“Black Dunes” by This Will Destroy You is a song entirely dark and ghostly. Beginning with subtle sounds, this post-rock meets shoegaze band out of Texas does a great job creating a haunting melody, and their new video for “Black Dunes” capitalizes on their ability to create an eerie song. Malcolm Elijah overlaps black and white footage with surreal results.
A typical song is about three and a half minutes long. It takes that amount of time for “Black Dunes” to build to that ever-so-known post-rock explosion. At over …

The Coathangers know how to craft a mighty infectious hook, be it strummed wildly on a gritty, grungy guitar or screamed near illegibly into a microphone. “Hurricane”, the first track off the band’s forthcoming LP Larceny & Old Lace, is a perfect example of this mastery. Let’s face it – a song like this proves that The Coathangers know how to have a good time. A song like this is precisely what you’d want to hear live at a party. A party with lots of beer …

Page France’s departure from existence was bittersweet. On one hand, Michael Nau’s original baby was no more — and after a few stellar releases in Hello, Dear Wind, the Pear / Sister Pinecone double EP, and …And The Family Telephone, he had built a steady and consistent style of folk-pop with a psychedelic edge. On the other hand, there was excitement behind is new project, Cotton Jones. Started with a substantial amount of hype, the band released Paranoid Cocoon to great acclaim. Now the duo of …

Russian Circles return with “Malko” off their new LP Geneva, continuing their immense, epic instrumentals with added intricacy and a renewed sense of direction. “Malko” finds Russian Circles initially taking their metal riffs down a notch but never once letting up on the ferocity of their earlier sound. As the opening riff drops out, the fierce noise that replaces it equals anything off their prior albums and EPs.

In all honesty, I kind of miss Page France. But Michael Nau’s latest project, Cotton Jones is a more than viable replacement. Filled with a baroque-ish style pop, and dipped in a light coat of psychedelia, Cotton Jones boasts harmony male/female vocals quite unlike Nau’s earlier concoction.

The concepts on Russian Circles’ Station are far from new—this particular genre being dominated by power names like Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai, and Dungen—but in comparison, there seems to be more going on here thanks to an added guitar or two. Like EitS, Russian Circles lacks vocals, such that the emphasis is, of course, on the instrumentation and a play on loud versus soft.

I’ve been thinking a lot about KZUU lately. For those of you new to FensePost, I DJed there as a grad student at Washington State University, while studying business. In my DJ days prior to kicking off this site, I remember picking up Metal Hearts‘ (MySpace) debut, Socialize, and giving it a good listen. I was astonished at how great the album was for a then recently signed group.

Written by Fense
The wake of The Blood Brothers demise has actually led to several viable new projects from former members. This list includes Jaguar Love, who released their first LP on Matador earlier this year, and Past Lives (MySpace). Strange Symmetry is the debut EP by the latter, currently out in digital form and slated for physical format release in the next month or so.

Written by Fense
For those devastated by the demise of The Unicorns in 2004, the sadness was short-lived and out of The Unicorns’ carcass burst Islands and, close to a year and a half later, Return To Sea graced independent radio stations and iPods throughout the nation. Now, ex-Unicorns and current Islands mastermind Nick Thorburn has teamed up with fellow Canadian musician (and sometimes Islands guitarist) Jim Guthrie for a new, stripped down project titled Human Highways.