Skip to main content

Here Is What Is :: Done Before It Starts

By

RIYL: The Dodos, The Dirty Projectors, Atlas Sound, Blitzen Trapper


Sounds Like: Art rock you can dance to.


A Few Words: Despite their somewhat awkward name, Here Is What Is sounds and performs like musicians bound for larger venues. Their short EP (Done Before it Starts) is the musical equivalent of stuffing a watermelon into your back pocket, yet they accomplish the feat with ease. While just over 30 minutes long, the EP is filled with ethereal harmonies floating over lyrics as tight and punctuated as the underlying, danceable grooves.


I had the good fortune of catching their CD release party at Vancouver's Media Club, which only reinforces my earlier melon-in-back-pocket analogy. For those who've been, you know how small the stage is; fitting four musicians up there is a challenge, on a good day--let alone five. But up they went--the entire quintet--and launched into their set as though there was enough room to contain their massive sound.


The pace and structure of the EP changes as much within each track as it does between songs. Employing slides, keyboard harmonies, and extraordinary guitar solos (just wait for the second half of "Final Fantasy"), HIWI takes half and hour and makes you wonder where the day has gone.



Band :: Here Is What Is

Album :: Done Before it Starts (EP)

Song :: Final Fantasy


Labels:

Comments

Destiny B said…
I love all those bands! So I'll probably love this one.
=D
12 August, 2009
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Racoon Wedding :: Gather Gather Bones/Rattle Rattle Truth

By
Download The Paper Boy from The Racoon Wedding's album, Gather Gather Bones/Rattle Rattle Truth Sounds Like : they're gonna rip your ribcage out and find your heart RIYL : White Rabbits, Portugal. The Man, Fanfarlo, Rolling Stones ala Beggar's Banquet From the Press Release : Forming from the ashes of Vermicious Knid, and authoring songs in the basement of the all ages not-for-profit art space they own in a nook of the city’s forgotten downtown, frontman Tim Ford and company boast a sense of loyalty to their community that few other bands share. On their debut LP, Gather Gather Bones/Rattle Rattle Truth , issued this October via their own Ford Plant Recordings Co., the band enlisted the help of engineer Leon Taheny (of the Final Fantasy recording credit) and hammered out a record that teems with the spirit of long-forgotten roots music. It’s indebted to the history of mighty back porch music: unbridled, unedited, beautifully intense.
Post a Comment
Read more

Flight of the Conchords Are Tha Muthaflippin'

By
If you go to the official Flight of the Conchords website , you will see that it was about the time they started work on their HBO special that they stopped updating. However, you will also read that they don’t mind too much. In fact, they are very quick to point to other fan sites that are doing a much better job. This self deprecating humour is part of what makes the duo so endearing. For those who have not yet seen the programme, Bret McKenzie ( formerly of Wellington dub band The Black Seeds) plays the naïve Bret, who is a vertible emotional rollercoaster when compared to the dour-faced Jermaine (Jermaine Clement. See him in Eagle vs. Shark ). Together they look for gigs and . . . well that’s pretty much it: they look for gigs. But it’s enough. Just because the show’s premise isn’t robust, doesn’t mean the show falls flat. Hell, remember Seinfeld? That was a show supposedly about ‘nothing,’ and look how well it did. FOTC is at least about one thing, so it’s got that much more ...
3 comments
Read more

Daft Punk :: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

By
Somehow winter still has her claws in the Pacific Northwest. It's almost May, and we're forecast snow this coming weekend. Snow! (I'll spare you my usual tirade about what physically impossible acts may be performed on this particular part of the country, my own little corner of hell.) In any event, we were teased by 80 degrees over the past weekend, only to be thrust back into the 50s and below (with rain!) immediately after. Needless to say, it has not been happy times. I am on day three of a nonstop Neko Case marathon, and, while it is indeed comforting, Neko tends to be a little, dare we say, dark ? Sometimes you just need to take pause and make your own sunshine, or perhaps be steered to some on YouTube , as is certainly the case here. (Even though I firmly believe that YouTube is leading to the complete downfall of Western Civilization, and exposing the ugly underbelly of the American experience, I can sometimes forgive it. Times like this.) Back story? Dunno. Two fre...
4 comments
Read more