Band Wars--Conclusion

[If you haven't seen the earlier matchup (that I posted about an hour ago), go here first.]

There are three matchups today: two semifinals and the finals.  In the first,

Youth Lagoon, Year of Hibernation

will upset Spiritualized, Sweet Heart Sweet Light

Why Youth Lagoon?  The short answer is that it is growing on me.  And the music seems to change with every listen.  This time through, Year of Hibernation had an overwhelming fairy-tale sound, as if it were the soundtrack to a sad children's story.  This description sure doesn't sound like much of an endorsement, but it is . . . for me.  Many of the sounds from his synthesizer--whistles, repeated three-note charms, high-pitched catchy earworms--sound childish in the best possible description of childish: simple and sad but uplifting at the same time.  One listen of "Afternoon," and I hope you'll see what I mean:

* * * 

In the other semifinal, we pit Chromatics, Kill for Love

against M83, Hurry Up, We're Dreaming

I choose the winning album in this case because the losing album, despite its quality and variety, doesn't strike an emotional chord with me.  I listen to it.  I think, Really good music!  But I don't feel much aside from that.  The winning album, just as good an album as the loser, has the added quality of being to tap into my mood.  So, M83 advances.

And the final matchup between M83 and Youth Lagoon isn't even close.  M83 wins.  Youth Lagoon is a surprisingly great album (and not the sort of music that I normally listen to).  M83's Hurry Up, We're Dreaming is their best album--and considering their tremendous output, that's saying something.

I suspected M83 would win.  But I also suspected that Atlas Sound or Girls would win as well.  Neither of those made it out of the first round.

Well, here's the final update.  I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did.  Of these bands, I'm going to add M83, John Talabot, Youth Lagoon, Chromatics, Lotus Plaza and Atlas Sound to my regular rotation.  A pretty good variety of excellent new music.

Next up for me, I guess, will be going to pitchfork, allmusic, and metacritic to find 16 new albums for Band Wars 2.

Comparing Phil Galfond's Rise with Mine; Band Wars

Phil Galfond wrote a post recently describing how he got into poker.  It's a long read, but it's worth it.  He starts with freshman year of college and goes through the steps that led him to dropping out and focusing full-time on online poker.  He deposited $50 and ran it up to millions.  I deposited $50, played 25NL limit until I lost it, then redeposited $50 and dropped down to one-cent/two-cent unlimited hold them, which I 24-tabled for years at a win rate of a beer an hour.  In short, I drank myself even.

In a way, though, I think Galfond's post is the kind that will encourage a few dozen 19-year-old schmucks to slack off at school and blow their wad at the nearest poker table.  You can't control stupid.

Which leads to another piece of news.  Twoplustwo is back up and running.  Just another site to waste 15 minutes on daily.

* * *

After a week-long hiatus, I've resumed downloading music again.  Last night, I downloaded these albums:

Fever Ray, Fever Ray

as well as everything that I believe that Boards of Canada has ever put out:

Twoism
Aquarius
Peel Sessions
Geogaddi
Trans Canada Highway
Hi Scores
Music Has the Right to Children
In a Beautiful Place out in the Country
The Campfire Headphase


If you've never heard of Boards of Canada, I recommend them highly.  I would start with Music Has the Right to Children, a truly incredible album--an energizing, uplifting album of electronic and ambient music.

In any case, I look forward to going through Boards of Canada's catalog over the next two weeks.

* * *

Three weeks ago, I found a file to download that contained a full 17 (!!!) of John Coltrane's albums.  Now I knew a little about Coltrane--mostly from the A Love Supreme and Blue Train albums--but holy christ, his last albums are mindblowing freakouts.  If you ever want to hear him at his wildest, try Interstellar Space.


* * * 

In the next Band Wars matchup, we pit polar opposites against each other.

The introspective, electronic, vulnerable, melodic Youth Lagoon, Year of Hibernation

against aggressive, rocking, ecstatic sounds of the Men, Open Your Heart

Youth Lagoon has a sweet, yearning sound, with vocals masked by distortion that makes him sound like an echo.  Despite its melody, it feels sparse.  You imagine a lone musician recording one instrument at a time and mixing them all together.  So in every way, production, lyrics, and overall feel, it is a lonely album.  I don't mean that it is a sad album in every way.  There are uplifting moments, where the light gets through the curtains, such as in "Daydream."

"Daydream"

The Men's Open Your Heart is full of guitar jams.  It also started to annoy me.  Despite an impressive first listen, this album is not going to be one that I play very often.  Therefore:

Band Wars--Atlas Sound vs. Youth Lagoon

Atlas Sound, Parallax

Youth Lagoon, Year of Hibernation

First thought is, yeesh, that Youth Lagoon album cover is pure shit.  Anyhoo, moving along, Atlas Sound is the side project of Bradford Cox, lead singer of Deerhunter.  You may have noticed in an earlier review that another band in this competition is the side project of the lead guitarist of Deerhunter.  These two guys pump out a lot of music.

In Parallax, Bradford Cox gets a bit more experimental and less pop-oriented than in the Deerhunter albums.  The result is an album that jumps back and forth between indie guitar-driven songs and ambient music.  Sometimes the jump between the two is sudden.  One of the better songs is the following:

"Te Amo"

Year of Hibernation is Youth Lagoon's first album.  Basically, the album is a bunch of dream-pop by this kid from Idaho named Trevor Powers who was suffering a breakup.  According to allmusic.com, the album also reflects his problem with chronic anxiety.  This was my favorite song:

"Daydream"

My guess coming into this matchup was that I would go with Bradford Cox, since he's the lead singer on one of my favorite bands.  Surprised myself once again.  This Youth Lagoon album is a really good one.  It's confessional without being too emotionally raw like Perfume Genius.  Despite his suffering, Trevor Powers creates a beautiful album--one that is more lush and imaginative than typical first albums.

Youth Lagoon advances to the quarterfinals.

Next up--Girls versus The Men.