Dish's Ma Raison De Vivre Ton Amour

It's always a good thing when bands from Florida start to gain notoriety. Our little neck of the woods has been quite active as of late and Dish certainly hope to keep up their pace. This duo from Deland, made up of brothers Roberto and Nathaniel Aguilar, discovered music together and now years later are actually making music together. Their album, Ma Raison De Vivre Ton Amour is probably the best thing to ever come out of the Deland.

Artistically, Dish are just about all over the map. They're like indie rock gypsy's wondering genre's and cross pollinating them in an effort to something that's hypnotizing and intriguing. At times the succeed as they occasionally sound something like Radiohead if they were playing power pop; it's those moments when the band are at their best. Other times though, the band tend to get lost on their quest falling into some sort of folky quagmire that brings down their energy level and nearly drags Ma Raison De Vivre Ton Amour with them (see "Zombie Love Song").

Utilizing all sorts of hand made percussion, acoustic guitars, vibes, programmed beats, and synths, the band is able to make just about any sort of song they choose to and about four or five songs in they have. The loungey acoustics of, "Death and Romance," serves as a perfect example of their songwriting philosophy. Opening with some jazzy, loungey, vibraphone action the song gives way to acoustic guitars and then blows up into a soaring distorted blast up to heaven. It then comes back down to earth and uses some beats to move the song along just far enough before it takes off again. It's a crazy littler rollercoaster ride of a song that crams just about everything in the bands arsenal into a tune that's under four minutes long.

For the most part, Ma Raison De Vivre Ton Amour is an impressive debut. Dish's ability to create jumpy songs that fuse genres together like super glue is truly a good thing and the album benefits form this repeatedly. It's only when the band decides to slow things down and get "jam bandish," that Ma Raison De Vivre Ton Amour suffers; hopefully Dish stays away from the coffee shop folk and sticks to writing scattered pop songs.

The Old Ceremony Walks on Thin Air

The Old Ceremony, named after Leonard Cohen's album New Skin For the Old Ceremony have been floating around the Chapel Hill scene since 2005 and have toured up and down the east coast while quietly releasing two albums and preparing to release their third Walk On Thin Air. Sounding something like a folksy sort of band with hints of indie rock thrown in, The Old Ceremony's songs are rustic, lush, and quietly subtle.

Walk On Thin Air is far from bombastic and loud. Instead the album is reserved and laid back choosing to take the low road and softly go about its business without really raising much of a ruckus. Therein lies it's problem. You see, there's really nothing that makes Walk On Thin Air want to stand up and be counted (except for the fact they could very well be one of the few bands around to use the words plate tectonics in a song). The album is really just sort of there kind of wandering along doing nothing but simply existing.

In other words, the songs that make up Walk On Thin Air aren't overly bad or overly good; they're just kind of there and as a result they're sort of like aural wallpaper. Walk On Thin Air is a perfect title as the record has a hard time making it's presence consistently felt. In fact, a vast majority of the songs here are inconspicuous and aren't songs that want you to pay attention to or are tunes you want to hear over and over again. There are exceptions of course, and the Tindersticks-ish theatrics of "The Disappear," as well as the aforementioned "Plate Tectonics," stand out, but for the most part the record just doesn't do anything.

The Old Ceremony are a talented bunch to be sure, but their songs just lack a degree of excitement that folky records need. Walk On Thin Air isn't horrible, but it's nothing overly exciting either and until The Old Ceremony get away from being stuck in the middle of the road they'll just sort of be around.  If they manage to pry themselves away some exciting things could happen. I hope that moment happens because I really want to hear more geological rock and roll songs!