The highest point reached by a celestial or other object

The tilt of the tape head in the direction perpendicular to the tape travel.Sometimes what drives you is fear.

A Swarm of the Sun

I really wanted to skip my post today. I had a long week, followed by a bender of a weekend. I kept playing all the new tunes I had recently received, but nothing was worth mentioning. There were even some unfinished posts I thought about finishing, but the music that I once thought was fresh enough to write about seemed stale today. I read about the Taylor/Kanye performances at the VMA’s so I figured I better watch those performances.Those would surely give me something to write about! Sadly, although I’d love to rehash the discussion about these two, BOTH their performances put me to sleep.

Nothing in the inbox was speaking to me. My last chance was in the mailbox! I found two CD sized envelopes and quickly open the one that has the international postage on it! Sweden?

I rip it open and see it’s a CD by a group called A Swarm of the Sun. I think I remember previewing this online, and I remember it was really good. I hope I’m not wrong…I need to get this post done!

I throw the CD in and begin listening while reading the press release. A Swarm of the Sun is from Sweden (right…I got that…) and the core group is Erik Nilsson and Jakob Berglund who are joined by a number of musical collaborators.

It’s right around now that I get to track two in the CD and I get that tingle…  Oh yeah…this has fucking got everything. It’s light and dark. Strong yet fragile. It’s got an Industrial sound that simmers until boiling over in a searing explosion of guitar and distortion. It’s like the song you might hear in a movie where the protagonist realizes the Zombie Armageddon is upon him. He reloads his shotgun and wipes the blood off his brow while this song plays in the background. The title is called “This One Has No Heart” and I suggest you crank the volume all the way up!


Download A Swarm of the Sun – This One Has No Heart

[continues reading press release]

The full-length debut is called Zenith, it was released August 30th of this year. The band documented the making of the album through a series of pictures on their facebook page. If you like Nine Inch Nails, and need something to fill the hole Trent left in your heart when he decided to put NIN on the shelf, then click the Amazon link below.

Basically, I just like these songs……


Yep. Two songs I like. Now, I get assloads of promo stuff from places, but I’ll be honest – I don’t like a lot of it. It’s not that it’s not good. It is. I just don’t think it would be fair to post music just for the sake of continued e-mail press releases! There are a few I do like. I promise all you PR-firm folks I will get to the ones I do like! My one year at UNLV back in 2000 was a Comm major with an emphasis in PR, so I feel your pain for the amount of work you do for a mere pittance.

Anyhow, here are two tracks I’m just in love with right now. I just went through a nasty fucking break-up (isn’t it funny how they guy always takes the shit end of that stick?) so this first one made me forget a lot of my problems, which I realize are so damned small compared to everything else in the world right now. Perspective, people!

So first off I’ve got the group Air France. They’re from Sweden. Whoa! Clever! Sarcasm aside, I like what these guys do. Very ethereal and uplifting, and this song of theirs is exactly what I needed right now. This is the track “Collapsing At Your Doorstep”.

[Download Air France – Collapsing At Your Doorstep]

Next is a song I had sort of forgotten about for a while. He’s one of the many artists that continues SubPop’s tradition of really good indie bands. His name is Chad VanGaalen and he’s definitely influenced by guys like Neil Young, if that gives you any real idea of his sound. Check out “Sing Me To Sleep”, and I bet you will understand why I felt good after this. Great tune, folks.

[Download Chad Van Gaalen – Sing Me To Sleep]

And lastly, your PSA telling you to buy some of this or I will kidnap whatever domesticated animal you own and sell it to a Chinese restaurant.