Big Rock Finish… reviews of independent music

Name: Foreign Film Star Album: Dim the Lights and Leave for a Better Place Released: 2006 Members: Nick - mostly drums Bailey - mostly guitar Yunker - mostly bass Jamie - mostly vocals & guitar (they list instruments on a song-by-song basis!) Website: www.foreignfilmstar.com Record Label: Cowboys In Cardigans Music Favourite Song: Eversense (track 3)

Pre-Script (The other P.S.) Meh, it was Canada Day, so I was a bit late posting. Whatever, I’m posting on CASINO DAY (07/07/07) So common, that makes up for it!)

Alright, so I’ve been listening to this album for a while now trying to get an accurate review on them but every time I load it up I end up getting sidetracked. Hence why by this point I’ve got no idea what to classify Foreign Film Star. Psychedelic / Alternative / Shoegaze. There. I’ve classified it. Now that I *SEE* them saying they’re Psychedelic, I can see where that came from. It’s pretty trippy. I wonder what it’d be like to listen to this band while high. Not that I do that. Seriously. I’m as edge as one can get without the urge to always carry straight-razors with me, giant X’s tattooed on my hands and the need to beat people up all the time.

I’m not a big giant fan of instrumentals, or songs that carry little to no lyrical content and contain very little in the way of vocals. This band does these songs nicely, but not my cup of tea. The other songs are varied towards songs I want to listen to and almost head bang to… ALMOST. And songs I want to groove to. That means nothing to anyone else but me since I’ve been known to groove to some pretty ungroovable music.

I wouldn’t mind seeing how a band pulls off lots of instrumentals in a live performance. Also the amount of hand-clapping and foot-stomping that goes on during their recording sessions. How does one record a foot stomp? I digress. There’s no ideal place I don’t think to listen to FFS. Just a lot of casual places that it might possibly fit in.

Name: Fjord Rowboat Album: Saved the Compliments for Morning Released: February 23, 2007 Members: craig gloster ian mckay kevin mckay justin grant matt collumWebsite: www.fjordrowboat.com Record Label: Roxton Records Favourite Song: Shootin’ The Breeze [track 3]

Wow. I have an exact date for the release of the album. I rock, because I was at the CD release party :D. And I should have written about it already. Writing about music does have it’s perks. I totally didn’t expect the invite, and Justin being the main person I’ve been e-mailing, has been more than nice to me, so kudos to you!

So this is my first introduction to what the band self-proclaimed as “Shoegazer” music. Now my friends in bands (not this band though) explained to me that shoegazer music is where the band doesn’t move a whole lot on stage and play while staring at their shoes. Ah, that’s where the classification comes from. Alas, it doesn’t help me any since when I saw this band there were very little staring at shoes, but this is what they call themselves, I’ll trust they know what they play.

Most of the songs on this album are pretty slow, I generally listen to stuff a bit faster than this, so it’s a welcome change. Again, with my inability to really look beyond the face value of lyrics most of the time, I’m not sure if there’s much deeper meanings behind the words being sung, but I do enjoy hearing them. What I get out of the music is there is still a hope in the world.

It’s a laid-back, chill-out kind of album, so where would you lay back and chill out? I’d do such laying and chilling whilst on a patio on a summer day, or maybe on a patio at a bar/pub on a summer day, or … lots of patios and lots of summer day combinations it looks like. It’s mellow, it’s non-offensive, you can pretty much listen to it everywhere.

So I was invited to the Fjord Rowboat CD release party, and one of the bands supporting them was Raised by Swans. And Justin from Fjord Rowboat told me that even if I hated his music (which I don’t, for the record) I should still come to the party to see Raised by Swans. And if one band is touting another band in such a fashion, how is a girl to resist?

You read last week about my parking troubles, I’ll spare you the headache of reading it again. We got in and when they started, it was pretty cool.

I’ve never heard of them before this encounter, and had no idea what kind of music they played. I understand the entire event was a bit of a Shoegazer-a-paloza so I can safely assume that, as with Fjord Rowboat, they also played shoegazer music.

Then I realized the lead singer of Raised by Swans wasn’t wearing shoes. What a smarta$$.

Anyways, I enjoyed listening to their music even though I wasn’t familiar with it (I tend to like seeing live bands when I know what they’re like, it makes it easier to enjoy how a song is going) but it was pretty nice and easy to listen to. Non-offensive is where it’s at (for me anyways) and they did quite well.

I definately would attempt to cross-paths again with these guys. No complaints here.

So I was invited to the Fjord Rowboat CD release party for their album Saved the Compliments for Morning (hmm… I wonder what that means) and a pre-released CD for me to review for the site. Look out for the review in the beginning of April. (Sorry guys, I’m a bit of an organizational freak and it’s the earliest time-slot I could give you!)

I totally took them up on it, received two tickets so I brought my friend along to drive since I stink at paralell parking, especially around the ElMo. Good thing too, since my driver was frustrated beyond belief as we drove around the area 4 times, spanning a good 20 minutes before we found a spot to park.

They were slated to start at around midnight, but I think it wasn’t until about 1am when they finally went on. In a way I’m used to it since musicians are rare to start on time. Sadly I was also REALLY tired from the day, as was my “date”, and I would say about halfway through the set we were both too tired to stick out til the end. (Sorry again guys!)

The music was louder than I’m used to to (I forgot my earplugs) and there were way more video cameras than I could have ever envisioned to be at the place. I also don’t deal with crowds overly well, and it felt a bit crowded for me, but great for the band since there were so many supporters there out to see them.

It was great hearing them live though. I’ve been listening to their album in my car and just while on the computer and getting a good feel of what they’re like. And it’s always, ALWAYS, better to see a band live if you’re familiar with the music, and the songs beforehand. Makes things more enjoyable.

So of what I saw of Fjord Rowboat, I liked it. It was fun, and I’d love to do it again some time.