Album Review: Glow by Flower Crown

Well I finally have some free time here and I finally got around to listening to the new Flower Crown album Glow. For those people who do not know, Flower Crown is a dream-pop duo (based in Pittsburgh) consisting of Richie Colosimo and Aaron Mook.

Flower Crown is the duo's second release and it sounds pretty damn amazing. Although I usually associate dream-pop with shoegaze, this is definately not that (at least my definition I tend to fin shoegaze and louder). However, it definately has that dreamy atmosphere that comes with shoegaze. The type of dream-pop on this album is more like a guitar driven chillwave, and the over all sound can get you lost within the over all sound. My proof of this was me having a conversation with someone on facebook messenger and completely forgetting that I was even having one while listening to this album for a review.

The album not only seems to have a chillwave influence, but also some sounds typical in post rock since there's a drone to it typical in a lot of early post rock groups such as Angels of Light (although unlike Angels of Light, Flower Crown isn't really folky, probably a bad example, I do these things off the top of my head).

Anyway let's get into some detail here the album starts off with the track True Blue, and definately sets the mellow and hypnotic tone of the album, then the second track Web comes in and kinda sort of has a tropical vibe to it. The tropical vibe continues with the third track How's Yr Head (my favorite track so far) which definately has that tropical vibe of the though of just chilling by the beach.

The fourth track is Bloodshade and it is the best REM song not by REM. I'm not joking and I'm not the only one who thinks it sounds like REM since there's a comment on their Bandcamp that even makes reference to at least this album sounding like REM, but although I so far it's just this one track that I pick up REM.

The song Moonwater then goes back to the tropical vibe and acts as a transition track to Frame by Frame a really nice and jangly type of song, and yeah now i'm definately picking up the similarities between the vocals in this and Micheal Stipes vocals, same with the song Pls (probably now cuz i'm looking for it) In the song Plz you can kind of pick up some effects that have been put on the vocals, which add a nice touch to the sound of the album over all (assuming it's done threw out the album).

The next song Rearview (Sept) reminds me a lot of the beginning part of great gig in the sky and also some slower version of a Johnny Marr riff.

To end the album there's the song Lady of the Lake. For this song, take the later stuff from the band Earth, and soften it up. There you'll have a basic idea of this song. Possibly also one of the most head in the clouds dreamy song on the album, the song is like a journey inside every neuron in your brain. It is a solid song to end the album with.

I really like this album. I'm definately going to check out their first release right after this. The guitar, keys, vocals, and everything else meshes super well and sets the mood to just sit back calm down and let your anxiety drain away until everything is ok. In short I am checking my account balances, hoping I have enough money in the bank to get a cassette before they sell out.

As usual check this band out.

Facebook (all pictures come from their facebook)
https://www.facebook.com/flowercrownmusic/

Bandcamp
https://flowercrownmusic.bandcamp.com/

Thanksgiving Song Review: Pornography In Stop - Motion by Elephant Pill

First time doing a song review so I hope I do this justice. Anyway Elephant Pill is a Trip Hop project by Erie musician Alex Wilson (one of the members of Ghost Embryo) and the song is a track from the album Slug Trails to the Lemon Kid.
Alex described t
he sample in the song as the doodle at the end of a stop motion Santa Claus movie. After doing some research I assumed Alex was referring to the Rankin Bass jingle at the end of the 1970 stop motion film Santa Claus is coming to town. Regardless what the sample is or where Alex got it from the beat of the song brought me feelings of familiarity and not quite knowing why (this was before I read the Facebook posts that were promoting the song, so I literally had no idea where the sample came from but knew I heard it before). With that feeling of familiarity I found that I would easily get lost in the song's instrumentation.
 I also got a vibe that the song was influenced by the sound of Massive Attack, especially the vocals. Alex described in the Facebook post that the song had a Tricky influence so I was close on guessing the musical influence due to Tricky being once a member of Massive Attack. However, I thought Alex's vocals were more like Massive Attack member's 3D's than Tricky's, but that just shows what I know and I'm no expert.
The lyrics I have a hard time analyzing, not because they're cryptic or hard to hear due to them being lost in the mix, it's mainly because as stated before I get lost in the instrumental and so in short I get distracted away from the lyrics, which in my opinion is fine, it doesn't make me enjoy the track any less. From what I could gather the song name drops and references musicians (examples Robert Smith and Beck) that I assume influence Alex's music to a degree, either that or he just likes those musicians. Despite me at first only picking up the name drops and references in the song due to my ADHD haze, the lyrics I assume tell a personal story that involves emotions and certain life challenges that the narrator of the song has faced or still faces (the song could be autobiographical, but it is not my place to assume anything)
In short the song is great, the sampling is better than anything I have done or can do, the vocals are really tight and has a nice flow. I can't wait to listen to the rest of the album

Link to the song
https://soundcloud.com/alex-wilson-465158726/pornography-in-stop-motion

Link to Elephant Pill's Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/elephantpill/

Surf Doom Madness: Survivors

Ok another band showcase and this is Survivors from Lakeline Ohio (so Cleveland area). This band consists of the duo Ammo (guitar, lead vocals and drums) and Zilla St. Cornell (keyboard and backing vocals) and they actually played one of their first shows in my home town of Oil City Pa. Their sound they describe on their facebook page as surf doom and that is really the best way to kind of explain it. The sound has a cheesy spooky vibe to it due to the keyboards and King Diamond-esque vocals. Definitely a great live act, with the unique sound that the band has (and the fact they use pre-recorded live drums as opposed to just using a drum machine) can even make the most jaded music fan to take notice. Plus they do an awesome cover of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. If you have a chance to see them live, do it.

Link to their facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/weSURVIVEtheyDIE/

The Death of Warped Tour: 2018 seems promising.

Just for those people that remember the old warped tour when it was decent and had bands like NOFX headlining, I never really experienced that warped tour while growing up. Instead I was exposed to the bullshit hot topic mallcore bands that invaded and hijacked what was a good music festival. While typing this article I will be refering to the "emo" (those bands were never emo or screamo just pop punk with eyeliner) and scene bullshit mecca era warped tour. So now that warped tour is ending, I hope this is one of the nails in the coffin that kills hot topic punk and metal for good and we can finally start celebrating music that is actually good creative and innovative. Hopefully Hot Topic will be the next thing to go down.