Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Crystal Antlers - Tentacles (2009)

Crystal Antlers - Tentacles

That's right, another album review.

Here's the test for this one: Are loud guitars and histrionic vocals a deal-breaker for you?

If the answer is yes, ignore this record. It comes out on April 7th, and it's full of histrionic vocals and loud guitars.

The music is busy, with plenty of chugging rhythms and high pitched guitars, not to mention the vocalist's scratched and abused screams. Sound rough? It is, to an extent. The beauty of Crystal Antlers is in the synthesis of noise. Individually, the instrument tracks would likely sound like a musician in his bedroom expunging some excess angst. But the band weaves these sounds together to form a cohesive and textured and, surprisingly enough, heavily melodic sound. The melodies are lovely but disguised, and the hooks are intensely gratifying. I'd love to comment on the lyrical content, but I'll be damned if I can understand the guy. Instead, his voice becomes a particularly scratched and bloody thread in the tapestry of Tentacles, and taken as another instrument it fits very well into the context of the music.

So do I recommend this record? The short answer is yes, but with reservation. If you failed the first test, you should still ignore this record. But if you happen to be a fan of prog-metal, noise, or Titus Andronicus, this could be your favorite album of 2009. Look for it in April.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Backcountry skiing

First off, complaints:

This has been an exceptionally poor snow year in the northern Rockies. We got maybe 8" total in all of January, and only a little more than that so far in February.

That said, there is still plenty of skiing to be had, it's just not waist deep powder. We found nice powder a couple weeks ago in Middle Basin, but all three skiers had camera troubles. If the cameras had been working the snow probably would not have been as good. Last weekend Kerstin and I skied the same area and found some very maritime "powder", as it was pushing 50 degrees farenheit. Sloppy and soggy were the adjectives of the day, but it was still pretty fun.

Superbowl Sunday I went up Blackmore with Kerstin, where we found everything from corn snow to bulletproof wind crust to breakable sun crust. Blackmore is a beautiful mountain, though, and a good skin. We started very early and were able to get three laps in before we saw any other groups, which is always nice.

Kerstin and I skied up Bradley's Meadows the Sunday before that and found 4 of the 8 inches of snow we got in January. It was super light champagne powder, the real "cold smoke" on top of frozen crust. That was fun too.

This week is looking extremely hot, and I won't be surprised to find spring-style skiing this weekend.

That said, here are some pictures of skiing this year.

Kerstin in and around Bradley's Meadow:


Early start at the Blackmore trailhead:
Ridge up to the peak of Blackmore:
Negotiating the crust:
Soft and wet in Middle Basin:Mid turn, farther down the same slope:

More crust on the Western Exposure:
We're getting pretty good at this crust thing by now:
Flat eastern exposure, soft and wet:All things considered, any skiing is good skiing, especially you're sharing the slope with only one or two other people. So we'll keep heading out, and one of these days we'll find some soft and deep.