2 posts tagged “kora records”
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The Fairline Parkway are an indie pop band from Washington, DC. Their sophomore album, A Memory of Open Spaces, from Kora Records is released today, May 27th. The Fairline Parkway started when Zachary Okun and Raj Gadhia met in college, from an anthropology class. They managed to release a self-titled debut record on Lazy Line Records in 2002. (This is terribly off-topic, but I get the sneaky suspicion that the label is named after "Lazy Line Painter Jane", a song from Belle & Sebastian). By 2007, the duo found themselves adding a few other musicians in the band, including same-surnames of Krista and Elmer Sharp (married couple? siblings?), and an old friend, Ben Licciardi. I liked the appearance of Krista's vocals on "Charting Coastlines", "Homesteaders" (as backup), and "Nowhere to Be", which is rare because most of the song are driven by the soft-singing style of Raj Gadhia. You can currently download "Homesteaders" on their myspace. I did mange to listen to their previous effort on Lazy Line, and I have to say that the new album seems to be more organic. Listen to the strings on "Storms And Gales" or xylophone on "Homesteaders", they add a little flavor to their songs.
A Memory of Open Spaces is out now, look for them at the CD Release party on June 15th with Grand Archives & Sera Cahoone at the Rock and Roll Hotel in Washington, DC. |
Links:
myspace.com/thefairlineparkway
www.thekorarecords.com
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05/17/08 Melos Pestoia
Discography
05/18/08 Traffic Roma 05/20/08 Casa de Cultura San Sebastian 05/22/08 BeCool Barcelona 05/23/08 La Marquise Lyon 05/25/08 Cactus Brugge 05/26/08 Mains d’Ouevres Paris 05/27/08 Le Grand Wazoo Amiens 05/28/08 Treibhaus Lucern 05/29/08 Elfer Frankfurt 05/30/08 d:qliq Luxembourg 05/31/08 Gleis 22 Munster 06/01/08 Steinbruch Duisburg
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Taking their name from Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa is a band with members from New York, Chicago, Boston, DC, and Richmond. Their latest album is called Rest and it was released last Tuesday, May 13th. This album was composed primarily through e-mail, because of the various band member's living location!
The band is headed by frontsman, Champ Bennett, but you can tell this isn't a dictatorship, but a collaboration, with each band members adding in their own color to the music. Sometime these addition seems to make their songs unconventionally long. Take, for instance, their most accessible song "Jeroen Van Aken" is over eight minutes long - definitely not radio material.
What makes "Jeroen Van Aken" good is you get to hear the melodic vocals between Champ Bennett and Nikki King and the chorus seems to be "it seems the devil's got a grip on me" while the music build in the background. But instead of ending at the four minute mark, the song continues on with a great bass line played by (and I'm guessing because there are several bassists listed in the liner notes) Billy Bennett.
The other songs that I was drawn to all features sweet lush vocals, including "Pseudonyms", which has some nice pianos and some haunting noises that sounds like a musical saw. Be sure to check out "Abutting, Dismantling", another whispery vocal song - with some great rhythmic percussions.
I am unfamiliar with their earlier works, but judging from Rest, I would recommend Gregor Samsa to any fans of slowcore bands like Minnesota's own Low.
Rest is out now, can be purchased directly from their record label, Kora Records. There is a limited edition of this record for only $7 more (with less than 200 left) that I suggest you get instead of the standard version. I've taken a look at the pictures of the limited version and I'm very tempted to place an order very soon. They are also on tour to support the new record.
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