Let's anticipate the monument of 2007, Battles "Mirrored"

Saw them for the third time tonight (but the first time in two years so the show was 90% new to me) missing the Champions League final in the process (nice one Rossoneri!). Was even better than the last time I saw them and I bought the vinyl of the album off of John Stanier at the merch table while holding in the urge to say anything nerdy to him about Helmet being the first gig I ever went to when I was 12.

Atlas is good. I don't really get how so many people think it's the greatest thing ever, but it's good.

It was the big-pop-hit type song at the gig. Crowd went wild. I scowled a little, tutted and muttered "parvenus" under my breath and then my snobwant was sated.

Not feeling this at all.

I am. It's a real grower. Looking forward to PrimaVera, plus gonna review this and the 65DOS album simultaneously with glowing words on my blog.

REAL GLOWING WORDS!

"Atlas" seems to be intentionally irritating.

i like their older stuff much better.

great album, especially when driving through farmland.

great album. atlas is deliberately irritating, and by some way the album's worst track. it still makes me move though.

It was a great show last week, but my brain kinda killed my Atlas enjoyment during the show, as it suddenly started singing the Brother Rat (NoMeansNo) lyrics at me and ever since I can't stop hearing the influence :-(

(I automatically kick into "the beautiful people, the beautiful people, aaaah" upon hearing the intro)

lol! next time we see them we should sing that out loud, both of us.

This is a really curious album! I wasn't sure I liked it at first, I'm not big on proggy stuff and I couldnt really see the 65dos parallells/spiritual link, but on a few more listens it has grown on me. Race:In and Race: Out are awesome bookends and Snare Hangar rocks.

Note to self: not a good thing to listen to when one is stressed to the heavens and has just flooded the hall carpet with a rogue washingmachine accident.

My ex loves it. He sees some Mr Bungle similarities.

I have this and it has slowly been growing on me. Race:In is as wonderful as everyone says, Snare Hangar is also one of my favourites. The other longer songs (i.e. those which are not Atlas) will take some more digesting before I can comment.

Atlas sounds like some kind of pirate sea shanty sung by the Smurfs to me.

I'm totally cold for this. It reminds me of Primal Scream in some kind of odd isomorphic way.

first impressions... not really 'getting' this :/

Primal Scream? That's possibly the most unexpected referrence point so far.

"Atlas" made me think of Gary Glitter with the stompin beat. Or like someone said above, the start of Manson eek :/ Its ok, I'm not too sold on the helium vocals but it'll grow on me, Mercury Rev took time too.

I'm not crazy about this band on record.

But they were intense live this evening.

WOW. It's so upbeat. Best instrumental/post/whatever rock album in years.

best live band around! not as keen on the silly bits on the record, but there's still nothing like this around. It manages to rock and sound totally abstract at the same time

I'm into it. The sing-songyness kind of tempers the metrically crazy shit.

And I don't mean the vocals, just the parts in general sound sing-songy to me.

(although there are a couple moments on the album that sound straight Dream Theater :>)

"Atlas" sounds pretty much exactly like the intro of "Step Into My Office Baby" followed by the breakdown section of "So Many People In The Neighborhood."

I liked "atlas" 'cause it sounded like some weird new direction, math rock by way of eno's pop albums. but the rest of mirrored sounds like trans am and I'm like isn't this post-rock thing out of our system yet? granted, I missed 'em live and that's supposedly their strong turf.

or tortoise. or whatever you post-rock hipsters were listening to in '97.

I love these guys live - they're like a giant eukaryotic cell where each dude is a different organelle doing its own weird pulsating thing in a a different direction and they all somehow, mysteriously contribute to a larger life form.

My first exposure to them was the video for "Atlas" on my local video channel. I was initially unimpressed and didn't really get the acclaim. I'd heard "prog," "math rock" and "heavy" tossed around and was disappointed that they weren't Meshuggah-lite or robo-bpm Kyuss.

Decided to give the album a try when I learned they were playing in town next weekend. Suddenly it all fell into place and I love the damn thing now (I suspect hearing it on price-o speakers vs. hearing it on television helped).

I'm seeing them live next week. It will be awesome.

I don't know why I said "robo-bpm Kyuss" as though Kyuss is a prog band.

Was anyone else at the show in Boston last night? They burned the house down. Best show I've seen all year.

I saw them at pitchfork fest and was sad that I hadn't stopped to see them in iowa city two days earlier. Great show.

i'm breaking about as much news as if i announced that JFK died, but they fucking tore it up in miami... best show i've seen all year by far, one of the best ever, etc. etc. etc.

anyway, i was surprised at how delicate their music is when i was watching them, how much they rely on non-verbal cues and how they all looked really relieved when weird time changes went down right. really endeared them to me.

I really wanted to see them in Milwaukee, but was just too tired :(

'in my house, Duran Duran-ness is something one works to achieve...'
-SFJ

also, i didn't realize that the frontman was anthony braxton's kid!