Password: sharedmusic.net
Deas Vail - Collapse
ARTIST.....: Deas Vail
TITLE......: Collapse
LABEL......: Brave New World Records
URL........: http://www.deasvail.com
RIP DATE...: Oct-14-2006
STORE DATE.: July-00-2006
GENRE......: Rock
QUALITY....: VBR / 44.1Hz / Joint-Stereo
SIZE.......: 31,1 MB
Track Listing:
01 - This Place is Painted Red 04:36
02 - Anything You Say 03:58
03 - Follow Sound 05:48
04 - Light as Air (Demo Version) 03:28
05 - Standing Still (Demo Version) 02:39
ÄÄÄÄÄ
20:29 min
Release Notes:
Out of Russellville, Arkansas comes Deas Vail. Originally signed
to Rambler Records, they were readying the release of their debut
All the Houses Look the Same, when Brave New World Records came
along and took them, as well as The Wedding, under their wing.
Sadly for fans of the fledging band, the album was canceled before
it was released. But now, with a new label, they have prepared an
EP, featuring three tracks from the canceled debut and two new
cuts.
Deas Vail's sound can most easily be compared to that of Mae's.
Musichristian.com describes it as "intellectual pop music with a
melodic base." That's a pretty good way to describe it. The
instrumentals, and especially the vocals, give it a very ambient,
space-y feel as well. It's experimental in a sense, but
technically tight in most aspects. It's loud when it's soft, and
soft when it's loud, finding a place somewhere between thrilling
and soothing.
Instruments aside, Wes Blaylock's voice is, simply put,
remarkable. It would be wrong to say that it carries this EP,
because the ever-varying musical arrangements (pianos, strings…
etc.) keep you peaceably on the edge of your seat. Suffice it to
say that they're both above par, and perfectly complement each
other. Blaylock's vocal range is stunning and provides for a "no
barriers" approach to song crafting that shines through with
brilliant colors.
Musicianship isn't the only thing bold about these guys.
Lyrically, their faith speaks loud and clear. Whether writing
about our role in affecting the current generation, or realizing
the strength God provides for tasks so taxing, Deas Vail has a way
with words, and the power of the music gives the message of the
lyrics an even deeper meaning.
As catchy as it is powerful, Collapse is a record from a rare
breed of musicians that have that special something that makes you
say, "Now that's good." These guys are going places, and the
sooner you know about it, the better. I greatly anticipate a full
-length release in the hopefully-not-so-distant future.
Part: 2 : The New Amsterdams - At the Foot of my Rival (2007)
Password: sharedmusic.net
ARTiST: The New Amsterdams
ALBUM: At The Foot Of My Rival
BiTRATE: 187kbps avg
QUALiTY: EAC Secure Mode / LAME 3.97 Final / -V2 --vbr-new / 44.100Khz
LABEL: Arctic Rodeo Recordings
GENRE: Indie
SiZE: 71.45 megs
PLAYTiME: 0h 50min 29sec total
RiP DATE: 2008-05-09
STORE DATE: 2008-05-09
Track List:
--------
01. Revenge 1:46
02. Wait 3:03
03. Fountain Of Youth 2:57
04. This Day Is Done 3:02
05. Without A Sound (Eleanor) 3:22
06. Silverlake 3:08
07. Lost Long Shot 2:55
08. Hughes 3:13
09. A Beacon In Beige 2:45
10. Story Like A Scar 3:15
11. Fortunate Fool 2:50
12. Lay On The Rails 4:18
13. Drunk Or Dead 3:04
14. The Blood On The Floor 2:55
15. Ex's & Oh's 3:26
16. A Mile In Your Shoes 2:27
17. Guitarkansas 2:03
Release Notes:
--------
At the Foot of My Rival is the sixth album from THE NEW AMSTERDAMS, but for
frontman Matt Pryor, it's a milestone. "This album represents something I've
been working toward for a long time," he says.
Story Like a Scar, from 2006, sounded like home, but At the Foot of My Rival was
actually written and recorded at home, "underneath middle western moons," as
Pryor sings in his affecting regular-guy tenor on Lay on the Rails. "Over the
past couple of years I've been changing, trying to find out who I want to be,"
he reveals.
The star-maker machinery behind pop music would have you believe that the only
family rock stars have are their bands and that a wild life on the road is the
ultimate goal. Pryor, however, has purposely removed himself from the artifice
that attends life in the star-fucking meccas of N.Y. and L.A. (see track 11,
Silverlake); he's settled down in Lawrence, Kansas, with his wife and kids and
bandmates Dustin Kinsey (guitar), Eric McCann (bass) and Bill Belzer (drums),
"trying to be away less, trying to find balance," no longer the "prodigal son by
trade" he calls himself in Lost Long Shot. "Trying to capitalize on something
you used to be – an adult pretending to be a kid for the money – would mean
failure to me," he says.
Lyrically, much of At the Foot of My Rival feels like a man shedding
circumstances, relationships and illusions that no longer fit. The song Hughes,
which sounds like it's being played on a ramshackle veranda as the sun sets and
the fireflies rise, takes to task the director of such classics as Sixteen
Candles and Pretty in Pink, lamenting, "Hughes, you ruined me/ You promised me
make-believe."
In short order, though, the doors of this hushed, front-porch elegy are kicked
in by A Beacon in Beige" and [i]Story Like a Scar, which reiterate Pryor's
status as a writer of sticky pop hooks and recall the tumbling urgency of The
Get Up Kids, which he co-founded as a teen and with whom he toured for a decade.
Story Like a Scar – yes, there was no song called Story Like a Scar on the album
Story Like a Scar, but there is one on Rival – remembers "a friend who's gone."
"Someone who begins to drift, doesn't return phone calls, and then one day, no
one can find them. It can make you angry that you've been so easily forgotten.
It's a hard thing to come to terms with. But at the same time, you can't chase
them down – you have to let go."
At the Foot of My Rival was recorded in his living room, with Revenge, Hughes
and the junkestra underpinning Lost Long Shot sounding particularly homemade
(full disclosure: the latter, actually a space heater and the chain on a
trash-can lid, was devised in Pryor's garage, which used to be a practice space
and has become a studio since Rival was recorded). The disc was produced and
engineered by Pryor and Colin Mahoney, a veteran New Ams collaborator and
Lawrence local who also mixed. By contrast, Story Like a Scar was recorded in
Nashville by Roger Moutenot (best known for his work with Yo La Tengo.)
As hearth-warmed and rootsy as Rival is, however, The New Ams have a deceptively
sophisticated sense of sonic architecture. Bassist Eric McCann, for example, has
emerged as a gifted arranger (note how he ramps up the intensity of Dead or
Drunk with strings and horns.) Likewise, Pryor understands how more can be less
when transmitting the intimacy of a song like Revenge, which is a demo recording
he made with "the crappy little talk microphone on my laptop."
And though Pryor is content in his home studio, writing material for The New
Ams, his band The Terrible Twos, as well as producing songs by other artists and
seeing to his own label (Elmar, named for his son Elliott Marshall), he's
certainly not immune from those dark thoughts that come in the night and refuse
to leave.
Lay on the Rails, Drunk or Dead and The Blood on the Floor all address
mortality. "This vested trust/ Beyond us/ So show me then/ I'm waiting," he
sings, almost chanting, in a chorus of reverb-soaked four-part harmony on Rails.
"I guess it's kind of a conversation with God," he confides, saying, "I've lost
this person and I don't understand why. It's not fair. I'm supposed to believe
that everything's going to be okay, but I need some kind of sign. Where is it?"
Nor is he blind to the Red State politics that surround the relatively liberal
confines of the college town he calls home. "What if the world's gone back to
the darkness before the enlightenment?" he wonders in Wait. A Beacon in Beige,
meanwhile, finds him reflecting on human rights of all sorts, singing, "Do you
love all your brothers? Do you? Or did you miss the light?"
Pryor even concedes that, left to his own devices, he tends to dwell on the
downside and that he forced himself to write a happy song for At the Foot of My
Rival. The result, [i]Fountain of Youth, is nonetheless much more than that; it
also suggests the easy musical and personal camaraderie he enjoys with Kinsey,
McCann and Belzer (who are also his conspirators in the aforementioned Terrible
Twos).
It's telling that this idyll has nothing to do with fame or fortune or status or
power or the other things deemed essential in our pursuit of happiness. To the
contrary, the scene is simply one of friends hanging out by the water on a
summer day, sharing a case of beer, having a laugh, living in the moment.
"We spent three months on the road touring for Story Like a Scar, but that was
over the course of a whole year," Pryor says. "We love playing shows and seeing
our fans – we know how lucky we are that people come to see us, but that's not
real life; real life is home, and home is now the center of what we do."
