i've never really listened to them at all, but they've long been one of those bands on the lower parts of my radar. i knew they were spazzy and loud and that was pretty much it. last year sometime, pitchfork had a song to download, run to your grave, and it was pretty good. tight, upbeat and catchy in a kind of abrasive way. and today their album finally leaked, and it's way better than i could even imagine. some songs are still pretty short and tight, noise-pop freakouts, but the songs somehow flow into each other really organically, and there's a lot of electronic influence on the record (kingdom come is nearly straight up house, and yet absolutely fits in) and a smattering of freak folk yeasayer-ish chanting (i get almost anything, divine harvest). i mean, there are points where it's a little too hyper, a little too shrill, but fuck it. this might be my favorite record so far this year. more than dylrm?, more than made in the dark, more than trouble in dreams, more than the high points of some of the less effusively praised leaks (the new duke spirit, ruby suns, neon neon). a lot of people won't be able to stomach this, but for those who can, this is some sort of achievement.



fish: http://www.zshare.net/download/69134135f3ae36/

not my link.

enjoy, hopefully. and if i am retarded for loving this so much, please let me know. my neighbors will no doubt thank you.

This sounds promising. I now know to look out for your threads. Thanks!

i don't post too many, and they're mostly to the point. but thanks. hope you enjoy.

Yeah, I had been waiting on this based on their myspace postings. Even though I didn't like a lick of their earlier stuff, they took a major step up. RIYL: Deerhoof.

Here's the cover, if anyone needs it:
http://kokoro-datamp3.blogspot.com/2008/01...lllyh-2008.html

Fuck Buttons dropped an album and I love it.
The Mae Shi have dropped an album and I love it.

Now all I need is for Titus Andronicus to drop an album that I love and my three bands "to watch" from last year will have made themselves fully bonafied.


Yeah, this is excellent. Glad to see some love.

Seeing these guys on Thursday with Lykke Li and Fanfaro at a Moshi Moshi night in Hoxton.

Everything I've been reading about this sounds oddly promising, so will check it out. Sounds like an interesting billing with this lot and Lykke Li (speaking of her, when's a decent version of her album going to be circulating / available to buy somewhere other than Sweden?)

You should check out fanfaro, they are the reason I'm going.

Googling just 'Fanfaro' produces some interesting hits.

Sorry, same typo twice. Fanfarlo.

It feels as if I am the exact target audience for this record, but I find it nice, though altogether unremarkable. It's got some cool riffs and melodies throughout, but not enough good songs. The vocals are just tiresome.

Recycling Bin.

that's a shame, because i'm finding this and hot chip to be the most repeatable records so far this year.

Yeah, Chrono = wrong, unfortunately.

Hit anybody else yet that this is a concept album? Can't wait to read the press bulletins and whatnot, but shit's pretty obvious.

yeah, and it's a pretty awesome concept. i could be wrong, but after kingdom come, the album gets alot quieter and more folky/chanty. i like to think that the first half is pre-rapture, second half post. and this album is great from the start. "get 'em out those bodies" gives me chills.

9/10 in the NME last week in a really small review.

I was going to start a thread on this album but was beaten to it. Brilliant little album.



http://www.megaupload.com/?d=GGTQSG1U

i know we all like to rag on pitchfork and everything, but it's nice to see someone agreeing with me. from an 8.1 recc'd review:




Listener beware: If indie affectations such as tides of vocal harmonies, video game MIDI programming and Casio beats, concept albums, religious themes, or concept albums with religious themes give you ulcers, then HLLLYH might sent you running to your nearest message board to brag about how many songs it took you to erase it from your hard drive.

But for anyone who's followed the Mae Shi, this has to come as some sort of payoff. The band has quit cramming as many breakneck riffs as possible into each convulsive track, chilled the fuck out, and begun to focus on linear songs. More than that, the L.A. six-piece has finally made an album that matches their grand ambitions, one that weaves most of their songwriting tricks together with some new ideas, and manages to be listenable and cohesive.

This is the band who sold "mixtape" CD-Rs containing several hundred of their favorite songs at a few seconds each and DVDs with 30-plus videos, built their own synths, called previous albums "hip-hoperas" while sounding like the ugly rejected bits of new-wave at 77 RPM, and talked all sorts of shit while reigning spaz-rock terror on any club, supporting slot, or Bar Mitzvah that would have them. No longer; they now walk the walk.

Vocalist Ezra Buchla (late of the excellent Gowns) has left the group, and his strangulated squall has been replaced by Jonathan Gray, who's got a slightly calmer yet still excitable voice. The band itself retains a caffeinated anxiousness that can make the hairs on your arm stand up, and Gray's self-harmonizing sounds desperately cheerful and pained to persuade, like the last plea for everyone to take the first sip of spiked Kool-Aid. That's no accident: Many of these songs aim for "inspirational." But even with the relentless perk and the seemingly Bible-thumping lyrics, they're still subversive and individualist.

"Run to Your Grave" is the best summation of the record, and its high-water mark. Here, the lyrics sidle basic can't-take-it-with-you sentiments next to more subtle observations ("Emotion is a simple test to the synapse/ Don't let it fool you into thinking that you've got brains"), while the keyboards are sunny enough to burn flesh. On this track and elsewhere, Gray over-eagerly pushes us towards rapturous surrender, including a maybe-too-excited call for some old fashioned soul-reaving on "Pwnd" ("Do it fast! Make it hurt!") and a lockstep denial of emotion and independent thought on "Grave". Likewise, the singer of "Young Marks" praises holy war as "noble and divine" through enough Autotune to induce laughing fits, and the campfire over-assurances of closer "Divine Harvest" (which let us know "It'll be over when you die," with a rousing clamor at the end) are hardly calming.

Even without those themes, the Mae Shi run through a gauntlet of gaudy ideas without ever losing steam, like the fleet-fingered riffs of "Boys in the Attic" (see what they did there?) or the community-theater shuffle of "7xx7", while memories of Nintendo loom large on "The Melody" and the ominous closing minutes of "Leech and Locust". All the shrill exultation and greasy glisten of hyper-compressed guitars and loping Casios build up to something like an album-length musical for the tweakers in after-school detention by a band that sounds the way Ecto-Cooler tasted.

But it wouldn't be the Mae Shi without pushing themselves just beyond the reach of their ability, or letting listeners get too comfortable for too long. To wit: "Kingdom Come" is an 11-minute techno megamix of every song on the album, and it sits right in the middle of it. It's awful. But it would have been an enormous cop-out to put it at the end of the record or bury it as a hidden track, which they're probably aware of. Kudos to them for running headlong into their ambitions; they've earned the privilege.

-Jason Crock, February 12, 2008


i've changed my stance on this slightly. i make no apologies at all. this is easily the best thing i've heard this year. there's a little something to match all moods, and the execution is more precise than any other record in memory. it's a silent concept album. the songs flow amazingly well together, and the lyrics, the feeling, the everything, is all brilliant. at the very least, least give it a shot.

This album is madness. So many different styles clashing all over the place. Other than the aforementioned electro/freak-folk influence, "7xx7" feels like it was lifted straight from the Battles math-rock playbook. Really fun listen.

I hate to use the they're-terrific-live cliche, but they're pretty much terrific live. Really looking forward to the new album.

This is damn good. It's like if Dan Deacon wasn't horribly annoying.

Oh wait, you know what this is kind of like? Parts and Labor.

def. some dan deacon in this. but parts and labor are not this catchy. they're still pretty good, but not this good.

Albums like this should be free. I mean, literally free, because charging even a cent is too much.

This is probably the first album of this "genre" (whatever it is) that I've really liked. The religious themes just set it off for me.

Yeah, being an apostate preacher's kid sets this album up nicely for me. At times it still gets a little shrill, like a lot of music of this ilk, but overall I dig it.

i can understand the shrill, but i take it as a contrast thing. not every song'll be everyone's cup of tea (i imagine that some older fans are upset that they've grown more traditional), but there are more potential singles on this album than nearly all i've heard this year. and it's been a good year so far. i mean, i dare someone to dislike lamb and the lion or run to your grave.

the religous theme is pretty integral, and it hit me pretty hard, but it only settles in after repeated listens. the "my heart's not built to hold his love" on young marks kills me.

This album: still great.

This cover of a Miley Cyrus song by The Mae Shi: surprisingly also great.

holy hell is that fun

i fucking love this band more than i love pretty much anything on this earth. why won't they come to pittsburgh? why must they forsake me?

edit: this song makes me not hate miley cyrus. in fact, this song almost makes me think i could like her. this song fucking rules everything around me. why don't the mae shi get more press than they do? they are just perfect.