Thursday: And So I Watch You From Afar - Think: Breathe: Destroy

     Time for a little belated instrumental post-rock from Ireland for your Thursday. How's that for specific?

     Belfast's And So I Watch You From Afar have been pretty prolific over the last few years, with three albums, an EP and a couple of remixes to their credit in the last four years or so, and another LP Heirs due out in May. And despite their being, as I tried to encapsulate above, an instrumental, post-whatevery kind of band (think vaguely Russian Circles or Mogwai-type stuff) they cover a fair amount of musical ground in some of their songs.

     Songs like "Think: Breathe: Destroy" from the band's 2011 LP Gangs, which charts a course through a couple of different moods with some noodly, interwoven guitar parts back up by some big bass. The track even ends, appropriately enough given ASIWYFA's nationality, on a somewhat celtic feeling groove. If this kind of music is your jam, these guys will definitely give you a lot to chew on.

Mogwai - Teenage Exorcists

     Back when I was in high school, I had a friend or two who, like me, was into Scottish post-rock band Mogwai. We weren't many, and we weren't diehards or anything, but we definitely thought Mogwai had a cool song or two (some of which I've even featured here on Loud Noises over the years).

     Now, even back then I knew Mogwai wasn't a strictly instrumental outfit, but a lot of my favourite tracks by them were/are instrumentals, or at the very least lighter on the vocal side of things. Add in the fact that I haven't followed the band all that much since back then, and you might arrive at the conclusion that I can be perhaps be forgiven for sort of forgetting that lots (and lots) of Mogwai songs have vocals in 'em, even if they are awash in one effect or another.

     You might also be able to understand why, to my ear, the vocals in Mogwai's latest track, "Teenage Exorcists", seem so prominent, so central, and so initially out of place. Mogwai has a song with clean, intelligible vocals? Well, yeah, they've got a whole bunch. Duh.

     Anyways, my own musical ignorance, or mental block, or whatever you want to call it aside, "Teenage Exorcists" is a cool little cut from an upcoming EP of material, some new, some remixed, from the recording sessions for the band's last album Rave Tapes. If you're an avid Mogwai fan, you probably know about this EP and are perhaps a little more familiar with the band's musical direction of late. If, however, you're like me and haven't really paid Mogwai much attention in the last few years, then maybe "Teenage Exorcists" will be just the something-a-little-different to draw you back into the fold. So check it out -- just don't feed it after midnight.

Song of the Day: Mogwai - Christmas Steps

     Yesterday's song by Oceansize was a bit of a slow burn kind of song, and it is in keeping with that feeling that I've chosen today's song. Mogwai have been around a long time, and I've mentioned them before (back in the Cool Videos List) so there's a decent chance you've heard them before, or at least heard of them, but in case you haven't I'll do you the favour of treating you to the first song I ever heard by these prolific Scottish instrumentalists.

The List - Video Round-Up

     This time out is going to be the first installment of a sub-species of The List dealing with music videos. Now, you might call another list post a cop-out, but I call it Video Round-Up.*

     Yee-haw.