Posts tagged with volcano choir

megafaun

i first heard this track by megafaun last week and it immediately made the list of upcoming dailybeatz tracks. but then i read a little about the band and was extremely surprised at what i found out, but it makes a lot of sense when you hear the band. as it turns out, the band is made up of brad and phil cook from durham, nc and joe westerlund from eau claire, wi. but before they were megafaun, they were deyarmond edison, and they had one additional member who was, you guessed it, justin vernon aka bon iver. so while i thought his debut “for emma forever ago” was really his first foray, we’ve now discovered that prior to that release, he was involved in projects with both megafaun AND volcano choir. i wonder what else this guys got up his sleeve.

the track is entitled “the fade” off their second album “gather, form and fly” and it is banjo-laden folk goodness any way you slice it. theres a sort of reverb on the never still banjo that just makes this song feel so full when its layered over the harmonies that are laid over most of the lyrics. and if that wasnt enough folk for you, the slide guitar solo (or is it still a banjo?) near the end of the track will probably do it. theyve still got a few tour dates this fall in the states with bon iver and then with the dodos and then theyll be heading overseas for a bit, so catch them if you can.

megafaun – the fade

Megafaun - Gather, Form & Fly - The Fade buy this track on itunes
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volcano choir

even if you havent heard of volcano choir, youll definitely recognize the vocalist as soon as you hear the song. thats because its none other than everyones favorite lovelorn singer songwriter justin vernon, better known as bon iver. in this very interesting side project, he collaborates with collections of colonies of bees in releasing the album “unmap”. i dont really know anything about them, but apparently they are also from wisconsin. and im listening to some of their stuff as i type this, so now i know more about them. and they sound like a pretty cool instrumental and experimental posse. and they sort of remind me a lot of a grittier version of do make say think, and thats a good thing.

while “island, is” is a pretty straight forward song with really neat music and those trademark vernon vocals, do not expect the rest of the album to follow suit. as vernon says of the album to pitchfork, “i sing on the album, but there arent a lot of lyrics — its definitely on the experimental side of things”. and he aint just whistlin’ dixie. on the track “and gather”, vernon sings nonsensical noises throughout the song, all layered over what sounds like it could be the soundtrack for a baby einstein video, but for some reason, it just seems to work. i wanted to make sure i listened to this album a few times and really got a good sense of it before i posted, and i can say that im really liking it in all its glorious weirdness, even though a few of the tracks are too much even for me. while this track is pretty mainstream sounding and great (any song whose final lyrics are “and your old tits on your hard drive” is bound to be good), dont approach this album expecting “for emma, forever ago pt II” or you will be sorely disappointed.

volcano choir – island, is

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