Arab On Radar's Eric Paul Sleeps Amongst The Bones

It's been a while since I focused on something that wasn't directly music related, and even longer since I checked out some spoken word. I think the last thing I talked to y'all about in this vein was about the ever-cool David Cross' live album Blacker Than Black. Well, here is another spoken word performance, albeit on cassette, and via Bathetic Records. But self-serving Rollins this ain't. Ex-Arab On Radar and Chinese Stars main man Eric Paul has given birth to I Sleep With Their Bones, a literary maelstrom that focuses solely on his twisted, evocative lyrics, taken predominantly from his books such as I Offered Myself As The Sea (published by Heartworm Press). It's raw, surreal, heartwrenching, mindbending, and whithoulds nothing. Whilst the bent genius of AOR and to a lesser yet no less relevent extent Chinese Stars aren't with us, Paul still kills in his band Doomsday Student which features 3/4 of AOR anyway, so Im hunting them down as we speak. And now we have this.


Get I Sleep With Their Bones here.

Eric Paul - I Offered Myself As The Sea
Eric Paul - Hard-On Of Iwo Jima
Eric Paul - I Have Nothing Left To Love Her With
Eric Paul - Wastebasket Of My Ways

'Everyone High-Fiving Everyone'

Fang Island describe their music as 'everyone high-fiving everyone'.

What an amazing way to describe the sound that they have created on their self-titled debut LP (put out by the tres cool Sargent House Records), a kaleidoscopic explosion of colour and sound, predominantly instrumental, occasional choral calls and hand claps notwithstanding. There are elements of a more laidback Lightning Bolt, a more streamlined Animal Collective, a less hairy '80s hair guitar band, a little Minibosses (except they aren't covering vintage Nintendo game soundtracks - they are creating their own) - hell, there's even some almost country and western guitar noodling near the end of the track Treeton! - but overall this album reeks of happy happy joy joy!

I was stunned when I gave this album its first listen - I had been expecting something more post-rock. Probably because I had been told that it was a post-rock album. This is something else altogether. The band manage to meld their musical talents into one huge collective of radiant positivity. With three guitarists weaving their magic, harmonising their twisted chords into a tapestry of uplifting 'high-fivery', the drummer and bassist struggling valiantly to keep the band centred before they float into the air and towards the sun, Fang Island never fails to impress. Every song punches you in the chest, a surefire arrow of good times sure to cheer you up at every opportunity. Its the feel good hit of...well, every season henceforth. The soundtrack to a heady fun-filled summer? The choice to help wipe away the melancholia brought forth by the shitness that epitomises the winter? Music to mark the moments as the shoots break through the earth and the sun starts to stir, the first signs of spring? A warm remembrance of good times past as the green turns amber and the leaves start to fall? Yep - its all right here. And its unrelentless in its catchiness.

Technically brilliant, relentlessly upbeat, Fang Island has in one day become my current frontrunner for best album of 2010. Get it, listen to it, make love to it, have a million of its babies. Then have them high-five each other - the most simple joyous gesture of them all.

Fang Island will be touring the US extensively later in the year with the likes of Red Sparowes and the Chinese Stars, and Andrew W.K. (?) joining them on stage on occasion, these guys will be huge. You heard it here. Have a taste of their single, Daisy, and another track, Life Coach.

Fang Island - Daisy
Fang Island - Life Coach