Sparklehorse - know this band?

[foray]

It's A Wonderful Life, their latest album, I'm listening to it now. I like it very much; problem is, I don't know how to describe it. It's not rock/pop/anything. I'll say it is raw, though, none of that overproduced stuff. Just piano, guitars, with some tweaks here and there to distort voices and sounds. Anyone else into them? The songs are so sad... And some critic described the lyrics as american gothic whatever that means, I think it's because of the animal words that pepper the album? It's not country music, by the way. My friend described this band as writing lyrics that could be good pop songs, but they distort the sound to be weird, a little "off". The lead singer from Cardigans and PJ Harvey herself appear on this album.

foray

[This message has been edited by foray (edited 08-10-2001).]

 

[foray]

http://www.reviewed4u.com/music/sparklehorse.htm

Not a fantastic review, but it gives you an idea of the album... Check this band out, man. They're worth it!

foray

 

[Bound]

I've only recently become familiar with them (him actually - Mark Linkous) because of his affiliation with PJ Harvey and John Parish. I know that she thinks highly of him, and John Parish, a frequent Harvey collaborator, is co-producer of the new album.

I've only heard a couple tracks so far, "Piano Fire" being one. I like that one alot, I just wish it would go on longer!


And you're right. They're hard to put a finger on..slightly off center/off kilter sound. But then again, the really good stuff is often hard to define! I kinda like his own description of the music -- "deconstructed pop songs".



Here's a link where he talks about the album, song by song:

http://www.nme.com/NME/External/Features/Features_Interview/0,1420,33205,00.html

[This message has been edited by Bound (edited 08-12-2001).]

 

[foray]

Thanks a lot, sledgehammer!

foray

 

[Sledgehammer]

Sparklehorse is ony of my favorite bands ever! Mark is a genius. It's so difficult to find such sad and touching and beautful music nowdays.

Here's a link for Daniel's website. It has TONS of Sparklehorse's bootlegs available in mp3!

http://www.sparklehorse.f9.co.uk/live.htm

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"I'm not afraid to die, I just don't want to be there when it happens", Woody Allen

[This message has been edited by Sledgehammer (edited 08-15-2001).]