Amoeblog > 2009-08 > out this week 7/28 & 8/4 & 8/11

out this week 7/28 & 8/4 & 8/11

pictureplane...blur...modest mouse...patrick wolf...

I spend most of my weeks looking for new albums to fall in love with. I try to listen to most albums at least once. This is a big quest since there are still a ton of albums out every week. I just wait and hope for those special little albums that get me excited and keep me looking for my new favorite. It keeps me going knowing that there are new fantastic albums out every month just waiting to be discovered. There are the obvious albums to get excited about. In a couple of weeks the Where the Wild Things Are soundtrack comes out. The movie looks amazingly fantastic. The trailer for the movie already made me cry. Spike Jonze is the perfect director to create a live action film out of this great children's book. And just when I didn't think it could get any better, I find out that Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs did the soundtrack. I mean, really! How could it possibly get any better? I am dying of anticipation to see the movie and hear the soundtrack! I have not even tried to listen to any tracks online. I just want to wait and hear the whole thing when it comes out. But I honestly think that I might just have to wait and experience the soundtrack for the first time where the wild things are spike jonze

while watching the movie. That is always the problem with getting a soundtrack before you see the movie. I think it is best to experience it in the theater for the first time. Then you can go back and relive it and listen to the soundtrack. I seriously can't wait!

I am also very excited about the new Place to Bury Strangers. The new album called Exploding Head is not out for a couple of months. I know it will be one of my favorites. And it really is hard to compete with their excellent, amazing debut a couple of years ago. It was my favorite of the year back in 2007. This new album will easily be in competition for the number one spot this year. It is easy to get excited about the new albums from your favorite bands. But even more exciting is the new bands that seem to come from nowhere to deilver you their fantastic debut albums. Or the bands and artists that have been working for years that finally make it into your life somehow. black box dreamland

I didn't really have any expectations when I listenened to the new album by Pictureplane. I was somewhat intrigued by the name and the artwork, but figured I would quickly move on after the first listen. But I was wrong. It quickly became one of my favorite albums of the month. I just can't put it down. It is one of those albums you will either love or hate, like Patrick Wolf or The Teenagers, Crystal Castles, Blank Dogs or Health, or even No Bra or Lo-Fi-Fnk. These bands are easy to hate, but also so easy to fall in love with...at least for me. They combine the fun of 90's dance music with more modern indie pop music and make some fantastic albums. Pictureplane is Travis Egedy. His music is often described as trance meets dark wave meets 90s r&b and dance. He combines them all together to somehow make sense. Most people would run away from something that was a mix of Taylor Dayne, Deee-Lite, Soul II Soul, Terence Trent D'arby, Stereo MC's, C & C Music Factory, La Bouche, Snap!, and Black Box. But he makes it work! Just try to imagine snap! the madman's return

every 90's dance track all mixed up together and filtered through the mind of a kid from Arizona who was only 5 years old in 1990. He lived through the 90's like I lived through the 80's. I was too young in the 80's to go to dance clubs and shows but I still managed to become obsessed with the music of the 80's through school dances and MTV. I was just old enough to get it and the perfect age for it to have a lasting impression. We take most of the music of the 90's for granted and most of us want to forget it and move on, but there were some really great dance tracks that came out of the 90's. They are songs that will stay with us forever. I hated a lot of them at the time. Most of them were overplayed on the radio, in clubs, at bars, and on MTV but they still have a special place in my heart. I still get excited every time I hear them on the radio or see a late night informercial advertising the latest 90's dance compilation. I have heard most of these songs performed at drag shows as well. I guess that is why they have a special place in my heart. I also heard them all over and over again when I first started going to gay bars and clubs in the 90s. I think I hated them at the time but now they have become nostalgic and make me happy remembering the good times.
pictureplane dark rift

I could not have really imagined this album by Pictureplane before I actually heard it. A 25 year old dude singing songs in the style of Ce Ce Peniston and Crystal Waters doesn't really get me excited. Well, actually I guess it kind of does. But I still didn't really know what to expect until I actually heard it. But the album is not satire. It is not making fun of a genre. He recreates and reinterprets the dance music of the 90's and creates something refreshing and completely different sounding. I did fall in love with the record. It grows on you. The album is called Dark Rift. It is actually his second album, but his first to be released on CD.

One of my favorite tracks is "Goth Star." The name alone is perfect. But "Trance Doll" is probably my favorite -- also a perfectly named song. The song doesn't really make much sense and seems all mixed up and thrown together, but at the same time it is also this perfect little pop song with a great chorus mixed underneath the mess. "Gang Signs" and "New Mind" are also fantastic songs on the album. It would be a fun game to try to match each song on the album to a dance track from the 90's. But each song would have more than one corresponding song. For instance, "New Mind" seems to be a mix of "Vogue" by Madonna, "Good Vibrations" by Marky Mark, and "Rhythm is a Dancer" by Snap! But the next time I listen to the song I will have a diffrent idea of what it sounds like. The album seems to chang

e each time I listen to it. Maybe he is so brilliant that he is able to mix about 20 or so songs into each song so you can never really figure out where the exact influence each song came from. I imagine he just has all these songs mixed up in his memory and somehow managed to filter them into his own new songs. The album is great fun and I recommend you try it out! However, if you were frightened or offended by dance music in the 90's, you might want to stay far away from this album. There is a chance that you might even be able to enjoy the whole album without thinking of the 90s once. But I doubt it. I love it. And I thank Mr. Pictureplane for giving me this album. It is just what I needed! I am off to go relive the 90's and watch videos of "Finally," "Rhythm is a Dancer," and "Strike It Up." I am just not sure that I can stop there. I might be trapped in the 90's all day long!

Here is the video for "Trance Doll" by Pictureplane...