Leor Galil

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The Appleseed Cast

The album lives… live!

March 24, 2010 / Leave a Comment

Friday night I stood for two-plus hours in awe as I watched The Appleseed Cast perform their entire 2001 double album Low Level Owl. The Lawrence, Kansas emo band played to a packed crowd at Chicago’s Bottom Lounge, and gracefully played the criminally overlooked double album, with a brief intermission breaking up the two volumes and … [Read more…]

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Posted in: True/Slant Tagged: album, ATP, Billboard 200, Bottom Lounge, Chicago, Clarity, concerts, Contra, Don't Look Back, Doolittle, emo, Exile in Guyville, Jimmy Eat World, Liz Phair, Low Level Owl Vol. 1, Low Level Owl Vol. 2, music, The Appleseed Cast, The Pixies, Vampire Weekend

The Best Overlooked Albums Of The Aughts

December 27, 2009 / Leave a Comment

The new year is almost here, and with it comes a maelstrom of “End of the Year Lists.” Here on Ex-Spectator, I’ll be rolling out a few “End of the Year”/”End of the Decade” lists. Today’s list: The Best Overlooked Albums of the Aughts. A while back I started an ongoing feature called “Overlooked in … [Read more…]

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Posted in: True/Slant Tagged: (k)no(w)here, +/-, A Name Writ in Water, A Story In White, Aereogramme, albums, Alias, All These Long Drives, All Together, Antelope, Apollo Sunshine, Aqueduct, art-punk, Beauty Pill, bedroom pop, Belly, best of, best overlooked albums of the aughts, best overlooked albums of the decade, Black Eyes, blogs, blues, bubblegum pop, By The Throat, Cave In, Cell-Scape, Central Hug, Central Hug/Friendarmy/Fractaldunes, Chad VanGaalen, chamber-pop, Chino Moreno, country, D.C., dance punk, Danger Mouse, Danger Mouse & Jemini, Dartz! This Is My Ship, David Terry, Deftones, doo-wop, Double Dagger, dubstep, Duplomacy, Ear Pwr, Emblems, emo, Emperor X, Eyedea & Abilities, Fire Theft, folk, Food For Animals, Forest Fire, Friend Army/Fractal Dunes (And The Dreams That Resulted), funk, Ghetto Pop Life, Gomez, Gowns, Guns Babes Lemonade, Hardcore punk, Hella, hip-hop, HLLLYH, Hope of the States, Hrishhikesh Hirway, I Sold Gold, In Our Gun, indie folk, indie pop, indie rock, Interventions & Lullabies, Ire Works, Is This It, It Takes A Nation Of Millions, jam, jazz, Jemini, Karate, Let's Build A Fire, lo-fi, London Zoo, Low Level Owl Vol. 1, Low Level Owl Vol. 2, Lucero, Lungfish, Mapmaker, Maritime, Mark Kozelek, Mary Timony, matt pond PA, Melt-Banana, meme, metal, metalcore, Milosh, Mineral, minimalism, Movie Monster, Muscles, music, Night On Fire, noise rock, noise-punk, Oh No! Oh My!, Parts & Labor, Pattern Is Movement, Perfect Pitch Black, Personal Journals, Pinback, Pitchfork, Pitchfork effect, Plus/Minus, pop, pop-rock, post-disco, post-hardcore, post-punk, prog, Public Enemy, Putting The Days To Bed, Q And Not U, Ragged Rubble, rap, RCA, Red State, Reflector, Resurgam, Rhymesayers, Rob Crow, Sage Francis, slam poetry, slowcore, Soft Airplane, Sound Team, Southern rock, Sun Kil Moon, Sunny Day Real Estate, Super Animal Brothers III, Survival, Team Sleep, That Much Further West, The Appleseed Cast, the aughts, The Bug, The Dillinger Escape Plan, The Dismemberment Plan, The Fire Theft, The Format, The Long Winters, The Lost Riots, The Mae Shi, The One AM Radio, The PoPo, The Rapture, The Strokes, The Unsustainable Lifestyle, Tiny Cities, twee, Unbeast the Leash, Unsolved, UUVVWWZ, VHS or Beta, Videohippos, Volcano I'm Still Excited!!, We The Vehicles, Wilderness, Zach Hill

The Decade In Emo

December 23, 2009 / 7 Comments

It was indeed “A Decade Under The Influence.” But while Taking Back Sunday could string together a few solid hits drenched in a post-hardcore milieu and cut with pop sensibilities, chances are no one in the band could have predicted how influential emo would become in the aughts. The presence of the word in the … [Read more…]

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Posted in: True/Slant Tagged: ...is a Real Boy, A Decade Under The Influence, Abercrombie & Fitch, Achilles Heel, Algernon Cadwallader, Atmosphere, Bleed American, Brand New, Chris Carrabba, Coheed & Cambria, crunkcore, D.C., Dashboard Confessional, Dog Problems, Drive Like Jehu, emo, Emo: Where The Girls Aren't, emocore, Empire! Empire! (I Was A Lonely Estate), Fall Out Boy, Fugazi, Hardcore punk, In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3, Jawbox, Jessica Hopper, Jimmy Eat World, Maritime, Monument, music, My Chemical Romance, New York Times, Owen, P.O.S., Pedro the Lion, Pop music, post-hardcore, Punk Planet, Rhymesayers, Rising Tide, Rolling Stone, Sage Francis, Say Anything, screamo, scrunk, Sunny Day Real Estate, Taking Back Sunday, The Appleseed Cast, The Argument, The Format, The Get Up Kids, The Guilt Show, The Promise Ring, The Used, Thursday, Tim Burton, War All The Time, Warped Tour, Wood/Water

Passion Pit = Electronic-Rock's Jimmy Eat World?

June 2, 2009 / 1 Comment

I rarely mention Pitchfork in the guise of this blog… I won’t go into great details, and I will admit it’s easily one of the best aggregators for independent-related music information, so I do visit the site regularly. But when it comes to reviews, I try to stray from their pieces. Yes, the Pitchfork writers … [Read more…]

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Posted in: Perfect Lines Tagged: ABC, Boston, Clarity, Cursive, electronic-dance, emo, Fugazi, Ian Cohen, Jeremy Enigk, Jimmy Eat World, Manners, Michael Angelakos, music, Nothing Feels Good, Passion Pit, Pitchfork, Sleepyhead, Sunny Day Real Estate, The Appleseed Cast, The Promise Ring, The Rising Tide

Awesome Deal/Evil…?

February 21, 2009 / Leave a Comment

Deep Elm, the independent label that came to fruition in the 90s and put a structured face on the then-still-ambiguous term “emo” with their “Emo Diaries” series, is giving away their newest emo-themed sampler for free online. It’s the “Emo Is Awesome/Emo Is Evil” compilation, in it’s second volume, and it’s available for a limited … [Read more…]

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Posted in: Perfect Lines Tagged: Deep Elm, emo, Emo Is Awesome/Emo Is Evil, music, The Appleseed Cast, The Emo Diaries

New Music From The Appleseed Cast

December 17, 2008 / Leave a Comment

Stereogum is previewing the newest song by The Appleseed Cast on their weekly Gum Drop posting. Titled “Raise the Sails,” the song hearkens back to the band’s Low Level Owl days, with patient, drawn out instrumentals that make the slow-bursts and waves of noise all the more moving. Take a peek over here. The band’s … [Read more…]

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Posted in: Perfect Lines Tagged: emo, Low Level Owl, music, Raise the Sails, Sagarmatha, Stereogum, The Appleseed Cast, The Gum Drop

Opera, Rotten Butter, and Words

October 7, 2008 / Leave a Comment

*The Onion had a great “archival” issue online, which featured this hilariously-poignant piece on the “dangerous” lyrics of an opera performance: The Onion always has a great way of not only poking fun of society but media as well; I would be cramming the point down the provincial throat if I were to further explain … [Read more…]

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Posted in: Perfect Lines Tagged: A&M, Country Life butter, dirge, EMI, emo, John Lydon, Johnny Rotten, Low Level Owl, molify, music, opera, post-punk, Public Image Ltd., punk, The Appleseed Cast, The Guardian, The Onion, the Sex Pistols, UK, Virgin

Dear Science, I've Made a Mixtape for You

September 28, 2008 / Leave a Comment

After a bit of a delay, I finally present to you my review for TV on the Radio’s Dear Science,. But I’ve decided to offer up something entirely different in the way of reviews by focusing on the one pitfall of music critique I cannot stand yet find myself using at times: comparison. It’s quite … [Read more…]

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Posted in: Perfect Lines Tagged: Ambulance, Atmosphere, Boxcar, Cap'n Jazz, Chris Carrabba, Crying, Dancing Choose, Dashboard Confessional, Davey von Bohlen, Dear Science, Desperate Youth Bloodthirsty Babes, DLZ, Egg Hunt, emo, Family Tree, Fugazi, Golden Age, Halfway Home, Hands Down, Hanging Marionette, hipsters, I Was a Lover, I'll Catch You, Ian MacKaye, Jawbreaker, Jeff Nelson, Love Dog, Lover's Day, Minor Threat, music, National Disgrace, Nice New Outfit, Oh Messy Life, Pedro the Lion, punk, Rapture, Red Dress, Shout Me Out, Stork and Owl, The Appleseed Cast, The Get Up Kids, The Promise Ring, Tunde Adebimpe, TV On The Radio, We All Fall Down, Why Did We Ever Meet

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