Hype Monitor: Shrinebuilder, Florence and the Machine, Fool’s Gold

November 5th, 2009 by J. Edward Keyes Leave a reply »

The Band: Shrinebuilder
The Buzz: Shrinebuilder may be a relatively new band, but they’re hardly up-and-comers. Comprised of members of metal titans Scott Weinrich of St. Vitus, Al Cisneros of Sleep, the Melvins’ Dale Crover and Scott Kelly of Neurosis, the group binds together the best qualities of its significant legacy, making slow-moving metal that engulfs like a tar pit.
Listen If: You’ve ever waxed rhapsodic about Master of Reality — and especially if you have done so from the passenger seat of a Camaro.
Key Track: Seven-minute sludgefest “Pyramid of the Moon,” a heaving, hulking mass of riffs and groaned bocals that proves definitively that music doesn’t need to be fast to be punishing.

The Band: Florence and the Machine
The Buzz: Florence tore her way through a series of high-energy, high-euphoria New York shows last week, culminating with a hyperactive appearance on David Letterman. Don’t let those daggers fool you, though — Flo has more in common with the rich, supple pop of Annie Lennox and Tracy Thorn than the teeth-bared claws-out snarl of, say, Ida Maria. Appropriately, the album was recorded in an abandoned synagogue, giving it an extra-ethereal air.
Listen If: You go after both romance and heartbreak with the same blind, fervent passion.
Key Track: The eerie, elegaic “Are You Hurting the One You Love,” where Florence dials it down to a whisper, moaning out the hook over plinking, plaintive piano.

The Band: Fool’s Gold
The Buzz: Call it back in the highlife again: CA band nick the high, keening guitars of Afropop, lace them over percolating percussion and top them with vocals that sound like a Graceland B-reel. It would be easy to complain, but the whole thing is executed with such sincerity it’s tough to get too aggravated.
Listen If: You ain’t waiting till January for that Vampire Weekend record, or you...

Article Source: Rolling Stone : Rock and Roll Daily

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