Indie Friday - Weakerthans, Bat For Lashes and The Consumer Goods

Welcome back for another Indie Friday, this week I'm taking not one, but three CD's head on. There's no time to waste since your attention span only last 3 minutes max. Let's go!

Up first is The Weakerthans - Reunion Tour. The title of this CD is ironic since the band had broken up at one time, at least that's what I had heard. So I was very excited about a new CD from the group, and boy was I happy after listening all the way through the CD. They had managed to keep their same style that made me like them initially, but grow just enough to where it didn't feel like I just getting a Weakerthans CD for the sake of getting it. They've made some good steps towards become a great band once again. If you haven't heard of or listened to a Weakerthans than allow me to lift the rock you've been living under and cast it aside. This is one of the premiere Indie bands ever and with tracks like Virtue the Cat explains her Departure and Sun in an empty room, they show that they really are well put together band that knows it's stuff. I enjoyed Virtue the Cat the most because once again the song writer took the perspective of a cat, and frankly that's just damn creative. They did this once before on Reconstruction Site but the two songs only similarity is the Cat factor. All in all this CD is a good listen from start to finish, and times in at about a half an hour. I was able to listen to it almost twice on my way to work. If you've never listened to the Weakerthans before, then this is a good CD to start with.

Bat For Lashes - Fur and Gold. I first heard this band on Indie 103's Big Sonic Heaven with Darren Revell. Initially I was blown away with the CD, but then I let it sit for a few weeks and listened to it again and found it to be a very different beast. There we're still several songs that I enjoyed but now I found that I was skipping just about every third song to find a better one. Also her voice and style is very familiar, like I had heard someone else singing the same way but doing it better but for the life of me I couldn't remember again! I did enjoy the CD but I don't think it'll become a staple in my collection but I would give Bat for Lashes another listen to if they put out another CD.

Lastly we have The Consumer Goods - Happy Bidet. I had never heard of this band before and basically got it out of sheer curiosity. I wish I could say that I was pleasantly surprised in a good way from this CD, but it was more surprising to listen to such a weirdly put together CD. Perhaps another listening is needed, but I felt that half the songs were just nice pleasant, good songs, and the others were Political songs that felt forced and offered no new incite to American politics. One song ask if Donald Rumsfeld needed a hug and if Dick Cheney's dad had called talked down to him and they wondered if they could ever give them enough love, and how sorry they were. This isn't a joke, no ones laughing, the chorus doesn't become humorous and funny, they are actually singing about this subject. They mean it in an almost mean way. Still I laughed because I really just couldn't take a song like that serious. Then the next song is all melodic and has a nice tempo and is pretty up beat, I found myself kinda lost in the music... then another political song. I won't say that the CD is bad, because it's not. The music is quite good, the singing is good, I'm just not sold on the content of the lyrics. It also amused me to learn that they were Canadian from the bands Myspace page (since they were a pain to track down through Google). I know this Administration sucks and that more than likely the next won't be much better, hell I've written about it myself! But Canadians singing about how our government sucks is just kinda ridiculous to me, it's like Celebrities getting involved in stopping the war. The bands Myspace page also offers four songs to download or listen to... I kinda wish I knew that before hand. I will say this... the name is very catchy!