March Wrap-Up

A quarter of 2007 is over and it was a lot of fun. So far, 2007 is turning out to be a great year in music delivering stellar albums, great shows, and an unprecedented amount of good American music festivals shaping up. I've noticed some interesting trends. For instance, In 2005 it was looking like Arcade Fire and Bloc Party we're going to ascend to greatness and that Modest Mouse had lost everything good about it. One respective album from each band later, Arcade Fire and Bloc Party don't feel so much better than the rest of the pack(although that could easily change) and I can't think of a bigger, better, more important American band in the last 13 years than Modest Mouse.

Anyways, March was a busy month for Ohmpark. Ichuda reviewed the Mastodon show and the Red Sparrowes show. Biggie C got some good pics of the Grizzly Bear show and the Sparklehorse show:





I sat down with the boys from Passer By. Biggie C got some fantastic photos of The Slip and Gringo Star:





Sleo did a review of one of the moe. shows in Atlanta. I did a write-up on the Producer Battles at Apache Cafe's World Famous Mic Club. Biggie C got some shots at the Beach House and Birds Of Avalon show:



Me and Biggie C went to the Explosions In The Sky, The Paper Chase, and Eluvium show:



Biggie C caught the 404 Noise and Experimental Festival:



Biggie C dropped the first Ohmpark Mixtape and wrote a heart-felt letter to Joanna Newsom. Annereade reviewed the new Modest Mouse album. And Biggie C shot up the Kid Koala and Samadha show.

We hope you're enjoying Ohmpark and remember if you have any suggestions or comments or want to hip us to a band or some news or a show, hit us up at: info@ohmpark.com

Thanks for reading!

Torrents Of The Day: Red Sparrowes (2-16-07) and (3-16-07)

More post-metal torrents for you:

Red Sparowes 2007-02-16 The Casbah - San Diego, CA (FLAC)

Red Sparowes
The Casbah
San Diego, CA
Febraury 16, 2007

Source 1: Soundboard > RCA > NJB3 > PC > WAV > FLAC > mastering and mixdown by Karl > FLAC
Source 2: DPA 4061s > SPSB-8 > h140 > PC > WAV > FLAC > mastering and mixdown by Karl > FLAC

Taped by: Chris Avis
Mastered by: Karl Frinkle

Setlist: [63:52]
1. Buildings began to stretch wide across the sky, and the air filled with a reddish glow. [6:39]
2. Like the howling glory of the darkest winds, this voice was thunderous and the words holy, tangling their way around our hearts and clutching our innocent awe. [11:51]
3. The great leap forward poured down upon us one day like a mighty storm, suddenly and furiously blinding our senses. [8:02]
4. A message of avarice rained down and carried us away into false dreams of endless riches. [8:50]
5. Alone and unaware, the landscape was transformed in front of our eyes [7:47]
6. Millions starved and we became skinnier and skinnier, while our leaders became fatter and fatter. [11:10]
7. Finally, as that blazing sun shone down upon us, did we know that true enemy was the voice of blind idolatry; and only then did we begin to think for ourselves. [9:33]


Red Sparowes 2007-03-16 The Triple Rock Minneapolis, MN (FLAC)

Red Sparowes
The Triple Rock Social Club
Minneapolis, MN
Friday March 16th 2007

Taper: empty (neveragain1980 at yahoo dot com)
Location: LOC, ~20' left drink rail, ~12' ^
Mic Config: DIN (cm, º)
Source: Studio Projects C4's > UA-5 (BM2p+) > iRiver h120 (optical @ 16bit 44.1kHz WAV)
Conversion: h120 > USB > PC [WAV > FLAC5 + Verified]
Edit: tracking in CD Wave, fades in Sound Forge 7
TRT: 65:03
Size: 656MB (WAV) 361MB (FLAC)

01. intro [0:07]
02. Buildings began to stretch wide across the sky, and the air filled with a reddish glow. [7:36]
03. A message of avarice rained down and carried us away into false dreams of endless riches. [7:47]
04. Like the howling glory of the darkest winds, this voice was thunderous and the words holy, tangling their way around our hearts and clutching our innocent awe. [10:24]
05. Millions starved and we became skinnier and skinnier, while our leaders became fatter and fatter. [12:38]
06. The great leap forward poured down upon us one day like a mighty storm, suddenly and furiously blinding our senses. [8:33]
07. Alone and unaware, the landscape was transformed in front of our eyes. [8:06]
08. Finally, as that blazing sun shone down upon us, did we know that true enemy was the voice of blind idolatry; and only then did we begin to think for ourselves. [9:39]
09. outro [0:07]

Video Of The Day: Red Sparrowes

Because Ichuda told you so:

Show Review for the Week

So I was originally asked to do a review about the fantastic Mastodon show we attended last Saturday night at Center Stage Atlanta. This, in combination with the sentiment of a few other nameless colleagues, came to illicit a nasty and ugly reaction from me that I'm sure most music people can relate to; I'll tell my story here.

What was so frustrating about the world (read: the people around me that I discuss music with) getting so excited over Mastodon isn't merely the fact that I have been listening to them (and, it follows, sharing my praise with 'the crew') for the better part of five years.... I can handle the redundancy of an old superstar for me being newly discovered by a friend... It happens to me all the time; there are countless bands whose shocking effect on me were the result of my own negligent listening practices; I didn't even get into Pink Floyd until college, for example. But what frustrates is when people forget that you have been going to Mastodon shows for five years only to have a show like the one at Center Stage finally wake your idiot friends up. The Center Stage performance was great, but not in comparison to Mastodon/Darkest Hour at the Echo Lounge in 2004, or Mastodon/Dillinger Escape Plan at the Masquerade six months later. Yes, I am being a pretentious prick, but yes, I told all you motherfuckers so years ago.... Mastodon is an awesome band and I was sure the Center Stage performance was going to be great before I bought the ticket. My only complaint being that there was no encore for the hometown crowd, but then again, the show was probably full of nubile second and third timers anyway.

My point is, instead of wasting my breath on deaf ears, praising an amazing band like Mastodon like I have been doing to no avail for the last 5 years, I want to review another show I attended this week; Red Sparowes/Kylesa/Irreversible. I missed Irreversible's set, but I wanted to mention them here because I've seen them before; they are a promising local band that fit the bill well; experimental stoner jam metal in the vein of Isis, Sleep, etc. I arrived halfway through Kylesa's set, who were a pleasant surprise to see. The last time I saw Kylesa was at the old Velvet Elvis in Savannah (before it became the Jinx), probably about 7 years ago. They have since added a second drummer, which, while somewhat asinine, was used enough to satisfy my skepticism (read: dueling drum solo, and yes, thats all it takes). The highlight of the set was a cover of Pink Floyd's 'Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun', which droned through 10 minutes of the classic riff. I couldn't help but remind myself that the last time I saw that song played was by Roger Waters itself in September.

Red Sparowes totally took me by surprise. The entire post-rock, post-metal, whatever thing has been pretty faddy lately, it seems everyone is getting their fingers into it. Bands like Mogwai and Explosions in the Sky are successfully maintaining movie soundtrack gigs, and the sound's influence can be seen across a staggering array of genres. Red Sparowes really dig into some of the more cliche characteristics of this sound, but without the trite-ness that can come with the repetitively mountainous song dynamics that post-rock bands are usually guilty of. The band consists of members of Isis, which definately is perceptible in the Red Sparowes' set. I would liken it to Isis with less distortion, better drumming, and more delay pedals. The video show also was interesting by virtue of its existence, although not particularly impressive. I would go as far to say that this show was better than Mogwai at the 40 Watt last year, if it must be compared. I know all of Mogwai's music, so they probably had more working against them; but .... if intensity could be the measure of a post-rock band, the Red Sparowes show wins out; I was more overwhelmed. I still don't know any of their songs, but they made a new fan out of me Thursday night, which is the best thing that can happen for both performer and audience member; the beginning of something beautiful.