Author Archives: charlie

The Shins’ “Port of Morrow”

Posted on April 9, 2012 | 1 Comment

Are you going to Morrow today? (Photo courtesy of wikipedia.org)

The Shins definitely ran the risk of finding their style dated and copied since their last album five years ago. Or since their indie hit album Chutes Too Narrow four years before that. Or even since their debut way back in 2001. It has been eleven years since Oh, Inverted World, but rather than adapting to survive, The Shins have built a style for themselves that has so far proved timeless. As they sing on their new album, Port of Morrow, “a creature of habit has no real protection,” but maybe they don’t need any. The new release is not breaking news for the frontier of musical originality, but it still sounds fantastic even in the landscape of music in 2012.

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Posted in Albums, New Releases

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Korallreven at The Independent 3/18/12

Posted on March 8, 2012 | 1 Comment

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Photo: Ryan Mac

If you went to the bathroom, you could have missed half the set. If you had bad Indian food… well. Making their United States debut, Sweden’s  Korallreven arrived in a haze of shadows, but were gone in a flash–clocking in 35 minutes or music at The Independent in San Francisco before dashing out the door.

Before the Swedish cameo, opener Giraffage set the stage nicely for Korallreven with some slick DJ work involving beats and melodies usually too delicate for the average laptop button smasher. With an on-stage presence akin to Nosaj Thing but a audio style that recalls the work of Baths, San Francisco’s Charlie Yin foot tapped and head bobbbed for a crowd composed of friends and curious onlookers. Not soon after closing he joined the crowd to take in the main attraction.

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Posted in New Artists, Shows

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School of Seven Bells’ Ghostory

Posted on February 29, 2012 | 1 Comment

Alejandra Deheza, lead singer. What a name! (Photo courtesy of stereogum.com)

School of Seven Bells’ Ghostory will be making it to Treeswingers’ albums of 2012 list even though it’s only February. Their effective combination of compelling lyrics, slow beats, and continuous chords returns after their well received 2010 album, Disconnect from Desire. Their ethereal style inherently gives their albums flow, but Ghostory is extremely well crafted and performs well as a package.

With the exception of single-worthy “Lafaye” and “The Night”, the subtle melodies on the album are never simple enough to capture at first. Instead, lead singer Alejandra Deheza’s layered vocals are necessary to slowly uncover the mood and direction of the songs. In this sense, SVIIB produced very vocal-centric tracks, where the desperate lyrics and vocal harmonies are a gateway to the even more textured supporting music. “Love Play” is a great example of this, though it wouldn’t be surprising if the band considered the eight-minute “When You Sing” to be the album’s stylistic centerpiece.

School of Seven Bells – Lafaye (download)

School of Seven Bells – Love Play (download)

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Polica’s Give You the Ghost

Posted on January 21, 2012 | 1 Comment

Anyone else subliminally reminded of Postal Service? (Photo courtesy of tellallyourfriendspr.com)

What’s the deal with double drumsets? The arrangement always instantly adds depth and variety to music. It always takes a few measures to figure out why the snare hits sound fuller, why there seem to be far more frequent symbol hits than other songs, or why such intricate bass drum grace notes can be played – but two drumsets is nearly exclusively the culprit. We at Treeswingers have seen Radiohead, Brand New, MuteMath, and others add a second drummer at live shows, but this new band has gone ahead and embedded it in their style.

Calling Minneapolis home, Polica is set to release their first album, Give You the Ghost on Valentine’s Day. How cute. The video below shows Polica performing the stand-out track from the album, “Wandering Star”. Watching the unique instrumentation for a four-piece band provides a nice context for later listens of the song, which you can grab below. Don’t miss Polica’s autotuning and double drumming when the album comes out next month.

Polica – Wandering Star (download)

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Posted in Albums, Music Videos, New Artists, New Releases

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Something a little different

Posted on January 4, 2012 | Leave a comment

Treeswingers is a great promoter of the arts – and not just music. We’ve previously posted on some great music that just happened to be backing up some juggling, and we’re at it again already in 2012. Here is a RAC mix of Delorean‘s “Stay Close” supporting some fantastic juggling.

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Posted in Music Videos, Rando, Remixes

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