Archive for September, 2010

Bear Claw are a drums + 2 basses band from Chicago. I really enjoyed previous release, Slow Speed:Deep Owls from 2007. 4 tracks are up on bandcamp from their new album! It was once again recorded by Steve Albini and mastered by Bob Weston. Not surprisingly, it sounds great.

Bear Claw’s soon to be released album “Refuse This Gift”. Out on Sickroom Records October 2010. Select tracks have been put up for streaming fun.

About a year ago or something, I mentioned Tall Ships, I think with references to From Monument To Masses. On their debut EP from May (on Big Scary Monsters) the reference still goes, but even though I can hear so many similarities in the sound, the absence of FMTM’s political themes makes it a totally different feeling. With a debut EP like that, who needs a full-length? I mean, all 4 tracks are wonderful, and this autumn they’ll be out touring UK with Maps & Atlases and Northern Europe with 65daysofstatic. So that’s nice. And I think it’s a shame to compare them with contemporaries like Battles and Foals, which is just typical press-release bullshit. This band is cut out to ride their own wave, if they continue the path of playing around in the uncharted depths between post-rock, indie, math, story-telling lyrics and movie-samples.

Tall ships – Vessels (from the first EP)

Remember when FMTM released On Little Know Frequencies and added lyrics, and it fitted perfectly and we thought “why didn’t they do that before!?”. Okay fuck the references.. this is Tall Ships showing off a different dimension than the other tracks on the EP.

Tall Ships – Chemistry (second EP, released on Oct. 25)

Although it sounds very soft and Foal-ish, I’m hopeful for some more of the powerful melodic progression and playfulness that the previous EP carried to an extend that made it one of my favorites this year. The same track is used in the video below, featuring a collage of all pictures taken during the recordings.