Sunday, November 19, 2006
swallows and amazons
Memphis - A Little Place in the Wilderness
If you're one of the members of a band that features someone from another, more established group, it must get a little tired to here your project compared to your bandmates' more famous act. So, apologies to Chris Dumont, but you really can't talk about Memphis without drawing comparisons to Torquil Campbell's other band.
I'm sure some people will miss Amy Millan's vox on Memphis' dreamy pop songs, but my favourite Stars tunes are tracks like "The Aspidistra Flies" and "Tonight," that feature more subtle arrangements and Torq flying mostly solo in the vocal department. And that is, for better or worse, what you get on A Little Place in the Wilderness. With that in mind, Memphis does set itself apart from Campbell's other gig now and again.
The bounce of "Incredibly Drunk on Whiskey" is a far cry from Stars' usual atmospherics, and on the whole, A Little Place in the Wilderness seems to forgo many of the electronic flourishes that adorn releases like Set Yourself On Fire.
The band's bio states that, "Memphis is a band, not a side project," and I'm not one to argue. It's up to the members of any group to decide what they're putting into any given project. At the end of the day though - side project or not - if you're not a fan of Torq's other band, A Little Place in the Wilderness is unlikely to tickle your fancy either. On the other hand, if you're big on Stars (or tasteful, low key pop in general) you probably want to give this record a chance.
download: Memphis - I'll Do Whatever You Want
...and here's the video:
now playing: Memphis - The Night Watchman
swallows and amazons
I'm going to take a page from Frank and start doing a bit of Sunday Cleaning. Things might be less frequent than over there though... so I might tidy things up every second week instead. Speaking of Frank, if you haven't already noticed, he has a sharp new design up.
Memphis - A Little Place in the Wilderness
If you're one of the members of a band that features someone from another, more established group, it must get a little tired to here your project compared to your bandmates' more famous act. So, apologies to Chris Dumont, but you really can't talk about Memphis without drawing comparisons to Torquil Campbell's other band.
I'm sure some people will miss Amy Millan's vox on Memphis' dreamy pop songs, but my favourite Stars tunes are tracks like "The Aspidistra Flies" and "Tonight," that feature more subtle arrangements and Torq flying mostly solo in the vocal department. And that is, for better or worse, what you get on A Little Place in the Wilderness. With that in mind, Memphis does set itself apart from Campbell's other gig now and again.
The bounce of "Incredibly Drunk on Whiskey" is a far cry from Stars' usual atmospherics, and on the whole, A Little Place in the Wilderness seems to forgo many of the electronic flourishes that adorn releases like Set Yourself On Fire.
The band's bio states that, "Memphis is a band, not a side project," and I'm not one to argue. It's up to the members of any group to decide what they're putting into any given project. At the end of the day though - side project or not - if you're not a fan of Torq's other band, A Little Place in the Wilderness is unlikely to tickle your fancy either. On the other hand, if you're big on Stars (or tasteful, low key pop in general) you probably want to give this record a chance.
download: Memphis - I'll Do Whatever You Want
...and here's the video:
now playing: Memphis - The Night Watchman
Labels: memphis, promo pile
2 Comments:
I've been surprised by the lack of comments about this band.
I prefer their original relase "I Dreamed We Fell Apart," but the new one is alright. "I'll Do Whatever You Want" is pretty great.
Anyway, your site isn't working properly under Firefox 1.5.0.8 on Mac OS X 10.4.8, but it works fine with Safari.
By 
, at
6:32 p.m.
I'll Do Whatever You Want is one of my favorite new songs of the past few weeks. The video is smashingly captivating, too. By the same director as Lemony Snicket, featuring Torry, no less!
By , at
9:28 p.m.
