AWmusic

#5 – Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band, formally known as A Silver Mt. Zion – 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons

While Menuk’s voice (and the band’s newest name) never ceases to piss me off, this album deserves some credit. It got a pretty bad rating from Pitchfork, and yeah, while it may come off as pretentious, I won’t deny it’s pretty damn good. This album defies a lot of post-rock themes; rarely having a quiet-loud build-up, but rather being consistently minimalistic and raw with defining influences from jazz, punk, and classical. And the vocal arrangements would’ve been good if I didn’t hate Menuk’s voice so much. But yeah. Something you don’t hear in post-rock every day.

Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band – Black Waters Blowed/Engine Broken Blues
Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band – Blindblindblind

#4 – Sigur Ros – Med sud i eyrum vid spilum endalaust

This may be a little biased as I absolutely love Sigur Ros, and I owe it to them for introducing me to post-rock in the first place, but hey–you really can’t go wrong with “Gobbledigook.” Granted it was the only song on the album that actually had an upbeat acoustic sound to it…but whatever. I’m so in love with Sigur Ros that I just don’t care. This album incorporates every Sigur Ros album I’ve ever loved (Agaetus Byrjun and () to name two), and yeah, even if it is a rather safe move on the band’s part, it’s still damn good and I’m proud to put it on this list. Check out the full review here.

Sigur Ros – Illgresi
Sigur Ros – Gobbledigook
Sigur Ros – Vid spilum endalaust

#3 – Have a Nice Life – Deathconsciousness

I am sure I’m not alone when I say that this album is probably one of the best rock albums of the year. A concept album revolving around ideas of sorrow, death, and religion (and those three intertwined), it is a very personal take on life through the expression of music. Personally, I enjoyed the second disc a lot better than the first as it’s a little more engaging. Leaning more towards a drone, shoegaze lo-fi sound, this album might not be considered “post-rock” in the typical term (avant-garde is likelier), but I’m still going to include it in this list. Read the full review here.

Have A Nice Life – Waiting for Black Metal to Come in the Mail
Have A Nice Life – Who Would Leave Their Son Out in the Sun?
Have A Nice Life – A Quick One Before the Eternal Worm Devours Connecticut

#2 – Tomcat Combat – I’m Okay, You’re Okay

You might remember my over-enthusiastic post on Tomcat Combat’s summer album, I’m Okay, You’re Okay. It’s full of energy, good tunes, and it keeps you on your toes. You can read the full review if you want, but basically I love this album because of it’s awesome dynamic rhythm shifts, something I’ve grown to appreciate in other music since listening to this album. Tomcat Combat are probably one of the lesser known and therefore unappreciated post-rock bands out there, so for the glory of all post-rock, please check them out!

Tomcat Combat – Pacer’s Club
Tomcat Combat – Ponies on Ice

#1 – The American Dollar – A Memory Stream

If you’re looking for a mellowed out, dreamy album that doesn’t actually scream post-rock, your best bet is with A Memory Stream. The piano and guitar melodies will hook you in and envelope you in their mellow but very saturated instrumentation. It is a fusion of great electronic music with post-rock concepts–one of the best ambient albums out there, and therefore, #1 on my list. Check out the full review.

The American Dollar – The Slow Wait (2)
The American Dollar – Lights Dim

Here are all the posts and reviews from the last week:

Jess reviewed American Dollar’s A Memory Stream for your weekly fix of post-rock.

Chad VanGaalen’s album Soft Airplane is awesome. Tons of feedback + disagreement for giving the album a 4.25 out of 5… Was I too harsh?

Coko profiled Cori Green a local R&B artist.

Matt covered The Dutchess and The Duke’s She’s the Dutchess and He’s The Duke. I love the photo he uses.

Josh reviews Eric Hutchinson’s popular Sounds Like This.

I reviewed Okkervil River’s The Stand Ins. A little bit of a miss but they are still one of my favorite bands.

Joe covers The Ready Set. Judging from his picture, they man could eat some more junk.

Adrian covered Scars on Broadway’s self titled release. For you System of A Down fans.

I reviewed the Stars’ Sad Robots EP. Solid little disc you can get on Itunes or on tour.

Lu reviews The Swear’s Hotel Rooms and Heart Attacks.

Christian covered The Verve’s Forth. People say a lot of great things about The Verve but outside of Bittersweet Symphony, I haven’t really heard many other songs.

Young Sensation’s Kitty Magic EP is a nice little EP.

Reminder: Metro Station contest ends next week!

Friend, Zack reviewed the Virgin Festival finally.

New around the blogosphere and such and such:
Jenny Lewis’ album was streaming on her myspace. Release date is Sept 23rd.. I can’t wait, I’m in love with her. To be honest I didn’t check out Rabbit Fur Coat since my ex said it sucked…she listens to Britney Spears now so I took some great advice! Snob’s Music (from Toronto) gave it a 5.5.

Metallica’s Death Magnetic hit stores with some good reviews. I still hate their stance on P2P etc. Hopefully one of our writers will pick this up (hint hint: Adrian).

Kanye West was arrested for “having issues” with the paparazzi. He also managed to post 10 posts during the same day *cough* ghost writers *cough* on his blog. Hot Biscuits burned Kanye West saying the only time he’s acceptable is when is not on a track and links to an instrumental track of Love Lockdown…hilarious.

Coldplay is somehow on the new guitarhero. Bands like Interpol long deserved to be on there but come on Coldplay… who really rocks on pretending to play a Coldplay riff*?

Captain Melody loves the new Emiliana Torrini album. I personally would take Lykke Li over her… maybe because Lykke Li is so hot (yes I’m shallow).

Along with the announcement of their release, they also mentioned they would be playing shows with other awesome bands that have been reviewed on our site (Caspian and Yndi Halda) and those that haven’t been (Lymbyc Systym, This Will Destroy You, Moving Mountains, and Joy Wants Eternity). It’s too bad they haven’t crossed north of the Canadian-American border to do some shows yet, but here’s hoping they’ll take notice and think about it.

Memory Streams is crafted quite superiorly, meshing together post-rock and electronic to entice the listener to its ethereal-like backdrop of piano-based melodies, twinkling synths, and guitar hooks. The American Dollar are able to skillfully work the dynamics of this album, as if it is really just a single 50-minute song, rather than a collection of eleven. Memory Streams has consistency, which reinforces the idea of a superb ambience album.

The album starts off with “The Slow Wait (1),” which reminded me a lot of Sigur Ros—I suppose it is in the soft piano melody and lingering synths in the background, which create a very dreamy, airy tone. “The Slow Wait (2)” is a more upbeat continuation of the first track. I seriously dig the percussions on this album; I suppose it is essentially what marks the album as electronic (although I wouldn’t go so far as to label the album as electronic—it definitely incorporates a lot of electronic features, but in its entirety I don’t really feel that vibe). The album onward is pretty much very consistent in overall tone/approach, so I won’t get into too much detail about each track.

I like how the titles in this album are so appropriate; “Anything You Synthesize” uses, well, synthesizers, as a theme of focus; “Starscapes” features a disposition of twinkling synths to cast an image of heavenly tranquility.

Like a regular post-rock album, there is lots of repetitiveness in this album. And since I like post-rock a lot, of course I don’t mind this. Some may find it tedious after awhile, but I think that’s how ambient music is best conveyed…it taps into many different levels of the mind, rather than solely focusing on one aspect of music. In it being repetitive, it helps create more consistent, structured imagery.

So if you’re looking for something to mellow out to whilst being very easy to listen to, A Memory Stream is the way to go with its very alluring dreamy soundscapes. I don’t know how else to explain its greatness, so feel free to have a listen to the mp3s below.

MP3s:
The American Dollar – The Slow Wait (2)

The American Dollar – Lights Dim

Please visit The American Dollar’s official website (new window will open) to purchase a copy of A Memory Stream.