Yet another sweet tidbit found courtesy of the Vagrants... Two tracks from lovesliescrushing’s next album, Chorus, are available on the band’s MySpace page.  The tracks are entitled “Fllrium” and “Unamee”, and despite continuing the band’s love of alien-sounding titles, represent a departure of sorts for the band.

In the past, lovesliescrushing’s sound has always been identified by its lack of drums and its reliance on Scott Cortez’ skill at wreaking all manner of beautiful sonic mayhem from his guitar.  If you don’t believe me, just check out Glissceule.

However, lovesliescrushing is ditching the axe for Chorus and going completely acappella, using only the human voice (with considerable amounts of effects and manipulation, of course).  Cortez himself describes it as some of the band’s most beautiful—and strangest—music.

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Some kind souls over on the Vagrant Cafe noticed that Asthmatic Kitty is now accepting preorders for Sufjan Stevens’ Illinois.  That’s right… for a measly $10 (plus shipping), a brand spankin’ new copy of Illinois will begin its trek to your door on June 3rd (which is when preorders begin shipping).

I know that Illinois has been available via file-sharing for quite some time now, but I’ve decided to take the patient route and bide my time, trusting my patience would be rewarded soon.  And so it shall.

I was perusing ye olde Splendid as part of my daily surfing routine, and came across their review of Lorna’s Static Patterns And Souvenirs.  My only other real exposure to Lorna’s music had been the Blisscent 1 compilation, which left me with mixed feelings.  But Splendid’s gushing review sent me over to Words On Music’s release page, which includes two absolutely stellar MP3s.

Seriously, this is some of the best shoegazer/slowcore-ish stuff I’ve heard in quite some time. “Understanding Heavy Metal Parts I And II” is 5 and a half minutes of dreamy goodness, full of introspective melodies, layers of chiming guitars, wispy male/female harmonies, pensive lyrics, and even some lovely horn and harmonica arrangements for good measure.  And yet despite being packed to the gills with sonic detail, it doesn’t feel top-heavy at all, but simply drifts out of the speakers like so many summer clouds.

The second MP3, “The Swimmer”, is even more reserved, coasting along on some lovely slide guitar whilst ghostly voices giggle and sigh in the background.  Like the first track, the amount of instrumentation on display is quite impressive, and doubly so considering how it doesn’t weigh down the song.  I’m reminded of the sadly unknown Best Boy Electric at times, with maybe a hint or two of A Northern Chorus’ orchestral leanings.

All in all, a lovely little discovery for a Tuesday.

Well, I just got back from seeing Star Wars: Episode III, Revenge Of The Sith and I can honestly say that, well, I’ve now seen Star Wars: Episode III, Revenge Of The Sith.  It’s one more thing I can tick off my “to do” list, one more task accomplished and now I can go onto other things.  I came, I sat in a theatre seat for two and a half hours watching a video game, and I left.

I didn’t dislike the movie as much as some did, though Heaven knows it’s definitely not a good movie, what with all of the groan-inducing dialog, awkward direction, and stilted acting.  However, I certainly didn’t like it too much.  In fact, I really feel nothing but an ambivalence.  I mean, my brain knows I stared at a movie screen for two and a half hours, I can remember the plot’s details, etc.  But I really don’t feel anything - disappointment, elation, etc.

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This might already be old news, but it’s news to me.  I was just perusing the latest newsletter from One Percent Productions and saw that mewithoutYou will be playing in Omaha on Sunday, June 12.

IMHO, mewithoutYou is, without a doubt, one of the best things to come out of Tooth & Nail Records in ages.  I loved their debut album, [A—>B] Life, and their newest album, Catch For Us The Foxes, has been in pretty heavy rotation here at Opus HQ.

I suppose lazy folks might lump the band in with that whole emo scene, but mewithoutYou’s music is something else entirely.  It’s truly passionate, urgent, brutal, emotionally raw, and incredibly spiritual.  Musically, I hear strains of early U2 circa Boy and October and the lyrics seem ripped from the pages of the Psalms, Lamentations, and even the Song of Solomon.  In a genre where so many bands’ lyrics come off like cheap high school diary entries, mewithoutYou’s lyrics are truly urgent and confessional, revealing intense struggles with sin, lust, and despair.

I caught the band a few years ago at Cornerstone during one of those Tooth & Nail days, and it was absolutely insane.  Dressed to the nines in black suits like a group of Russian authors, with flowers strewn about the stage, they were literally playing themselves to death.  The singer seemed intent on tearing himself apart and practically verged on self-destruction.  Immediately upon finishing their set, the drummer collapsed offstage from heat exhaustion and had to receive some emergency aid.

A lot of bands talk about intensity and emotion, but mewithoutYou is one that certainly delivers those things.  And I’m excited to see them again.

A few years ago, there was a period in my life in which a day did not go by where I didn’t listen to Life To Experience’s The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads at least once.  It was, quite simply, one of those albums, a record that comes out of the blue and, for some reason, suddenly gives some sense or meaning to your life.  It becomes a best friend, helping you through tough spots, inspiring you to better things, putting your entire existence in perspective.

And then, for whatever reason, the love died down and the CD got filed away.  Every so often, a song would pop up on my iTunes playlist, but for some reason, I’d skip to the next track.  It was almost as if I was afraid to listen to Lift again, lest their music somehow bring back the very darkness that it once helped me overcome.  Which is odd because I’m a person who is normally quite prone to nostalgia and wistfulness.

However, this was different.  Back in that difficult time period, Lift To Experience was more than just a band to me.  They were more like prophets—whiskey-swilling, cigarette-smoking, foul-mouthed prophets—but prophets nonetheless.  Or at least I completely bought into that particular vision.  There was undeniably something about their music—sprawling, louder than loud, ethereal, sorrowful, sacred, profane, this huge cacophony that somehow made completely righteous sense.

As such, their music left a huge mark on me.  Such that their music isn’t just music anymore.  It is, pardon the pun, truly an experience for me.  An experience that carries with it as much sorrow and heartache as it does joy and awesomeness.  It reminds me of friends that I don’t know anymore; of mistakes I made; of driving alone at night with “Falling From Cloud Nine” or “Waiting To Hit” blasting from car’s speakers, singing along at the top of my lungs and weeping at the same time because my gut had just been kicked in by whatever shit life had dealt me.

And so I was afraid to even listen to a snippet of one of their songs, lest it all come rushing back.  Or, even worse, lest the music had somehow lost its magic, if it’s time had come and gone and it would no longer hold me enthralled as it once did.  All of which, as it turned out, was complete bollocks.

I had a shitty day this week, a day that left me tired and exhausted.  And wouldn’t you know it, “With Crippled Wings” came drifting over the headphones.  Rather than skip to the next track, I just listened.  And sure enough, it was exactly what I needed to hear.  I skipped to the last track on the album, the aptly-titled “Into The Storm”, and heard the words that should be carved on a monument somewhere—“Tell your mother you won’t home for Christmas this year/Say you’re headin’ south for The Promised Land/With gun in hand”.

Naturally, this newfound excitement got me to wondering whether or not we would ever hear from the mighty Lift To Experience ever again.  Last I’d heard, vocalist/guitarist Josh Pearson had booted (literally) the drummer from the band, had left civilization for shack in the middle of nowhere, and had set down to write an acoustic album in order to exorcise a couple of demons.  And that was at least a year ago.

I trawled the various discussion forums, did a little Googling, browsed around on Bella Union’s website... and found nothing.  Until I came across this fantastic article that was published in the Summer 2004 issue of Loose Lips Sing Ships.  It chronicles the author’s attempts to track down Pearson at last year’s SXSW festival.  It’s a sprawling article, and it raises at least twice as many questions about Pearson and Lift To Experience as it answers.

If nothing else, the article (did I mention that it’s fantastic?) makes me all the more anxious and excited to hear something, anything, from the man.  I don’t know if he realizes how much his music has affected people all over the world. 

Sadly, I had a chance to tell him, when I booked them a few years ago to play at a crappy little dive in Omaha, but I didn’t.  The band had stayed at my place that night, and I was up until 2 or 3 in the morning talking with Pearson about music, God, whiskey… you name it.  I tried my hardest, but I probably came across like the biggest fanboy you could imagine.

Pearson was incredibly gracious, and it was one of those nights that, afterwards, my friends and I couldn’t believe had happened to us.  I wish I would’ve taken just a few minutes to tell him how music his music had helped me, how much it’s still helping me, but I thought it might seem a little too fanboy-ish, and so I didn’t.

Looking back, my words probably wouldn’t have made much of a difference, but it might’ve been worth something.

I think it’s safe to say that even those of us who aren’t hardcore gamers still remember the impact Final Fantasy VII had.  It was one of the first video games I remember actually generating a buzz preceding its arrival.  I devoted many hours to that game during my junior year in college, completely absorbed by the game.  While appearing fairly antiquated by today’s standards, I remember being absolutely blown away by the CGI work - not just the quality, but also the epic, cinematic feel they had, the way they actually advanced and enhanced the storyline in addition to being sheer eye candy.

And of course there was the storyline.  It was the first, and perhaps only, video game to actually affect me on an emotional level.  I’m sure everyone who has played the game knows what I’m talking about, that sudden and shocking twist that left you a little teary-eyed and desperate to figure out some way to undo it.  All in all, a great game, absolutely deserving of the title “classic”.

Not surprisingly, I’ve been very intrigued by Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, a CGI film that picks up after the game’s events.  And lest you’re tempted to dredge up Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, this looks to be lightyears ahead of Square’s infamous blunder.  The animation is far, far better, and the characters actually look like, well, characters rather than mannequins.  Oh yes, and the action sequences are just, well, awesome.

I’ve enjoyed the various teasers and trailers that have appeared on the Web over the past year or so.  However, the most recent trailer that appeared at E3 (the ultra-big gaming convention) is in a completely different league.  There’s some stuff that’s been seen before, but there’s plenty of new stuff as well, and it all looks sweeter than sweet.  Oh, and it’s also subtitled.  Some folks have had some issues with the dialog, but nothing I saw bothered me too much.  Then again, considering this is Final Fantasy 7 we’re talking about, I might not be the most objective of folks.

The film is nearly done, and is due out on DVD and UMD (for those of you with PlayStation Portables) in September, in both the U.S. and Japan.  Once again, sweeter than sweet.

Click here to watch the hi-res E3 trailer in QuickTime, and here to watch it in Windows Media.  And click here to check out the movie’s official English website.

Thanks to logboy at Twitch for the head’s up.

It should be pretty obvious based on my past comments and reviews, but in case you’ve missed it, I’m a pretty big fan of one Sufjan Stevens.  And his upcoming album Illinois is, without a doubt, one of my most eagerly anticipated releases of the year.  Or rather, I should say that Sufjan Stevens invites you to: Come on feel the Illinoise is one of my most eagerly anticipated releases of the year.

As is the case with the album’s song titles, the album’s title is a bit of a mouthful (to say the least).  And like the song titles, I know that some are going to roll their eyes at the title.  However, I love it.  It says to me that Stevens has his tongue firmly planted within cheek, and isn’t taking his “50 States” project too seriously.

Oh, and just in case you want verification that that is the official album title, you can take a gander at the CD cover for yourself.  Superman, goats, Al Capone… what’s not to like?

(Via Arts and Faith).