March is here, and the pandemic is a year old, at least in the US. Tired of it yet? You know at first I relished in the chance to wear a mask in public and have it be socially acceptable, but I’m starting to miss being able to breathe at a grocery store. Not to mention what it’s done to my complexion. Of course, I’m in Florida where aside from mask requirements they act like it’s not even happening.
February just flew by. The future blog projects I mentioned last month are still on the table (a couple music reviews, the complete list of my Top 3 Songs of the Month going back to 2000, etc.), I just haven’t done them yet. I’ve been focusing on my webcomic for the most part. But I will get around to it. I have another album review to do from someone who was kind enough to send it to me to review. You’ll be seeing that soon.
Here are the songs that have been ringing through my head as of late.
Rein - Off the Grid
I heard this song thanks to a mix by DJ Maus on YouTube, and it was love at first sight...er, hearing! Especially since I too want to get off the grid. “They’ve tried to force me into a mold until I slowly suffocate.” I want to do my art for a living, society wants me to have a crappy full time desk job that chips away at my sanity. It’s relatable. I dream of relinquishing my US citizenship and fleeing the country with my family to start a new life as goat herders in a remote rural village in Armenia. If only. I’m stuck here in the grid, for now. So in any case, this song speaks to me. It has an angry desperation to it, like someone who just can’t take living in this modern post-industrial society.
This song is off their 2020 album Reincarnated, which you can find on Bandcamp.
Bleib Modern - Sleep
This is not the kind of song you get up and dance to. It’s a song that hits close to home for me though. I know, oh goodie, another really depressing song in my top 5, time to mark your bingo cards. Somehow this song just captures how depression feels, better than any other song I’ve heard in a long time. It’s a very powerful song. Great music video by Piper Wave too, which I’ve embedded above. Maybe not an official music video, but a good one. They make music videos for a lot of different bands, usually without their knowledge I think. But I’ve never seen a musician be ungrateful for it when they find the video.
This is off Bleib Modern’s album Afraid to Leave, which released just a few days ago. Lots of great songs on it too by the way. There’s a cassette release too, and you know how I love those if you’ve been following my blog.
Mortal Boy - Passion Dance
This could be the one. This could be the song that saves you. So the song claims in the lyrics, at least. I don’t know if this song has saved me yet. Keyword there is “yet”. Maybe one day I’ll be in some far-fetched situation where the song will save me. I wouldn’t call this so much of a pep-talk song, something like for example Omnia’s “Free Bird Fly” (with lyrics such as “don’t you know this song is about you”), which is meant to lift you out of your sad mood and motivate you. It keeps a melancholic mood throughout. Perhaps the song aims to save you in another way, which I have yet to discern. Anyway, I have been hearing more of Mortal Boy lately, and I’ve liked what Ive heard.
This is another music video by Piper Wave. This time the singer of Mortal Boy found out about it and liked the video so much they proclaimed it official in the comments on YouTube, so there you go, it’s the official music video.
Here is Mortal Boy on Bandcamp:
Grey Gallows - Dissociation
The Greek post-punk band Grey Gallows is at it again with a brand new album this month, Garden of Lies. This time they collaborated with the singer Cleopatra Kaido, whose feminine vocals add a new flavor to their music that wasn’t present in previous albums. The track “Dissociation” is my current favorite. Grey Gallows strives to capture that 1980s post-punk sound in their music and that really shows through on this track. It’s kind of a blend of modern and 80s post-punk, because I think the post-punk that’s come out since its resurgence in the 2010s does have kind of a subtle uniqueness to it that the original post-punk didn’t have (I’m no musical theorist so I can’t say exactly why, but I can always tell if something actually was released in the 1980s or recently), and Grey Gallows achieves a sort of balance between them.
I’m still waiting for Grey Gallows to tour with the bands Forever Grey and Into Grey on the Grey Tour. Or Greyfest. Something like that. Any concert promoter reading this should make it happen after the pandemic ends.
The Parallel Project - Dissolve
This was a nice little discovery to tide me over until Ayria’s next album.
Here’s where I found out about it:
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