Raking Bombs - Meet Me Mezzanine

I first heard about this band on a Mars Volta fan-site, which is fitting because they are very influenced by The Mars Volta (TMV). While most just dismiss this band as the "typical hipster garbage", I think there is more than that here. Hailing from the great white north (Canada) these self proclaimed "dukes of soul-psych punk" bring an interesting twist to the ever stale independent music scene. They combine progressive song structures with art rock and a tinge of noise. The last album they put out before disbanding was entitled Meet Me Mezzanine (pictured above). Mezzanine shows a bit of maturity from their 2003 release You Are The Resliazjiax, Unlike 01100110. The album starts of with the track "Geneve" which begins with an all out assault of spastic guitar and drum work and near whispered ghost like vocals. The track eventually finds it's way into a controlled frenzy with the singer, Tome Jozic, using high pitched vocals in the vein of Cedric Bixler-Zavala. The second track on the album "Adaptor" starts with an almost jungle like drum beat then introduces guitar blurps here and there again with the whispered vocal technique and then some pretty sweet time changes and chanting. The third and final track on the album is entitled "Tuck Tiger Cuffs" (my favorite). This track, to me, is where there TMV influence is most prominent, I mean seriously, the track could have been on a Mars Volta b-sides album or something. Being the longest track on the record they had time to play around a bit  and they made good use of that. The track starts out like the other songs but then slows down to where it's just cymbals (and maybe a xylophone?). It almost sounds like mice are running across the drum set. Then the guitar kicks back in with this beautiful looping riff that kind of reminds me of Tera Melos and then slowly drones out. Meet Me Mezzanine is a nice refreshing taste of underground music. The album was only released on hand numbered blue/red vinyl (mines #68/500) the packaging isn't much but the music makes up for that. The band has long since disbanded and reformed under the moniker Basketball.

http://www.myspace.com/rakingbombs

http://www.myspace.com/basketballanimal

-Jas

P.s. If anyone has the tracks to You Are The Resliazjiax, Unlike 01100110 please send me a link.