Thursday, August 02, 2007

July's music

July was a pretty good month for music. Lots of goodies came out this month and a lot of announcements of good shows in the Portland area:

Smashing Pumpkins Zietgeist After seven years the Pumpkins return, well only half of the original line up. I hear Billy Corgan a real jerk to work with (but a lot of good artist are). I hear from every Pumpkin fan that they haven't done anything good since Mellon Collie (1995) and I've gotten tired of defending their later material. I really liked their last two albums Adore and Machina because they are experimental. Unfortunately, Corgan made an album that should satisfy older Pumpkin fans. The garage band sound is pretty evident on Zeitgeist. Still, it's not a bad album with some good tracks. Unfortunately, Corgan listened to his critics too much. I've got tickets for their upcoming show here in Portland.



Editors An End Has A Start Early reviews were not kind with this album. Many called it a Coldplay rip off, but I kind of dig it. Yes the sound is bigger and more polished but it just makes the band sound more grand in scale. The opening song "Smokers Outside the Hospital Room" sets a good tone and does achieve the heights of Coldplay's X & Y. Another band visiting Portland soon that I wouldn't mind checking out.








Innocence Mission We Walked In Song
Pretty much the same Innocence Mission album they have always made. Good tasteful folk music. I have to admit, not a lot of tracks really stood out here and the album put me to sleep. I liked their last album Befriended better.














The National Boxer The only album recommended by A Forrest in a while was pretty good. It reminded me a lot of the brit pop band Pulp when I first listened to it. Both bands draw on influence of Leonard Cohen. Yet another band playing in Portland soon.













Interpol Our Love to Admire I was a little cautious of this one at first, but it is a pretty great album. Interpol really tries to grow into their own sound on this record. They are trying to get away from that retro-new wave sound which they helped bring back. It's a pretty mature sounding. Yes, they are visiting Portland too.













5 comments:

shakedust said...

I kind of liked Smashing Pumpkins in the 90s. The problem was that I never really cared for Corgan's raspy voice. I think a lot of people liked the band because of Corgan, so I'm probably outnumbered in my opinions.

Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage.

Portland wawa said...

I like the new album by the pumpkins. It is yet to be determined if I can go to the concert, since grandma can't watch the kids anymore. I'm surprised BB hasn't asked me to go to those other two concerts.

Achtung BB said...

What's the point? 99% of the time I have gotten "no"

Portland wawa said...

Maybe you should start asking again. If it's on a night I can go and we can find a sitter.

f o r r e s t said...

Gosh, i love that National album. It is aging really well. The drumming is superb, which is a compliment coming from me as how I am usually indiffernt about drummers.

The Innocence Mission - great poetry. The only way to listen to this band is at full blast.

Smashing Pumpkins - this is the worst artwork I have seen in a long time.

Editors compared to Coldplay??? I havent heard of that. And i haven't read of any negative reviews of their album. The reviews of Interpol were mediocre.

Critics, what do they know?