Ryan
I'm a music fiend. There is no life worth living without music in it. I have a soft spot in my heart for just about every type of music, but I especially love underground/indie rock, New Wave 80s, folk, electronic, and old school hip hop. In general I cover the newer music for The Giant Panther, with John being the expert on the classics, but there are few bands out there we both don't love.
Homepage: http://www.giantpanther.com
Posts by Ryan
Lost Classic: The Avalances – Since I Left You
Sep 1st
I had to triple check that I hadn’t already blogged about The Avalanches, can’t believe it has taken me this long. Not enough people have heard this album, a lost gem of DJ mastery mixing hundreds and hundreds of samples. The Avalanches, based out of Melbourne, Australia, first released this album in 2000. Not much has been heard of them in the way of formal albums since 2001 when they were actively touring and supporting that album, opening for acts like the Beastie Boys, Beck, Stereolab, and Public Enemy. Looks like they have been making remixing and maybe hosting DJ sets in Australia according to their site, and possibly clearing samples for a new album!!
Since I Left You is a magnificent menagerie of sounds, loops, samples, and beats – everything I love about DJ/sampled music. It’s a tricky art using so many samples without overdoing it or allowing the sound to become too cloudy, or worse, clash. The Avalances pull it off with perfection, and were way, way ahead of their time. It’s tough to pick sample songs to share with you because this is one of those albums that just flows seamlessly from track to track, so you kind of have to pick up in the middle of an unfinished thought just hearing random tracks, but I’ve tried to include a few of my favorites.
There’s a bunch of cool stuff to do on their website, check out some of their mixes, and maybe some of the previews for their new album? Not really sure where all the content comes from on there, but it’s definitely worth digging through. You can stream a song called Brains Teazer that sounds like something you might hear at a pool bar at an all inclusive Caribbean resort. Maybe they are heading in a new direction.
There are rumors that a followup album is to be released sometime this year, based on snippits from the news section of the website. It’s a damn shame this record didn’t reach the mass public, and that there hasn’t been anything more from them for so long, but maybe that will soon all be a thing of the past. If you are a fan of J Dilla or DJ Shadow I can promise you this is a record you will be playing at parties, on never ending red eye flights, and everywhere in between for a long time to come.
The Avalanches – Two Hearts In 3/4 Time
Download Since I Left You here
The Avalanches on the web
The Giant Panther Needs Your Help – Dance Songs For Wedding
Aug 30th
The Giant Panther is finally getting married, this October, which *ahem* may somewhat account for the lack of writing on the good ol’ blog as of late. Many of our readers don’t even realize there are two people writing for the Giant Panther. Ryan/Giant Panther(me), and John Jay (the better half of Giant Panther). I’ve already tasked him with this as well, but now it’s time for you, our readers to weigh in!
I’m currently suffering from a severe case of information overload, or analysis paralysis. I’m a DJ, music lover, and music blogger and I’m struggling to pick songs for the upbeat dancing portion of our wedding. There will be no YMCA, We Are Family, Macarena, Lady Gaga, or anything else most of my guests will probably want to hear. We are an indie family to be and that’s how we want to celebrate our wedding.
So we want to hear from you, please drop a comment with your favorite songs that always get you out on to the dance floor at weddings! We’re not going to stick with any particular era or genre, think 80s underground, new wave, 70s funk, old school hip hop, 90s, and more recent indie music that gets your feet tapping.
After (if) the comments come in and we’ve had a chance to work on a playlists I’ll be sure to post again with our playlists in hopes that it helps some other music fans out there tie the knot in style. Thanks in advance and thanks for reading our blog!
I included a few gems I have been able to already nail down for the big day.
-Ryan and Mrs. Giant Panther
Lost Classics: Tower of Power – Bump City
Aug 11th
Let’s get one thing straight, The Giant Panther doesn’t know how to dance, but there is one particular genre of music that I can’t ever sit still for. I don’t have an ounce of funk running through my veins, the closest I get to funky is the odor coming from my running sneakers, but I can never get enough of the the killer combination of funk/soul/jazz. Some of my favorites to get my funk fix from include The Godfather, The Meters, The J.B.’s (Fred Wesley, Maceo Parker etc), more recent acts like Soulive, and of course, the unmistakable Tower of Power. It occurred to me that T.O.P. might not be as well known as James Brown to the casual music fan, I have to admit I only came across them after my roomates in college introduced me to T.O.P. and the Meters. I’m by no means a funk expert, but I know good, soulful, ass shaking music when I hear it.
I recently was really enjoying the show Treme on HBO, which is a drama focusing on the music scene in New Orleans after Katrina, but does so through the incredible jazz/funk/soul music flowing through the clubs and streets. Incredible soundtrack on that show including some cameos from some of the legends themselves. Unfortunately cable pulled it off on demand before I got a chance to watch the last three, hoping I can catch them on DVD. But I digress.
Tower of Power was formed in the late 60s/early 70s in Oakland, featuring soulful vocals, a funky drummer and bass, and one of the tightest horn sections to ever play. Over the years they have varied between funk, to soul, and even into “Jazz Disco” in the late 70s which you can feel free to skip right over. I think their most popular single was “So Very Hard To Go”, which is a much more laid back soul track from their self titled album in 1973. Almost all of their albums include a few laid back soul tracks sandwiched in between the straight up funk, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the casual music listener assumed Tower Of Power was a soul/R&B band based only on their hit single. Their early albums like East bay Grease, Bump City, Tower Of Power, and Back To Oakland, are a perfect combination of raw funk, soul, and jazz. They even made a brief stint into “Jazz Disco” which you can feel free to skip right over.
The original lineup was founded by Detroit native saxophone player Emilio Castillo, and according to Wikipedia included drums from David Garibaldi, bass from Rocco Prestia, guitars from Willy Fulton, horn section including Castillo, Greg Adams, Steve Kupka, Skip Mesquite, David Padron, Mic Gillet Ken Balzell, and vocals from Rufus Miller. By the second album vocalist Rick Stevens took over lead vocals, before they settled in with Lenny Williams handling the lead singing duties. For me all three vocalists worked with with T.O.P. the real magic happened with the grooves – bass lines and drums, and tight horn parts. When I say tight though, their early sound was still very raw in a good way. I really could have picked any of the four albums I mentioned, they are all awesome. If you’re new to Tower of Power, do yourself a favor and walk through the 70s albums one by one, you won’t be sorry you did. If your an old school funkateer hopefully reading this will give you a good excuse to dust off a few of their classics for yourself.
Tower Of Power is still touring today, never seen them live but it’s on my to do list. I think they are coming to Mohegan Sun in CT this October.
Tower Of Power – Down to the Nightclub
Tower Of Power – You Got to Funkifize
Download Bump City here
Tower of Power on the web
Maps & Atlases – Perch Patchwork
Jul 21st
Michigan based four-piece Maps & Atlases has been around since releasing their first EP in 2006, but just last month finally released their first full length. I fell in love with this album immediately. Lead singer Dave Davison has one of the best voices I’ve heard in a long time, and this band writes great songs. Wikipedia describes their genre as math rock. What a shitty genre. What it should say is lush, rhythmic indie rock with a tribal heartbeat. Not sure my made up genre is any better looking back at it now, this is really one of those records you just need to listen to. I’ve also seen comparisons to Animal Collective, I don’t agree with that at all either. If anything at times I hear elements of Phish (see track Pigeon) and Rusted Root.
Davison’s vocals are insanely dynamic. Most singers really shine either in the upper or lower register, not so with Davison. Every note keeps the listeners attention, whether a low vibrato or a peaking high note. I kind of hear a touch of the main vocal characteristic along the lines of the lead singer from Big Head Todd. Not sure if a comparison like this is allowed amongst indie music fans but that’s what it most reminds me of in timbre. The music mixes traditional indie sounds like acoustic and electric guitars, tom heavy drums, and combines them with all kinds of non-traditional rhythmic instruments, Beatles-esque Mellotrons, and backing harmonies. I found this cool video of Davison solo playing his guitar like drums, and slapping frets to play harmonics, then using the tuner knobs to create a slide guitar effect.
Looking forward to trying to catch these guys when they come to Boston at the Middle East on August 11. I’ve really been enjoying this record and it’s already been my accompanying soundtrack on a few summer trips, and the track Living Decorations has become one of my favorites of the first half of the year.
Maps & Atlases -- Living Decorations
Download Perch Patchwork here
Maps & Atlases online
Wolf Parade: Expo 86
Jul 12th
Wolf Parade holds a special place in the Giant Panther’s heart, as one of the early indie rock bands of the 2000s that really got me into this genre. Along with other TGP early indie favorites The Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene, Wolf Parade was one of the first modern indie rock bands on my ipod, and remains there today, holding a coveted cluster of megabytes on my small ass 20 GB ipod hard drive. Most of my music has been long since swapped out, and sometimes forgotten about, but not Wolf Parade’s LP debut Apologies to the Queen Mary.
Wolf Parade is the perfect unlikely combination of two completely different songwriters at the helm, along with some of the other most talented musicians out there. Spencer Krug, one of the two lead songwriters, plays keyboards and sings like a mix of David Byrne, Gary Numan, and some otherwordly style I honestly can’t come up with a good reference for. Spencer’s style was what initially drew me to Wolf Parade what seems like decades ago now, probably due to the hints of Talking Heads I must have keyed in on. Lyrically a truly gifted songwriter, if you don’t believe me, read some of his lyrics. Sometimes his words may get a little distorted from the delivery or surrounding power of the instrumentation.
As Wolf Parade grew as a band, and grew on me, I started to really appreciate the other half of the musical Frankenstein brain, Dan Boeckner. Playing electric guitars, and singing with reckless abandon, I would put his vocal style somewhere amongst an extremely fired up Beck and Bruce Springsteen without the over the top dramatics (John will probably strangle me for that comment). After seeing Wolf Parade live for the first time at the Paradise in Boston, I really got just how important Boeckner is to this band. He adds fire (in no short part also due to the excellent Bonzo style drumming of Arlen Thompson). Boeckner’s songs at times have more of a straightforward rocking appeal to them when compared to the wild style Krug brings to the records, but they shouldn’t just be taken at face value, he’s equally an excellent song crafter, and when not on leads, he adds infinite value with his guitar parts in Spencer’s songs. Again, they could be considered rather simple guitar lines, but that is the sheer genious of them, doing so much more with less.
This is the true beauty of Wolf Parade, the back and forth trade-offs, and the small touches Boeckner adds with his guitar and Krug adds with his keyboards. Some bands rely on one primary member which really makes up the core of their existence, and would not function well with two major egos or superstars (such as the upcoming Miami Heat experiment), but not Wolf Parade. Rather than clash or butt heads, Wolf Parade simply could not exist without Boeckner and Krug together.
Confession time, after the side projects Wolf Parade members undertook including most notably Sunset Rubdown (Krug), and Handsome Furs (Boeckner), I think I started to get WP overload. Both made good songs, but they never worked as well as when they were together as Wolf Parade. Then they released their second LP At Mount Zoomer, and I just didn’t have the patience to sit down with that album and try to understand it. I gave it multiple listens, and every time I left feeling like I was missing something and generally confused. Some claimed it was pure genius, but to me an album shouldn’t feel like hard work to get through. Some albums draw your undivided attention, others insist that you pay attention to understand, At Mount Zoomer to me was the latter.
Expo 86 finds Wolf Parade in perfect form. It’s everything powerful and catchy that I loved about their debut, with a new layer of depth and even tighter track to track. There are no throw-aways or excuberent ten minute oddesseys on this album, each song clings to the next and this is truly a front to back album. These songs are all powerful, lush, and rewarding. I hadn’t scooped up Wolf Parade tickets for their Boston trip this time around, but that was before I heard Expo 86. Now I’ll probably have to pay an arm and a leg to get a hold of a few tickets. If you are new to Wolf Parade, you will find a lot to love with this album. If you’re a die hard Wolf Parade fan, this album is just what you could have asked for.
Wolf Parade – In The Direction Of The Moon
Wolf Parade – Pobody’s Nerfect
Download Expo 86 here
Wolf Parade on the web
Album Review: Wild Nothing – Gemini
Jun 22nd
Hailing out of Virginia, Wild Nothing’s Jack Tatum has released an album soaked in 80′s goodness. While not the first artist in the last few years to offer their own take on 80s reverb laden guitars, indie pop hooks and dreamy synths, he has done it in his own way and quite well. In terms of comparison formulas, add the sound of The Smiths, The Cure, Cocteau Twins with the hooks of Pains Of Being Pure at Heart, M83′s take on the 80s, and a vocal delivery somewhere in between Belle & Sebastian and more recently, Toro Y Moi. Tatum brings a bit of lo-fi dreaminess to his music, making it quite unique. Unique but somehow so familiar. Before the vocals kick in you’d swear you’ve heard that guitar lick run through a chorus and reverb pedal somewhere before. Maybe that’s what writing a song with a good hook is all about, it’s so good that it’s instantly becomes an 0ld favorite.
Gemini is one of those albums you can play over and over again, and each time find a new favorite song to key in on. I’m a sucker for sounds like this, especially when they are put together in a meaningful way like Tatum has done here.
Download Gemini here
Wild Nothing on the web
Bonus cover song: Wild Nothing – Cloudbusting (Kate Bush Cover)
The Giant Panther’s Inbox: Fjord Rowboat
Jun 16th
Fresh from the Giant Panther’s inbox, a band out of Toronto that has a great dark sound, similar to The Catherine Wheel or more recently, Elbows or Twilight Sad. I even hear a modern take on early U2 in songs like Out Of My Control. Epic rocking dark songs with a ton of energy and guitars soaked in wall of sound reverb. When done right, overdosing on reverb can be the perfect trip. Their second LP “Under Cover Of Brightness” is out now, and you can buy it digitally directly from the artist at their band camp page here. It’s safe to conclude that Canada can take it’s fair share of fostering the type of dark brooding shoegazer rock I once thought only came out of the UK.
Fjord Rowboad on the web
Album Review: Phosphorescent – Here’s To Taking It Easy
Jun 14th
I try not to get over-excited when writing about an album or artist I have just heard for the first time, but if you frequent this blog, you know that couldn’t be further from the truth. The same holds true for a band I just came across last week, Phosphorescent. They’ve been around for a while, but I’m late to the game as usual. They have a new record out this year that was released in May titled “Here’s To Taking It Easy”. I love when albums are named well, this album is a great example.
Phosphorescent is the project of singer/songwriter/guitar player Matthew Houck, and he currently hails out of Brooklyn, but are originally from Athens Georgia. Even when I hear an album that sounds like it came from the heartland of America, of course, I find out it’s also from Brooklyn. I feel like 90% of the artists I cover on this blog are from Brooklyn. What are they putting in the water? Is it the same thing that makes the bagels so damn good?
The labels being slapped on Phosporescent are Indie folk, Indie rock, Alt Country etc. I’ll use my typical Giant Panther musical sounds like formula to avoid genre tags (the lesser of two evils)? Reminds me of Early Wilco/Uncle Tupelo mixed with Ryan Adams (the good Ryan Adams, like Heartbreaker, not Rock N Roll), and a bit of Willie Nelson. My usual disclaimer, that’s not to say that this is a Wilco or Ryan Adams rip-off, this sound is very uniquely his own, but that’s the easiest comparison for me to make. I haven’t heard his earlier records, but from what I have read, this album is a giant step in the direction of country for Houck. Last year he put out a Willie Nelson, the aptly named To Willie, that has a similar vibe.
While this album without a doubt sinks it’s roots into country-rock Americana, and incorporates much of the country instrumentation like pedal steels, and twangy guitars there is something also very modern about the songwriting and instrumentation. The lyrics and the way they stumble out of Houck’s mouth are what makes this album more than just a pretty good alt country band. These songs all come in carefully crafted, masterfully delivered packages. Take the opening lick in “The Mermaid Parade”, the guitar just slightly missing the last note before the verse kicks off. To me these aren’t incidental mistakes, but intentionally placed mood makers.
Much of the lyrical content centers around life on the road, and at long last returning to the bed you’ve often shared begging for admittance. Not uncommon themes for this genre of music, but these aren’t cheap knock offs following formulas. The beauty of well written alt-country is not taking itself too seriously while still able to convey a deep emotion, often loneliness, and Houck has mastered the art.
Phosphorescent – The Mermaid Parade
Phosphorescent – Tell Me Baby (Have You Had Enough)
Download Here’s To Taking It Easy here
Phosphorescent on the web
Lost Classic: Sun Kil Moon – Ghosts Of The Great Highway
Jun 10th
It’s hard not to like Sun Kil Moon if you liked Red House Painters, or anything else Mark Kozelek has been involved in musically. Kozelek makes heart-breakingly beautiful folk ballads. Folk is probaly the wrong word, this isn’t Woody Guthrie, Kozelek has plenty of electric guitars, and makes that apparent in his songs from time to time. Ghosts Of The Great Highway was the debut album for Sun Kil Moon in 2003, after the breakup of Kozelek’s former band Red House Painters. According to Wikipedia, Sun Kill Moon is based on the name of a Korean boxer Sung-Kil Moon. Several boxers are named in the opening track Glenn Tipton, and several later tracks are named after other boxers. To add to the confusion, Glenn Tipton isn’t a boxer at all, but a guitarist for Judas Priest. Neither are the point of the song.
Kozelek has always had a way with words. Simple lines that if not strung together, or sung differently might not mean all that much. But they hit home so perfectly when delivered in song and verse by him. It’s not the boxer references, character story lines, or comparisons on which Judas Priest guitarist people liked better that grabsme in the opening track. It’s lines like “Just like my dad did when he was home, staying up late, staying up alone. Just Like my dad did when he was thinking, oh how fast the years go by”. Absolutely perfect. I would kill to have written just one line that good. It needs no further analysis but I can truly relate to that sentiment.
This album is full of songwriting like this. Reminds me of Desire-era Dylan in terms of lyricism. Don’t hate me for saying that, just a comparison. To me Kozelek is one of the most talented modern day songwriters around. Tinges of the peaceful side of Neil Young, aforementioned-Dylan, and even at times quieter like Nick Drake. The acoustic and electric guitar melodies are more complex than simple G chords, always bringing a unique beauty to the songs, along with very subtle backing instrumentation on drums, bass, and strings, that never distract, instead always enhance the pictures Kozelek is painting in these songs. He’s always had a way to include the fuzziest of electric guitars that somehow still sound peaceful even though they are as distorted as the hardest Smashing Pumpkins songs (well, almost always, I seem to remember a few songs that may have gone a bit over the top on the fuzz dial). I had a hard time picking which two tracks to share from this album, they are all gems.
Pick this album up if you like any of the artists I mentioned above. You’d be hard pressed to find a better soundtrack to a perfect day.
Looks like Sun Kil Moon has a new album coming out this July, I also really enjoyed their 2008 release April. Looking forward to checking out the new album.
Play these two songs in order, they are really one song split into two tracks:
Download Ghosts Of The Great Highway here
Sun Kil Moon on the web
