival of the project album is particularly fustrating... as their last album I pre-ordered of the interwebs to get as soon as possible - then it turned up within shops here within about a week of my copy arriving. Figured that this time I'd just wait that extra week— bad move... and I just know that as soon as order either, I'll see them here. Oh well... I guess I'll wait.

Moving along, Mona Vale Falls are playing at the wunderbar in lyttelton this Saturday ( at least, that's what I've been led to believe). Should be a fun gig- it's a crazy little venue in Lyttelton with a roof that looks lik the outside of the millennium falcon, and one of the tiniest stages I've ever seen. Seeing as they go a little nuts onstage their should be some interesting carnage.