Pikul by Silversun Pickups

Silversun Pickups
Pikul
2005
Indie
Dangerbird

1. Kissing Families
2. Comeback Kid
3. Booksmart Devil
4. The Fuzz
5. Creation Lake
6. ...All The Go Inbetweens
7. [Blank]
8. Sci-Fi Lullaby
(Also included is a 1630x1462 album cover .jpeg)

The fuzz in my head grows
It's already so low
The fuzz in my head stands
It's already all too clear
So much for losing track of time

"The Fuzz"

Pikul (pronounced pie-kull) is the first EP that I've uploaded to Continuous Hit Music. I'm not usually an EP guy. I like my music to last a long time without interruption. But this is a great little bite-sized peice of music that I felt the need to share. Since it's a short album, I'll keep my summary pretty short for your sake.

Silversun Pickups are not one of my favorite bands. They're very good, but I was really underwhelmed by their first full-length album, Carnavas, and I can only listen to them when I'm in a certian mood. Apparently their second album (Swoon) has very recently made it's way onto the internet to great praises. I haven't heard it yet, but I plan to soon. Pikul is reguarded pretty unanimously as being their best work. It features a cellist, which really adds to the more rockin' songs like "Comeback Kid."

These guys get labeled indie everywhere I've read about them, but I would describe them as playing a new style of grunge that is pretty unique to the band. They have a keyboard player, the aformentioned cellist, and a female background vocalist who lends her voice to the lead part in "Creation Lake." Their lone guitarist (who has a pretty impressive pedalboard, and puts it to good use) is able to fill the empty space very well for playing in a band with sudden heavy freakout sessions. Great tone and heavy fuzz sound, and good use of subtle but frequent use of digital delay.

Pikul is a nice peice of music. Not something I can listen to all the time, but when I'm in the mood, it's perfect. Very unique sounding band.

Click here to download (80.94 MB)

The 7th track is 11 minutes of silence, to make "Sci-Fi Lullaby" a hidden track. It used to be 16 tracks, but since I'm such a nice guy, I condensed it into one cohesive track for you.

Buy it!
CD / Vinyl / Digital Copy

Blue Screen Life by Pinback

Pinback
Blue Screen Life
2001
Indie
Ace Fu

1. Offline P.K.
2. Concrete Seconds
3. Boo
4. Bbtone
5. Penelope
6. Talby
7. X. I. Y.
8. Prog
9. Your Sickness
10. Seville
11. West
12. Tres
(Also included is a 500x500 album cover .jpeg)

Oh, Penelope
Are you filled with air
Swallowed oxygen
That makes you float up?
Is it Dropsy?
Will your lungs swell?
It's depressing me
To see you struggle

-"Penelope"

Pinback is a band that wouldn't have any problems playing a show in front of an angry bear or a swarm of bees. No sudden movements. They're a two man band whose music consists of clean electric guitars, harmonized vocals, drum machines (live drummers on some songs), and the occasional synth lead or two. The two singers often are singing two totally different verses at the same time, and each's guitar playing really compliments the other's.

Their songs usually start out very simple, and slowly add different elements into the mix in a very natural way that is very calm until by the end everything's crazy. The sound created is a very natural and stream-of-conciousness type of music that is really soothing. Not so much in a Sigur Rós way (I actually bought Blue Screen Life at the same time I bought Ágætis Byrjun, excpecting more of the same), but more of a The American Analog Set type of way.

I got into Pinback through a podcast that is no longer active called HiMyNameIsMark. It was a music show run by the former bassist of blink-182 and (+44) who, believe it or not, is a very talented guy who knows a thing or two about music. About the time this podcast came out was the time I really started developing my own taste in music, due to the incredibly wide variety of genres that this guy would play. I really got the chance to decide for myself what sounds I liked and didn't like. The podcast got me into some of my favorite bands, like Limbeck and The Dismemberment Plan.

Blue Screen Life is a pretty nice little collection of songs by Pinback. I wouldn't call it a great album, because there are some songs that are gems ("Penelope," "West," "Seville," "Concrete Seconds") and some that just don't do anything to stand out ("Offline P.K.," "Bbtone," "X. I. Y."). But I do really dig Pinback's style, and it really hits the spot when I'm in the right mood. I would say that Blue Screen Life is pretty accessible to just about anyone, so please, download away!

Be sure to pay close attention to "Penelope." It's a great song about a dead goldfish with some brilliant lyrics.

Click here to download part 1 (52.85 MB)
Click here to download part 2 (53.36 MB)

Buy it!
CD / Digital Copy

Rated R by Queens Of The Stone Age

Queens Of The Stone Age
Rated R
2000
Rock
Interscope

1. Feel Good Hit Of The Summer
2. The Lost Art Of Keeping A Secret
3. Leg Of Lamb
4. Auto Pilot
5. Better Living Through Chemistry
6. Monsters In The Parasol
7. Quick And To The Pointless
8. In The Fade
9. Tension Head
10. Lightning Song
11. I Think I Lost My Headache
(Also included is a 592x592 album cover .bmp)

C-C-C-CO-CO-CO-CAAAAINNEEE!!!

"Feel Good Hit Of The Summer"

Rated R is an album that I always put on when I'm really stressed out or really ticked off. It has a huge, aggressive sound in a small package filled with pop hooks that just makes it a great hard rock album. Very rebellious, very upset, and very heavy, but the songs are all sing-a-longs. This is what I love about Queens Of The Stone Age. They can make a full album of songs that are just on the edge of being straight up metal, but they have a great sense of humor and melody that keeps them from being corny or taking themselves too seriously.

The record opens with "Feel Good Hit Of The Summer," which lyrics consist only of drug names. (The chorus, "Cocaine," has been written a few lines up) Rated R has an excellent flow, and each song just feels natural after the one before it. The drum fill that ends "Feel Good Hit Of The Summer" cascades right into the beat that opens "The Lost Art Of Keeping A Secret," the feedback at the end of "Auto Pilot" transitions perfectly into "Better Living Through Chemistry," and so on. You get the idea.

Like I said before, I love to put this album on when I'm upset. It's a huge stress reliever for me. Josh Homme's robotic, muffled guitar tone just scratches some itchy spot in my brain that makes me forget my worries and relax to the distorted sounds of Rated R.

Queens Of The Stone Age is one of my favorite bands of all time, and if you ask me while I'm listening to them I'll probably tell you that they're number 1. They have never put out a bad album, and each album is on the exact same level of greatness (at least for me) for different reasons. I could never pick a favorite, and I could never pick a least favorite Queens Of The Stone Age record. They just haven't done anything that I don't like. I've actually compiled a collection of B-sides and rare material that consists of 44 songs, and I enjoy it so much. Please listen to this band, they're so great.

Click here to download (89.34 MB)

Rated R is a very good title for this album. Subject matter and language is not the most accessible.

Buy it!
CD / Vinyl (Rated X) / Digital Copy

Don't Fall In Love With Everyone You See by Okkervil River

Okkervil River
Don't Fall In Love With Everyone You See
2002
Folk
Jagjaguwar

1. Red
2. Kansas City
3. Lady Liberty
4. My Bad Days
5. Westfall
6. Happy Hearts
7. Dead Dog Song
8. Listening To Otis Redding At Home During Christmas
9. Okkervil River Song
(Also included is a 1200x1200 album cover .jpeg)

Red is my favorite color.
Red, like your mother's
Eyes after a while
Of crying about how you don't love her.
She says "I know I don't deserve
Supervised sight of her
But each day becomes a blur
Without my daughter."

"Red"

Okkervil River is one of my all time favorite bands. As a whole, I would call them a folk band, but on Don't Fall In Love With Everyone You See, they live on the fine line between folk and bluegrass. And I love it for that. Okkervil River is best known for creating the masterpeice and accompaniment Black Sheep Boy and the Black Sheep Boy Appendix, respectively. That saga as a whole is probably up in the top 5 of my favorite albums. However, I think that this album is a better way to be introduced to the band.

Don't Fall In Love With Everyone You See is Okkervil River at the rootsiest, but it's also the band at their saddest. All their releases are very somber and deal with emotional subject matter. But while Black Sheep Boy and Appendix combats frontman Will Sheff's torn heart with anger and vengeful energy, Don't Fall In Love With Everyone You See feels broken and defeated. It also features one of the saddest songs you're likely to ever hear, "Listening To Otis Redding At Home During Christmas."

The music behind it all is deeply rooted in bluegrass. The songs are led solely by acoustic guitar and Will Sheff's crackling voice, and are joined from time to time by harmonica, mandolin, pedal steel, and violin. Though at the same time, they keep it sounding fresh and new with respect to the music of their past. It's a very modern folk album.

I also really like that they chose to keep this album short. At 9 tracks, it's 45 minutes long, and goes on for just the right amount of time before ending with a short ambient passage of a chirping forest. My only complaint is the awful vocalist who they got to split the vocals with Will Sheff on "Happy Hearts." Man, that guy is horrible. I like Will's parts of the song, though.

Click here to download part 1 (62.45 MB)
Click here to download part 2 (52.14 MB)

One f-bomb exactly.

Buy it!
CD / Digital Copy