Artist: Cities
Song: Headstream
From album: Cities
Genre: Secret Texturerock
[Buy this album][Site]

“Cities” by Cities from Chapel Hill, NC (itself, in fact, a city of some renown), is like a song-clique of above-average but disaffected students that hang out together after school. Each track fits in with its surrounding track buddies, at the same time managing to show off its own distinctly unique personality, its own brand of special.

Take the song Headstream: There’s this guitar right, it’s doing stuff in all the other songs too, could be brooding in a corner or telling its friends a fun story; but in this one it’s burning like a fuse. It lights at :08 and loops and turns until it sets off a whirling chain of spark-filled explosions at 1:54. It’s these kinds of personality things that give the album its character and likeability.

So maybe you’ll like what you hear and would like to hang out with these songs, get to know them a little. Well you could always go see Cities the band at SXSW, as I hear they will be there with a few pals. Or Buy the Album when it comes out April 18th, 2006.

Artist: Six Organs of Admittance
Song: Eighth Cognition/All You’ve Left
From album: School of the Flower
Genre: Misty-river acoustic musing
[DL from itunes][Buy CD][Site]

I think Ben Chasny’s guitars must be madly in love with him. They never falter; they never question themselves or his gentle mastery of them. They just reach deep down inside, and come up with the most precious sounds they can give him. Somehow these sounds have little lives of their own; more than the note, and more than the resonance. There’s something I really can’t explain; something that makes even some of the simplest passages vibrant and, (I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but for lack of a better word…) magical.

This particular song is actually sort of two songs that blend together in the middle. The first part is something of a tumbling dream; not unpleasant but unfamiliar and strange. There are these big smoky black and silver bubbles rolling all around you, and ferrying you off to somewhere unknown, (to part 2 that is).

Part two is where you “wake up” from that dream, to find yourself lying in the bottom of a slowly drifting canoe. The river around you has a thick mist curling over it, and you can barely make out a wild green treeline on both sides. Soon airy sweet wisps of voices start singing from the mist. They are singing you into their world, both welcoming and warning.

Or so it would seem. The website has some cool stuff, including recipes… for food! I just found that to be rather nifty.

Artist: Balloons
Song: The Biggest Numbers
From album: 9:40 PM
Genre: Guitary Rockesque
[Buy this album][Label Site]

There seems to be a whole lot of emophobia going around hipster indie circles these days. When I was but a wee lad I heard the term “emo” for the first time in connection with the band Roadside Monument, who I still think are great. But they have about as much in common with Fallout Boy (who is apparently today’s emo posterchild) as say, Mr. T has with Mrs. Butterworth.

So I’m not sure when or how often emo changes definitions, but I wouldn’t have ever thought of Balloons as emo if I didn’t see them listed as such while I was searching for their site. In my opinion, Balloons play some pretty nice guitar-driveny indie rockish music. See for yourself, what do you think?

Artist: Estradasphere
Song: Meteorite Showers
From album: Buck Fever
Genre: Jigsaw Jazz
[DL from itunes][Buy CD][Site]

Estradasphere, (named after the Estrada of course!) has the power to dump buckets full of genres into a blender, and pour out completely talented and marvelous songs. Their works include and combine styles like balkan gypsy, r&b, blackmetal, bluegrass, surf-rock, jazz, world, swing, doo wop, and a lot more, there’s even some guided meditation parody!

It’s really rather hard to sum up these guys, each song is a new discovery. It’s something like living in a television set on scan where you’re just walking along enjoying yourself, and every-so-often your clothes and surroundings and storylines completely change out of almost nowhere. *Click* You’re a hard boiled detective with a bum ticker, trudging through rainy nights to track down the hood that knocked off your Jane, *Click* You’re sweet 16 again, in soft-focus at the shake & burger joint, locking braces with Betty Lou’s bubblegum smile, *Click* You’re in SoCal riding the totally most gnarly wave of your surfing career, *Click* You’re black-tie waltzing atop the Eiffel Tower, *Click* You’re on the moon…..

It’s impossible to pick a song that really sums them up out of 3 great and varied albums, but this one should give you a little taste of the sometimes bizarre mixtures they can concoct. If you like what you hear even a little bit, I recommend checking out their soundbites section which will give you an even more delicious taste.

Artist: Eksperimentoj
Song: Solaris
From album: Compilation “Class – Plan B”
Genre: Stormy Nightrock
[Buy this album][Site]

Eksperimentoj is a new project that brandishes the marvelous vocalist, Eugene Wakamikoto. And how can you not love a Japanese band with an Esperanto name?! I guess no one here went to their show on Sunday, but I thought I might as well post the only song I have of theirs, it’s from this compilation, and it’s good. I’m very much looking forward to what these guys have in store.

I can’t help but imagine this song as a nighttime storm out at sea. Rather, it’s being played from high in a tumultuous sky, in the eye of the tempest. It’s the sound of watching the ocean swells and breaks, the churn and the boil. It starts as just a minor undulation in black and white, growing as tenebrous clouds gather and whirl. Soon it’s an outpouring of nature’s emotion from the depths of her murky stomach. It rushes and rolls, out there in that tarry blackness; that endless void that’s so alone but so deadly real.

This is a quick little cry for help.

If anyone who is reading this is going to be in Shibuya “today” Sunday February 5th, and is planning to go to the Eksperimentoj show at Yaneura, would you mind buying their cd for me, which is only sold at their shows apparently?!? I will not only appreciate it very much, I WILL PAY YOU BACK! Via paypal or whatever right away. Please let me know!

I was inspired to write this article by a post on Watashi to Tokyo. I don’t know how many people that come to red-ruin.info have a real interest in learning Japanese, but if you want to know the little secrets I have discovered in my studies over several years, then by all means, come on down.
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Artist: Sleepy.Ab
Song: Traveling Fair
From album: Traveling Fair
Genre: Indiesilk Wanderweb
[Buy this album][Site]

Sleepy.Ab make songs from blends of common elements that end up rather hard to classify. In a given song they can be anywhere from singer-songwriter-esque acoustic, to a mellow indie-gaze-tronica with splashes of recorded sound. The vocals are sometimes droning, sometimes mournful, but always seem to be sung with feeling.

This particular song, also the title of the album, is like a slow wandering waltz down quirky crooked lanes. Maybe it’s that hour before sunrise when the world is picturesque and filled with potential. Maybe you just walk along in half a daydream through deserted thoroughfares on your meandering way to wherever you want to be.

You can listen to clips from their other songs, and see a couple music videos on their site.