Check-in From Spring Break

This is not where I'm spending my spring break this year.

Ah, spring break.  That fabled time of year in which the masses clamor for warmer climates and escape their cares through cheap beer and wet t-shirt contests.  Or at least that's how MTV circa 1998 would have you believe it is.  Of course, those of us with jobs don't usually get the week off, so we're forced to stay home and suffer through our boring normal lives, with only the slight respite of being free from night classes for a week.  But at least it's a good chance to update my blog, so here goes.


It's been a pretty slow year so far for new music, at least as far as Relative Pitch is concerned. Snow Patrol released a new record, Fallen Empires, and it's pretty much business as usual for the band - which isn't necessarily a bad thing.  There may be more of a focus on electronic sound design and Pro Tools-y production, but at the core the songs contain the same oddly specific yet evocative lyrics and shout-along choruses that they've been known for, and it all works pretty well (though A Hundred Million Suns is still probably my favorite Snow Patrol record).


As for the heavy stuff, Lamb Of God dropped Resolution in January, and it's has hard-hitting as anything they've done so far in their already-exceptional career.  The band explores a wider range of tempos and dynamics, from pounding sludge-metal to breakneck technical passages and some moody, almost bluesy passages, and handles every twist and turn adeptly.  These guys are all fantastic musicians, and they're clearly at the top of their game - check it out.  Also released in January was Lacuna Coil's Dark Adrenaline, which is a pretty satisfying alt-metal album with touches of the band's goth roots.  Cristina Scabbia still has one of the best sets of pipes around, and her trade-offs with Andrea Ferro add a nice yin-yang quality to the songs when used well.  Aside from an unfortunate and misguided cover of REM's "Losing My Religion" - they sound a lot better when covering Depeche Mode - this album's a pretty good time, even if if won't change your life.  Metallica also gave us an EP, Beyond Magnetic, consisting of unused tracks from the Death Magnetic sessions.  Even though this is technically several-years-old stuff, it's still worth mentioning, since the four tracks on the EP are all actually really good - any one of them would have fit right in alongside the songs that made the album in the first place.


I'd also be remiss not to mention Yearbook Committee here - they're a local indie-folk-ish band from right here in Terre Haute, Indiana that just released their second album, This Is The Winter, and it's great.  Yes, a bit of hometown pride may be influencing my thinking here (plus some of the members were classmates of mine at ISU), but they really are fantastic songwriters and performers.  Catch them live if you get a chance - that's where they really shine.


And that's about it for this year so far.  Things will definitely be picking up  within the next couple months - lots of exciting new releases coming up.  But we'll get there when we get there.  Until then, stay classy, and whatever you do, keep listening.

YouTube Clip Du Jour

Something I've been intending on doing more often here is actually posting musical content, rather than simply talking about it.  So to get started down that road, here's a pretty cool cover from prog-metal outfit Redemption.  Bet you never thought a Jefferson Starship tune could sound so metal.  (Their original stuff is pretty great, too - check it out and maybe buy a CD or two to support the band.  They deserve it.)

The Top 10 Albums Of 2011 (In The Opinion Of One Humble Blogger)

As promised, and without further ado or rambling from me, my top 10 albums of 2011.

10 (tie):  The Human Abstract - Digital Veil

• Essential Tracks:  "Holographic Sight," "Faust," "Digital Veil," "Elegiac"

10 (tie):  Tesseract - One

• Essential Tracks:  "Concealing Fate" (Parts 1-6), "Lament," "Sunrise," "Eden"

9:  Radiohead - The King Of Limbs

• Essential Tracks:  "Codex," "Lotus Flower," "Bloom," "Give Up The Ghost"

8:  Wilco - The Whole Love

• Essential Tracks:  "Art Of Almost," "Dawned On Me," "One Sunday Morning (Song For Jane Smiley's Boyfriend)," "Black Moon"

7:  Steven Wilson - Grace For Drowning

• Essential Tracks:  "Index," "Raider II," "No Part Of Me," "Deform To Form A Star"

6:  Bon Iver - Bon Iver

• Essential Tracks:  "Perth," "Calgary," "Holocene," "Beth/Rest"

5:  Animals As Leaders - Weightless

• Essential Tracks:  "Somnarium," "An Infinite Regression," "To Lead You To An Overwhelming Question," "Do Not Go Gently"

4:  The Decemberists - The King Is Dead

• Essential Tracks:  "Don't Carry It All," "June Hymn," "This Is Why We Fight," "Rox In The Box"

3:  Foo Fighters - Wasting Light

• Essential Tracks:  "Rope," "White Limo," "Arlandria," "Bridge Burning"

2:  Dream Theater - A Dramatic Turn Of Events

• Essential Tracks:  "Bridges In The Sky," "Breaking All Illusions," "This Is The Life," "Outcry"

1:  Thrice - Major/Minor

• Essential Tracks:  "Anthology," "Words In The Water," "Yellow Belly," "Blinded"

Alright, there you have it.  It's definitely been a good year for music.  I encourage you to YouTube any one of the tracks listed above and hear a sample of some of the best (I would have linked to them myself, but it's late, I'm two glasses of wine in, and this was behind schedule already, so you'll have to do a bit of the work yourself).  Here's to 2012 and whatever great music is to come.