Pan Galactic Straw-Boss

Pan Galactic Straw-Boss started as a nameless noise duo in 2007.  Mike Twark and Steve Jordan dabbled in the experimental ambient noise department for awhile before adding Andrew Joseph on bass guitar a year later. "As a noise duo we didn't really accomplish anything", the band admits in many of their bios.  With the addition of a bassist their music took on a more conventional post-rock sound while still retaining their ambient and noise roots.  A second guitarist, Van Young was added before the release of their first EP.

Not much else is known about the band from Norfolk and that's OK, because their music does the talking for them.  With influences like Swans, Sonic Youth, and My Bloody Valentine it is no wonder that it's easy to hear traces of ambient, noise, and shoegaze in their work.  This coupled with a sinister ambiance creates a dark post rock experience that I can only compare to The Wind-Up Bird.  The first time I heard Mouth Crazy I found myself hypnotized by the crashing symbols and relentless guitars.  Before you know it you just lost ten minutes in their world.

Their work is extremely impressive, it's hard to say enough about it.  Earth, Flash, Heat is a slightly more ambient affair with touches of noise, while Mouth Crazy provides more elements of classic post-rock. This is NOT your typical Godspeed clone.  Check this out ASAP

Mouth Crazy 7" 

Whirlwind, Flash, and Heat 

Buy 'em
-Jim

The Origins Of Post Rock

Talk Talk - Laughing Stock

Slint - Spiderland

I love these albums and so should you.
-Jim

Tenebre - In Everything Give Thanks

It's a Thursday night and there's a paper or work due the next day, you're struggling to focus on the task at hand, so you decide to put on some music. Do you put on the latest Taylor Swift record on repeat like the 15 year-old you really are, or do you put on some nice instrumental math/post-rock?

Yeah i thought so.

Well here's the album for this and any other occasion you see fit, Tenebre's "In Everything Give Thanks". The trio from San Francisco sound like God Is An Astronaut......if you sped them up, made them less boring and added finger-tapping guitar-work, that is......

Download

Suffocate For Fuck Sake - Blazing fires and helicopters on the front page of the newspaper. There's a war going on and I'm marching in heavy boots

 

 Suffocate For Fuck Sake hail from Sweden and describe themselves as Sigur Ros, Breach, Cult of Luna, Mono, and Mogwai (playing a the same time).  Other than that they are a pretty darn mysterious band.  There is absolutely no information on the members, or are there any pictures of the band.  I can't find any touring information and their Myspace is pretty bare.  What else would you expect from a band from Sweden called Suffocate For Fuck Sake?

SFFS definitely live up to their name during portions of their album, but it isn't all rage and fury.  They sprinkle a heavy sludge sound over vast expanses of beautifully dark instrumentals and samples of interviews in Swedish.  The focus of the interviews are about a young woman looking back at her time spent in a mental institute.  The quotes come from her, her friend, her mother, and her doctor at the time and they serve as a guide as the album meanders through the girl's terrifying story. 

It is a concept album so I would suggest taking the time and listening to it all at once.  I know from personal experience if you get through that first song you will be hooked.  This will be a challenging listen due to the long song durations and the experimental use of dialogue in a language you most likely won't be able to understand, but you will be rewarded with glimmering atmospheric guitar work, cripplingly sad piano, and violent vocals.

(I'll post the translations for the samples as soon as I find them)

Download

-Jim

Pianos Become The Teeth - Old Pride

Coming straight from the awesomely pretentious band name department I bring you Pianos Become The Teeth.  This screamo (or skramz if you are an asshole) band from Baltimore draws influences from both post-rock and post-hardcore which leaves the listener with something in the same vane as Envy, City of Caterpillar, or Suffocate For Fuck Sake. (gotta love the names).  

Unfortunately for Pianos they don't quite live up to the behemoths of the genre I mentioned.  Not yet anyway.  Some of the post-rock buildups are amazing (see "Pensive"),  but at other times the meander and end up falling back on mediocre post-hardcore riffs leaving the listener waiting for that climax that never comes (see "Young Fire").  The lyrics live up to the stereotype of the genre and are mostly underwhelming for the entirety of the album, minus the absolute tear jerker, "Cripples Can't Shiver", an incredibly emotional song about a loved one dying of a degenerative disease.

Although these guys aren't perfect, this album is still one of my favorites of last year.  So check out the album, then buy some merch or book them for your next basement show.  They'll be in Milwaukee June 17, where they will be playing however remains to be seen.  So if you live in the area keep that in mind, as it appears these guys will literally play wherever.  They seem to be extremely humble and appreciative guys and that's pretty fucking cool.

 

Download 

Buy/Book 

toe - Book About My Idle Plot On Vague Anxiety

 

Math Rock came to be in the late eighties as an offshoot of Post-Rock that concentrated on tapping and angular melodies as opposed to the concentration on atmosphere and texture that Post-Rock is known for.  The early bands in both genres shared many characteristics however.  See Slint as an example.

Like it's early brother in the Math Rock scene, Slint, toe borders on the edge of both genres.  They have no shortage of interesting time signatures and start stop rhythms, but they also take special care to create an interesting atmosphere.  This coupled with the technical drumming of Takashi makes this a Japanese export to check out.

 

toe - Book About My Idle Plot On Vague Anxiety