Phonograph - OKNO

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

This blog has limped it's way to 100,000 page visits - and that excludes my own visits.

When I started this little ol' blog, featuring mostly obscure and ill-fated bands and artists, it never occurred to me it would receive 100,000 page visits. It restores my faith that some people out there actually have decent taste in music.

So, to celebrate - a new post!

But also a word of warning......I've received a few emails from Media Fire about violations of their terms of service for some of the material I've made available for download. If I receive a few more strikes I may lose my account, which means all the downloads I've put up will be inaccessible. Since I've only recently re-upped everything recently after the Mega Upload fiasco, I'm not sure I want to be repeating that exercise any time soon. So if you want to download anything from this blog, do it NOW!

Today we have Shoulda Been Huge faves Phonograph.

OKNO is their second album. It's a darker, mellower, but altogether more seductively satisfying LP that their debut LP, previously featured on this blog. It contains the wonderful Wellwisher, featuring Grace Potter on vocals. And it's by far the best music her name has ever been associated with - IMHO! Shoulda been a hit!

To back up my statement about this blog featuring obscure artists, I've managed to find only one other blog that has featured Phonograph: Sitcom Serf. They have a great live show from Texas which I strongly recommend. And apart from the above clip, which ain't exactly one of the album's highlights, there's not much else on YouTube. So thank god for Spotify - head there if you wanna hear the album in it's entirety.

Phonograph - 2009 - OKNO

1. You / Me 5:29
2. Okno 2:32
3. Wellwisher (feat. Grace Potter) 4:47
4. Are You Gonna 4:40
5. Holy Rollers 3:44
6. Cedars 5:57
7. Mountain Tops 3:50
8. Less Than Expected 3:00
9. American Music 4:08
10. Paper Bag 4:27
11. Lily Eyes 4:24
12. Uke 4:02

MP3 only (sorry!)

Phonograph - Self titled

I get a little annoyed when people say there is no good music around these days. This invariably leads to a conversation along the following lines:

Me: "There's plenty of good music around, you just have to know where to find it, and/or be prepared to put the effort in."

Them: "But I can't be bothered doing that", or "but I don't have the time".

Me: "Then music obviously isn't that important to you then, so why are you complaining!"

I'm often reminded of the famous aphorism attributed to golfer Jerry Barber: "The harder you practice the luckier you get", and my reapplication to the search for great music: "the harder you search the luckier you get." A good example of this was my chance location of a review of the self titled album by Phonograph. This was miraculous given the difficulty in getting info on this band on the interweb  (give it a try and see what I mean - there's more links to stores selling the album than links discussing the band or the album!). I managed to find a copy of the album on the legendary OINK (RIP), and it's been on my ipod ever since.

Phonograph can probably best be described as country-rock. An obvious touchstone is the mighty Wilco. In addition to the similar genre, Phonograph's songs use similar atmospheric sound collages similar to those on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. And although vocalist Matthew Welch has a country drawl, at times sounding like Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Lou Reed, his phrasing is sometimes similar to Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, and it's easy to imagine Tweedy singing some of these songs.

The Wilco comparisons are at their strongest on the first three tracks. Proem is an atmospheric piece with a Yankee Hotel Foxtrot vibe. In Your Mind is a mid-tempo song based around acoustic guitar, parping organ, and synthesised effects. Watch and Ward is reminiscent of Wilco's I'm the man that loves you, and contains chiming guitar melodies.

Radio Waves is one of the standout tracks, based around a shuffle drum-beat, with subdued reverb drenched guitar effect and Lou Reed like vocals. Parsons White has a driving beat and agile bass guitar, with reverb drenched guitar giving an atmospheric feel. Have I told you has a strong country feel.

Next follows a trilogy of standout songs. Thinking of you is led by piano and bass, with a driving snare beat, and an interesting tremolo guitar effect in the chorus. TV Screens is the album's high point, a slow-paced atmospheric track built around a synthesised drone, with world weary vocals and a distorted organ sound.  Nu  Americana is a mid-tempo rocker with a nice groove and more Lou Reed like vocals.

The album ends with Isobel, a slowly building studio construct built around an eerie drone and slowed down synthesiser effects, with disembodied spoken word vocals and random drum parts. 

A good album from a band I hope to hear more of - although given their publicity track record this may be wishful thinking!

MP3