Saturday the 9th: Circa Survive - Strange Terrain

     The date at the top? That's just so we all know how far back we're getting, and so that I'll have that constant, reminding kick in the ass to try and motivate me. Anyways: Saturday the 9th!

     I'm more of a fan of the proggier madness of vocalist Anthony Green's kinda-sorta-sideproject The Sound of Animals Fighting, but since I'm a sucker for singers who get anywhere near falsetto I dig everything Green does, including his main gig Circa Survive. For this super belated Saturday post, you're getting the opening track "Strange Terrain" from Circa Survive's 2010 record Blue Sky Noise. As with much of Circa's catalogue, the main draws here are the energy level and the catchy singability. The fact that there's more depth than just a rocking good time is icing on the cake. Check it out.

Album of the Week: The Sound of Animals Fighting - The Ocean and the Sun

     I've urged that you listen to this week's band before at least once, but they are most definitely a band that is best experienced in album-sized chunks. With that in mind, your homework for the week is to give a couple of hours to The Ocean and the Sun by The Sound of Animals Fighting.

     Genre-wise, this is a hard group to pin down, and not just because it's essentially an indie-rock/post-hardcore super-group with a rotating, "anonymous" membership. Spastic, melodic, at times a little weird post-hardcore with some electronic elements thrown in for spice -- a limiting description, but it at least scratches the surface of the off-kilter energy that's going on here.

     Judging by the band's Facebook, it seems that The Sound of Animals Fighting have been doing a little touring in the last six months or so, but other than that it seems the idea of new material might be in limbo for the time being. Everybody's got main projects in various stages of stuff (like Rx Bandits and Circa Survive, to name just two) so I can understand why another The Sound of Animals Fighting record might not be priority one. But if the awesomeness of The Ocean and the Sun is any indication, another Sound of Animals Fighting record could really be something special.

Hail the Sun - Human Target Practice

     Everybody should know by now that I dig Dance Gavin Dance, whose guitarist Will Swan runs a little record label called Blue Swan Records.

     What does this have to do with today's song, "Human Target Practice", from California post-hardcore band Hail the Sun? The band's forthcoming debut LP Wake is due to be released in September on Blue Swan, that's what! There's a bit of sonic similarity here too, if you ask me: Hail the Sun sounds a little like the energy and riffiness of Dance Gavin Dance fronted by the vocal range and style of, say, Anthony Green from Circa Survive and The Sound of Animals Fighting.

     Sound like a tasty combination? It is, at least for this bearded cat. I for one will most definitely be paying attention to this one when it drops.

Oops...

     So it was brought to my attention a while ago that the video I'd posted for The Sound of Animals Fighting's "The Ocean and the Sun" was the wrong video. Oops. It's taken me this long to remember to get around to changing it, but I have done so now, so you don't have to lose sleep over it any more.

Song of the Day: The Sound of Animals Fighting - The Ocean and The Sun

     It's Sunday (still, for a little bit at least) which means your song for today is going to be a little bit laid-back, a little less metal. Today's choice struck me as a bit of a no-brainer, given the whole "weekend-chill-vibe" thing, since I haven't even ever mentioned this band yet and they're definitely worth mentioning. The Sound of Animals Fighting was a super-group of sorts, counting members of Finch, Rx Bandits, Chiodos, and Circa Survive among its alumni, though the band has disbanded since the release of its third and final album in 2008. Still, the three album catalogue they produced is pretty interesting and definitely worth checking out.