Tag Archives: Rainbow

Cave of Swimmers – Cave of Swimmers (2014) and Reflection (2015)

Posted by valleyofsteel on

cave-of-swimmers

 

Cave of Swimmers – Cave of Swimmers (The Path Less Traveled Records, 15 April 2014)

 

reflection

 

Cave of Swimmers – Reflection (self-released, 4 May 2015)

 

Dear Friends, I am thoroughly confused about something. It’s been about two months since Cave of Swimmers, the Venezuelan-American guitar/moog/vocals/drums duo who live in Miami, released their second album Reflection. This is a collection of four songs that are sheer excellence — every bit as fantastic as the four songs on their self-titled debut which had been released about a year prior — unquestionably one of the most incredible things I heard in 2014, and quite a pleasant out-of-nowhere surprise. So what I can’t understand is, at this point, why is this band not just exploding, and being lauded with overwhelming international renown??

To a small extent, I accept and acknowledge my share of the blame: on both occasions I’ve let trivial things like “being too busy at work to get much writing done” keep me from publicly sharing my thoughts on the release of these two brilliant albums (with one minor exception). Well that all ends today. Get ready to fill your ears with this…

 

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Who Wants Some Free Music?

Posted by valleyofsteel on

Hello there, folks! In case you can’t read a calendar (or you just woke up from a coma or something), it’s Monday again. So that means back to work, or school, or whatever the hell you do all day. Generally this isn’t really a good thing. But, once you see what I have to share with you, maybe you won’t mind as much…

See, I didn’t really get around to doing a lot of writing over the past week, besides a couple updates about shows happening in the Pittsburgh area over the weekend — if you hadn’t noticed, my last article before those was on Tuesday, when the Doommantia Vol. 1 benefit compilation for Ed Barnard was released.

Since then, I’ve bought myself a copy and downloaded it, and believe me it’s well worth at least the minimum purchase price — which, once again, goes towards helping out a friend in need. If you missed the news last week (or if you saw it and said you’d come back to it later and then forgot about it) you can check iit out here.

Anyway, I was saying I hadn’t really written much since then. That’s mostly due to the fact that things were so busy at work last week. But don’t worry, I spent tons of time listening to music and finding some good quality stuff to pass along to you!

Besides the Doommantia compilation, I’ve run across several more good ones recently, many of which can be downloaded for FREE, and I’d like to tell you about those today!

 

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Get to Know: Bell Witch (Review of Bell Witch Demo 2011)

Posted by valleyofsteel on

Bell Witch – Bell Witch Demo 2011 (3 October 2011)

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I am forwarding this to you, because otherwise I would be responding to the message directly.

And I know if I did that, I would get into a lot of trouble.

That is a direct quote from an email I wrote to my boss today, passing along a rather impolite message I had received from someone in a different department. Without going into any specifics about the situation, I think that should give you enough of an idea about how MY day has been. How about you, Dear Reader? Are you in a better mood than yesterday? Have extra days off work or school on account of the holiday this weekend? Got all your presents bought and wrapped? Paid for all of them in cash, so there won’t be any huge credit card bills to look forward to, AND managed to pay all your regular bills this month, too?

If you answered “no” to any of these questions, or if you answered “yes” or if you just said “fuck off, why are you asking me so many questions” — in any case, I suspect that you could benefit from some more holiday cheer. And I don’t mean a bottle of wine (although I’m sure that couldn’t hurt, either!). No, just like I said in yesterday’s post, the best way to brighten your day, even if it’s just for a little while, is a healthy serving of some nice, bleak DOOOOOM. As I promised yesterday, I’ve got one batch coming your way today, and then another to follow tomorrow.

Our journey of discovery now takes us to the northwestern United States; specifically, to the city of Seattle, which was made famous in the 1990s as it is commonly regarded as the birthplace of the grunge movement. However, what we are seeking is something much deeper, much darker, and a whole lot slower — and we find exactly that on the recent demo recording by Seattleite duo Bell Witch, which is cleverly titled Bell Witch Demo 2011.

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