What the Creative Loafing music team is jamming to break through the Monday malaise and rocket launch the week… Click here to check out previous entries.
– The Bright Light Social Hour, The Bright Light Social Hour (2010)
The Bright Light Social Hour landed on my desk a couple weeks ago, and since it wasn't by a band coming to town nor something I was already expecting , it didn't get my immediate attention. In fact, it's surprising that I even listened to this album at all since its a self-release by a non-local band I'd never heard of. Fortunately, in the end, something about the cover art charmed me and drew me in and I discovered an exhuberant rock album of the sort that changes your impression from track to track — one minute, it's muscular, anthemic prog rock with AC/DC leanings and rah-rah choruses and the next, it's tastefully melodic groove-oriented post-rock, and then, suddenly, it jumps to full-on funky disco dance music. Might seem jarring, but somehow, it works. And there are only nine tracks, too, which makes getting through it so easy that you find yourself re-playing it pretty much immediately.
Ivan – Girl in a Coma, Adventures in Coverland (2010)
This all-covers punk rock album is awesome. Girl in a Coma is a all-female punk trio from Texas signed to Joan Jett's Blackheart Records. If you like Me First and the Gimme Gimmies, you should enjoy this band's music as well. Fave tracks: "Si Una Vez" (Selena cover) and "Come On, Let's Go" (Ritchie Valens cover).
Brad – Jobriath's third untitled, unreleased album demos.
Probably recorded during his U.S. tour in 1974, but that is debatable...
– The Octopus Project, Hexadecagon (2010)
Hexadecagon is the fourth release from the Austin instrumental experimental electronic group. The album's name is the geometrical term for a sixteen-sided object, chosen because it was inspired by their highly praised performance at SXSW last year. The show was written for an eight-channel sound and video system, performed as a sixteen-sided audiovisual panorama. I've seen video footage of the SXSW show and it's pretty phenomenal stuff...the music seems to surround the audience as the synchronized video footage changes.
The album starts with the phenomenal "Fuguefat" - a bass heavy, psychedelic tripped out dance groove, but the album certainly isn't just dance music; "Korakrit" in particular has a gorgeous melody. Though some of the album is a bit abrasive (my dog seems to especially hate the last track, "Catalog") it's quickly establishing itself as one of the most intriguing releases I've heard this year.
