Editors' Picks: Sinking Ships / Mono / Billy Bragg
Brian: Sinking Ships' brand of melodic, positive hardcore is certainly starting to turn heads. Revelation picked up the band in December, and then California-based 6131 Records helped release the band's Meridian album within U.S. shores this past month (Run for Cover handled the initial release in Europe last year). The band frequently receives comparisons to recently defunct Seattle brethren Champion, and while these may be well-grounded, it seems as though Sinking Ships also take the Turning Point influence of Stay Gold's Pills and Advice and run with it full throttle. Meridian combines six newer tracks with the band's 2004 self-titled demo, and while the former surely stands out, the whole thing is worth more than a listen, as should the forthcoming full-length on Rev due in the summer. The band is currently out on the road with labelmates Shook Ones.
Aubin: In sharp contrast to the economical, short bursts of Brian's choice comes mine; one of my favorite bands and probably not something you'd expect. Japan's Mono is a band which manages to infuse the walls of sound of noise rock pioneers like Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine with the depth and orchestrations of classical music. It sounds weird, but the result is some truly beautiful and absolutely crushingly powerful music. They will be releasing You Are There soon and fans of Pelican, Isis, Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky or Envy should check them out.
Mono - The Flames Beyond the Cold Mountain
Justin:
Billy Bragg is an institution in my eyes. His fire and rage was stoked by the Clash in 1977 and molded by the man he calls "the first punk," Woody Guthrie. I was wandering around Archive.org's audio library searching for Joe Strummer bootlegs (hey, I am a music dork after all) and stumbled across this live set from 2003. The event was a Joe Strummer tribute and features Mr. Bragg performing fourteen tracks, including a few Clash covers. He also pauses the set to give a ten minute explanation of the what he feels the roots of Punk music are and tells his story of first seeing the Clash and working on the Mermaid Avenue project. The crowd participation, Bragg's unmistakable voice and the passion that comes through it have kept this in my rotation for quite a bit now. The files are in .Flac format, but there are converters available for Windows and OS X.
Billy Bragg - February 22nd, 2003, Joe Strummer Tribute in Southampton, England