fork/knife

This segment has been on hiatus for a while now, but with my recent discovery of Freelance Whales, it is back.

Freelance Whales is very young when it comes to bands, having formed just about a year ago. The five-piece band from Brooklyn has made it a point to use whatever instrument they stumble upon in their compositions – from harmoniums to waterphones – and they have done so with great success. Upon  building up their repertoire, which later became their debut LP, Weathervanes, the band set out into the streets of New York to let the world know about their music; It didn’t take long before people realized that they were capable of much more.

Recently, the band has started playing smaller venues in Brooklyn, but don’t be surprised when they start touring the country because it’s just a matter of time.

Freelance Whales – Generator ^ First Floor

Freelance Whales – Location

-Bishop-

First of all, go here to download Fanfarlo’s debut album for one dollar and by the time you’re done reading this you’ll be able to enjoy this London-based band’s catchy indie pop. Seriously though, do it, this one dollar offer ends the 4th.

Drawing comparisons to bands like Arcade Fire and Belle & Sebastian, Fanfarlo has big shoes to fill, but with the release of Reservoir the band is taking a step in the right direction; Reservoir takes the listener through a land of supple instrumentation and alluring orchestration. The thing that stands out the most about this album is just that, it’s an album. Too many bands today attempt to write albums chock full of sagas and masterpieces which result in an overcrowded, incohesive album. Luckily, Fanfarlo has been able to avoid this pitfall and as a result we have Reservoir, a saga and masterpiece all it’s own.

Watch out for this band to slowly grow a following…

As Friday swiftly approached, I was constantly reminded by my fellow peers that I should check out a concert happening at Castaways. With no other plans, I decided to take their advice to go see Revision, a local Ithacan band.

A few of my friends who are from Ithaca had been raving about Revision, but in the back of my mind I was thinking to myself, “How good can they really be?” Well ladies and gentlemen, I can honestly say that that concert was one of the best I have ever seen in my life, and I have seen greats such as Radiohead and My Morning Jacket.

Revision is made up of three Ithaca College graduates, so they know what they are doing when it comes to writing and performing music. Their music weaves in and out of a plethora of genres, making it accessible to any and every listener. I feel bad summing up this band’s creative work in just a few sentences, but due to time and space constraints, I must. Revision has built up a library that showcases their innate ability to make complex rhythms, melodies and chord progressions into something that not only is listenable, but outright danceable (and genius, if I must say so myself). As soon as they have you convinced that a song is going in a certain direction they instantly change it, but it is always for the better. With all that being said, the greatest part of their music is how well they know each other as musicians, and how flawless their live jams are; once they break out into a full-blown jam, the music transcends anything else you’ve heard and their god-like on-stage presence is immediately felt.

In short, you must see this band live. Must! I’ll leave you with a few links and an mp3, but please support this band, they deserve it! They have also just released their newest album, Jekyll And Hyde, which can be previewed and bought by clicking on the “Revision Store” link below.

In our interview with The Globes, lead singer Erik Walters recommended that we take a look at a band known as The Sea and Cake. After taking I listen, I’m pretty damn impressed. In many ways, this band should not be in a segment called “Bands To Watch.” They’ve been making music since 1994, and their website correctly describes them as “well-oiled.” It seems like they’re starting to gain some momentum though, and if they’re on fork/knife well then they must be getting huge.

The Sea and Cake is based in Chicago. They’ve drawn some bizarre classifications as jazz music, which I think are largely misplaced. I would say that they create their own musical space somewhere between Broken Social Scene and Badly Drawn Boy, yet even these comparisons make me uncomfortable because I don’t really think that you can put a finger on their vibe. Here’s a song from their 1995 album, which was called The Biz. If you like what you hear, go check out their newer material. They’ve got tons of it, and it’s all just as good.

The Sea and Cake – An Assasin
Amazon / iTunes

Band Website
Band MySpace

-Chris

After interviewing a few freshman who have made it onto the post-Merriweather Post Pavillion music scene, I bring you another college frosh who is doing the same. Spirit Spine, aka Joseph Denny, is a freshman at Indiana University, and trust me, he doesn’t lie when lists he Panda Bear as one of his influences.

Now, we don’t know too much about this kid, but I’m sure by the end of the year we shall have new information. What we do know is that he’s been making music for several years under a few different monikers, including Crimson Citizen and Lumigra. Under the name Crimson Citizen Denny showcases his average guitar skills, whereas with Lumigra he concentrates on using his computer to create music, using synths and drum machines. Upon throwing Crimson Citizen and Lumigra into the cauldron and stirring it for a few years, out came Spirit Spine, easily his best work to date.

Spirit Spine has the potential to really make a name for himself in the current music scene, he just needs to make sure he plays his cards right. We have seen plenty of small, unknown artists come out with a few great songs and then quickly fade-out. Indiana University is a great place for him to grow into a fantastic musician, so hopefully he sticks it out there for the next three years so he can evolve into an even more dynamic musician.

Denny’s self-titled debut came out on January 13th, and is available on iTunes, or if you want a hard-copy you can check out your greater-Bloomington record store/email Spirit Spine himself. He has a good number of songs that you can listen to on his myspace page if you’d like a bigger serving before buying the whole meal.

Spirit Spine – Trickledown
Spirit Spine – Crashers
Buy Album: iTunes

-Bishop

In the winter of 2006 Peter Silberman moved to Manhattan only to barricade himself inside his apartment, away from his family, friends, and the everyday hustle and bustle of the city. A year and a half later Silberman awoke from his hibernation as a liberated twenty-one year-old. With Hospice, his newest record under the moniker The Antlers, he set out on another year and a half journey to explain his absence.

After visiting his website I was pleased to find a plethora of his work available for my ears to munch on. It’s fantastic. The new record all started as Silberman’s solo bedroom arangements and recordings eventually evolving into a full blown record as he recruited some freinds to help him. Now, at band meetings the roll call includes two other names, Darby Cicci on trumpet and banjo, and Justin Stivers on bass. It’s now 2008 and Hospice is officially complete and being released on March 3rd.

Although I hate making band comparisons because every band – except cover bands – should be making music for their own satisfaction, I must say that the reviews that compare Silberman’s vocals to those of Jeff Buckley ring true. But once you sit down and listen to their music you’ll find that it has its own entity. The compositions are deeply layered, dazzling and delicate all at once. Once you double-click “Bear” in your iTunes library you think you’re listening to a new fancy cover of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, but Silberman quickly goes aray from the motiff and slowly creates an auricular jacuzzi of cloying goodness. Upon “Bear” coming to an end, I prepared myself for the next single “Two”. Upon dropping the needle you immediately realize why the song is entitled “Two”; the track only contains two chords. It starts out with Silberman strumming in a downward motion on his non-electric guitar between the two chords to create an anti-arrondi ambiance. The track slowly grows with Silberman’s vocals gaining a rawness, and more musical aspects contributing to the bewildering bliss until it brings you back to a comatose state.

With all that being said, it would be an understatement to say that I’m looking forward to hear what else this man has been able to write after that identity identification stage of his short little life.

The Antlers – Bear
The Antlers – Two

-Bishop

This Philly band has been together for just about a year now and they are already making their name known by producing some great music. People have used many different adjectives, nouns, adverbs, predicates and band comparisons to describe their music. Almack’s Dance Hall said that they’re like “The Beatles in a blender”, but I think my favorite review was done by NYC’s Ultragrrrl when they simply said “they’re so fucking good.”

For me, it took a few listens to become accustomed to their style and mannerisms, but now I fully support their music and will continue to as they rise up in the rankings. The band consists of four lads from Philadelphia, but I’ll let the band tell you about themselves. “Drink Up Buttercup consists of an ex-opera scholar who refused to exchange sexual favors for solos, a comic book kid who still uses a discman to play music in the car, and two teens who are engaged in an epic battle of side projects for myspace plays.”

Drink Up Buttercup is getting ready to release their debut album within the next few months, and everybody out there should make it a point to stop by his/her local record store and buy the album, not only to support the band, but also your local record store. But for now I leave you with two fabulous songs by this fabulous band. Drink Up!

Drink Up Buttercup – Young Ladies
Drink Up Buttercup – Gods And Gentleman
Buy Single: iTunes

-Bishop

This is a new feature here on fork/knife. Every week I will be posting about a band that is short on myspace hits, but big on musical ability. So with that being said, I cordially welcome you to the first installment of ‘Bands To Watch’.

Okay, so I posted about this band, Local Natives, on Christmas because I liked them so much that I felt like revealing them to the world (yes, the world) was my gift to the human race. The Local Natives are a band from southern California that spent half of 2008 recording their debut album, Gorilla Manor, in a two bedroom house (aka Gorilla Manor) that they also lived in. Upon finishing the album the band set off on their first tour. On Friday night they played a show at TT the Bears in Boston, but before setting up camp there for the night the boys decided to stop by and do a Flophouse Session for Band in Boston. This is the first time that we have been able to listen to decent recordings of songs other than the ones the band itself had released, and let me tell you, I like what I hear.

Since I previously posted about the band I will keep this one short and sweet. All you have to know about the Local Natives is that when you listen to them you will notice three things – though there is much more:
(1) They execute the three part harmony exquisitely,
(2) their melodies are catchy as hell, and
(3) you will be singing along.

With that I leave you with a live video and mp3 of their single ‘Airplanes’.

Watch it in high quality by following the previous link and then clicking “watch in high quality” in the lower right-hand corner of the video.

Local Natives – Airplanes

-Bishop