Matthew Montgomery, 2009

Back in September 2009, I had the opportunity to spend a lot of time in my car while traveling across the western half of the United States. During this time I discovered that when speeding down a side road in Iowa, not all songs were created equal. Here is a list, in no particular order, of the 10 best songs for driving to.

1. The All New Adventures of Us – “Firetruck”

This song is wonderful to say the least. It meets all the requirements to be a good driving song: sonic guitars, blasting horns, enough changes to keep you interested and of course, a beat you can tap your gas pedal too. The song speaks of never missing another adventure, and that really embodies what this article is about: adventures.

2. The Beatles – “Two of Us”
“Two of Us” is one of those jangly guitar songs you just can’t do without on a good drive. It’s stood the test of time and after nearly 40 years it is just as valid as it was on its release. The song itself induces images of driving on a winding backroad with the windows down and the sun shining.

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3. Cake – “Shadow Stabbing”
With equal parts heavy bass, clean drums, and smooth vocals, there was no way I could leave this off the list. It’s the kind of song that makes you turn the stereo up and tap your steering wheel. Listening to this song generally leads to everyone in the car dancing, singing and having an all around good time.

4. Grizzly Bear – “Two Weeks”
The song opens with staccato piano with bass and drums accenting it. This song made the list more for the musical content than anything else. Something about the flow of this song lends itself to the idea of driving away and letting go. It’s a wonderful piece and a great way to start a long drive. Just turn this on and pull out of your driveway; you’re good to go.

5. Hot Hot Heat – “Middle of Nowhere”
“Middle of Nowhere” is another foot tapping tune with more “windows down” potential than your run-of-the-mill song. It speaks of heading out to the middle of nowhere, not because you have to, but because you can. The lyrics are intensely catchy and bring a level of intensity to the list we haven’t had so far.

6. Ben Kweller – “I Gotta Move”
“I gotta move while the streets ahead are sunny” is the first thing you hear out of this song. It continues to send a none to subtle message that he has outgrown his small town home and needs to get out and get his life on track. Complete with crunchy guitars, tambourine and a classic rock and roll guitar solo, you can’t go wrong with this song when speeding down the interstate.

7. The Lodger – “The Good Old Days”
Twinkling guitars and dance-beat drums slam into the list with no remorse. The bass has a endearingly thin yet full tone and reminds of 1960s pop songs. This is one of those songs that makes you want to dance in your seat. The message of the song is essentially that things have been pretty terrible for a while, but they’re finally starting to look up and perhaps these could be the good old days everyone is always talking about. Why would you not want to hear that as your driving on the open road?

8. Nada Surf – “I Like What You Say”
This song comes from Nada Surf’s 2008 album, Lucky. This is the album that took Nada Surf from being a mediocre alternative rock group to a wonderful pop outfit. Sweet vocal harmonies dominate this track along with clean electric guitars strummed throughout. The drums make this another hit when it comes to the steering wheel tapping, windows down crowd.

9. This Will Destroy You – “Quiet”
“Quiet” is the first song on this list with no vocals. The song begins with echoing guitars, strong chords on the piano and a persistent beat on the drums. After a while, it breaks down into a giant chorus of distorted guitars and cymbal heavy drumming. A solid post-rock track is a must on every long drive and it doesn’t get much better than this.

10. Weezer – “Holiday”
There was no way I could complete this list without this song. It was hard enough to narrow it down to only one Weezer track. A classic power pop track with sonic guitars and aggressive drums, there is no song on this list that matches the raw emotion and power of this song. Great songwriting and intensity guarantees it a spot on any playlist for the open road. However, when listening to this song on the interstate, be careful. It may lead to excessive speed, and from personal experience, the authorities don’t take “I was listening to Weezer” as a valid excuse.

Sigur Ros - Agaetis Byrjun

While I can’t say I’ve been listening to Sigur Ros for ten years (I’m only 23, after all,) the anniversary of Agaetis Byrjun still holds a notable impact in my development of musical tastes. When I first heard this album, I was an impressionable 15-years old and only beginning to realize the breadth and depth of music at my digital fingertips (ah, a pun!)

It introduced me to a world of post-rock and soaring, dynamic soundscapes — and though I wasn’t necessarily unfamiliar with the latter, the Icelandic outfit took it to a logical extreme I hadn’t yet witnessed. This, I thought, was music that made me feel emotional, excited, happy, sad; truthfully, the state of emotion didn’t much make a difference, but the magnitude. As a happy teen listening to Agaetis Byrjun, the album took on a bright, shimmery light; as an occasionally angst-ridden 16-year-old, the album came in a more sad, depressed form. As a teen who avoided some of the emotional highs and lows of his peers (though I wasn’t without fault, by any means) Sigur Ros gave me something to feel when I didn’t want to worry about feeling other things.

Agaetis Byrjun was as much an escape as it was a gateway drug into a convoluted world of inventiveness. It wasn’t long after I started listening to the group that ( ) was released, which certainly sped things along, but this album is what kicked it off.

I’ve ascribed my first experience with a Sigur Ros live show as one of the few moments of overwhelming aesthetic arrest  — like that thing many others have called simple spirituality or inspiration, but undoubtedly stronger:

“This supreme quality is felt by the artist when the esthetic image is first conceived in his imagination. The mind in that mysterious instant Shelley likened beautifully to a fading coal. The instant wherein that supreme quality of beauty, the clear radiance of the esthetic image, is apprehended luminously by the mind which has been arrested by its wholeness and fascinated by its harmony is the luminous silent stasis of esthetic pleasure, a spiritual state very like to that cardiac condition which the Italian physiologist Luigi Galvani, using a phrase almost as beautiful as Shelley’s, called the enchantment of the heart.”

James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

It illustrates my relationship with Sigur Ros in a necessarily convoluted way: I doubt much I could put in plain words the impact the experience has had on my musical journey, lest I delve into lines of mystical nonsense.

The beautiful thing, ten years later, is that the album has held a decade-influencing impact — a decade that’s seen Sigur Ros scale musical heights with the utmost precision, clarity, and grace.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor – “Dead Flag Blues (Intro)” | download (via official site)
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I suppose I recognize that people are generally interested in music that’s catchy, especially lyrically and vocally. It’s rather hard to sing along with Godspeed You! Black Emperor, let alone Tortoise — this, I admit. And, if I’ve learned anything from people, it’s that they really, really like to sing along to things, for better or worse.

Okay, I don’t expect everybody to find joy in the things I find joy in, but come on, people! Have a little heart for the instrumental song. The last number-one hit instrumental was, of all things, Jan Hammer’s “Miami Vice Theme.” Lovely. All respect to the talented, quality songwriter Jan Hammer is, but the last hit instrumental? It’s been 23 years since it peaked, and still, there have been no further instrumental tracks to hit number one. I suppose that’s par for the course.

Looking through the charts is depressing, no two ways about it — the 1990s were not a good time for music, I guess. I can’t complain about what came out of the decade, actually: post-rock didn’t even come around until the 1990s, when instrumental music, popularly, had hit its lowest. You probably won’t see a post-rock track ever charting at No. 1, unless we end up in some infinitely cool dystopian (or utopian, for that matter) future. Still, it’s gained massively in popularity since its sort-of inception, latched on to by indie kids and college students alike.

So, while not everything I love will be loved by everyone, I can at least take solace in the fact that at least some love it enough to keep creating it, supplying my musical addiction daily.

• Very Small Array Music posts

The Buddyrevelles — “I Dream of Rodney” | download
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The Buddyrevelles — “Moods” | download
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The Buddyrevelles — “The Foreigner” | download
[audio:http://www.musicgeek.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/thebuddyrevelles-theforeigner.mp3]

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShvpcC9jmmQ

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wcMbF4-xaY

The Buddyrevelles on MySpace

And it did kick in. Returning to the university after a lunch break, I suddenly found movement to be restricted by stabbing cold wind, my vision blocked by quickly approaching flakes of snow. So, what did I do? I slipped headphones over my bearded head, switched my music playing device (an iPod, if you must ask) to something suitable, and walked, head down.

What’s suitable in a circumstance like this, though? I certainly would be a bit off the mark if I’d decided upon, say, The Supremes, I’d wager. This in mind, I turned my attention toward something markedly more “depressing:” Godspeed You! Black Emperor. I was hardly able to finish a track before reaching my destination, but it made the trip seem considerably faster than it might have seemed otherwise — or maybe I was just eager to remove myself from the cold. I think that’s more likely. Whatever the case, I found the music to be fairly well-suited to my environment, for better or worse.

Now, the question again is raised: What of emotion? Was my emotional state somehow affected by the music I listened to? To answer briefly, no; to answer more fully, yes. Why, you ask? I was already feeling a bit melancholy before listening to the Montreal post-rockers, though not terribly so, nor was I feeling much more melancholy afterward. Still, this doesn’t quite answer the question, so let us ask it a bit differently: Would I have been in a remarkably different mood had I been listening to the aforementioned Motown women, or would I simply have felt just as melancholy?

Now, in this case, I cannot positively answer “yes” or “no,” as I didn’t actually confirm anything with an extensive study. More generally, though, I believe I can say that my choice of music did affect my emotional state, for better or worse. The key, then, is learning how to harness this; we ought also explore the physical basis and societal basis for such an effect. Whatever the answer, music is still infinitely interesting, but to encounter more answers to more of our questions can only prove beneficial.

Matthew Montgomery is the MusicGeek.org editor in chief.

Autumn Chorus — “Remember the Dead”
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What drives you to create ambient and post-rock music?
I think as a band we’re more about atmosphere as opposed to ambiance, as that suggests it’s in the background, and we want to be very much in the foreground! We’re never sure if we are “post-rock” but that’s what we seem to fit into. I think we’re influenced by classical music as much as we are other post-rock bands.

What, aside from music, do you find to be an influencing factor in your musical production?
Because a lot of our music is about a certain mood, there are certain themes that are hard to shift. Loss and sorrow definitely play their part, and grief. I think each of us has a picture in our minds about what we play; we’ll just never know what each other’s is! For me, it’s trees, pine trees to be specific. They remind me of places near home.

How do you create your music?
Our songs seem to either form out of nothing, or the opposite and we go into massive details about every note and harmony. Both ways seem to work, but it’s always very considered when we play together to know that we’re getting the most from each instrument.

What sorts of factors play into a typical recording session?
– We’ve only done one proper one! Sadly, the main factors were time, and money! We were happy that we got we wanted though, so for a short recording time, we didn’t feel like we’d had to compromise.

What are your post-Rosa plans?
We’re undecided as to whether or not to try and record a full album ourselves, to have the time we’d like to spend on a debut album, or hope that a record label picks us up to pay for it, and get the biggest and best results we can. I think our sound lends itself to big recording rooms and time to get the most from it, and that sadly costs money. We’d feel sad to think that we hadn’t got the best record possible, so it may be a case of waiting for the right offer to come up.

What sort of support do you find locally?
We’ve spent so much time locked away writing, recording, or mixing that our live set is only really just coming together. We’ve found a couple of lovely promoters to help us out with Brighton and London gigs, but our aim would be supporting the bigger bands out there in our field to give us the bigger venues and therefore bigger sound! Some promoters seem to give such strange choices of support that we don’t bother asking them anymore, as they don’t create nights that people will enjoy.

How has Rosa been received?
Rosa has gone surprisingly well! We’d hoped to get a cd out that would get us industry interest, which it has, but we’d put a lot of time into the post-production side of things, and currently have it stocked in the UK in Brighton, and online via Rough Trade. It’s also stocked in Berlin through a promoter friend of ours, and we’ve shifted a few copies there, too, which is cool.

Waxwall Afterglow – “Floating Family Tree”

How would you describe the music you create?
Very intimate. The music we write strikes very deep roots for me. I’d say it’s the closest thing to self therapy for me. Whether I’m writing about the monotony of everyday life that I see people living or about the end of the world or space both lyrically and musically, it’s all pretty much communicating my feelings about how I envision life and the universe. Weaving in and out of sci-fi and real life instances, and then there are just songs about people. I guess to sum it up, I just want to write the soundtrack to the world and universe.

Why do you make music in the style you do?
We just try to write imagery-soaked music. We try to write music that already paints a picture without lyrics then, when the lyrics come in, it’s just the narrator describing the situation. We don’t map out choruses, bridges, or hooks, we just write whatever we feel is necessary to paint the picture.

What are some of your major influences, and how have they affected you?

As for influences, there are a lot. We all listen to different stuff, and we’re all sharing new music with each other, so it’s hard to say what we all listen to. To sum it up, I’d say we’re some jazzy, grunge-loving, noise-rocky, electronic-funky, light-and-airy, chill guys. Our major influence is just life.

People dying, babies being born, people destroying for no good reason, greed, the end of the world: pretty much all the struggle in the world with the mysteriousness of the universe mixed in. I mean, why not write about the stuff that’s real – well, to us, at least — so our music is kind of grim, but not too dark. We have our happy songs. It only makes sense to us to play and write about raw energy and emotions; it’s pretty simple.

For how long have you been making music as Waxwall Afterglow? What inspired you to start?

We have been playing together for about three months. At first, it was just me and TJ, our drummer. We had just disbanded — on good terms — from another project around April, and I immediately started writing.

I learned so much from the people in my last band — in a good way — that I couldn’t stop the ideas from flowing. I just feel that every single person in the band have all gone through so many life-changing events in this year that we all kind of found each other. We all connect and love each other and continue to inspire each other to go to different boundaries with our art.

Oh, and love. We just want to spread love. Our inspiration is positive vibes. Although we write about very grim or dark things sometimes, it’s complemented by a light celestial sound. There’s always a balance. We’re just trying to balance the negative in the world with positive. For every sad lyric, there’s a happier and prettier sound, and vice versa.

Do you find local support hard to come by in the Las Vegas area, or is it something you find in abundance? How have you been benefited by the area?

We haven’t really been exposed to much. We’re kind of new, but we’re brushing up some of the songs and writing new stuff. We’re in no hurry to blow up the local music scene, but it’s definitely getting better. We have our local bands getting their props, and I feel that it will only get better. As long as the bands that promote fighting and stupid shit that gets our venues closed, (there will be problems.) All that is gradually coming to a halt, thankfully. Local support is so-so, but it’s getting better.

What are your plans for the future? Are you interested in releasing a full-length album?

We plan on just fine-tuning the song, just trying to give them life and feel, and working on the countless other ideas that everyone has in the band. We’ve got our plates full with music, and it’s very exciting.

As for a full length, I’m not sure. I’ve always liked the old-school records with like 8 tracks on them. We’re most likely just going to record out of home and put out something nice soon, maybe an EP, who knows? But it will be soon, and there will be plenty more after that.

What is playing live like for you? Is it difficult, considering your style? Do you find it rewarding?

So far, we’ve had only one show. It was kind of a test to see how everyone felt the material feels live. We all agreed that some of it was just too rocking – don’t get us wrong, we love just jammin’ out, but we’re just trying to tighten it up.

It’s not hard at all, because if there’s something we feel that we recorded and sounds cool but is too difficult (for equipment purposes) to do live, then we’ll just feel it out and play it differently — like the remix. It’s the jam-band jazz in us.

Its very rewarding, though. We do kind of set up differently then other bands. We all try to face each other. We play the best when we can vibe, so whether or not we have to play in a circle every show, it doesn’t matter. We’re just there to play some music and vibe with each other; it’s just like we’re practicing and having fun, but people get to watch it.

At any rate, much of the television I’ve been watching has been, well, football. Now, now, don’t fret — I haven’t been watching American football, or gridiron, as the Australian folks call it. No, I’ve been watching two forms of football I find quite enjoyable: association football, or, to most Yanks, soccer, and rugby union — as opposed to rugby league.

You may be wondering why I’m telling you this; I am wondering the same thing. You’re not alone, don’t worry. How does this relate to music at all? Isn’t this column titled, well, Music Geek? The answer to the former will become more clear; the answer to the latter is an easily discernible “yes.”

Post-rock, I think, is sometimes like association football, which I will call football in short, and I will simply refer to rugby union as rugby. To illustrate my point, first watch this wonderful goal from Arsenal legend Thierry Henry.

httpv://youtube.com/watch?v=hyKfEKCWJvo

Did you notice the buildup to the goal? If not, please, watch again. A great deal of post-rock deals with this same sort of buildup — also, consider the fact that this goal was scored in the final five minutes of the match. Post-rock often does the same sort of thing: the music and tension builds to an almost unbearable point; the guitars grow louder, the drums are hit more forcibly, and reverb is pushed to the ceiling. In the final moments, the song explodes into something glorious and intense. Oh, the wonders of post-rock; oh, the wonders of football!

To further illustrate my point, watch this live recording of Explosions in the Sky.

httpv://youtube.com/watch?v=pP09piedtAk

Brilliant, isn’t it?

Kurr is packed with those incredible tones that have made this blend of post-rock something other than a passing trend. When music is this beautiful and breathtaking, it’s hard to simply throw it to the curb, and, indeed, it would seem almost inhuman. Amiina has created something here that is impressively eloquent in its flow. The soundscapes here are vast enough to have even casual listeners find themselves lost in their canyons and floating upstream in their rivers.

Perhaps it’s best put simply: Kurr is unmistakably beautiful. Amiina have made a logical connection with their past work with Sigur Rós and extrapolated it create to this album, which is perhaps as well-crafted as the latest Sigur Rós release, Takk…. Kurr is an album that, while just released, is sure to turn some heads, once again, towards Iceland.

Matthew Montgomery

Sean: Only when I got to school and started learning instruments. I think we’re just classic geeks and we spent a lot of time at home listening to music when we were teenagers because we didn’t know how to get girlfriends.

Christian: Not that much. My Dad didn’t even know who the Beatles were, he is a bit of an opera man. I was also hopeless at music at school. Aside from kids music like The Wombles, I remember hearing “Wuthering Heights” by Kate Bush when it first came out and being really interested in it, but not knowing why or what it was. After that I loved listening to the radio and taping the Top 40 singles charts every Sunday night. Those cassettes would literally get worn out. I didn’t get a guitar until I was about 16 or 17, my Dad bought me a right handed guitar, I’m left handed.

Why (and when) did Monster Movie form?

Sean: We were originally The Geeks in 1989, then we were Eternal. Then Slowdive happened. In the mid-1990s we kind of messed about but we still weren’t old enough and close enough to death to take things seriously. By 2000 we were old enough and we formed Monster Movie because we were bored at work and we hated every other band — it was all that Travis and Coldplay nonsense ? music for people who found Radiohead too difficult and read the music reviews in fashion magazines.

Christian: There was a whole bunch of us indie kids who would hang around in Reading town centre and were all about the same age. I think most people had guitars, but Sean was about the only one who could actually play it. Because of that Sean got roped into playing in The Geeks after I had arranged a gig when we hadn?t ever practiced and couldn?t even play. So in a way that was the start of Monster Movie. I suppose our first ever original song was played in that farcical gig ?Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, No? maybe it was also our pinnacle.

Sean: When we went in the ‘dressing room’ after our set the headlining band were all taking the piss out of us.

What are some of the struggles you’ve had in your years as a band?

Sean: We?re too lazy to struggle. The continuing fight is to get enough money to record and then to get enough people to take notice of the recording to create money to record again. The other struggle is to not be rubbish, I think we?re not rubbish more than we are rubbish but I wouldn?t like to look at the percentage breakdown.

Christian: One of the up sides of being completely unsuccessful is that there is no pressure or people trying to exploit you. Our struggles are fairly minor, like trying to sing a song in tune or trying to finish recording before the money runs out. Having said that, getting a record sleeve designed seems to be a huge struggle for us. They hardly ever turn out how we want them to.

You probably get this question a lot, but… Lon Chaney or Boris Karloff?

Sean: We took our name from Can. If you?re talking horror films my favourite monster this week is Doug Bradley in the Hellraiser films.

Christian: I don?t know. I would love to see this one horror movie again that I saw when I was about 10. I think it was called Bug. The bugs could create fire and electricity.

When do you plan to have your third album released?

Sean: Definitely before the end of the year and hopefully before the end of summer. We?ve just got the vocals to do but we also want to get some of our friends to play on it so there?s still a bit of organising to do.

What have you been listening to lately?

Sean: At The Drive-In, Depeche Mode, “The Process” by Skinny Puppy, Einsturzende Neubauten, Nick Cave and David Bowie. Today I will be listening to Teenage Fanclub and Neil Young because I want to rip-off some of their ideas.

Christian: My favourite songs at the moment are “Number One Song In Heaven” by Sparks, “Big City” by Spacemen 3, “Who’ll Stop The Rain” Creedence Clearwater Revival, & “Bleecker Street” by Simon and Garfunkel. Flotation Toy Warning’s Bluffers Guide To The Flight Deck was my favourite album last year, I reckon Dreamend and Black Moth Super Rainbow will release great albums this year.