I don’t know if I’ve ever heard a band’s sound evolve as quickly as the Pomegranates. While the change has occurred over the course of three albums, they all came out within a 30-month span.
From the release of Everything Is Alive in May 2008, through Everybody, Come Outside! in April 2009 to One of Us in October of last year, the Pomegranates have steadily progressed from a pseudo-Modest Mouse knock-off to a much tighter band that churns out dreamy, ethereal pop.
While I’m not the most knowledgeable person when it comes to Modest Mouse, their influence is unmistakable on the Pomegranates’ debut album. Several reviewers on Amazon noted that Everything Is Alive sounded especially like early Modest Mouse. Except that it’s stripped of all the annoyances and glitchy effects, which makes it far more digestible than most of the music the Mouseketeers usually put out.
The follow-up album is noticeably smoother than its predecessor. It has more going on sonically, and, judging from some of the electro tinges, it’s no surprise that the producer of the album has also worked with MGMT.
It still has some of that Modest Mouse vibe interspersed throughout — especially on “Jerusalem Had a Bad Day”, which sounds like a lost single from the quirky Seattleites, and “This Used To Be My Land, But Now I Hate This Land”.
But the overall tone starts to head toward the dreamier end of the spectrum on songs such as “384 BC”. The highlight of the album is the opening title track.
By the time they released One of Us in 2010, the band had almost completely made the transition to ambient pop. On many of the songs, especially “Prouncer”, the band calls to mind such contemporaries as Wild Nothing, Beach House, Lower Dens and The XX.
They also produced more single-worthy tracks, such as “50’s” and “Skull Cakin'”.
According to their Wikipedia page, the Pomegranates are set to release another album later this year. That certainly wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility for this Cincinnati crew. But whenever their next album does drop, I can’t wait to hear the next step in the evolution of their sound.
Filed under: B, Mobile Ala., P — assman41 @ 12:01 am
I tend to shy away from country music, almost as a rule. It’s not that I hate it — I just generally loathe the kind of people who love it and the way they rally behind it.
Because of this philosophy, I’m sure I’ve missed out on several solid bands that I would’ve liked. And The Band Perry would have fallen into that pile were it not for my good friend, MK.
She sent me an e-mail a few days ago and told me to give their song, “If I Die Young”, a listen. She said she really liked the singer’s voice.
After listening to it a handful of times, I would concur.
According to the band’s official website, the song just hit No. 1 on the country charts. Who knew?
The group from Mobile, Ala., is made up of the three Perry siblings — lead singer Kimberly and little brothers Reid and Neil. In their rather lengthy bio, they say that they were raised on both classic rock and country.
That upbringing shows in their music. They churn out plenty of country ditties with a rock sensibility as well as some sweet, twangy ballads.
While the big single is clearly a gem, it turns out the band’s entire self-titled debut album is pretty solid.
Other strong tracks include “Hip to My Heart”, “Postcard From Paris”, “Independence”, “Double Heart” and “All Your Life”.
I doubt this discovery will shift my interest in country music much, if at all. But it does go to show that expanding your horizons is never a bad thing.
On their 2008 EP, Are We All Forgotten, the band Paper Route exudes a mixture of Coldplay and Band of Horses, with a little Shiny Toy Guns and VHS or Beta thrown in for good measure.
Since forming in 2004, the quartet from Nashville, Tenn., has churned out five EPs — starting with a self-titled one in 2006 — and last year released its first full-length album, Absence.
I first heard about them last year in an issue of Alternative Press. I can’t remember what the blurb in the magazine said about the band, but it intrigued me enough to check out its MySpace page. And I instantly liked what I was hearing.
While several contemporaries stood out in their earlier work, on Absence, Paper Route’s sound had evolved enough to where it became difficult to pick out any certain influences. Instead, they had began to develop their own sound.
Some of the bands that Amazon.com links to Paper Route include Mutemath, Phoenix, Keane, Owl City and The Temper Trap. That’s not too surprising, considering how important the electro aspect is to Paper Route’s music.
For much of the day, there was concern that the weather could turn ugly and the show would be canceled. As my friends and I were preparing to leave our hotel for the venue, we watched the weather forecast and saw an ominous band of severe weather heading straight for our location. When we were on the highway and getting hit by a downpour, we figured, best case scenario, we’d be stuck on the lawn, getting absolutely soaked.
Unfortunately, the weather was the least of our problems. That designation was saved, instead, for our actual drive to the venue. It was only about 25 miles from our hotel to the amphitheatre, but it took us roughly 2.5 hours to get there because of gridlock that had us sitting motionless on the highway at multiple times.
By the time we finally got parked, we could hear music in the distance. As it turned out, that was Band of Horses closing out its set. I was less than pleased, as they were the main reason I wanted to come to the show in the first place.
We grabbed our blankets and headed for the gate, chugging a few beers on the walk up. We were alerted that it was a “no blankets” show, due to the large number of attendees. I decided to wrap my blanket around my upper body and hide it under my windbreaker and ended up as one of the few patrons with a blanket to sit on.
It would come in handy as the once warm, windy conditions turned to cold and windy by the end of the show. The precipitation, however, had cleared, and it ended up being a rather pleasant evening.
We arrived in between sets and weren’t waiting around too long before Eddie Vedder and the boys came on stage. They opened with “Release” off their first album, Ten. According to their website, it’s somewhat rare for them to play that song as they’ve only included it in a handful of their sets in recent years.
Clearly, we were in for a good show.
As for my Pearl Jam fandom, I mostly just know the main hits and a few other songs off the various live albums I own. So, throughout the show, I was asking my friend what each song was.
They did play some that I knew during the initial set, including “Elderly Woman …”, “Daughter”, “Even Flow”, “Jeremy” and “The Fixer”. Unfortunately, I was in line for the bathroom during those last two, which closed out the set.
Most of Vedder’s banter was enjoyable, and he really seemed to make an effort to connect with the fans. At one point, he thanked the “Gods of Indiana” for keeping the rain at bay, then he said that the God of Indiana was Larry Bird. Although, he later referenced Salt Lick, when he should’ve said French Lick (Bird’s hometown), but I’ll let it slide.
Other nice touches were the concert tees, which not only had that show’s date and location on the front, but also a pair of checkered flags, an homage to Indy’s racing history. I think it was the first time I’d seen a concert tee made exclusively for the show I was at. They also played a cover of “Goin’ Back To Indiana”, much to the crowd’s delight.
The first encore opened with Vedder sitting on a stool and playing an acoustic guitar. The first highlight of the night for me came during the second-to-last song of that encore when the mass of humanity that was the audience sang along for the bulk of “Better Man”. It gave me goosebumps. Afterwards, Vedder relayed to us what guitarist Mike McCready said during the song: “I fucking love the Midwest!”
My next treat was when they finished with “Do the Evolution” then came back for a second encore — another first for me. They opened with a couple songs that I didn’t know, then went into “Alive”, which got me all revved up. I shedded the blanket that was keeping me warm and just started jumping around to the song.
Before the show, I had told my friend that I wanted to hear “Yellow Ledbetter” and one of two covers they like to play — “Last Kiss” or “Baba O’Riley”.
I ended up getting both wishes granted, as, following “Alive”, McCready started into that familiar riff of “Baba O’Riley”. Early in the song, Vedder ripped off his flannel shirt to unveil The Who shirt he was sporting underneath.
The last official song was “Yellow Ledbetter”, which was an awesome closer. But then, at the end of that, McCready played the “Star-Spangled Banner” a la Jimi Hendrix. That was a pretty awesome treat and one final goodbye.
One other highlight toward the end of the show came when Vedder was talking about growing up in Chicago and hanging out with his friends and how he was disappointed he didn’t get a chance to see any of them before the show. Then one of those friends, someone named Chris, hailed him from somewhere in the front of the crowd. You could see Vedder get a little choked up, and I thought that genuine show of emotion was really cool.
In the end, Pearl Jam played for more than two hours and were probably fined for going past curfew, but they didn’t care.
So, despite a rather annoying trip to the venue and missing an opening band I really wanted to see, there’s no way I can walk away from a Pearl Jam show with anything but fond memories.
Unlike the past couple bands I’ve reviewed, A Place To Bury Strangers might have too much going on in their songs.
The Brooklyn-based noise rock trio follows in the footsteps of such groups as Jesus and the Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine and Nine Inch Nails.
But on Exploding Head, the group’s second and most recent full-length album, all that distortion belies some pretty solid hooks that conjure up memories of The Cure, Joy Division and U2.
From the beginning of the first single, “In Your Heart”, you can’t help but think of Bono and the boys. Then it fades into some White Lies and Joy Division sounds. The next track, “Lost Feeling”, is something of a continuation but without the glaring U2 influence.
My favorite song, “Keep Slipping Away”, had more of the White Lies vibe, but there was also a nice mix of Cure-style guitar.
“Smile When You Smile” and the title track each use a nice keyboard beat and some faster drums to pick up the pace a bit. The latter song also has some more of that U2 and Cure feeling.
On the album’s closer, “I Lived My Life To Stand In the Shadow of Your Heart”, it might be hard to detect underneath all the distortion, but the vocals are definitely reminiscent of Morrissey.
Overall, I’m not fawning over A Place To Bury Strangers — it’s just too much noise and distortion. But I will definitely hold on to a few of their tracks.
You can hear 10 songs on their MySpace page or watch some videos and listen to a few tracks at their official website.
Infinite Shuffle 