Midstates....

So I received the Midstates cd Boxing Twilight a couple of weeks ago and was immediately wary of the descriptors which go like this: "Chicago avant rock mello heavy space pop bedroom cathedral rock". Huh. After a couple of listens I actually started to believe some of that crap. Do you remember the old Reeses Peanut Butter Cup commercials? Your peanut butter is in my chocolate, your chocolate is in my peanut butters, etc. Well Midstates strikes me a bit like that in the sense that it makes me think, someone dropped a bunch of silly hippy into my indie rock and then added effects...hey wait, this isn't bad. At the heart of each of the songs on Boxing Twilight is a guitar based pop song of the indie variety. I hear Edge-esque U2 guitars in there, chiming Coldplay like notes but it all gets slathered in effects, reverb, long drawnout guitar passages and enough keyboards producing any variety of noises to make both The Cure and New Order happy. Now that my friends is quite a candy bar. It's trippy and fun and despite some transgressions and a bad decision or two will hold your attention through all 11 songs.

1 song from Boxing Twilight:

Under There

Passed For Promotion

They also have a number of web exclusive mp3s to check out.

The beard? Glad you asked. It's gotten long enought that I'm being told I need to shave my neck. I think the idea is that you shave the neck in order to accent what's on the cheeks. I think it's entered a new stage.