Braveyoung
We Are Lonely Animals
The End

Braveyoung used to be known as Giant, and as such they carried a rawer, sludgier tune. Giant was a post-rock band, mind you, but of the heavy, dense variety. Braveyoung is still a post-rock band, but have traded in the atmospheric loudness for an emotional wash of somber movements. We Are Lonely Animals, the North Carolina band’s full-length debut, is even similarly removed from 2009′s two-song EP, Bloom, which still contained traces of Giant’s fuzzy muscle, and is laid out as a yearning whisper of dulcet emptiness. Like a study in solitary existence, We Are Lonely Animals employs every critical nuance — slow strings, delicate piano, chilling chord progressions — to create a cascade of elegant, beautiful, and haunting moments that will numb your soul, all of it accompanied by the desolate parlance of such titles as “And No Two Walked Together,” “Our Teeth Are Falling Out,” and “The Weight of Loss is Whole.” I’m reminded of Ulver or No-Man, or even Agalloch’s White EP in some instances, but those are my bearded roots showing. For the more discerning post-rock lover, Braveyoung will probably call to mind Mogwai or Explosions in the Sky, especially on the album’s longest and most devastating track, “The Light Narrows.” Either way, it’s some magnificent mood music.

Listen to “Dark Days, Including After Midnight” from We Are Lonely Animals!

The Main Street Gospel
Love Will Have Her Revenge
Tee Pee

Blowin’ in on the winds of yesteryear is The Main Street Gospel, a country-psych band with ties to Brian Jonestown Massacre and a sound so steeped in nostalgia and tradition you gotta blow the dust off of it just to discover the true treasure it really is. Love Will Have Her Revenge, the Ohio trio’s debut, is a laid back approach to the usual foot-stomp of mustache rock, and gets its point across by way of delicate pop melodies, tin cup blues, and breezy jams. While none of the songs here are exceptionally overpowering in their virility, they do have amazing breadth, depth, and reach, like the thick roots of an old and impressive tree. Not only that, but they shake and hum at times with a journeyman vibe, as the longest songs on deck (“Fool’s Gold,” “Ready to Shine,” and “She’s a Disease”) draw you into a solitary world of lonely rural squatting and the hallucinations it might induce with their 70s-inspired freak-folk rock. You’ll be able to hear a wide array of influences on this one, like Neil Young, Wilco, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Dead Meadow, and Blood Meridian, but in the end it’s just good ol’ rock n’ roll — vulnerable, honest, heartfelt, and a tad trippy.

Check out  MSG performing the title track from Love Will Have Her Revenge!

I’ve been wanting to see Moon for awhile now after hearing from a few people how mind-blowing it is, and I’m always up for anything Sam Rockwell does, and, of course, I wasn’t disappointed. I mean, it wasn’t exactly mind-blowing (too much hype perhaps?), but it was damn good, and it always amazes me how killer movies like this are released without much ado, and yet I have to see an ad for some hokey bullshit movie with Sarah Jessica Parker and Hugh Grant every time I turn on the TV. Who knows, maybe I’m watching the wrong channels. But no matter because I finally took a trip to the Moon, and man, am I ever glad I did. Now, unfortunately this one is going to be brief, and not because it doesn’t deserve a proper write-up, but because there’s not much I can say about Moon without spoiling it for you. It’s a real psyche-out, this one, but I should be able to give you the general idea.

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