-=- SHGZ -=-
* Shoegaze * Indie * Post-Rock * Grunge * Dream Pop * Psych-Rock * Ethereal *
ARTIST..: The Meeting Places
ALBUM...: Numbered Days
GENRE...: Indie
STYLE...: Shoegaze, Noise-Pop, Dream-Pop, Indie, Progressive Rock, Experimental Rock
YEAR....: 2006
LABEL...: Words On Music
COUNTRY.: USA
PLACE...: Los Angeles
ENCODER.: FLAC 1.3.1 -8 -V
BITRATE.: 959 kbps avg
QUALITY.: 44.1kHz / 2 channels
SOURCE..: CD
TRACKS..: 10
SIZE....: 224.06 MB
URL..: http://www.facebook.com/TheMeetingPlaces
- TRACKLIST
1 Love Like The Movies 3:42
2 Until It's Gone 3:05
3 Nothing's The Same 2:56
4 Mumble 2:26
5 Hall Of Fame 3:02
6 Sink Into Stone 3:25
7 Numbered Days 3:25
8 The City's Asleep 2:39
9 Pause 3:46
10 Cardboard Robot 4:11
Total Playtime: 32:37
Numbered Days is the second album of luminous, infectious noise-pop by Los
Angeles' The Meeting Places. On their sophomore record the quartet has
written ten new songs that craftily combine melodic indie-pop with the
tremulous sound atmospheres first explored on their debut Find Yourself Along
the Way (Words on Music, 2003). Numbered Days was recorded at the Ship by Jim
Fairchild (Grandaddy, Earlimart). with ten songs clocking in at thirty-three
minutes, Numbered Days evokes a leaner, more urgent approach to songwriting,
in the spirit of the Jesus and Mary Chain's Dark lands or the Shins' Oh,
Inverted World. The Meeting Place's renowned mastery of noise-pop shines
through in the gorgeous melodies of 'Until It's Gone' and in the blistering,
darker guitar work of 'Sink Into Stone' - two songs on different ends of the
lyrical and sonic spectrum. The Meeting Places, never an end itself, only a
means to an end.
*
The Meeting Places' debut was a listenable if ultimately unsurprising slice
of 21st century shoegaze and Numbered Days readily continues where it left
off with cascading guitar riffs, dreamy vocals, and more besides. If
anything, the sound they started with has been perfected to a fault, and
while one can easily put this album on as fine background music first and
foremost, it's the subtler touches which stand out all the more precisely
because they spike the well-established formula. The piano part on "Until
It's Gone" and the melancholy guitar-as-radio-signal feedback underneath the
chorus of "Hall of Fame" show that they can be deft to good effect. Perhaps
what's best -- and in a way, what's most frustrating -- is hearing when the
band suddenly, thrillingly takes to the skies. Consider the airborne guitar
breaks on "Nothing's the Same," when the scope of the song expands to
widescreen, or how the repeated line "You wait alone" on "Sink into Stone"'s
near Smashing Pumpkins-level volume of riffing becomes the tense heart of
that song. If the Meeting Places could just have more of these moments
throughout, they'd really be onto something big time, but there's something
too safe about them still -- the great leap forward isn't yet apparent. If
nothing else, though, given shoegaze's reputation as a style that elevates
sound qua sound over clarity as such, having a song called "Mumble" shows a
sly sense of humor at work.
*
About:
THE MEETING PLACES was founded in September 2001 in Los Angeles, California
by four guitarists: Scott McDonald, Chase Harris, Dean Yoshihara, and Arthur
Chan. McDonald and Chan had been friends since high school and met Harris at
a Super Bowl party earlier that year at which they realized each was going to
see a Mojave 3 show a couple of weeks later. Having a shared interest in
music, the three guitarists later decided to rehearse and after a few
practices they recruited Yoshihara, a college friend of Harris' at the
University of Arizona, to play drums. Chan then switched to bass while singer
and lyricist Harris remained on rhythm guitar.
While McDonald became the architect of the quartet's signature reverberating
washes, each member contributed to the songwriting process on their debut
album for Words On Music (Dean and Arthur picking up the guitar again for
passages in "Take to the Sun" and "On Our Own" respectively). In Autumn 2002
the band recorded their debut album at The Ship with Aaron Espinoza, the
famed musician (Earlimart) and producer (The New Folk Implosion, Eliot Smith,
The Breeders).
Find Yourself Along the Way (Words On Music, 2003) is a stream of ten
peerless compositions that inconspicuously tours the best of the early 1990s
dream pop scene. Due in large part to Harris' deliciously nonchalant voice,
the band's songwriting progresses from that scene with momentum towards a
sparkling style of noise-pop that is equally memorable and provocative. The
album appeared on the Top Albums of 2003 lists of several publications around
the world, with critics noting the record's crafty juxtaposition of ambience
and tunefulness.
From late 2005 to early 2006 the quartet recorded their sophomore album with
Jim Fairchild (Grandaddy, Earlimart) at The Ship. Numbered Days contains ten
luminous new songs that combine infectious, melodic indie-pop with the
tremulous soundscapes the band first explored on their 2003 debut. The album
was released worldwide on Words On Music in October 2006.
THE MEETING PLACES has performed live extensively in California, including
the 2003 San Francisco Noise-Pop Festival. They also played at South By
Southwest in Austin, Texas in both 2003 and 2005. The quartet has performed
with luminaries such as American Analog Set, Film School, Timonium, and
Experimental Aircraft.
-=- SHGZ -=-
P.S.
** Thanks ***
*** BCC FNT IPC SSR ***
*** For Knowing Where The Music Is At ***
*** Props to CaHeSo, awesome Asian Indie/Shoegaze ***
*** And to FANG/HOUND for supporting all the Indie lovers out there ***
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* NuHS we miss you! *
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