We Are All Ghosts, You + I - Pocket Hercules

An email popped into my inbox this morning from the band and they wanted me to include THIS LINK. Go there and download their full album.

Aim Low, Get High - Pocket Hercules

These guys are from my home town. I don’t live in Eugene anymore, but I dig what they’re doing. This song, and the next one I’ll put up here tomorrow, are from their ebut album. I guess they don’t call it an album, though, it’s a “novblem.”

The “novblem” is… I don’t know. A musical without a stage? A rock opera with a decent plot? It’s a ballsy piece that asks more from an audience than any Northwest band’s debut I can think of.

It’s an album full of varied songs and a short book which is actually a decent read. And I like dem books uh lawt.

Their band bio mentioned two websites you should check out: www.myspace.com/pocketherculesband
www.americancollective.blogspot.com
(this is their record label or somethin’. You can download their whole album here. And apparently an audiobook of their novel. Uhhhh…?)

Air Conditioners - Q and not U.

Noise that I can dance to, that’s the stuff I like. I went through a
few years in High School listening to only the Mae Shi (one of these
days I’ll post a few of their songs). Q and not U shares some high
energy punk aesthetics with those guys, but they have a much deeper
level of musicality. Q and not U’s first album, No Kill Beep Beep is
decent, but 2002’s Different Damage is perfection.

The band has that Dischord sound, but their sound aligned them less
with their label mates and more with the dance-punk scene of the early
2000’s.

Different Damage was made after the band became a two piece (the
bassist quit), and it sounds as full and interesting as anything they
had done with a third member.

Falling Out of Love at This Volume - Bright Eyes

The Joy In Forgetting/The Joy In Acceptance - Bright Eyes

Conor Oberst has really come to disappoint me.

I know he got a bad rap back in the day because of his whole emo-kid-with-his-heart-on-his-sleeve mentality, but he’s an amazing songwriter. Every album since Cassadaga has felt like Conor was trying to be someone he isn’t.

Why the lazy folk and the cryptic lyrics, Conor? Your uncomfortably honest lyrics about being a druggie kid in suburban Omaha felt REAL. “Four Winds” didn’t.

I will be posting two of Conor’s songs from when he was sixteen or so. Stuff he recorded on a four track in his room at his parent’s house. It’s lo-fi, it’s abrasive at times, but it feels, yup-you-guessed-it, REAL.

He may be the poster boy of asymmetrical hairdo emokids, but he writes good songs.