Followed By Ghosts - Beards Of The Patriarchs -- Still Here (2011)

Post Rock post? Post Rock post! Today I'll be writing about a band originating from the states, Iowa to be more exact. Followed By Ghosts is a band with a lot of energy in their music and one of my personal favorites in the genre. The album the song is taken from is "Still here" and it dates from 2011 and is the third studio album produced by the band. The album contains rather short powerful tracks with for me personally some of the better (sorry for repeating myself) Post Rock music I came across last years. Their sound reminds me a lot of Explosions in the Sky among other Post-Rock artists. Lets face it most Post-Rock music sounds somewhat alike, but then again if you like one band you find yourself liking a lot of them.  

I don't know much more about this band that I can tell you guys. Only thing left for me to tell you is the name of the song. The song is called Beards Of The Patriarchs and is the third song of the record. I chose it for the power behind the track and because it's the only(I think) track were you actual hear somebody scream (so yes they have vocals, haha). Enjoy!

Bandcamp page
last.fm artist page

Explosion In The Sky - Snow and Lights -- How Strange, Innocence (200/2005)

It seems like forever since I posted some post rock. This might just be because of my inactivity though. still let me make it up to you with one of the major bands in the genre. And for me personally the band that made me fall in love with the genre after Joy Wants Eternity introduced me to it. Explosions In The Sky is an Austin Texas based band that is producing some of the more excellent music since the end of the last century. Honestly there isn't an album they made I did not like, I can't even name a song that I dislike. For me this band is what post rock should be, and of course taste differs for everyone and there are a lot of excellent bands out there, I know all this. But for me they just are just that little bit better than the others, until now at least.

The song is from their debut album and I especially like the drumming in this one, it was amazing to see them play this song live. Although that was the case for almost every song they played. It was my first post rock concert and I was really amazed how they made some of the sounds by just hitting (not playing) their instruments. It all seemed so random, like what other rock bands would do at the end of the gig, just to produce some noise... But here it was to make the exact sounds, not noise but music. It sounded exactly as it would sound on the album and it was just unbelievable how they did it, haha. Definitely one of the best concerts I saw in my short live and one of the very few bands I would like to see as often as possible even if it would be two days in a row, I honestly wouldn't mind. Enjoy!

Official site

last.fm artist page

Toe - Past and Language -- The Book About My Idle Plot On a Vague Anxiety (2005)

Next band on my blog is the Japanese band Toe. This is one of the few bands I discovered since I'm browsing the /mu/ board on 4chan, the site is pretty disturbing at times but has some really good music recommendations as well. This band I discovered in a Math Rock share tread, but to be honest I consider them more to be Post-Rock than Math-Rock. I guess they are a combination of both genre's but what counts is that they are a good band, so the label I'm trying to put on them doesn't really matter. 

The video for the Past and Language song is very cool as well, I like the concept of the small gig for a limited crowd. At least that is what I think the concept is... The song is my favorite by them, I'm still fairly new to this band so this might change in the future but for now this really is the one. I like how the song gets that little bit faster around a minute and a half, and how it sort of "explodes" (it's not really that drastic) at 2 minutes and 20 seconds more and less. Oh and how that one "woooh" scream comes from the crowd when it "explodes", haha. And the drummer, apparently named Takashi if Last FM is correct, is just amazing in my opinion. Of course it's the band as a total that creates and plays the songs, but this drummer actually is amazing, not that i'm an expert or anything when it comes to judging this matter, but just check him out. Anyways thank you 4chan and Koen for leading me to 4chan, and... enjoy! 

Official site
last.fm artist page

Joy Wants Eternity - Above The Clouds Lies Eternal Sun -- You Who Pretend To Sleep (2007)

You could have guessed after me mentioning them in my previous post about The Joy Formidable that the next one would be about Joy Wants Eternity. Like I explained in that post this two bands introduced me to Post-Rock although one of them clearly isn't Post-Rock at all, but I advice to read the other post as well if you want to understand it all. 

Nowadays I don't often listen anymore to Joy Wants Eternity, not because the album isn't good or anything but I listened a bit too much to them when I first came to appreciate it I think. If you only have one album then you end up being a bit bored after re listening it over and over again, or at least I do most of the time. Back then I couldn't find the earlier EP, which has an amazing title if you ask me: Must You Smash Your Ears Before You Learn To Listen With Your Eyes. But maybe I have more luck tonight since I will be looking for both the old one and the new record that came out in may apparently. Hopefully it gets me to listen some more to this excellent band. Oh and like always I will buy the album if I see it in stores here or if I can get it at a decent price online, but I don't pay for downloads I want at least hard copies for my money, sue me... 

Anyways lets focus again after my short plea for illegal downloads, haha. The band is Texas based and produces pretty decent post-rock. Since it's been a long time I listened to the album it's hard to tell you how good they actually are, but they made me want to hear more from the genre so they can't be bad no? I remember the song From Embrace to Embrace being pretty excellent as well as the Yet Onward We Marched to be one of my favorite songs of the album. But I wanted to post one of the first two songs of the album since they made the switch between The Joy Formidable and this Post-Rock band sound so natural. So in the end it became this one, Above The Clouds Lies Eternal Sun. Which is like the complete album a very good song if you are into the genre. Or lets hope that it can inspire you to dig into the Post-Rock genre like it did with me if you are not into it the genre, anyways... Enoy!

Official site

last.fm artist page

65daysofstatic - Radio Protector -- One Time For All Time (2005)

Back again with more post rock music, now one of the most amazing bands live and with one of the best tracks on any album. I'm talking about 65daysofstatic of course! (but you knew that already from the title I assume)

Seriously this song above is one of my favorite tracks of all time, it's hard to make a top 10/50 or whatever list because my taste changes so quickly on a day to day basis. But this one right here would always be in it for sure. The intro with the piano build up is just amazing and how this is repeated a second time later on in the song is actually too good to be true. But how the song "explodes"  after the second build up and just keeps going faster and faster is one of the best moments out of my music collection. And actually pretty awesome to play on audiosurf, insanely difficult though...

About the album, One Time For All Time, I actually can't tell that much, when I started listening to this band they had few albums out already and I downloaded all that I could find (recently bought the first album I saw in Belgium stores immediately when I found it, so don't judge me). Anyways because of this I never listened to their albums alone. Or I put all the tracks I had on shuffle or I listen to all of them in a row not knowing which belongs to which album etc. and I'm still doing this as well with the more recent stuff. About the band I can tell you what I said before, they are amazing live and well I do am able to tell that all the albums are pretty amazing, since I do like everything I hear when I'm shuffling them. Enough ranting from me, just enjoy!

Official site

last.fm artist page

Balmorhea - Truth -- All Is Wild, All Is Silent (2009)

To start off my new music blog I'll be posting one of my personal favorites for the last few weeks. I still have to thank my friend Koen for this one, without him I would be unaware of this band. Balmorhea (2006-present) is an Austin Texas based band with an post-rock label on them, but if you ask me they are more than just post-rock. They mix influences and elements from classical music to rock in general. Which eventually leads to a post-rockish type of music. But again like I said it's more than just that, to fully understand what I'm saying I'd advice you to listen to the video above since I can't explain it really, I'm sorry for my incapability.

The All Is Wild, All Is Silent album is the third studio album they delivered (back in 2009) and is if you ask me a masterpiece from the first song to the last, the opening with Settler sets the tone for an excellent album that never bores you. So it's definitely worth to check this album out if you find any spare time in your busy lives! The song I'm posting is Truth and was the first song I heard by them. It made me immediately fall in love with the band and look for more. I'm hoping the song has the same effect on some of you guys!

If you like what you hear, the older albums are worth checking too. And if you can wait a few extra days the Stranger album is coming out in October and you can listen to it and pre-order it from their official site that I will give a link to right at the bottom of the post.

Enjoy!

Official site

last.fm artist page