Music Theory: Music to Check Out

-I haven't yet given enough time to Manchester Orchestra's Mean Everything to Nothing, the follow-up to the brilliant I'm Like a Virgin Losing a Child, but both the Manchester albums are worth listening to. Manchester makes great tunes for those evolving out of the emo genres into a more folky-but-still-angry sound. 

I've Got Friends (Album Versio...

-I've been listening to Paper Route for about a year now and their new album, Absence, is getting some positive press. What I like about Paper Route is that every song is vastly different in nature. Absence is a dope genre-defying album on which you'll hear electronic drums and synths beneath folky guitars and gospel harmonies.

Last Time - Paper Route

-Meiko's self-titled album is the kind of music I'd usually rock on the pod but not advertise my admiration for. It is what it is, catchy girl-indie-folk-pop, but "Boys With Girlfriends" makes a ridiculously catchy chorus out of the undeniably relatable (for both genders) sentiment "I know better not to be friends with boys with girlfriends."

Boys With Girlfriends - Meiko

-The Color of Violence is is a side-project from some of the members of From First to Last. Most readers of this blog probably won't appreciate this album (but maybe you can appreciate the legit album art?) The band's first album, Youthanize, is to-the-point, self-aware ridiculousness composed with incredible technical acuity. 

Me and My Enormous Spiritual E...

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Music Theory: Paper Route

-I''ve got music A.D.D. I'm always looking for new, genre bending tunes. I flip through reviews in Filter, check Pitchfork, MySpace Music, and Purevolume at least once a week looking for bands to cure my voracious musical appetites. I get bored quickly, and I don't listen to something unless I love it, I can't listen to music that I am indifferent about.
-I usually don't throw up quick music recommendations on here, probably because I take the professionalism of this blog more seriously than I should, but today I stumbled upon a band I feel is worthy of dedicating a post to. They're called Paper Route.
-Those of you who know me may be surprised, I don't usually like tunes that could possibly be described as "sleepy." Maybe it's just today, but Paper Route is really appealing to me. Their genre is listed as indie/ambient/electronica, which doesn't do justice to the depth of their sound. It's folky, but not the kind of folky I usually detest - college hippie folky. It's big, the production is full, but in an unpretentious, understated way. Not big in a Coldplay, overstated/overproduced because we can sort of way; Each element seems both wisely chosen and necessary. I imagine Paper Route's sound as what might have happened if Thom Yorke had grown up in the Midwest and signed with Saddle-Creek. But anyway, the band's latest E.P. Are We All Forgotten is available now on iTunes.
photo by Tec Petaja more