June « 2013 « Knox Road

[MP3] Fialta: “Cars”

Fialta delivers their next great summer single with “Cars,” straying from the guy-girl harmonies for a female-driven jam. All the rest you need to know about Fialta can be found here and here, since they’re one of Knox Road’s favorites.

Summer Winter is due out July 23. Preorder it.

Fialta on Facebook | Bandcamp | Photo […]

Lee

Figgy: “Can’t Hide”

Summer is here. Pop your head out the window and take a ride.

Figgy on the web | Facebook

Lee

Second Hand Heart

For the chilly nights after crazy hot days. My favorite kind of night. I could sit outside for hours.

Bonus: Second Hand Heart – “Trouble” [MP3 via SoundCloud] Bonus: Second Hand Heart – “Tu me perds” [Link to stream]

Second Hand Heart on the web | Facebook | […]

Jamie

[Hype Hype Hooray] Let’s Talk About Julian Lynch For a Second, Huh?

Hype Hype Hooray is a biweekly “critique” of the music scene and the blogosphere that feeds it, told through the lens of Jamie Hale, a journalist who likes music about as much as he likes scotch and a firm leather chair. Please enjoy with a grain of salt.

I sat on a plane in the sky, somewhere between Portland and San Francisco. My in-flight ginger ale bubbled nervously on the tray table in front of me. I was en route to Los Angeles by way of San Diego to visit friends. The trip was meant to be fun, a vacation to a part of the world with which I wasn’t familiar, but a small voice inside me begged for something greater, something more significant.

I pulled out my iPod and scrolled through to a record I hoped would calm my nerves: Julian Lynch’s latest album “Lines.” I sipped the soda and leaned back against the hard fabric seat. The music engulfed me at once:

Jangling guitars, thudding drums, discontent synth, and droning woodwinds, all coming together dramatically and at once, playing a chaotic melody of foreboding and fear. I swallowed hard. My ears popped. I stared ahead into a field of blue fabric as the music grew more intense. I was embarking on a journey of great importance, I realized, one with high stakes and dire consequences. The song thudded in step with my heart.

As I accepted this fate, this feeling of purpose, the music faded away. It gave rise to a soothing melody set to a confident rhythm–a simple, tribal sort of song cloaked in thin, whispered vocals, like a sheer cut of silk. It offered comfort in nature, in human nature, it seemed to say, in the raw, uncomfortable emotions I felt that, it didn’t acknowledge, it had made me feel in the first place.

And just as I had accepted that truth of the moment, the song broke down chaotically and faded away, evolving into something else entirely–another song with another emotional objective. While it should have been maddening, the music calmed me down, it showed me that the feelings I had were real, and that in spite of my anxiety there was peace to be found. It was heartening. It was beautiful. It was profound.

Such is the world of Julian Lynch.

Continue reading [Hype Hype Hooray] Let’s Talk About Julian Lynch For a Second, Huh? →

Lee

Canary

Canary, out of Australia, recently re-released their debut album, Dear Universe, and it’s one hell of a mature effort for a first album. While the styles of sound are uniquely varied, Canary never tries to overdo it. The light and airy textures will keep Dear Universe buzzing in my ears.

Canary on the web […]

Lee

Trails and Ways release Trilingual EP

Colors define reality. Dullness becomes hysteria. Do you see color when you listen to the sounds that resonate most in your head? Do you see hot reds and oranges when listening to rock, and grainy blues and greens when listening to folk? Waves of sound become intensely hued. The best sounds make me […]

Bari

[soundscape] on where you are now

photo: ‘sleeping, bravely.’

song: peter and the wolf – “safe travels”

i was 19. i had moved, recently, from los angeles, where i had been homeless [sleeping in my car, then sleeping in my office when my engine seized] for a month before moving to colorado. i went through bouts of almost- and near- and essentially-homelessness for a few months before finally getting approved for an apartment.

when i found out i had been approved, i was professional and courteous on the phone. i didn’t act surprised. i acted non-chalant. like getting approved for an apartment was normal and that i was like every other 19 year old girl. after walking the many miles to my new apartment and finally being able to pick up the keys, it was late at night.

i unlocked the door.

i walked into the bathroom and i realized that i could bathe whenever i wanted.

for the first time in months, i cried.

Continue reading [soundscape] on where you are now →

Abby

[Abby’s Road] Songs of love and hate

This is going to be a sensitive one. Fair warning.

Summertime. We’re nearly there, though friends of mine in the eastern US have been sweating their asses off for some time now. Despite torrential downpours and some extreme flooding throughout Germany there have been a few gorgeous, sun-filled half-days sprinkled in for good measure. One of which was a week or so ago when I went to my first open-air gig (aside from a festival) in a very long time. It was in the center of the small town of Dachau, only about 20 minutes by SBahn from Munich: Grizzly Bear and an unremarkable opener I don’t care enough about to look up. Grizzly Bear was good. That’s all I have to say about them.

Now. I’ve spent the better part of 3 years living in western Europe and I am well aware of (and was prior to my move) the unbelievably ugly history a certain small group of folks from the place I now call my home have branded on the entire world, not to mention their relationship with my homeland as far as WWII is concerned. It must be said that the beauty of this country, of Bavaria, the people here, the art, the multicultural neighborhoods, the food, the architecture..everything… far outweigh the aforementioned historical stain. I have to admit I really didn’t pay the history that much attention aside from learning about it in school, realizing its horrors, lamenting on them and then going to math class. Right or wrong that’s the truth. Two summers ago I had the opportunity to visit Normandy, Omaha Beach specifically. The overwhelming sense of loss and sadness I felt while visiting there coupled with the complex emotions my better half, a German, was having were practically unbearable, but necessary. Then I came home and la la la life went on.

I love music. Not all of it. That’s a shite statement given by people who could give a fuck about music at all. “What bands and music do you listen to?” “Oh, you know…everything. The radio…” GAH. Anyhow, while I have definite favorites, my eardrums can bend toward specific and completely different genres depending upon my mood. “Even classical music, Abby? Operas?” Why yes, even classical music. Specifically Richard Wagner. I can almost feel the mood lowering.

Yes, Wilhelm Richard Wagner. You know him from such hits as “Flight of the Valkyries”. And the fact that he is one of the, if not the most controversial composer in history. I think the first time I heard Tristan und Isolde years ago I was enraptured. Hooked. It is just so. painfully. beautiful. You can read all you want about his life, his works, his successful attempt to bind theatre and stage and orchestration and opera and visual art into one glorious, spine-tingling bundle. His attempt to escape creditors, his affairs and his exile to Switzerland is gloriously gossipy. What always seems to stand out however, as it should, are his anti-Semitic political writings and, posthumously, the fancy a certain German political leader of the 1920s-40s took to his music. So. Quite the conundrum, right? Is it wrong, for obvious reasons, to listen?

Continue reading [Abby’s Road] Songs of love and hate →

Lee

[MP3] Blåtime: “Leave, Go”

Wow. These guys came from out of nowhere (well, technically, Norway) to deliver one of my new favorite songs. Frenzied, yet elegant, and one hundred percent euphoric. I love it.

Blåtime on Facebook