Jaguar Love/Past Lives

Jaguar Love



Past Lives

After 10 years of making music together, experimental band The Blood Brothers officially spilt up in November 2007. Soon after, members of the defunct band created their own musical groups.
Johnny Whitney, Cody Votolato (Rocky Votolato's younger brother) and Jay Clark (formerly in Pretty Girls Make Graves) created the band Jaguar Love. Meanwhile, Jordan Billie, Mark Gajadhar, Devin Welch and Morgan Henderson formed the band Past Lives.
Both released new music in August creating some competition as to who would be labled the better post-Blood Brothers band.

Each group draws on influences from The Blood Brothers, but manages to have its own sound. The distinct tortured-child vocals of Johnny Whitney in Jaguar Love make it very hard to compare the two. Jaguar Love seems to be aiming for an experimental indie-pop audience and is quite similar to Johnny Whitney's side project, Neon Blonde. Past lives, on the other hand, take a more art-punk approach.
Jaguar Love album - Take Me To The Sea
Past Lives EP - Strange Symmetry

We Shot The Moon - Sway Your Head

After unknown, and now defunct, Waking Ashland broke up after two short albums, lead singer Jonathan Jones formed the (also unknown) band We Shot The Moon in 2007.  Appropriately labeled "indie piano rock," We Shot The Moon features relatively complex piano riffs layered with light guitar and incredibly catchy melodies.  Despite the band's recent introduction to the music scene, We Shot The Moon has already released a five song EP and a full length album.

Featured on both the EP and the album was their unofficial single "Sway Your Head." "Sway Your Head" epitomizes We Shot The Moon's sound. With lead guitarist Paul Wheatley picking away on his clean guitar and Jones bursting out in falsetto, "Sway Your Head" is a happy-go-lucky-it's-good-to-be-awake-break-out-singing-in-the-middle-of-the-street song with a sure to get caught in your head chorus.

However this August, Wheatley has decided to leave the band for personal reasons. This leaves fans to only hope that We Shot The Moon will not suffer the same early fate as Waking Ashland.

Spoon - The Underdog

Hailing from Austin, TX, Spoon originated in 1994 as a collaboration between Britt Daniel (vocals/guitar) and Jim Eno (drums) and a rotating cast of supporting players. Their hybrid of indie and punk resulted in a number of Sonic Youth and Pixies comparisons after their 1996 debut album, Telephono. Following an ill-fated move to Elektra Records, which found them being dropped from the label following the issue of their third album, A Series of Sneaks, in 1998, Spoon went the indie route with a handfull of 7" singles and the The Agony of Laffitte EP in 1999. In fall 2000, the Love Ways EP was released on Merge, paving the way for spring 2001's full-length Girls Can Tell. The album was a critical success, ending up at or near the top of many best-of-2001 lists.

Spoon released the more musically adventurous follow-up, Kill the Moonlight, in August 2002. The band opted for a bigger, darker sound on 2005's Gimme Fiction. Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga -- which was named after the melody of one of the album's songs, "The Ghost of You Lingers" -- mixed unusual instrumentation and nods to Motown and soul, and was released in summer 2007.

Update

Hey, it's Zack. I've updated the website a little.

In case you haven't already noticed, then these are the changes:

With the widgets:

1. Added a welcome.
   
2. Moved the hit-counter down to the bottom.
3. Deleted the "note from the bloggers" widget. This used to be the old welcome. I made a copy of it if you'd like to compare, and I'll give it to you upon request.
4. Deleted the "downloads?" widget.

With the blog itself:

1. Added the stars at the bottom of each post which anyone can use to rate.
   
2. Changed commenting circumstances. Now, when you comment, you will be taken to the individual post's home-page where the commenting box is embedded into the page instead of being taken to the old page – the one that looks the same for all blogs.

This is just what I've initially done. This means that there may or may not be more stuff to come. I haven't fully looked at the new "Blogger in Draft" stuff yet, so in the meantime, why don't you take a look yourself.

If you have any comments regarding the changes that I've made here or would like to suggest further changes, please do not refrain from saying so - I'd like to hear it!

Sarah Borges & Broken Shingles - Modern Trick

Some folks make music because they want to -- others do it because they have no choice. Sarah Borges clearly falls into the latter category, the kind of person whose DNA would read like a musical chart if you mapped it out on paper. 

Diamonds in the Dark, Borges’ second album -- and first for Sugar Hill -- spells that out in lush detail, with every plaintive vocal twist and every rollicking guitar turn offering up proof that the Massachusetts native knows her way around American music’s roots (and has her own roots planted firmly in some mighty fertile soil).

Sea Wolf

Alex Church, former member of the band Irving, is Sea Wolf and since he can't do it alone, Church has recruited a group of six friends to help him present his compositions on stage. Leaves in the River, the band's first full length album, evokes feelings of nostalgia with its arching melodies, experimental use of unlikely instruments and lyrical imagery. His music perfectly blends folk-pop with gloomy overtones, making cloudy gray days something to look forward to. Sea Wolf's music will make you long for autumn and all of the natural changes that come with it.

Funeral For a Friend - A Retrospective Look

Funeral for a Friend, or FFAF (as commonly abbreviated), is a "post-hardcore" band residing in Wales. Since forming in 2001, FFAF has undergone a steady progression from a heavier, more hardcore sound to a better polished, melodic sound. They have since released dour albums, Seven Ways to Scream your Name, Casually Dressed and Deep in Conversation, Hours, and Tales don't tell Themselves. They are now working on their fifth album, set to be released later this year. The songs above are all representations of each of their albums. Escape Artists Never die comes from Seven Ways, Juneau from Casually Dressed, Roses from Hours, and Into Oblivion from Tales Don't tell Themselves.

Note: In my opinion, the best album out of the four is Hours. It brings out FFAF's best sounds and vocals. Check it Out!

Jacky Terrasson - Just a Blues

Jacky Terrasson's feathery keyboard touch is coupled with power and passion, a complete understanding of the blues and improvisation, and his own gift as an arranger, putting  his own personal stamp on well known tunes. He's been one of the jazz world's most talked about piano player/composers since he captured everyone's attention when he won the Thelonious Monk Competition in 1993.

By the mid-90s, pianist Jacky Terrasson was being hailed as one of the bright young lions on the traditional jazz scene. His self-titled 1995 debut for Blue Note Records drew high praise from all corners of the jazz world.

Note: When I can't get it on seeqpod, I'll use imeem, uploading music myself if I have to like this one.