Category Archives: manchester orchestra

it adds up

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 Watch the video here below…and then we can get started. Don’t worry…I’ll wait.

What if I’ve been trying to get to where I’ve always been?

That’s the title track off the album Simple Math, an album I have anxiously waited for all year. The video was directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, and was released a few weeks back to promote the May 10th release of the full length album.

It’s an amazing video that kind of reminds me of Twin Peaks, minus the backward speaking midget.  The gravity shifts, the story line, the suspense all make for a video that should win at least a handful of awards!

Manchester Orchestra

I feel like you should already know that Manchester Orchestra is required listening for all our readers. We’ve mentioned them a few times on the blog. I couldn’t just gloss over this release, even though I am sure you pre-ordered it on vinyl. Maybe you scooped it up today on iTunes or Amazon?

If you haven’t, I beg you, pick this up. It’s another brilliant album by the boys from Atlanta, Georgia. This album, like the others before it, is honest and passionate. It’s a feeling you get from hearing truth spill from lead singer Andy Hull’s lips. His lyrics are stories, about dreams, fears, pain, and loss. Simple Math has one unifying theme: relationships. We hear the story about Hull’s struggle to understand and maintain his relationship between himself and his wife and between himself and God.

The song “Virgin” comes on in the climax of ‘Act 2’ of the story. I’ll let Andy explain it: “It’s a tri-fold story that parallels three ‘firsts’ for me, the loss of my virginity, the potential loss of relationship, and the realization that our band has and will change after our first album. To all of these issues, the same lyric applies: It’s never gonna be the same.”

Click to Listen to Manchester Orchestra – Virgin

My brother, upon hearing the song for the first time felt like filming a music video for the song, “Boondock Saints” style.  It would be a short film where we watch the protagonist slaughter rapists and murderers in the name of the Lord with the song “Virgin” as the soundtrack.

The song has that feeling of anxiety and frustration that boils up to an emotional release that makes me want to leave my mortal body and shoot my soul into the sky at high velocity. Imagine a signal flare burning fast through the sky at the very moment the dam breaks below.

Wanna hear how the story all ends? Pick up the album. Right now.

Links below.

  

The Gasoline That I’ve Been Drinkin’ Like It’s Water

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He’s quite a talented young guy, this Robert McDowell. He has been the lead guitarist for the band Manchester Orchestra since 2005, and this year released his solo project called Gobotron. I remember when the kid started his own MySpace page with this same name in ’08, and I wondered for a little while. But he didn’t tell anyone about it until he finished the album.

So of course Jeremiah Edmond, whom up until recently was the amazing drummer for Manchester Orchestra but gave that up in order to stay in one place with his wife and run the label Favorite Gentlemen, happily pressed and marketed the music for him.
And when I say happily… I mean, he hand packaged these suckers and numbered them individually. And wrote a thank you note to go along with every order.

The project to him is the opportunity to “do exactly the opposite of” what he truly does enjoy – the working with a team. The sound, though, still comes off as if it was created by a group of happy pop rockers… Silversun Pickups. The Beach Boys. The Lemonheads. Something in there somewhere.

That’s the magic of software: “This is a computer album that could have never been done if it were on tape. It became a science project rather than a band.” The album name is On Your Mark, Get Set and I’m not sure how serious I need to be with you when I tell you – it’s obviously just the beginning and you should really pay attention.

Now, despite the fact that Track One is :49 of Gobotron repeating the word “Nothing” and maybe shouldn’t qualify as a track, somehow the “formula” has prevailed and it is Track Four which really gives what I think is the best representation. Enjoy “Never Turn Around”:


Download Gobotron – Never Turn Around

It’s good stuff, and this kid is going to make more and more amazing art so get in on it before your friends do. Order everything you need here. Get on that now!

Jesus is coming, better act our age

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I guess it’s true you never knew the passive power of the truth.

The Manchester Orchestra has recorded an epic album. An “I guess that’s the last in-store acoustic performance” album. A “28-month-long world tour” album, and a “too bad your favorite band is no longer a secret” tour. They are quite possibly the most talented musicians the music industry has ever seen. That’s a big statement, and I don’t make it carelessly.

Even Rainn Wilson knows they’re going to be as famous as any arena band you can think of. He twittered so (wull… kind of):

Mean Everything to Nothing is their second full-length album. We covered their recent EP here. This entire piece of work brings the layering of vocals, guitars, keyboarding and skins to epic heights. Andy Hull’s promise that this album would be aggressive has been delivered. That was my impression of some of these tracks as they were previewed right around this time last year on tour. As I listen, I am perplexed by what additional instruments I am hearing. This is an amazing congruence of sound. Actually, that is just the genius that is Chris Freeman on keyboards.

“And Chris doesn’t really play keys, it’s more like lead guitar. Most of the moments that sound like a crazy guitar are actually keyboard. He really made the record his own by writing ambient swells, piercing tones, and adding chunky, beefy distortion.” — themanchesterorchestra.com

“I am not ok, and there’s a beauty in that– a calming, a forgiveness.” The album takes us on a journey of self-awareness and acceptance, but even without listening to the earnest vocals and their meanings, you still have one of the strongest rock albums that exists.
Track 5, “In My Teeth”, repeats the snarky phrase featured this blog post’s title (so timely, too…) Hull shares very plainly the intellectual struggle that the faithful possess. Did we ever really need it anyway? Will we ever find out?

[Download The Manchester Orchestra – In My Teeth]

You will notice that in the first half, the songs bleed together seamlessly as leader Andy Hull demonstrates his struggles with angst and anger. I bet you did what you did when you did just to tell every friend that you have that the Lord did it.

What I feel and hear in Track 6, “100 Dollars” is the acceptance that I am going to mess up and do dumb things, I am going to totally lose my shit in front of the ones I love, and… I am going to recover from that and forgive myself, and move on to find my place and purpose in life. From this point in the album, this mystery – our purpose – begins to slowly unfold and reveal itself, and then switch gears and remind us that it’s still a mystery that just might remain intangible. Listen to Track 7, “I Can Feel A Hot One” – which you may have heard before, but now in the context of this life journey called Mean Everything To Nothing, understand it as the awakening and the turning point of becoming a self-aware adult.

[Download The Manchester Orchestra – I Can Feel A Hot One]

Back to that 11-part concept video, it’s true. A video to go along with each of the tracks on the album. Watch part one here (it is, obviously, the video for Track 1 – “The Only One.”

Manchester Orchestra – The Only One

If you want more videos, someone wrote a great blog post about another video in the series, Shake It Out.

And He whispered ‘fear is logical’

In keeping with the idea that this is an album to go down with all the greats in recent decades, at the end of the album there is a hidden track. A stripped down, quiet track that gives us an end to the journey, still at peace with the fact that we may not know exactly where we went, or why.

Chances are slim we are right
But I’d never think it any otherwise
So we’ll find the answers in time
When the bodies pile up sky high

If I am willing to travel to South Carolina, San Francisco, Phoenix, and Las Vegas to see The Manchester Orchestra, you know damn well I will be first in line to purchase this album when it comes out on April 21, despite the fact that I already have an advance copy. Are you going to be with me?

The dirtier the sound the best I breathe

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The Manchester Orchestra has friends. Good God do they have friends. I’ve never felt that I could come anywhere near writing a decent blog post about this amazing band from Georgia, but the premier release from their upcoming Mean Everything to Nothing album moved me like no other recorded track of theirs ever has.

[The Manchester Orchestra- I’ve Got Friends]

Mookie and I discovered them together when we were researching the bands that were sharing the bill on Brand New’s tour back in early 07. When I found their website, my exact words were, “this is the most independent indie band” or something to that effect. We’ve been able to experience them live several times in a handful of cities since then and each performance has been an event we’ll never forget.

In the last few years, members of The Manchester Orchestra have managed to start their own label (speaking of having friends, they sign and work with only bands who are friends – TALENTED friends), tour with incredible bands, perform at prestigious music festivals, inspire new artists, oh… and arrive at legal age.

Regarding this period of time since the band formed, they say it’s been “an absolute whirlwind of experience and life lessons most people wouldn’t learn until they are 30.”

A few of us here have experienced more pain and loss, but also more joy and miracles, than anyone should by the time they are 30. And we still manage to be turned inside out by the music and lyrics of The Manchester Orchestra.

Look, I don’t know what the fuck this particular song is about, but it gets me. It just kills me. They know how to perform the slow, smoldering build. All elements of the sound deliver to you the heart, soul, blood, and sweat of all its contributors.

Andy Hull has used lyrics inspired by odd dreams, by confusion or confirmation of a relationship with God, and everything in between. For me personally, it gives a voice to everything that has run through my head recently and lays out a mise en place for all of the people we have in our lives and the purpose they serve, whether altruistic or selfish. And it helps me distill all of the bullshit down to the most important and compelling reasons to go forward, to breathe, to strengthen your dedication to your priorities.

If that didn’t make any sense then tough for you. It makes just as much sense as the lyrics of the song.

To lighten the mood let me confess that the first time I ever sat behind the drum kit for Guitar Hero World Tour, I channeled Manchester’s Jeremiah Edmond, of all the great drummers there ever were. It’s true.

The Manchester Orchestra is hands down one of the greatest things to happen to music. That’s all there is to say. No other witty uberblogger music expert bullshit.
The new album hits April 21. I will remind you.

The smoke that rises separate from the fire

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Is this all you ever wanted
is this all you’ll ever need
Don’t you know I’m not a martyr
but you’re making me bleed

This song belongs on the radio. But I’m not going to start another diatribe on that. Besides, it’s only a matter of moments before the day arrives that saying something belongs on the radio is taken as an insult. Just look at what passes for popular music. I wouldn’t want my paid advertising butting up against a lame BuckCherry or Hoobastank track either. No wonder Clear Channel laid off over 1000 employees this week.

The boys at Winston Audio seem to agree with me. So I will take back what I said about getting this song on the radio. Just now, Dan D made a comment to me about how he’d rather have people hear about music from somewhere other than a “homogenous radio station that overplays everything.” I didn’t even expect to get a quote like that in my blog post today. What a roll I’ve been on lately with the way my posts have been fluently spilling out and fluidly syncing with life’s happenstances. (Unfortunately the painkillers that life’s happenstances have forced me to be on today may have ended my fluency streak. Sorry, lovelies.)

Not that it’s all about me; although their upcoming album, The Red Rhythm, does have a track called Hey Ann… But, I’ve spent some time wondering who could ever produce the strong sound Sparta delivered and I’ve been a little lost since their disbanding. Listening to The Red Rhythm reminds me not only of how I would feel listening to Porcelain or Threes, but it also has the strength in sound and build that Soundgarden had. I really tried hard to refrain from making the comparison that I assume-and I’m not even going to run a google search to verify-everyone else has made between Soundgarden and Winston Audio. But since I did, I will say that lead singer Dan DeWitt’s voice is just as strong if not stronger than Cornell’s. It’s a sound like this that makes me all warm inside. Take a listen to “Martyr.”

[Winston Audio – Martyr]

Despite Dan’s claim that he reserves his rage for the road, there is definitely a strong emotional charge coming through in these tracks. Track three, Keeping it Down, has a sound that reminds me of Eddie Vedder’s passion. Vedder, by the way, is one of the artists the band says they’d love to collaborate with. Good choice my friends. Speaking of collaboration, Favorite Gentlemen label head Andy Hull lends his voice to the track. Check out a live video of the song:

So what’s with the name? You’re going to love this: think of the way that smoke curls from the end of a cigarette (such as a Winston.) Just as the smoke constantly changes, twisting, turning, and then becoming part of the air… Winston Audio sees music in the same way. The music on this upcoming release, which is the band’s first LP, gets progressively stronger as each track plays. This is a fabulous album to set the tone for 2009. It’s so real, and soulful, and it flows well.

Winston Audio The Red Rhythm comes out February 10. This is one worth a visit to the record store, so mark it on your calendar. In the meantime, watch the label’s site for tour dates and more info on the band.