Music Blowing My Mind (Part 3)...

Prepare yourself for brain-splattering rock music! (This is the final installment of music that has been blowing my mind recently).

No skulls allowed!


**WARNING: The following music may do this to you.**



1. Islands "A Sleep & A Forgetting"

A couple summers ago, I went to go see The Black Keys with my brother. I was stoked to see those dudes melt faces with their bluesy-guitar-stomp-garage rock! The Keys had an opening band called Human Highway. This band consisted of two Canadian indie stalwarts Jim Guthrie and Nick "Diamonds" Thornburn (and sounded nothing like The Black Keys).

They played their set in the hot Utah sun while most of the folks in the audience were talking. I wasn't paying too much attention, but they got into a song called "What World" and it shot a sonic arrow right into my heart. As much as I liked the Black Keys, this quirky pop-folk-doo-wop is what stuck with me that night.

I got home and downloaded their album. It was, in a word: perfect. I became sorta obsessed with them and tried to figure out if they had any more albums. My gumshoeing led me to discover Nick Thornburn's primary band, Islands. Because it looked like Human Highway was sort of a side-project-whim, I surrendered and got an Islands album called "Vapours."

As it turned out, "Vapours" became one of my all-time favorite albums.

It's time, dear readers, that you acknowledge Islands! They're legit, and Nick Thornburn has the goods on the same level as Beck, Stephen Malkmus, and Jack White. By "the goods," I mean the ability to make a unique mark on the alt-rock soundscape all their own.

Anyways, I heard Islands were coming out with a new album this year and was really eager to hear it. It was released on Valentines Day. Here's a picture of the album cover:

A black background with a black rose. On Valentine's. Oh boy. 

When I first listened, I found none of the crazy spaghetti-western-drum-machine-pop-masterpieces that were on "Vapours." So, like a little bitch, I wrote this album off as "okay" and let it slide into my overly vast iTunes library. 

A little bit of time passed and while shuffling songs on my iPod, an Islands song from this album would pop-up. Every single time I stopped what I was doing! I was all, "Wha? Me gusta!"

After this happened more than a few times,  I hunkered down and re-listened. My brain was jettisoned rear-cranium-style!

I screwed up comparing it to Vapours. This album is something totally different. Where Vapours rocked the fanciful tales of drug-induced oblivion, "A Sleep & A Forgetting" made a bridge to Human Highway-ish sounds. A 50's (60's?) love letter to burned and bloodstained love letters. Nick Thornburn made a tragic heartbreaker of an album cuz I think he experienced a tragic heartbreak! (Zoinks!)

Anyways, do yourself a favor and buy this album. Its all good. Right now, my favorites are "Hallways," "Oh, Maria," and "This Is Not a Song." 

2. Jack White "Blunderbuss"

Um, how often will you be able to compare a solo effort to the likes of Led Zeppelin and Jerry Lee Lewis? Answer: Never. Dude is ridiculous! My pre-frontal cortex turned into creamed corn when I heard these songs: "Sixteen Saltines," "I'm Shakin'," "(Hip) Eponymous Poor Boy," and "Trash Tongue Talker." Who is this guy?






3. Diamond Rugs

Hmmm...Where do I begin?

Oh, I know, when my skull exploded into raspberry jam all over the back of my truck!!!

This music is at once too simple and too incredible to write about in my sorry-ass blog. It's everything I've ever wanted in American Rock Music. How's that? It's why car windows were designed to be rolled down and car stereos were designed to be turned up!

Just go buy this album and thank me later.





4. Dr. Dog "Be the Void"

For starters, these dudes are my favorites right now. When I think of Dr. Dog, I think of this image  below:

I've seen them live a couple times and they don't dress like this, (you never know cuz indie-music-hipsters can go to great lengths to dress ironically...) . This is a publicity shot. If you listen to their music, you get it. They work hard, they look to the past, they fix it, they bring it to you in their own unique way. If you asked them for what's in their pockets, you'd find dusty remnants of The Beatles, The Band, and The Beach Boys. 

Their last four albums are back-to-back masterpieces. I'm not joking. I mentioned those older bands above, but don't let me mislead you. Dr. Dog sound nothing like them. It's just...you can tell they take the past of rock history seriously and selectively. 

Anyhoo, they do their thing and it works. All the time. 

Their most recent album "Be the Void" is a frenetic pot luck of sorts. It's full of energy, angst, and fun. These guys are fantastic musicians and you get the feeling they just let it all out in the studio here. No breaks, very little polishing, just a good ol' fashioned rocker! I like rocking to all the songs from this album, but check out, "That Old Black Hole," "The Trick," and "Lonesome" for sure.

There you go. Hope your brain splatters on the back of your sofa!