Archive for April, 2009

I spent the afternoon of Record Store Day last Saturday over at Reckless Records in Wicker Park to pick up all the releases I wanted and catch two of the three in-store performances. When I got there, the place was really crowded and it had been most of the day from what I was told. I’m sure the nice weather helped entice people to come out and stimulate the economy by buying some music on this day.

Blasted Diplomats

Blasted Diplomats

Blasted Diplomats

The first band who played was called Blasted Diplomats and was comprised of some employees of the record store. They played a set that was compirsed almost entirely of cover songs of various types of music including a Husker Du cover. Normally such a practice would anger me, however on this day it seemed rather appropriate as if they were sort of representing some of the kinds of music you could find in the store.

Blasted Diplomats

Blasted Diplomats

The next band was a surprise but I think the word must have gotten out by the time the band were starting to set up their equipment as to who it was because all of a sudden the store became too crowded to move and people were packing in the place everyplace they could squeeze. What this sudden big crowd were waiting for was Lawrence Arms.

Lawrence Arms

Lawrence Arms

Lawrence Arms

I’ve seen the band play once before and thought they put on a pretty good show. I also know they have a lot of fans, especially in this city so I wasn’t surprised that the store was completely packed with people all the way to the entrance!  The band played material from a variety of their releases and inbetween songs the singer would tell stories and entertain the crowd as they decided what song they would play next. The crowd ate it up and during a couple of songs so many people were bouncing up and down in delight that I thought the floor might cave in and we’d all end up in the basement! It was a really fun and enjoyable set and because they are such a popular band it made the event feel even more special.

Lawrence Arms

Lawrence Arms

The crowd during Lawrence Arms

This Saturday is national Record Store Day. This is a yearly event were independent music stores celebrate their existence and try and get people off the internet to come to a real record store to purchase some music. Lots of labels are releasing special limited edition releases in honor of the event and many bands are doing special in-store performances.

I have a laundry list of releases I plan on going out and picking up that day and am looking forward to it. If you’ve been in the mood to buy yourself some new music lately, make a trip to your local record store on Saturday as there will be lots to choose from, much of it on sale!

My Dying Bride – For Lies I Sire
Peaceville Records

It has been three years since the last My Dying Bride album was released. I was beginning to think the band had fizzled out but then this CD appeared in my mailbox one day. In the time between albums the band saw three new members join the fold (and I assume three also departed). It also marked the return of the band incorporating the violin in some of their songs, something that they used frequently in some of their earlier material but has been absent for quite some time.

My Dying Bride’s sound has been fairly consistent throughout the years. Ironically it was the one album where they tried a different direction that made me a fan of the band and that was their 1997 release, 34.788%… Complete. That album made me a fan and I sought out many of their other albums and soon heard what the “true” My Dying Bride formula was, and I liked that too, quite a bit actually.

The My Dying Bride formula is rather long songs that are somber, dark and melodic yet somehow still heavy. Their usually mid-tempo to slow pace allows the guitars to lay a bed of thick and heavy chords that help emphasize the gloomy mood of their songs. The vocals are very clear and also mostly melodic as well with the lyrics as clear as day. On top of the usual instruments, there is some non-traditional instruments for heavy music such as the violin. It all makes layers of gloomy and dark sounds that is really unlike anything else I’ve heard over the years. In fact it is rather amazing that the band has been around this long and yet there’s not a bunch of bands copying their sound (that I’m aware of anyway), but even if there was, My Dying Bride were the innovators of this style of somber gloom metal and ten albums later along with a number of lineup changes over years and For Lies I Sire easily stands up as being every bit as good as anything from the previous nine albums. Any fan of the band is going to find familiar territory on this album, territory they’ve come to know and love and they’ll welcome it with open arms.

Three years was a long time to wait for some new material from My Dying Bride but it ended up being worth the wait because For Lies I Sire is a great listen from start to finish, and well worth picking up for long-time fans or the curious onlookers wondering what the band is like.