Hot off the presses, BTBAM just released a new music video for their album that just came out! I want to actually provide a whole review of The Great Misdirect, but havent found the time yet.
This video is really great. I've only watched it once but its the first video they have done that has a budget worthy of the immensity of their band. its all fucking awesome but uh, one thing..... those subtitles? really? was that the best graphics guy you guys have at victory records?
Monday, December 7, 2009
Thursday, December 3, 2009
BLACK HEART PROCESSION!!
I kind of have to start out and tell you that this is a band that can do no wrong in my eyes, so if you want an unbiased review, go somewhere else. If i was trying to, I could write a 5 page essay about how important Black Heart Procession was to my musical influence and life-ambience soundtrack, but i'll paraphrase it in order to tell you about their NEW cd, titled lovingly for those who will know, "six". before doing my typical pseudo-review of the album, i want to pause and give a short backstory.
When I first started getting to be the age to where you consider all genres with an open mind, black heart procession was literally one of the first bands I listened to outside of punk/hardcore/metal type stuff. one of the first bands that i heard about with a folky, more acoustic mellow sound. Well I guess in the 90s i DID listen to modest mouse, radiohead, portishead, and built to spill for a little mellow change of things, but black heart procession is definitely a mature step up from the likes of those. Its a step away from poppy and more traditionally folky and towards darker, stranger, more deeply emotional, more CLASSICAL in instrumentation and music. Probably one of the first bands where i ever heard an accordion that actually made my jaw drop and want to play the track over and over. as well as cellos, saws, distant wailing vocals, hollow wind ambience sounds, and on and on.
I got "one" and "two" albums and was instantly captivated by their dark somber beauty, and bought "three" as it was released. by the time i had played through "three" into deep channels in my brain, their first three albums all formed the backing track for an an entire fall and winter in my life, the first fall and winter where I was thrown into the adult world and becoming an adult. first year out of high school, first living on my own (with a roommate), first REALLY serious girlfriend, first job, a dehumanizing cubicle job...
throughout all of these things that we all get thrown through and chewed up as becoming adults, I had just discovered this beautiful band BHP, and had reason to feel the dark longing things they expressed in their music. but it was never a darkness that lowered you down into a sinking depression, but a bold recognition of things like depression in an empowering way to allow you to recognize and accept sadness or longing for what they are. its all part of life, and life is beautiful.
like i said, this five page essay is already getting too sappy and out there. at that point i decided to get matching black heart procession-inspired tattoos with the said first girlfriend. we would spend time designing the drawing together, in the dark and freezing cold, because we couldnt afford to pay the electric bill with our 7 dollar an hour jobs for 19 year olds. would look at the album art for "two" and "three" and think the style and the heart logos were so cute. we would just drawn them together in the candlelight, with different variations, and then started talking about mike it be a matching tattoo for us since at the end of that season BHP had just become the soundtrack for all of our time together.
well as young couples do, we eventually went through tons of really hard times and boke up, then a year or so after the breakup, i decided to actually get the tattoo we talked about. its on my wrist. barely talked to her for a long time, then she got a hold of me and asked me for some of the sketches we had done since she wanted to get the tattoo, and i was amazed. she had hers done up a bit different without seeing mine, and got a pair of them on the back of each arm.
at this point bhp came out with the radical departure of the salsa/latin ballroom "The tropics of love" and then later a very combination-of-the-new-and-old-sounding "the spell". The tropics album lets just say i appreciate, and the spell definitely has a few real gems. but i really spent from 2003 to 2009 waiting for BHP to once again make something along the lines as dark beautiful and intriguing as their first trio of albums were in their time.
THE TIME HAS COME. they just came out with "six", like a welcome and fresh homecoming. as soon as i saw some banner ad for it online i went to my record shop and bought it and was instantly please with nostalgia when i took it out and it was bound like an old canvas book. adorned with the very similar vein of cute iconic dark art. the music is much like the first trio of albums, but more intentional, matured, and thoughtful. I dont think we will get any more extended bad-acid-trip through the snow wailing ambience type tracks from them like in "the waterfront" on "three", but we still have fantastic ambient samples, an array of instruments, and never-wavering perfectly ON vocals that maintain an emotional honesty.
so, i love this band and everything they create and their body of work will always influence everything i create.
now that its out there, here is a piece they made from SIX::
When I first started getting to be the age to where you consider all genres with an open mind, black heart procession was literally one of the first bands I listened to outside of punk/hardcore/metal type stuff. one of the first bands that i heard about with a folky, more acoustic mellow sound. Well I guess in the 90s i DID listen to modest mouse, radiohead, portishead, and built to spill for a little mellow change of things, but black heart procession is definitely a mature step up from the likes of those. Its a step away from poppy and more traditionally folky and towards darker, stranger, more deeply emotional, more CLASSICAL in instrumentation and music. Probably one of the first bands where i ever heard an accordion that actually made my jaw drop and want to play the track over and over. as well as cellos, saws, distant wailing vocals, hollow wind ambience sounds, and on and on.
I got "one" and "two" albums and was instantly captivated by their dark somber beauty, and bought "three" as it was released. by the time i had played through "three" into deep channels in my brain, their first three albums all formed the backing track for an an entire fall and winter in my life, the first fall and winter where I was thrown into the adult world and becoming an adult. first year out of high school, first living on my own (with a roommate), first REALLY serious girlfriend, first job, a dehumanizing cubicle job...
throughout all of these things that we all get thrown through and chewed up as becoming adults, I had just discovered this beautiful band BHP, and had reason to feel the dark longing things they expressed in their music. but it was never a darkness that lowered you down into a sinking depression, but a bold recognition of things like depression in an empowering way to allow you to recognize and accept sadness or longing for what they are. its all part of life, and life is beautiful.
like i said, this five page essay is already getting too sappy and out there. at that point i decided to get matching black heart procession-inspired tattoos with the said first girlfriend. we would spend time designing the drawing together, in the dark and freezing cold, because we couldnt afford to pay the electric bill with our 7 dollar an hour jobs for 19 year olds. would look at the album art for "two" and "three" and think the style and the heart logos were so cute. we would just drawn them together in the candlelight, with different variations, and then started talking about mike it be a matching tattoo for us since at the end of that season BHP had just become the soundtrack for all of our time together.
well as young couples do, we eventually went through tons of really hard times and boke up, then a year or so after the breakup, i decided to actually get the tattoo we talked about. its on my wrist. barely talked to her for a long time, then she got a hold of me and asked me for some of the sketches we had done since she wanted to get the tattoo, and i was amazed. she had hers done up a bit different without seeing mine, and got a pair of them on the back of each arm.
at this point bhp came out with the radical departure of the salsa/latin ballroom "The tropics of love" and then later a very combination-of-the-new-and-old-sounding "the spell". The tropics album lets just say i appreciate, and the spell definitely has a few real gems. but i really spent from 2003 to 2009 waiting for BHP to once again make something along the lines as dark beautiful and intriguing as their first trio of albums were in their time.
THE TIME HAS COME. they just came out with "six", like a welcome and fresh homecoming. as soon as i saw some banner ad for it online i went to my record shop and bought it and was instantly please with nostalgia when i took it out and it was bound like an old canvas book. adorned with the very similar vein of cute iconic dark art. the music is much like the first trio of albums, but more intentional, matured, and thoughtful. I dont think we will get any more extended bad-acid-trip through the snow wailing ambience type tracks from them like in "the waterfront" on "three", but we still have fantastic ambient samples, an array of instruments, and never-wavering perfectly ON vocals that maintain an emotional honesty.
so, i love this band and everything they create and their body of work will always influence everything i create.
now that its out there, here is a piece they made from SIX::
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