Indie pop outfit fun.‘s 2009 album, Aim and Ignite, is one of my favorite records, and we at MCMG are heavily anticipating their upcoming record, Some Nights, out February 21st on Fueled By Ramen. Check out the video below about recording “All Alright” with a New York City children’s choir.
fun. will also be hitting the road this spring. See the dates for their North American tour below.
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Pure Noise Records just finished off a pretty exciting year, and now they’ve announced their first-ever Pure Noise Records tour featuring headlining legs from Bay Area pop-punk band The Story So Far, Harrisburg, PA’s Handguns, and New Jersey’s I Call Fives with support from Berkeley, CA’s The American Scene and Southern California’s Forever Came Calling. Daybreaker will also be on select dates.
Tags: The Story So Far, tours, Pure Noise Records, Handguns
The Maine have grown a lot in the past four years, which isn’t too unexpected for a band whose first album came out shortly after a couple of the members graduated from high school. Almost four years ago to the day, they made their debut on Fearless with The Way We Talk EP, followed by Can’t Stop Won’t Stop the following summer, a record that was a little all over the place. When Black & White came out in 2010, it threw some people for a loop. There wasn’t a hint of the “neon” scene that the band was lumped with, and the songs weren’t as catchy as the ones from their debut. Now, almost a year and a half later, we have Pioneer, an album the label rejected. Thanks to determination on the band’s part (and no doubt, the advantages of still having their Action Theory imprint with which to distribute it), the album is in our hands.
Any fans of the band who find Pioneer completely unexpected haven’t been paying much attention. The Maine released In Darkness & In Light the end of last year, with both new and retooled versions of songs from Black & White. As musicians, the band seem to be getting more experimental, and with Matt VanGasbeck bringing some extra “oomph” to both their live shows and recordings, and they seem to have developed a comfortable rhythm with their live shows.
Usually production is not something that sticks out to me, but with Pioneer I notice it immediately, and not because it’s bad. Producer Colby Wedgeworth (along widid the band) did a fine job. They definitely seem to have had some fun with the vocals, layering them with some effects. And the music is more sonically interesting, as they’ve upped their use of pedals and effects with these songs.
“Misery” and “Don’t Give Up On (Us)” sound like they could do well as singles, and perhaps win over people who have never listed to the band or those who previously wrote them off.
The guitar work on Pioneer is also a step up from previous efforts – it’s more interesting and it’s clear that the band’s jam sessions and experimentation in preparing for the album had a strong influence on the final product. It becomes especially apparent on songs like “When I’m At Home,” a seemingly straightforward slower pop song. The song starts off slow, with vocals over steady guitar getting louder, but not really picking up speed. Around two minutes into the song, there’s a bit of an interlude with some scratchy guitars and random starts to solos and indiscernible screams before the chorus comes back in. It wasn’t something I previously would have expected from The Maine, but it works for the most part, it just seems to give the song a bit of an ominous feel.
Come summer, I can see myself rolling down the windows and turning up “Thinking Of You” with its bright piano and simple “I’ve been thinking of you-ooooo” filling the air with pleasantness. The last two (or really, three, I guess) tracks take a more melancholic hopeful sound, one that fits the current season quite well. Except for maybe the crickets towards the end of “While Listening to Rock & Roll…” Those make me think of late nights in the summer. At the end of the album, there’s a hidden fourteenth track. An unexpected slow-burner, it unnecessarily closes an album that already had an appropriate closing track.
The Maine have done something right with Pioneer, continuing with the pop songs, but making them far more complex and interesting than they were on Black & White. Though there were a few spots I found less than engaging on Pioneer, it’ll be interesting to see what happens with this record and the future of the band.
2011 was quite the year for all of us. But for those of us who pay attention to the music world? It was a dream come true. There were so many good songs, albums, artists, and moments that it turned out I couldn’t spread them alone – in March, MCMG 2.0 launched with a record-breaking TWO of us on staff, and we’ve just been growing ever since. Thank you, every single one of you who has ever read something one of us wrote or posted one of Mariam’s show pictures on Tumblr. 2012 is looking like it’ll have bigger and better things, so stay tuned! Now, without any further ado, what you all came for… Thanks again, and see you soon!
-Evan
Mariam’s still on vacation this week, but she made sure to send me an AOTW pick anyway, just in case. Check out our love for rootsy, melodic, rock n’ roll below!
Tags: AOTW
Here’s the first new MCMG feature of 2012, a couple days early! Our Album of the Week picks will be posted to the front page now every Wednesday like this! Our choices will still be over at the regular location, at least for now, but now you don’t have to go over there to check them out! Enjoy!
Happy New Year from all of us over here at MCMG!
Hey, guys. I’m sure you’ve noticed that we’ve been pretty dormant lately (school, family, festivities, you know the drill) and will continue to be for probably another couple weeks or so. But I promise we’ll be back and better than ever in 2012, so stay peeled – thank you all for being a part of what we do here, even if you just read one news post or trash-talked one review. Thank you. We do this to support and spread word about musicians that we feel passionate about, and we wouldn’t have a word to say if the amazing artists out there weren’t making music we continue to love. So thank you.
Our end-of-year lists will be posted in the first few days of the new year, so keep an eye out for that next – and then we’re off and running into 2012!
Thanks again, happy holidays, and happy new year to all!
–all of us here at MCMG
Walnut Creek, California’s The Story So Far have been making waves in the pop-punk scene this year between their debut full-length, Under Soil and Dirt out on Pure Noise Records and relentless touring since it came out, covering about half of the United States, and Japan. My Car And My Guitar had the chance to sit down with Parker Cannon and William Levy when they came through St. Louis on their recent headlining run with Daybreaker and Second To Last. We talked about Under Soil and Dirt, why they do this and how they make it work (a combination of fill-ins and giving up on school), this past year, and what 2012 has in store for them. Though they sound thrilled to be touring, they did mention some drawbacks, such as missing their home and friends.
Tags: The Story So Far
Okay, if you haven’t heard Camp yet, you should just pause a moment while you’re reading this and hang your head in shame. (Or you could do something productive like reading the MCMG review like an adult.) Now that you’ve done that, we can move on. Donald Glover, the man himself, is going on a headlining tour as his rapping alter-ego Childish Gambino, a name he got from a Wu-Tang Name Generator. You can check out the music video for the first single off the album, “Bonfire,” below, along with all the tour dates. Again, I cannot stress how much you’re missing out if you’ve somehow missed this album. Get on it.
And if anyone was curious, my Wu-Tang Name is Amateur Overlord. Better change my voicemail.
In a brutal and ruthless attempt to break my heart, post-hardcore powerhouse the Felix Culpa announced earlier this year that they were calling it quits, and that their final show would be at Chicago’s Metro on December 9th. First off, you should find a way to go to that show if you can, because it’s going to be an incredible (albeit bittersweet) evening, and this band deserves to go out in style. If you’ve ever seen one of their live shows before, you know it’s a treat, and their last one ever will likely outshine them all. Pick up tickets here. No excuses. Just go.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, the band announced last night that they wanted to do one last something special before they go – they’re pressing their 2004 debut full-length, Commitment, to vinyl for the first (and only) time. The band is working with upstart business Hundo to launch this, in which they’ll need 100 people to pre-order the record before any get pressed. The 2xLP set will include Commitment in its entirety, with new artwork by lead singer Marky Hladish, and will include the three tracks from 2009′s digital-only SoSo Remission EP as bonus tracks. You’ll need to pre-order the record before midnight on December 14th to snag a copy – grab one here for $20 as soon as you can. Once they’re gone, they’re gone.
It doesn’t surprise me that this is the way that the Felix Culpa are going out – they’ve never been one for playing by the rules. They’ve been one of the most inventive, original, and incredible bands around for the better part of a decade, and if they’re gonna end things, of course they’re going to do it on their own terms, with bands they love, and with an unconventional vinyl release to play them off. Thanks for everything, guys. You will be missed more than words can express.
Tags: Commitment, Hundo, RIP, Sever Your Roots, The Felix Culpa
Evan
Mariam
Spencer