The Silver Mount Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-La-La Band; Very Long Title.

Hey Everyone,

I recently have purhased my first Silver Mount Zion CD (Thanks Veronica; she gave it to me for Easter). They are a bit like Godspeed You! Black Emperor, which figures because the band sort of disbanded to focus on Silver Mount Zion. Their music features soundbites (from what I do not know) much like Godspeed You! and their music features a lot of violin, which is good because it helps make the music more mournful, which I like. My wife says that it is weird, depressing music, which it is but whenever I listen to this type of music (post-rock, instrumentals or whatever you call it) I get reflective, nostalgic (towards what I am not sure) and it relaxes me. I often enjoying listening to it when I am in bed (helps me sleep) or while I am reading it (it makes for good background sound; although sometimes it gets unexpectedly loud, then quiet and weird sound effects or soundbites oftten ensue; can be a little distracting at times).

Recently, I also bought the last two Explosions in the Sky albums that I did not own; not as good as the other two that I already own, but good. To my pleasant surprise, I have recently learned that friends of mine have heard of this band, by this I mean my cousin-in-law Denise and my friend Chris' girlfriend also named Denise (what are the odds?). I guess Explosions in the Sky are not as indy as I thought which is weird because Godspeed You! and Silver Mount Zion were/are pretty unknown.

I highly recommend these bands that I keep mentioning. So, if you want to listen to a sample let me know and you can come over and listen (obviously, I am refering to those close friends and family not to complete strangers; so, if I do not know you please disregard the preceeding).

Thanks for reading. Please let comments, suggestions, questions and I will be more than happy to reply back.

LISTEN at a reasonable volume or LOUD...whatever you prefer.

Fanboy Dave

Explosions In The Sky

Hello All,

My previous post was on post-rock music, which I have just got into in the last year, at first with Godspeed You! Black Emperor, then with Silver Mount Zion Memorial Orchestra and more recently with Explosions In The Sky.

I cannot even remember what led me to buying my first Explosions In The Sky album, but I know that I love the band and currently own 3 of their 4 albums ( I am not continuing their EP The Rescue released in 2005). I often listen to their music when I go to bed because it helps me sleep, but I also enjoying listening to it while I read as background sounds. After I released that much of one of their albums was created for use in the film Friday Night Lights, I rewatched the film and realized that the music was from my favourite album from them; The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place. I do also very much like their 200o release How Strange, Innocence. To me their music conveys a lot of emotion. When listening to their music I feel sad, reflective, melancholic, hopeful, energized (much of the Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place features music that really pumps you up; I do the treadmill listening to this album on my ipod).

The band is from Texas, formed in 1999 and plays with 3 electric guitars, drum and sometimes an electric guitar is substituted for a bass guitar. Like many of the post-rock or Instrumentals or whatever you want to call this type of band they are very independent. I cannot often find their CDs in my local HMV, Best Buy or Future Shop stores.

I aim to in the next few months to purchase the outstanding Explosions In The Sky CD and add it to my music collection. If anyone reading this who is a friend or relative of mine and wishes to hear so let me know and when I see you next I can bring a CD or if you are over I can put some on and you can give it a listen.

I hope this brief blog entry has been interesting and informative to you, the readers and I look forward to your comments and questions, so please if you have any please leave me.

Thanks for reading.

FaNbOy DaVe

Post Rock

Hey Everyone,

This may not be news to some of you but it is to me and I thought that I would share it with those of you that may not be aware. What I want to share with you is a type of music that I discovered (not me personally but I have read about it on wikipedia [great site]): post rock. Wikipedia defined post-rock as music that used rock instruments for non-rock purposes. I describe it as emotional rock music without lyrics. In my research, I found that the following bands are considered post-rock bands; Godspeed You Black Emperor (not active right now), Explosions In The Sky (great band), Fly Pan Am, Do Make Say Think, Silver Mount Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-La-La Band (Godspeed you members are focussed on this band right now) and Mogwai, who are resisting this title. Post-rocks bands are mostly independent and not really in the mainstream of rock music, save for Mogwai. I have often found that post-rock music is often used as 'background' or score music in films; Godspeed You black Emperor in 28 Days Later (one of my top five films), Explosions in the Sky in Friday Night Lights and Mogwai in Miami Vice. There may be other examples but those are the only examples that I am currently aware of. Post rock songs tend to be somewhat longer to much longer than the average rock song; songs from Explosions in the Sky average about 7-9 minutes and each albums usually contains about 6-7 songs, whereas songs from Godspeed You Black Emperor average about 16-20 minutes each and each album contains 3-4 songs. I love film score music as I have detailed in a blog entry on my other blog (Dave's Bizarre Movie Rants) and I think that is why I took to post-rock music. Post-rock music speaks to me in ways that mainstream vocal rock does not; I think this is because with vocal rock there is more of a fixed number of meanings that the songs can have, whereas post-rock songs, I believe have a multitude of meanings and they speak to or jar my emotions more than a lot of mainstream rocks songs do, although songs from some of my favourite bands do speak to me in the same way (Matthew Good, Snow Patrol). If some of you out there like me, enjoy film score music, I recommend that you give post-rock music a listen to and check out the description of post-rock music on wikipedia.

Take Care and listen loud.

Fanboy Dave

The Servant : We Hardly Knew Ye!

The first time that I heard the band The Servant, I did not know that it was a band, as the music was instrumental and therefore there were no vocals. I heard their song 'Cells' over a trailer for the film Sin City. Unfortunately, the song was not feature on the Sin City score and did not appear in the film. Eventually, I figured out what the song title was and what band and album it was from, but discovered that the cd was an import and was 50 dollars on amazon.ca. I debated about whether to buy it or not and then I discovered that the song was also featured on the Transporter 2 soundtrack, which was the cheaper chicken at about 14 dollars after tax; I bought the cd. It was different hearing the song with vocals, but I still thought it was a good song. I was also overjoyed to find out that there was a second song by the same band (The Servant) on the soundtrack; I also enjoyed this song, as well. Again, I debated about buying their somewhat expensive cd and decided that I was going to roll the dice and buy the cd and hope that I would enjoy it: I often do this with music and film; usually I have heard good things or have heard a song or seen some of the film and decided to take a leap of faith. I got the cd in the mail and discovered that The Servant were a really good, relatively unknown band.

The Servant's self entitled cd (2004) was their first full length cd and has since been followed by How To Destroy A Relationship (2006). Previously, they had released two EPs; Mathematics (1999) and With The Invisible (2000). I have only heard from their self-entitled, but I am eager to hear from their other cd and their eps.

The Servant are a British, alternative rock band that have had some success in Britain, Italy, France and Western Canada. Unfortunately, they broke up November 2007 and the band members are now moving onto other music projects, but their music will live on with their two albums and 2 EPS.

I just want to list some lyrics from my favourite song from the band, 'Liquefy' and just state how they speak to me.

From the chorus;

Shall We Liquefy
Oh you and I
And mingle in the stream?
Shall We Liquefy
Oh you and I
And vanish into the sea?

I would not argue that these lyrics are deep and totally meaningful but they speak to me in a small way. I feel that the lyrics mean that two people are deciding whether to join together and get 'lost' together, that is to get caught up in each other's presence and love etc. The song is really catchy, but I think that it is a cool and happy song.

If any of you want to hear music from the band, you can come over and listen to some of The Servant and see what you think.

Take Care People.

Fanboy Dave

My Top Six Bands!

Hello Everyone,

This is my second blog, my first is about movies (Dave's Bizarre Movie Rants; http://fanboydave.blogspot.com). First, I would like to start this new blog by listing my Top 6 bands (cause I had one more than 5; oh well). In no particular order, here are my top 6 bands;

1. Matthew Good - Some consider his music depressing and his voice whiny and you know what I say to that, 'sad songs they say. sad songs they say. so much'. When Matthew Good was with the band, they were a little louder rock, than he is as a solo artist, but Hospital music is a good music of sad, depressing, contemplative songs with classic rock sounding songs. Of all the Matthew Good/Matthew Good Band songs that I have heard there is only one song; one song that I do not like.

2. Snow Patrol - Great soft rock band. There first two albums (rereleased in North America) are a bit more alt-rock then the two albums that they are really known for in North America (The Final Straw, Eyes Open). Their lyrics are very emotional and lovely; yeah I said it. I love them. You wanna fight about it?

3. Muse - Great loud rock band, although some of their songs are a bit dancey (supermassive black hole). Matthew Bellamy's vocals are a little screamy at times, but he has a very good vocal range and he can sing in different styles; his cover of 'Feeling Good' is a mix of old and new. Some of their songs are very slow and beautiful.

4. Queen - I can listen to their music continually for about 61/2 hours or however long it takes to get to Illonois from Brampton, Ontario. My Dad and I listened to Queen on our way to visit friends their and never really got sick of it. Freddie Mercury had one of the best voices in rock history. Brian May is also one of the best songwriters in rock history as well. Queen are easily one of the top five rock bands of all time. If you disagree then get ready for a fight.

5. The Killers - Great alt-rock band with very poppy songs. Great live; have lots of energy.

6. Godspeed You Black Emperor - One of the best Post-Rock bands (there are not many of them and they are mostly independent). I consider this music as music that you would here in a film scores. Their songs are like 20 minutes long or very close to that. Theirs songs have movements/flow from one point to the next; this breaks up the song into parts that build up and down in volume and intensity. I recommend this band to anyone who is a fan of film scores. (See also my movie rant on film scores).