New Album of the Week - Sleepwaking by The Casket Girls

Okay, So I love this blog. I love writing about music. Unfortunately I am just too busy to put the effort that I did 6 months ago when I wrote constantly. So instead of trying to push myself to write like 1000 words every week, I will just do a paragraph or two. Also this takes less time to come up with what to say, so I will just do my new album of the week :D

Anyways, last week I picked up Graveface record's new band's, The Casket Girls's, debut album. Graveface as you might know is the personal label of Ryan Graveface of Black Moth Super Rainbow, and more importantly, BMSR's side project, the Marshmallow Ghosts. If you like crazy-weird-but-crazy-awesome indie music, then they are the label for you.

Anywho, Graveface (the man) decided to do another side project called the Casket Girls with Elisa and Phaedra Greene. According to the website, Graveface (the man) is obsessed with creating a darker version of the Shangri-Las, as evident by the Marshmallow Ghosts cover of "I can never go home" that they played at the concert Steve and I went to. That sentiment was part of what went into the MG and is definitely part of what went into the Casket Girls. Whether he succeeded or not is up to people who know the Sangri-Las better then I do.  But that is irrelevant; The Casket Girls are awesome.

Why are they awesome? Well imagine the Marshmallow Ghosts with a little bit more of a upbeat pop mentality and get rid of the Halloween theme. That is fantastic because I while absolutely love the MG, I find there music is best listened to when the air gets cold, the leaves fall, and ghosts are lurking around every corner (October). The Casket Girls are a band I can get behind 365 days a year. I might not like them as much as the MG, but man do they kick some ass. Check out the song "Sleepwaking" below.

Half eerie, half beautiful, half rocking out, Graveface (the man AND the label) once again creates a perfect mixture of obtuse and upright. Whether or not you are a fan of BMSR, the MG, or indie music in general, I highly recommend at least checking out Sleepwalking. You can buy it here.

Hopefully I will be back next week.

Elliott's Eccentricities- Forever Heavy by Black Moth Super Rainbow

Last fall I went to my first concert at the First Unitarian Church here in Philly with Steve and John.  The week before Steve asked me if I wanted to go to a concert with John and himself, warning me that the concert would be a bit out there. Loving adventure, music, and all things eccentric, I instantly agreed without knowing which band it was. “You sure?” he asked, “the band is Black Moth Super Rainbow and they are a bit bizarre.” I had never heard of them, nor had any idea what I was getting myself into; “Sounds perfect.”

Soon the night of the concert came and the three of us walked several blocks to an old church on 2125 Chestnut Street. Outside was the most eclectic group of people I had ever seen waiting in line; every stereotypical demographic was accounted for. It was a mix of hipsters, high school students, guys in sports jerseys, old people, scene-sters, and people who looked like they just got off work. We joined as the line filled down a steep stone staircase, through a door, and into an extremely cramped rec-room that reminded me of all of the church food drives my mother took me too as a kid. On one side of the room was a small stage, the other was flanked with fold-out tables covered in merchandise.

After a while of standing in the now-crowded and almost-intolerably-hot room, the concert began to play. The show had three opening acts prior to the main event, two of which (The Marshmallow Ghosts and Serengeti) will definitely get an entry in this column of their own someday.  Once they were finished their sets BMSR took the stage and I heard them play for the first time. As I had hoped, my mind was blown to little pieces.

The concert was fantastic; it was an amazing first impression that is probably a part of why I love going back to First Unitarian. On the way out I was sure to pick up their album and give it a listen. I soon found out however that my relationship with Dandelion Gum was going to be different that mine with most other albums. I can (and have) listen to a Man Man album four to five times in one week. I can only listen to Black Moth once or twice a month. This is because of their sound; it’s absolutely fantastic but tends to drive me crazy after a while. Check out Forever Heavy (a pretty good embodiment of their sound) and see for yourself.

On the eccentricity scale ranging from 1 to 10
1- I pirate music.
10- I am building a fleet of helicopter UAVs that will hover in the upper atmosphere and contain servers that will help the world pirate music without being caught.
Forever Heavy- 7/10

Black Moth’s sound is one half outer-space, one half backwoods, and one half LSD trip. For one reason or another, I always imagine a man in a space suit dancing around in the forest under a neon-colored sky whenever I give them a listen. Their sound is heavily distorted, to the point where it is almost unlistenable. The voice effects make the lyrics extremely difficult to understand and the synths overload almost everything else. Yet this appears to be on purpose, it actually sounds really good. By overloading everything, it all flows together into this psychedelic soup that pours pleasantly into your brain. I am not into drugs, but let me tell you, if I was Black Moth would be on the top of my list of “music to listen to while out of my mind”.

I personally don’t think Black Moth makes individual songs that one can simply pop on; they don’t really have strong melodies to follow, choruses to sing along with, or solos to jam to. Instead they create a wonderful sound to just listen to for hours on end. This in effect is extremely similar to the work of DJ acts like the Avalanches, which is hilarious to me seeing as they are so incredibly different.

 Black Moth is the opposite of mainstream music. So if you are one of those annoying hipsters who cares less about listening to good music and more about listening to obscure music, check out BMSR cause they are right up your ally. If you are a hipster like me and just love checking out new and interesting music, still loving it (without complaining) after the mainstream stumbles across it, you should also check out BMSR.