It's a little over a month away until All Tomorrows Parties: The Fans Strike Back is on and I thought I'd do a few previews of bands that are playing there, just to get me in the spirit for it. There'll be no particular order to it, just depends which bands I feel like writing about at the time, and I don't know enough about all the bands to do a preview of everyone. I'll stick to what I know.
First up, Pink Mountaintops.
Pink Mountaintops are one of Stephen McBean's groups, along with Black Mountain. Their sound is less heavy than Black Mountain, as I guess the name suggests, more classic rock and roll, without ever being derivative.
Got into Pink Mountaintops after seeing Black Mountain at ATP in 2006 and being hooked. After exhausting the Black Mountain discography needing a further fix. Not sure which version of Stephen McBean I prefer now. If you asked me a few days ago I'd have said that I preferred the Black Mountain sound, but now, I've just heard the new Pink Mountaintops album and it's seriously blown me away. Here's the description off of their Myspace:
Here's a few samples of them classics.
First up, their cover of Joy Division's "Atmosphere" off The Pink Mountaintops album
I really love this. How many successful Joy Division covers are there? And a cover of "Atmosphere" is pretty hard to imagine working. But it works by not trying to recreate the (if you'll pardon the pun) atmosphere of the original. The first time I had it on I never realised that what was coming was going to be a cover of Joy Division. And when the realisation dawned I got a huge grin on my face (I was on the bus on the way to work at the time...), a truly great cover.
Next up a live performance of "Slaves" off the Axis of Evol album
This is slightly more into Black Mountain territory, but there's no harm in that is there?
More classic rock 'n' roll - "Sweet 69" off The Pink Mountaintops
And finally "Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy", again off The Pink Mountaintops, which someone has put as the soundtrack to a guy at the Rodeo being thrown off his horse in slow motion...
First up, Pink Mountaintops.
Pink Mountaintops are one of Stephen McBean's groups, along with Black Mountain. Their sound is less heavy than Black Mountain, as I guess the name suggests, more classic rock and roll, without ever being derivative.
Got into Pink Mountaintops after seeing Black Mountain at ATP in 2006 and being hooked. After exhausting the Black Mountain discography needing a further fix. Not sure which version of Stephen McBean I prefer now. If you asked me a few days ago I'd have said that I preferred the Black Mountain sound, but now, I've just heard the new Pink Mountaintops album and it's seriously blown me away. Here's the description off of their Myspace:
"Outside Love" is ten songs of love and hate that read like a Danielle Steele romance novel but that would probably make for bad television.It is seriously quality, I really like the previous 2 albums but this is somewhere else, it has an atmosphere right through it - a longing, yearning, oppressive, romantic, hopeful yet hopelessly in love atmosphere which can be both hard to bear yet beautifully uplifting at the same time. I really love this album. And it's out the week before they play at ATP so I'm hoping they'll be playing lots of stuff off it, as well as the classics.
"Outside Love" is the third album by Pink Mountaintops, AKA Stephen McBean, who has slowly emerged as a distinctive voice and a very special contributor to the North American songbook. A veteran of the Vancouver/Victoria punk rock scene, McBean is best known for his contributions to acclaimed rock band Black Mountain, as principal songwriter, guitarist and co-vocalist.
The ten songs on "Outside Love" are about or influenced by weddings in Montreal, winter, Pink Floyd's The Final Cut, Christmas albums, that one Exile song and that one Echo and the Bunnymen song, the Bermuda Triangle, being depressed in the sunshine, people who haven't made out yet but will in the future, The Everly Brothers, clowns in the ceilings, and bedrooms where skinheads used to live.
Friends and family who contributed to or appear on "Outside Love", in no particular order, include Sophie Trudeau (A Silver Mt. Zion, Godspeed You! Black Emperor), Ted Bois (Destroyer), Jesse Sykes (Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter, sunnO)))), Phil Wandscher (Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter, Whiskeytown), Josh Stevenson (Jackie O Motherfucker), Ashley Webber (The Organ, Bonnie Prince Billy), Amber Webber (Black Mountain, Lightning Dust), Matthew Camirand (Black Mountain, Blood Meridian), Joshua Wells (Black Mountain, Lightning Dust), Keith Parry (Superconductor, the Gay), and Tolan McNeil (Caroline Mark).
Here's a few samples of them classics.
First up, their cover of Joy Division's "Atmosphere" off The Pink Mountaintops album
I really love this. How many successful Joy Division covers are there? And a cover of "Atmosphere" is pretty hard to imagine working. But it works by not trying to recreate the (if you'll pardon the pun) atmosphere of the original. The first time I had it on I never realised that what was coming was going to be a cover of Joy Division. And when the realisation dawned I got a huge grin on my face (I was on the bus on the way to work at the time...), a truly great cover.
Next up a live performance of "Slaves" off the Axis of Evol album
This is slightly more into Black Mountain territory, but there's no harm in that is there?
More classic rock 'n' roll - "Sweet 69" off The Pink Mountaintops
And finally "Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy", again off The Pink Mountaintops, which someone has put as the soundtrack to a guy at the Rodeo being thrown off his horse in slow motion...
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