Lav's Music Corner

Because I moved last week I just combined the two weeks into one, enjoy <3 10.  It Won't Be Like This Forever  - Neck Deep Don't make fun of me. I've been waiting for neck Deep to return to their catchy meets angsty brand of pop-punk bliss since 2015 and this is among the better tracks they've released in the past 8 years. In no way is this rewriting the book on any element of their sound or style but come on, it's catchy and explosive and fun. Listen 9.  Murder At The 18th St. Garage - The Mountain Goats You have to respect the hustle of The Mountain Goats. Dropping a new album pretty much every year the band doesn't have the most stylistic versatility to them but they play to their strengths occasionally. On this track they absolutely nail their dorky and occasionally over-written style with a simple energetic instrumental and some lyrics fans will love pouring over.  Listen 8.  SHAQ & KOBE  - Meek Mill & Rick Ross Am I crazy or is Meek soundin...

This week had some pretty big releases, only some of them paid off. Let's explore. <3 5.  Training Montage  - The Mountain Goats The Mountain Goats have PLENTY of great ballads and slow songs, but after the last few years it's really nice to see them put some muscle behind this new single. The song absolutely jams with a hook that is made memorable by John Darnielle's unmistakably vocals and lyrics that are cute above what most indie acts are capable of, no surprise coming from a published author. Listen 4.  Marijuana's A Working Woman  - of Montreal Depending on who you ask it's either been a while, or a WHILE since they last loved an of Montreal record. While one good single doesn't promise much this track certainly reads as one of the bands most exciting and exploratory in years. The multi-faceted song bounces between murkier almost horror movie style passages with methodical vocals into snappy synth pop hooks and it's a combination that worked on me i...

The Mountain Goats are a long running indie folk project spearheaded by indie folk personified, John Darnielle. The band has a prolific catalog of early lo-fi recordings from the 90's and early 2000's before their sound shifted to a more expensive production sound, relatively speaking. The band spent the first half of the 2010's releasing acclaimed conceptual indie folk projects before shifting to something a little bit easier to digest in recent years, without receiving the same level of critical success.  Review By Lav: Following The Mountain Goats can be an exciting, occasionally exhaustive pursuit. The band is in the midst of a very prolific run over the last 3 years which has the potential to be quite exciting, but unfortunately the records have been tame and occasionally bloated since 2017's fun and conceptual Goths . I was excited for this project because a couple of the singles I heard peaked my interests more than projects in recent years and I think the recor...

The Mountain Goats are a long running California indie rock project of John Darnielle known mostly for their highly conceptual projects like All Hail West Texas  and The Sunset Tree  in the 2000's as well as Beat The Champ  and Goths  in the 2010's. Getting Into Knives  is the 2nd album from the band this year following Songs For Pierre Chuvin  which was released earlier this year when the bands tour was cancelled. Review By Lavender: While I've never been a massive John Darnielle stan I do enjoy a lot of The Mountain Goats music. While All Hail West Texas  has always been a favorite of mine just a few years ago I rekindled with the band on their great record Goths . Since then I haven't been particularly impressed given that their last record let me down a bit and I didn't have much of anything to say about their record from earlier this year. I enjoyed a couple of the singles leading up to Getting Into Knives  that had me excited but ultimately...

The Mountain Goats are a long running indie project based in North Carolina that is focused around singer-songwriter John Darnielle. They have over 25 years of history diving into numerous concepts and transitioning through different sounds and styles. In League With Dragons  features a wide variety of personnel and was labelled by Darnielle as a "rock Opera" with influences from various literary sources.  Review By Lavender: Despite the fact that I believe Darnielle is quite talented and that the band reps my home state of North Carolina I haven't been the biggest Mountain Goats fan. Most of their material in the 2010's struck me as creative, but not essential. There is almost always a baseline element of songwriting and there is almost never a drowning in influences or contemporary sounds and that is as true as ever here, but once again the band fails to make a significant mark on me. The lead single for this album didn't thrill me straight away, ...