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