Mates of State

Mates of State - Goods

Let's face it.....Mates of State's 3rd full length (Team Boo) just wasn't as good as their first two releases (My Solo Project and Our Constant Concern, respectively). I was disappointed. I hoped that the band would take their strengths of awesome vocals, catchy keyboard parts, and smooth drumming and well, make them stronger. Instead they made something that just didn't quite keep up with their earlier releases. It just languished in midtempos and boring keyboard parts.

Mates of State have returned with both a DVD and a new EP. This track comes off the EP and takes the band's aforementioned strengths and has fun with them.

The opening keyboards sound like they belong in a hockey arena, well, maybe at least NHL 95 for the Sega Genesis (you can make their heads bleed!). Then the drums kick in with that Cure sounding keyboard drop in, and that sold me right there. You can either sing along to Jason or Kori, and all is well. And you can't help but sing along. Mates of State are just like that. Of course its more fun if you have someone sitting next to you in the car to play off of.

This song is just fun. Did I mention that yet?

Reeve Oliver

Reeve Oliver - Reevenge (click on link, then right click on "click here to download the file now")

There is something about this song that has me playing it over and over. It's nostalgia - for 1999-2000esque emo/punk. That looks ridiculous as I write it and think it, but this song would fit perfectly on a Vagrant Records compilation between Hey Mercedes and Saves the Day from that era (or on a No Knife CD). Now it would be terribly out of place on a label that has lost its focus (or sharpened it, if you figure Rich Egan wanted to make loads of money as his plan to being with).

Full of major second chords and a neat beat flip in the first riff of the song, Sean O'Donnell comes in at the verse and lets his tenor voice guide you through the song. He doesn't plead with you, or shove anything down your throat, he just wants to let you what's going on. The vocal echoes that drop in and out (thank you Mark Trombino for mixing this) really add to the feeling of looking back on an important event and thinking again about what revenge is, which are reflected sarcatically in the lyrics - " We all knew you can't go wrong/It's in this song/Every note/Every word /And you".

This full length Reeve Oliver CD really surprised me, and as it stands, it will land in my top ten for the year. The rest of the CD doesn't necessarily sound like this song, but there are some melodies that are just sticking my head like nothing else has this year.

Rilo Kiley

Rilo Kiley - Such Great Heights (live 10/09/04 - Philadelphia)

Maybe it's my excitement of seeing RK and Death Cab For Cutie play on Tuesday, but this is just fun (and adds to the hope that DCFC could play this Postal Service cover with its original writer Ben Gibbard and Jenny Lewis singing together).

Blake strips this down to just its melody and simple guitar strumming, and what sounds like a keyboard set to "trumpet" while Jenny sings little bits of back-up. It takes the crowd the first few words to realize Blake isn't starting up the song "ripchord" which he has been opening up the encores with lately on RK's tour. The real singers are the crowd.

This song has also been recorded and released as a cover by Iron & Wine, on the "Such Great Heights" single and placed on the Garden State movie soundtrack. This Iron & Wine version takes the song in a more delicate direction and sounds great until after the first chorus, which is when you realize the song is going absolutely nowhere and is thereafter painfully redundant and monotonous.

The song is excellent as its original indie-dance incarnation, but Rilo Kiley take it and put their own spin on it, making it sound like their own song, which is both a mark of an excellent band, and of an excellent song to be able to survive in another interpretation.