FA+
Shop
Furry Music Listenings 2020-02-13
6 years ago
General
Today I listened to 2 interesting albums.
BONEHENGE is a punk/ska comedy group about Dinosaurs.
Earlier this month they released L.A. Excavation - https://bonehengeband.bandcamp.com/.....l-a-excavation
I'm impressed by the musicianship of everyone involved, it surprised me that this group has 6 members (there's accordion in here!) all contributing fairly equally on every track. The vocalist is expressive and a bit quirky at how rough he sounds (reminds me of Bad Religion's vocalist whom I'm not a big fan of) but damn if these guys don't know how to make good use of pitch bends, awkward melodies in stuff like the instrumental bits of T-Sex, they just performed it all really well, and the recording is pretty crisp too.
The comedy bits are really silly but I'm glad that the whole album is done in this somewhat-painfully self-aware voice/feeling. (at least that's how I hear it) After having been exposed to the sound of this album long enough, I was onboard with its writing style and quick humour. I do wonder if I'll ever fall down this path with my writing style as I'm trying to stop writing about global politics in my music and turn to much more blunt, exciting, silly, sexual, gay lyrics in my own punk songs.
As good as it sounds, save a few strained/stressed notes and unresolved dissonant notes, the whole concept of this album sounds like some joke thrown together over a lot of alchohol and putting down some money on a recording studio before the alchohol wore off. Thankfully, these guys are all talented musicians, but I worry if we'll ever see another album from these guys, or if they'll branch out to make songs that are a little less about dinosaurs? I can very easily see this become a one-hit wonder band that disappears off the face of the earth after the release of this album, so that's where I'm worried. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the laughs, I just wish the writing/punky-pace could go in far different directions, sometimes.
Dragonthunder is an orchestral producer from brazil, who recently released An Exploration Tale - https://dragonthunder.bandcamp.com/.....ploration-tale
I stuck with this album the whole way through. I was impressed by a lot of the dynamics, attention to detail in melodies, and ample use of diverse percussion (timpani always gets forgotton I swear) but unfortunately I think produced orchestral music is probably my least favourite grouping of music. I've played in too many ensembles and I've been to too many live performances that I'll always find stuff like Dragonthunder's music to feel uncanny. It's pretty good, but so much of the crescendos to silence, super-loud crash cymbals, iv IV I V progressions and steady pacing makes me feel like I'm watching a trailer for a well-produced movie. Y'know, it's good! And cliches/tropes aren't always supposed to be bad things, they're familiar landing points for listeners, but it really does not resonate well with me. I gave their bandcamp a follow regardless because I'm interested to see what else they may come out with, as I saw "metal" as one of the chosen artist tags on their bandcamp page, and I wonder how they'll possibly incorporate those elements into orchestral music like this, if at all.
That's all I've got for today, these listening review/critiques are not really intended for a larger audience, they're mostly to help remind myself of certain albums that I take my time to listen to, in hopes of finding the next Ashley Ninelives or Tenkitsune or something. Thanks for reading if you made it this far!
BONEHENGE is a punk/ska comedy group about Dinosaurs.
Earlier this month they released L.A. Excavation - https://bonehengeband.bandcamp.com/.....l-a-excavation
I'm impressed by the musicianship of everyone involved, it surprised me that this group has 6 members (there's accordion in here!) all contributing fairly equally on every track. The vocalist is expressive and a bit quirky at how rough he sounds (reminds me of Bad Religion's vocalist whom I'm not a big fan of) but damn if these guys don't know how to make good use of pitch bends, awkward melodies in stuff like the instrumental bits of T-Sex, they just performed it all really well, and the recording is pretty crisp too.
The comedy bits are really silly but I'm glad that the whole album is done in this somewhat-painfully self-aware voice/feeling. (at least that's how I hear it) After having been exposed to the sound of this album long enough, I was onboard with its writing style and quick humour. I do wonder if I'll ever fall down this path with my writing style as I'm trying to stop writing about global politics in my music and turn to much more blunt, exciting, silly, sexual, gay lyrics in my own punk songs.
As good as it sounds, save a few strained/stressed notes and unresolved dissonant notes, the whole concept of this album sounds like some joke thrown together over a lot of alchohol and putting down some money on a recording studio before the alchohol wore off. Thankfully, these guys are all talented musicians, but I worry if we'll ever see another album from these guys, or if they'll branch out to make songs that are a little less about dinosaurs? I can very easily see this become a one-hit wonder band that disappears off the face of the earth after the release of this album, so that's where I'm worried. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the laughs, I just wish the writing/punky-pace could go in far different directions, sometimes.
Dragonthunder is an orchestral producer from brazil, who recently released An Exploration Tale - https://dragonthunder.bandcamp.com/.....ploration-tale
I stuck with this album the whole way through. I was impressed by a lot of the dynamics, attention to detail in melodies, and ample use of diverse percussion (timpani always gets forgotton I swear) but unfortunately I think produced orchestral music is probably my least favourite grouping of music. I've played in too many ensembles and I've been to too many live performances that I'll always find stuff like Dragonthunder's music to feel uncanny. It's pretty good, but so much of the crescendos to silence, super-loud crash cymbals, iv IV I V progressions and steady pacing makes me feel like I'm watching a trailer for a well-produced movie. Y'know, it's good! And cliches/tropes aren't always supposed to be bad things, they're familiar landing points for listeners, but it really does not resonate well with me. I gave their bandcamp a follow regardless because I'm interested to see what else they may come out with, as I saw "metal" as one of the chosen artist tags on their bandcamp page, and I wonder how they'll possibly incorporate those elements into orchestral music like this, if at all.
That's all I've got for today, these listening review/critiques are not really intended for a larger audience, they're mostly to help remind myself of certain albums that I take my time to listen to, in hopes of finding the next Ashley Ninelives or Tenkitsune or something. Thanks for reading if you made it this far!
