volcano! - Paperwork

#100) volcano! - Paperwork (2008)

1. Performance Evaluation Shuffle
2. Africa Just Wants to Have Fun
3. Tension Loop
4. Fairy Tale
5. Slow Jam
6. '78 Oil Crisis
7. Sweet Tooth
8. Astronomer's Ballad
9. '-----------------
10. Palimpsests
11. Kitchen Dance

so it's our 100th post which means Crossover Time again. it was adam's pick and he chose this .

he discovered this band way back when for our 1st end of month theme, Local Bands. you can read his original post here.

as he states in his post this band incorporates a lot of different things into their sound. they're very poppy but also very experimental. Fairy Tale is probably a good example. it's a very poppy sounding song overall but it's pretty much buried under a layer of distorted synth noise. as good as the poppy parts are i prefer them at their noisiest. the singer has a good range and a lot of energy. i don't get the whole random Spanish lyrics thing but hey, if that's your thing he does it. the drums and guitars weave in and out of time signatures effortlessly and make for a compelling backdrop for the singer's range. i've listened to this album a couple times now and have found things i missed on previous listens. this was a really cool record, i'll definitely be checking out more of their stuff.

03/21/12: Volcano! - Beautiful Seizure (2006)

03/21/12: Volcano! - Beautiful Seizure (2006)

1. Kalamazoo
2. Easy Does It
3. Fire Fire
4. $40,000 Plus Interest
5. Larchmontt's Arrival
6. La Lluvia
7. Red and White Bells
8. Apple or a Gun
9. Frozen in Escape
10. Before the Suburbs
11. Hello Explosion
12. Pulling My Face In and Out of Distortion, I Blink Too Much

     Volcano! is a band I discovered during this project when oksentaminen made the end of January's theme "Local Bands". Still is probably one of my favorite discoveries of the project. I reviewed their second full-length Paperwork and it blew me away. This is their first and only other full-length so far. This album was also really good, but I need to give it a couple more listens. In comparison to Paperwork, Beautiful Seizure is a bit more avant-garde, art rock, and experimental. Paperwork was all of those things as well but at a different ratio. I really enjoyed this album, there was a lot more noisey parts and erratic electronic and off timed moments, but there's still the crazy catchy rockin out moments as well. I really love this singer. He jumps around so much from crazy and almost growling to parts that are almost opera like. He sings back and forth between English and Spanish. The only thing negative I feel the need to say is that I wish the production quality was a little nicer, but its still pretty good for a first release. (081)

(End of the Month Theme: Local Bands) 01/31/12: volcano! - Paperwork (2008)

End of the Month Theme: Local Bands 
On the last day of each month we will be choosing a theme that both of our album picks must fit within. It was oksentaminen's pick in January. He chose Local Bands... Here's my pick. I tracked it down just for this theme.

01/31/12: volcano! - Paperwork (2008)

1. Performance Evaluation Shuffle
2. Africa Just Wants to Have Fun
3. Tension Loop
4. Fairy Tale
5. Slow Jam
6. '78 Oil Crisis
7. Sweet Tooth
8. Astronomer's Ballad
9. '-----------------
10. Palimpsests
11. Kitchen Dance

     So January's end of the month theme is "Local Bands". Instead of finding a band that is already in my collection and from the area I decided to randomly scour the internet for "on the rise" local bands. At first the band name caught my eye. I watched a snippet of a youtube clip in the article i was reading and immediately recognized them as a math-rock band of sorts. So I took a chance and bought their second full-length "Paperwork".
     volcano! is a 3 piece rock band from Chicago. Their sound according to the interwebs draws from Classic rock, post-punk, free jazz, and noise rock. My quick input: when you draw from free jazz and noise rock you end up sounding math rock. This band is all over the place and I love it. The vocals move from punk to Spanish to some of the poppiest melodies ever. He has a wide range with some very entertaining Kane Hodder-esque falsetto moments. The drums are constantly going up and down in volume and in and out of timing. There's electronic parts, punk parts, experimental parts.... the album was a really fun journey. The guitars get weird at times and as rock and roll as can be at others. I will probably be listening to everything of theirs in the near future and hoping to see them live soon.
     This was probably my favorite find of this project so far. Realistically i wanted to put every track in boldface but i figured I had to single out a few songs. This band was just truly a combination of so many things I love in a band and they do it all well. They are reminiscent of At The Drive In, The Mars Volta, Kane Hodder, Hella and maybe even a bit of Tera Melos. Damn good album. Hope they make some more music soon. (031)

Note: I just realized i listened to this entire album out of order.... so relistening now in correct order... hahaha