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March 22, 2006

They Won't Shoot Down Band Of Horses, Will They?

Band Of Horses seems to be on every blogger's fingertips this week. The Seattle indie rockers' Everything All The Time (Amazon | iTunes) came out yesterday, and has been getting a lot of play on Stereogum's iTunes. Recommended if you like My Morning Jacket and a solid debut start to finish for sure. Insound's weekly newsletter goes a step further, though: "Perhaps the best album of 2006." (They haven't even heard the awesome new Phoenix!) I guess that means the backlash starts now?

"The First Song" is all dreamy guitars and "Our Swords" rides a poppy, elastic bass line, but Sub Pop chose this tune as the free download. Maybe they hope the title will appeal to Arcadies.

Band Of Horses - "The Funeral" (MP3)

We'd do a whole "horses are the new wolves" spiel, but Spin beat us to it.

Posted at 1:17 PM in
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28 Comments

This is a good album.

Wolves (2005)
Horses (2006)
Emus?? (2007)

Posted by: Josh at 03/22/06 1:31 PM | Reply
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I guess Snakes never really caught on...how about Bears? Bears in 07!

Posted by: Jim at 03/22/06 1:43 PM | Reply
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Anyone hear the Smashing Pumpkins in this band? Specifically the first song, and "Swords." If anyone got that EP with Machina, you'll know what I'm talking about.

Posted by: lawyerlike at 03/22/06 1:54 PM | Reply
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Jim, 'Bears On A Plane' = in pre-production.

Posted by: scott at 03/22/06 1:58 PM | Reply
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Hey, there you go! Comparing it to Smashing Pumpkins is a *surefire* way to get people to hate it!

Posted by: ryan at 03/22/06 2:12 PM | Reply
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sure don't hear any smashing pumpkins in it, but this album is incredible... my favorite of the year thus far and my favorite show at sxsw.

Posted by: derek at 03/22/06 2:40 PM | Reply
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I would appreciate a link so I can hear the awesome new Phoenix. Or at least maybe a link to "Long Distance Call".

Posted by: Jon at 03/22/06 2:58 PM | Reply
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what do you mean bears?

Bear in Heaven, Grizzly Bear, Minus the Bear, Panda Bear, Bear vs. Shark, Gorilla vs. Bear (blogs are the new bands btw), and don't forget Huggy Bear from yesteryear.

sorry to spoil, but the backlash can come from me.
That new Band of Horses is nothing special. Yes, it's competent and yes, they play music and don't ever fuck up. It's like a hazy Flaming Lips / Built to Spill type thing. Umm...so?

That new Glenn Kotche album slays though...let's see some press on that!

Posted by: bobby lasers at 03/22/06 3:42 PM | Reply
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> That new Glenn Kotche album slays
> though...let's see some press on that!

Got MP3?

Posted by: scott at 03/22/06 4:32 PM | Reply
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I too would like to hear some new Phoenix awesomeness if it were at all possible.

Posted by: mike at 03/22/06 5:06 PM | Reply
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Backlash starts here, I don't like Band of Horses.

I did just listen to Long Distance Call by Phoenix though and I liked that. I am intrigued by your implication that you have the rest of the new album. Let's hear something from it???

Posted by: Presto at 03/22/06 5:10 PM | Reply
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Ok, bears are out. dolphins! I finally got it! animals that appear in front of full moons on white trash shirts = indie band name animals

Posted by: Jim at 03/22/06 6:12 PM | Reply
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little note- I love the way these guys sound but the Lead singer was the biggest dick ever. I drove in the driving snow to see them, sat through a horrible opening band only to have that jack ass storm off stage after only 4 songs (and before they played funeral even!) No refund, no apology. I fucking hate these guys, except they're actually a pretty good band. If you see them punch that ugly bitch lead singer in his face. He is very ugly in person and not very charismatic. Great voice though.

Posted by: Matt Stephenson at 03/22/06 7:25 PM | Reply
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Glenn Kotche from his site: www.glennkotche.com
Mobile Pts. 1 & 2
http://glennkotche.com/audio/02_mobile1and2.mov

also: check his MySpace page for more songs...including one that sounds like Autechre...it's pretty crazy stuff. http://www.myspace.com/glennkotche

I swear I don't work for Nonesuch :) It's just a good record and people need to get it.

Posted by: bobby lasers at 03/22/06 8:45 PM | Reply
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mp3 of 'long distance call' -
http://www.republicum.se/2006/03/22/they-are-phoenix/

very cool.

Posted by: michael at 03/22/06 9:27 PM | Reply
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I like 'em, but I'm tempering my enthusiasm due to bias... I'm a Carissa's Weird fan (Band of Horses members Ben Bridwell and Matt Brooke's former band) and I'm from Seattle (perhaps the latter requires the former.)

"Great Salt Lake" is pretty majestic... but when you get down to it, they're really like a poor man's MMJ. But this man's poor, and loves his MMJ, so serve me up 'nother helpin'.

Posted by: drake at 03/22/06 10:58 PM | Reply
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I'm a bit surprised by the attention Band of Horses is getting. The single is good, but the rest of the record is kinda boring. I guess the hype is more valuable than the music now?

Posted by: davidm at 03/23/06 8:02 AM | Reply
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Man, people love to hate on records with good press. Does a record honestly have to break amazing amounts of new ground to be good? It's not groundbreaking but the songwriting is very good. I am much more impressed by the record than I was by their performance opening for Iron and wine.

Posted by: Nate at 03/23/06 10:58 AM | Reply
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Love the album...don't see any Smashing Pumpkins in it though, but SP is my fav. band of all time, so maybe to a more casual SP fan it may seem so.

Posted by: Tim at 03/23/06 11:40 AM | Reply
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i just think it's important to bring up the questions...:
why do certain records get good press?
is this band of horses record SO good that it should get this kind of praise heaped up on it by all major indie news sources?
is it SO much better than a lot of other records coming out in the same six month period on much smaller labels?
what does "songwriting is very good..." mean?
is the music lasting, relevant, different enough?

---
for the record, i really like a lot of hyped, popular records...but when there is a new hyped band, i listen to the record and ask some of the questions, try to strip the hype and listen for what it is...

if you play me band of horses six years from now, i won't have a clue what it is..."hi, your music is real safe and not very catchy or memorable...do you want a hug? better yet, a pile of hype?"

Posted by: bobby lasers at 03/23/06 1:03 PM | Reply
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All the hate aside... This is a good album, but it's the kind of album one can tire of easily. I predict a sh*t load of spins in 06... foregotten in 07... pretty much the same way a group like Mercury Rev has been (who I think they sound exactly like) I mean how long has it been since you have whipped out your copy of Deserters Songs.

Posted by: joeyoilyboots at 03/23/06 1:04 PM | Reply
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I loved the demo they toured with. It was very much the same songs that came out on the final product, with less reverb. I played the album like crazy for weeks and weeks. It's very good. It reminds me of how My Morning Jacket used to sound. And quite frankly, I liked MMJ better when they sounded this way.

That said, I can't speak to the timelessness of this record. It's just too soon to tell. But the album is worth the current praise, at least in my eyes.

But I think the fact that P4K gave them a good rating is why people are already hating on them. It's unwarranted...this time.

Posted by: fed ex pope at 03/23/06 2:44 PM | Reply
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I saw these guys last year on the Iron & Wine tour, as I'm sure many of you folks did. two nights in a row, in fact. all that really stood out for me was that they were amiable (we heckled them) and probably more than a little nervous...and that the guitar playing wasn't very good. (quarter-note pentatonic scale solos on an electric-acoustic with a bad pick-up! whoo-hoo!)

haven't heard the new record yet, but if it's as good as everyone says it is (read: doubtful), then they've improved a lot in a short amount of time.

Posted by: tyler at 03/23/06 3:50 PM | Reply
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Another Band of Horses mp3, "I Go to the Barn Because I Like The," can be found here:

http://tracemyface.blogspot.com/2006/02/my-morning-band-of-horses.html

Posted by: Trace at 03/23/06 4:55 PM | Reply
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you should just talk about They Shoot Horses Don't They?

Just sayin.

Posted by: bethany at 03/23/06 5:07 PM | Reply
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Yeah, wanted to second Tyler. I heard them open for Iron and Wine and was unimpressed. Really, really unimpressed. Is the album really a leap forward for them?

Posted by: Mordy at 03/23/06 11:08 PM | Reply
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IS Geddy Lee in this band?

Posted by: Macky Ole at 03/24/06 2:49 PM | Reply
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so..who was around first... My Morning Jacket or Band of Horses?

Posted by: emmo at 11/14/06 6:06 PM | Reply
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