Don’t feel to bad about misspelling or forgetting this bands name, it can be easily confused with Megafun or Megafauna (a large land animal weighing over 45 kilos…). Oddly enough Megafaun stirs up feelings of MEGA FUN and possibly the mental imagery of some Megafauna, like a huge deer or caribou. The band was formed by two brothers Brad and Phil Cook, who have played with the likes of Bon Iver.  Keeping that in mind I’m sure conclusions will be drawn prior to the actual listening of Megafaun and of course the influence is there. However Megafaun has a few things that no band seems to have. On the their newest release “Gather, Form & Fly” we find three young men creating something they feel perfectly comfortable with. Its a folk blend of many hugely popular indie bands around. Some of the first things I noticed where the sweet Fleet Foxes vocal melodies, however in Megafauns case we see a bit of human between the shining and sparkling perfection of Fleet Foxes. As well we have the twangy mountain folk, which seems to be interrupted with powerful stomping choruses not to mentioned the bizarre rhythmic loops found in songs like “The Process”. To make this simple lets take Yeasayer, Animal Collective, Fleet Foxes, American Beauty era Grateful Dead and Bon Iver, throw them all in a blender with a quart of moonshine and you have Megafaun, a band I highly recommend to anyone and everyone!

Megafaun – Kaufmans Ballad

Megafaun – Coloumns

Megafaun – The Longest Day

-lionsteeth

I’m not one to claim friendships with bands I know who’ve “made it”. Most bands you know haven’t really “made it” anyways, and just because their song was featured in some indie art house film or a Walmart ad doesn’t make them a commercial success. Nor has Women “made it”, however I do know them, distantly, from a time long ago. From interviews I’ve read, Women seem to be hiding from their dark past, a past I felt I was part of. A despondent past, of when they changed not only my personal view on music, put also an entire musical community. These young men played in a band who’s name I will omit as they do seem to try and stay away from anything relating to it. This band took our small island towns scene by the hand, led to to a cliff and tossed it into a churning and boiling sea below. Everyone wanted to like them more, a short 4 song EP and a few studio demos, all we could gather. A handful of shows and brief contact with the members via email.  And then they vanished. Keeping up with the members new projects was never too hard and I collected their albums as if they where still the band I new and loved, never the same line up, never the same sound but some elements where always there.

And then, years later I became aware of Women. I couldn’t believe my eyes, the original line up of a band that I just wanted to replicate in everything I did musically. And then I heard the track Black Rice and I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, they had as I had grown up. Abandoning the heavy aggressive sounds of the early 2000′s as we all did and striking a claim in a sound more current, yet unique and classic. I’ve heard many references to The Beach Boys, and yes it’s in there. However if your looking for summer beach jams, this isn’t for you. Some songs do provide great melody and up tempo guitar work, however the main point lies in the experimentalism of their work. Songs consisting of 5 minutes of unabridged static, off kilter and dissonant guitar battling by Pat and Chris and rhythms that literally give you goosebumps. These musicians are trained beyond anything I could ever hope to accomplish and when they set their minds to making a dark indie-pop album, they succeeded in ten fold.

Women – Group Transport Hall

Women – Shaking Hands

Women – Upstairs

-lionsteeth

I don’t know a lot about Black Metal, Crust Punk even less so, but apparently Blackened-Crust is the genre for me. Sweden’s Martyrdöd blend the unrelenting assault of Crust with the haunting melodies of Black Metal and the result is some of the most intense music I have heard in a while.  If you are a fan of heavy music check these guys out.

Some other people around the internet have said that their sound is similar to Skitsystem, Victims and Wolfbrigade.  I gave all three a listen and they are all pretty decent.

-iceonthetrail

[gplayer href="http://bluegrassish.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Hor-varningen.mp3"]Martyrdöd - Hör Varningen![/gplayer]

ps.
Död means “Death”, so the band name means “Martyr’s Death”