Knights of the Round School Table

Got flung an email by School Knights last night. Never heard of em. Hail from Colorado, around abouts the same area as Weed Diamond who are clogging up the veins of blogland right now (and here - see post tomorrow...) Was a bit tired though, so watched some Michael Douglas/Demi Moore trysting in that 90s 'classic' Disclosure and went to bed...

Woke up this morning. Listened to Quest For Fire. Liked it a little more. Reread email. Had some butter on toast. Drank some cordial. Put towels and shit in washing machine. Answered some emails. Posted some job applications. Watched some Robot Chicken. Reread School Knights post. Went over to the FMLY post about em. Interest piques a little. Listen to some tracks. Like a lot. Compare opening riff of 'Prom Queen' to Fang Island in its innate sense of flippant fun and popcorn rock with 8-bit sensibilities. Listen to 'Bullies' and reminded of Japandroids if they weren't steering away from their high school dreamscapes and nightmares, and had dipped Post-Nothing into a deep frier, making their distorted noise doubly crispy. Post about them. Fin...

Well not quite. School Knights (not to be confused with Knight School, the Brooklyn band I posted about back in the early months of the year - 'Meathead Hurricane' is still a nice indie pop rock track - check out Make A Mess Records for their shit...) are bringing out an EP, Rush SK, through Bridgetown Records soon - which is also a pretty sweet label, check it out, they feature Cloud Nothings too. Oh, and Michael from School Knights is also in Weed Diamond. The circle is complete.

School Knights - Bullies
Schooli Knights - Prom Queen
School Knights - Recess

Digging For Fire = Paradise Found

I'm not gonna beat around the bush. We focus on a lot of psych bands here of all ilks and persuasions. We've had some good psych bands bring out some good straight up psych albums - Secret Colours, and Black Angels immediately comes to mind. And then there is Toronto's Quest For Fire. I'm not sure yet - I have to listen some more, its been in and out of the playlist this past week - but the more I take it in, the more I think Lights From Paradise could be the best straight up psychedelic rock album of 2010.

Massive call, right? Well, it has all the hallmarks of a classic psychedelic rock album - the ritualistic stillness of opener 'The Greatest Hits By God', to the 70s rawk-ness of 'Set Out Alone' and the trapped in amber stoned warble of 'In The Place Of A Storm'. Each song sets out with a purpose and sticks it out to its fiery end, not displaying the schizophrenic sonic shifts in tracks that some of their modern equivalents are prone to. And that isn't meant as a particular negative - many bands thrive in the altered time signature changes and shifts in tempo and velocity, but it is also somewhat refreshing to have a band show their different shadings spread out over an entire album rather than on a single song.

Quest For Fire didn't get enough praise for the brazen sun-kissed blasts of distorted waves they cut on last year's self-titled debut, but fingers crossed that Lights From Paradise does them justice, as it is awesome. And if you doubted the Toronto band's pedigree, two of them tour as the backing band for Black Mountain side-project Pink Mountaintops, whilst they are now supporting Black Mountain in a series of dates. Oh, and A Silver Mt Zion's Sophie Trudeau makes a guest appearance on the record. So yeah...buy it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (NB Hold yr horses - its not out until November 8 through Tee Pee Records - I'm just lucky enough to promo it! Still, get the debut, pre-order the newie, and drop out in glory).

Quest For Fire - Set Out Alone
Quest For Fire - Strange Vacation