Surfer Blood - Astro Coast

[Iota]

I decided to post two links because some people face difficulties concerning the non-premium service of rapidshare lately and because Megaupload allows much higher download rates for non-premium users.

Surfer Blood - Astro Coast @ 320kBit/s mp3 - Rapidshare
Surfer Blood - Astro Coast @ 256kBit/s m4a - Megaupload

iTunes, Foobar, VLC and Real player and Songbird play m4a just fine. Winamp or Windows Media Player users might encounter difficulties. If your Winamp doesn't play the files: have a look at the first post here or elsewhere on the Winamp message boards.

So, I hope all goes well. Happy reviewing.

[carbon_psycho]

thanks IOTA

[Iota]

You're welcome.

[gryphon]

Took me a while to become a master of the download system but after a bit of thought and trial and error I got it down loaded and unpacked.
So off I go into real player cans on and .........................:biggrin:
I liked this album on first hearing ....it was easy to listen to and engaged me quickly......there is nice use of fuzz guitar and a rather intriguing can vocals. I could hear quite a few interesting echoes of the past, for a moment “The Who” came to mind along with a nod towards Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys in the vocal department . Did Scritti-Politti have a bit of an influence or even The Cocteau twins? They have mastered the art of producing a good hook and as a result you walk away from the session with many of the tracks planted firmly in your brain and often you feel the need to reach for the album and re-listen. For a first album from a band who claim to have done little live work this seems to be a great start ..........I look forward to two things..........a chance to see them live and a second album...........:biggrin::biggrin:

[carbon_psycho]

Yes.. I am back home... now I can finally download & listen to the album..

I had been away from home for few days.. I was having some serious pest problems at home..

[Music Head]

Yes.. I am back home... now I can finally download & listen to the album..

I had been away from home for few days.. I was having some serious pest problems at home..

Ah, mother-in-law visiting, huh.

[carbon_psycho]

I said just away from home, not the city..

BTW i had couple of rats bothering me..

[Iota]

I don't know if I would've ever listened to that album if I knew about the pitchfork rating in the first place since I usually despise pitchfork-hyped artists and give a flying **** about their ratings. But this time, I do have to admit: Surfer Blood's Astro Coast isn't that bad. Not very original but it's okay. But what's original these days anyway?

If the Beach Boys were born sometime back in the 80s, they might sound just like these guys do, influenced by lo-fi acts such as Pavement or Neutral Milk Hotel and surf bands such as the Surfaris and the likes. Stylistically speaking, Surfer Blood jumped on the recently oh so popular lo-fi bandwagon and play some guitar-laden fuzzy surf rock. Not as over the top scratchy as shitgaze but still quite coarse. There are decent songs on Astro Coast. Take Fast Jabroni for instance which, unlike pitchfork stated, invites rather to air-drumming than playing the air-guitar but that's perfectly fine. Or Take it Easy with it's rather 'unusual' rhythm. Unfortunately there aren't many of them. Atfer giving it a thorough listen you just can't remember any passage whatsoever. It's good while listening to it but nothing that you can really recall later; nothing catchy.
The lyrics are, as it is the case with many indie bands, interchangable with any other run-of-the-mill 'independent band'. Topics are "confusion about romance, confusion about friendship, confusion about the future, confusion about religion". Very extraordinary indeed...

What keeps me from putting them down as another mediocre indie act is the fact that they mention David Lynch in their song Twin Peaks - which happens to be of the same name as a TV-series by Lynch, too. Major sympathy boost to me.

This being said I'd rate them 6.5/10.

[Music Head]

I gotta see the album cover. That's half the fun. With no guidelines set forth, I feel free to revert to my systematic way of evaluating music. I will grade each song on a 1 to 3 scale for the 3 areas that I consider relevant, and comment when I have something to say. Overall, with 4 outstanding tracks out of 10, I think this is a great album. I can hear some Strokes, Vampire Weekend and Television. This will probably end up on my buy list.

Floating Vibes

Music - 3 - love the bass and when the lead guitar kicks in, I'm hooked
Vocals - 3
Lyrics - 3 - not sure what the applause verse means. applause for what

Swim

Music - 2 - what's that cutoff and then it comes back with something entirely different
Vocals - 1 - too tin canny
Lyrics - the end of what

Take It Easy

Music - 2 - is that a horse galloping
Vocals - 2
Lyrics - 1 - not much there/ take it easy or we will both be sorry

Harmonix

Music - 3 - love that just guitar and drum part
Vocals - 3 - nice harmonies
Lyrics - 3 - break up, move on. what better way

Neighbour Riffs

Music - 2 - nice bass line
Vocals - n/a
Lyrics - n/a

Twin Peaks

Music - 2
Vocals - 3
Lyrics - 3 - Twin Peaks and David Lynch. Is this a metaphore

Fast Jabroni

Music - 3
Vocals - 2
Lyrics - 2 - jabroni means throwing a wrestling match. Is that in here? Couldn't tell.

Slow Jabroni

Music - 2 - don't like the slow start but ok once the guitar kicks in
Vocals - 3 - he covers some different ranges for a change up
Lyrics - 2 - just trying to figure it out so I don't have to do without

Anchorage

Music - 3 - drum intro hooks me
Vocals - 3
Lyrics - 3 - I love Alaska so they had me

Catholic Pagans

Music - 3 - Duane Eddy twang intro then it flows
Vocals - 3
Lyrics - 3 - getting straight when he met her and combing his hair was pretty cool. Wondering about the Russian bride and Obama connection?

[carbon_psycho]

I haven't listened to this completely..

But doesn't Harmonix sound something by The Cure.

So far my favourite track is Neighbour Riffs.