The Helio Sequence- Keep Your Eyes Ahead (2008)

Only a handful of times in my show-going career have I been completely blown away by an opening band that I was previously unfamiliar with. Of those, only one rapidly ascended to rank amongst my favorite active bands. As you can probably guess, that band is The Helio Sequence. The funny thing is I saw them open up for Minus The Bear, who at the time I absolutely loved. Since then however, I've found myself listening to Minus The Bear less and less (especially since that turd Omni) and The Helio Sequence more.

The first time I heard The Helio Sequence I was impressed with the amount of noise these two dudes made. I would describe their first few albums as shoegaze, or perhaps shoegaze's catchier cousin dream pop. These were big wall of sound affairs, the walls being composed of pedal driven guitar, loops, synth, 8-bit bleeps and bloops and of course drums (interesting tidbit: drummer Benjamin Weikel plied his trade on Modest Mouse's Good News For People Who Love Bad News). Those things can still be found on Keep Your Eyes Ahead, just not in the same quantity as their other releases. Really, the transition from dream pop to indie rock/pop began on their third album Love And Distance, but even that seems dense when compared to the sheared down sound of this album. It might be ridiculous to call the results of a band diluting the sound they had cultivated and playing more by the pop playbook fresh, but to me that's exactly what Keep Your Eyes Ahead is. It's like that first day in the spring where you can go outside without a jacket, it might only be five degrees warmer than the day before, but that five degrees makes all the difference and somehow you feel unburdened. The Helio Sequence has always written tremendously catchy songs, but by scaling back a bit and committing to writing the pop songs they always seemed to know they were capable of, The Helio Sequence have produced what is, to date, their master work and one of my favorite albums of the aughts.

Keep Your Eyes Ahead is essential listening for everybody.

The Helio Sequence on last.fm



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The Sea and Cake- Car Alarm (2008)

Car Alarm was my favorite album of 2008 and since then I don't think I've gone a month without listening to it. The Sea and Cake began as an indie rock band with jazz, calypso and post-rock influences and while keeping those influences to a certain extent, have morphed into a group that writes some of the most breezy, mellow indie-pop songs I've ever heard. Car Alarm, in my opinion, is the culmination of what The Sea and Cake have been doing for the past several albums. Their music is deceptively simple. Give it less than full attention and you'll note Sam Prekop's breathy vocals, bright and delicate sounding guitar, a rhythm section that keeps your head bobbing and occasional synth and steel drum accompaniment. Listen closer and you'll notice the interplay between the two guitarists, frequently dueling acoustically and electrically, subtle synth and electronic bits and the restraint with which rhythm section plays. With so much going on both above and below the surface I'm always amazed that Car Alarm is a brilliantly executed indie-pop album and not absolute cacophony. Highly recommended, especially if you're a fan of Maritime.

I also just found out they released a new album this month. Sweet!

The Sea and Cake on last.fm


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Gems: It's a 10/10, so, all of them.

Faraquet- Anthology 1997-1998 (2008)

For some reason I ignored this band while they were around. That was stupid. Hailing from DC Faraquet played math rock, but did so with enough hooks and song structure that you might be able place them in the same camp as some of the mathier indie rock bands (Minus The Bear, etc.). Not to mention that having a vocalist is somewhat of an anomaly in the math rock world. The guitar work on this album is fantastic, "The Whole Thing Over" features one of my favorite riffs of all time. If you dig Piglet check this out, a great album for sunny days and completing menial tasks.

Get it here.

Gems: Parakeet, The Whole Thing Over, Call It Sane, Rex.