Today I checked out a band from Denton TX called Midlake, and I gotta say I was floored. Floored to the point where I may rush to the record store after work looking for a copy of their most recent album, The Trials Of Van Occupanther. (Just the name alone tells me I must have this) Their new one, The Courage Of Others is due in Feb 2010. Cant wait for it, even though I still haven’t heard all of Occupanther yet.
Their sound initially reminded me a little of XTC’s Colin Moulding,. Love the way they get this nice heavy guitar driven sound without overplaying. Great harmonies, actual songwriting, this is right up my alley. Plus they’re all still alive. (inside joke)
So I looked them up in all the usual places (Facebook, etc. ) and this quote from Wikipedia sealed the deal for me. I am now officially a Midlake fan.
“We don’t want to get called a Radiohead rip-off band. I think Radiohead is a lot closer to my natural tendencies as a songwriter than a band like, um, Jethro Tull. I listen to way more Jethro Tull than I do Radiohead these days, but I could write 10 Radiohead songs before I could write one Jethro Tull song. I want to sound more like Jethro Tull, but I just can’t. That’s a big struggle.”
Ok, so let’s process this. A band in 2009 that WANTS to sound like Jethro Tull. They ASPIRE to be Jethro Tull. This is more than I’ll ever need. I await February with baited breath to hear the new one. In the meantime, somebody get me to a record store so I can buy a Midlake record!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtpSidPN3jQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDL9bXlwbM4