New: For Those Who Know

Is a band from Austin that describes'emselves as "post-punk rock and pure psychedelic shoegaze pop" on their Myspace, but this pretentious, purple review says they're emo. Is that a contradiction? I'm bloody rotten at genres.

That review there actually makes me think about a problem with music journalism (which goes equally for the old-skool print stuff or the blogosphere)--most of the writers either aren't musicians, or are writing with a non-musician audience in mind, and so the technical specifics are sorta off-limits; in trying to be vivid and communicative, writers just end up being abstract, overwrought, and unverifiable. It's a bit like talking about wine, maybe: some people understand the vocabulary and use it with precision, but most people (like me) just Make Shit Up. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but usually lacks restraint as far as accuracy and relevance go. Thinking about this does make you ask: what exactly do I have to say about this music?

So having said that, I now have to keep my comments simple and pragmatic: I think I like 'em, although it's not something I could see myself wanting specifically--more like a way to fill out a playlist without introducing any real outliers. They're free literally with their early works, quite literally: you can download their whole EP here (flash-based website, so it's not a direct link, but click on Audio to the left), even though they're also selling it, although only through MySpace so far.

Most've their show dates are in Texas--which means I won't get to hear 'em live. Shame--but I still like the EP.

For Those Who Know - Competition off of the self-titled debut




Relevant tags: [Music], [Austin TX]