black midi - anyone been tracking these?

it's just the novelty factor....a good rock band from England 😎

Been listening to some of this on Youtube and why haven't This Heat been mentioned on this thread yet?

but I can't help but think that if they were from Milwaukee nobody would be talking about them

*cough* Dead Rider *cough* DEAD RIDER *cough*

I haven't heard this band btw, just some headz I know drew some comparisons to Dead Rider...a band seemingly no one cares about, even though they are on DRAG CITY!

And are the best currently extant "rock music" band, ok sorry please continue with this thread where English people all think they invented the wheel or whatevs

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it all Americans praising this band itt? The one definitely English person who's posted said, and I quote, "fucking awful"?

I retract my previous statement and resubmit as:

"this thread for Americans acting like English people invented the wheel or whatevs"

chris, are you a better judge of music than you are conversations?

tho i am totally going to check out dead rider now

chris, are you a better judge of music than you are conversations?

― Like A Turrican (stevie), Wednesday, June 26, 2019 3:51 PM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yes

I just listened to two Dead Rider songs and they're great, ty!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiOiqz6vItE

SEE!

Take that! Englander pigdogs!

It's U.S. Maple not U.K. Maple

#thesecolorsdontrun

Brits Out of America #deepcut

SEE!

i lay in bed corrected!

It's U.S. Maple not U.K. Maple

*applauds*

Their ideas are good but the songs aren't worth waiting for them.

^ding

still not heard Black Midi but the Dead Rider album from last year with the mad English guy on vocals is sick and perhaps the best of both worlds

Then it's no 'moloch with strings', an epithet that may only be applied to a decadent, mildly Orientalist tone poem.

― pomenitul, Wednesday, 26 June 2019 09:33 (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i gave it the big 4/10 for the reasons 57mg/20floz succinctly describes. the musicians aren't boring but the music is

might check out dead rider ty

This year’s Wu Lyf.

that comparison leapt instantly into my head too, although this lot are a bit further along the 'avant-math prankster' spectrum

Todd Rittman was in US Maple then Dead Rider that is really something

You know what was a good English band?

Giddy Motors

File black midi alongside Julia Holter in the category of acts imago should like but (in)explicably doesn't.

Tbf my sole exposure to this band is watching them jam for 10 mins on YT.

You know what was a good English band?

Giddy Motors

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, June 27, 2019 7:59 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Haven't heard anyone mention them since 2004

Sorry to cause the confusion. Was not familiar with black midi, the genre :(

Black MIDI the genre is an audio meme, much like Extratone. Bite-sized, amusing for a moment, but then it's dropped for the next shiny sliver of mylar balloon that floats off the power lines.

RYM user The_Pamps is upset:

It honestly disgusts me that people are calling this shit "rock" music. This is a fucking disgrace, and really highlights how far rock as a genre has fallen. REAL Rock Music is AC/DC, Rose Tattoo, Guns and Roses, Led Zepplin, Aerosmith and INXS. This isn't rock, This is shit.

that review gets even worse later

Oh got, his YT channel.

*god

The last great Skin Graft-y band I'd heard was Stabscotch, which was decidedly not dismissed by imago as 'fucking awful' so I'm going in a bit skeptically here

Dead Rider are brilliant, and seeing them live was the closest I'll get to seeing US Maple. To me, black midi don't sound like Dead Rider (for one, there's no discernible soul influence to my ears) but I could absolutely see them on the same bill, or sharing a label.

xp I'm watching the KEXP performance--aw this ain't that bad; kind of a more post-rock-ish Girl Band? I do kinda get a vibe that both vocalists here have difficulties telling good ideas from bad ones

(Ok nm that "both vocalists" bit; totally unfair to the bass player here...)

Stabscotch are a brilliant example of this sort of thing done well

Noted.

Good band, bad songwriting

A lot of the animism in the press for the band seems based in the prospect that they will eventually make better music, which is a funny way for justifying mediocre reviews with better scores. I don't remember Iceage - another explicitly youthful band, premiering - benefiting from this, but they also benefited from an average 2 minute track length and more cohesive idea of themselves.

pretty good album; most of the reasons it’s bad stem from them being 15 year olds

I have an antipathy as I get older to bands that inspire critics to turn reviews into works cited pages.

you could blame the critics and not the bands

why on earth would I?

lol Alfred you wouldn't like this band either way

rong

all the influences are in the right paragraphs but in the wrong order.

What do you mean?

I was going to say this is the acceptable face of LJ music but turns out he doesn't like them!

The vox are a delight btw

SHE MOVES WITH A PURPOSE!!

I dunno I gave the Stabscotch album a try but there's a groove to these guys which I appreciate a lot more

God bless this dude for not taking down his adorable old vids:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xAUq1xLGzM

Saw these live in Bristol on Saturday having never previously listened to them. Verdict: Yes, very clever but calm down

Obvs these dudes are all very talented but when I hear this kind of clever virtuosic music, I want to be able to hear what's going on. I like the sounds to be "tight", not smothered in reverb and unnecessary distortion. The singer was buried under piles of it, sounding like a circus crier faintly announcing stuff. His guitar tone was kind of frustrating - for the mostpart crunchy, low-mid range chords which inhabited much the same frequency as the keyboardist (who seemed to be there to supply whirling textures more than anything else). It was all a bit like being smacked in the face by jazz chords over and over again. They were at their best during the parts where they let their compositions breathe a bit, but even then when things quietened down it often just sounded like a band having a jam or a warm-up. So no, I'm not sold but I'll check out their album to see if it makes any more sense

I note you've all been too busy posting about classic rock and debating the progginess of Radiohead (lol)

Anyway, fuck all that

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Efmq_uXt1Rk

they covered taylor swift

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RC-Yl0L3Vis

they also covered "21st century schizoid man" and "moonlight in vermont" in less piss-take-y fashion (tho there are still elements of piss take lol)

i was bummed I missed them live the other month but a friend who went told me is was really a mess. not sure if that's always the case or if it was just this tour; I've seen live clips of them and thought they were great; so could have been a case of different expectations.

Well! this is just about the best album ever

yeah this is cool. that "Welcome to Hell" track posted above is pretty fantastic

It's good but I prefer Cavalcade still - this is a bit relentlessly vaudevillian, prefer 'em when the songs meander and build

It may click fully at some point though, especially if I follow along with a lyric sheet

I'm liking these new songs better than the stuff I've heard from them in the past. I have a feeling I'm going to like this album.

At various moments it put me in mind of Beefheart, The Garden, Jono El Grande, Benjamin Clementine, Sun Ra, Horse Lords, Naked City, Ought, Incredible String Band, Jason Forrest - that's an impressive range of weird music to be evoked by just a few songs. Actually I think keeping the dial stuck on eleven is a good mode for them.

Fell in love with Cavalcade on the first listen. This one is going to take a few more than that. Overall, I did like it on the first pass. There’s a lot to digest.

Vocals on "Welcome To Hell" remind me of "One Night In Bangkok"

i don't love this but it's another big step in the right direction for them, by far the most i've enjoyed them

also actually kind of approaches the feeling of their namesake in places