Music Forum / primm, decadent west

i've posted stuff about the decadent west before a year or two ago. we've had a gig or two since then and have about 20 originals. matt's going to re-record everything when he goes back to california, so hopefully it'll go somewhere. i just uploaded a song we've been sitting on to our myspace, and we have two videos (a link to the second one is in the sounds like section). also, on our last.fm page, you can stream all of our old stuff.

primm is what i do in my spare time with a program called reason. drew and brian, from the decadent west, help by sending me their ideas on the program and i amass them with my own ideas into songs. we actually have a gig on wednesday 3 hrs from where we live.

myspace.com/thedecadentwest
myspace.com/primmmusic

I'll give you some actual feedback.

For primm, some of the stuff is great. Cement Vessels is a great melody, and the parts without weird sound effects in Bodies are meant for dancing are pretty good, too. It just ruins it for me when you add the strange sound effects all over the place. But definatly keep going with this idea, it's working for you.

As for the Decadent West, I really like Red Jacket. I just don't understand why there needs to be 2 of you if you're both playing the same guitar part and singing the same thing. Throw in some counterpoint or harmonies, or at least a second guitar part. It'd be great for one person, but seems a little odd for two.

The Organ Song is a better example of this, I just don't like the voice of the guy singing in falsetto (really high). Good stuff, though

Edited by Midnight Aurora, 07 January 2008 - 06:26 PM.

Thanks for giving the stuff a listen!

All of the Decadent west stuff except for the vocals on The Organ Song was recorded in a basement on crappy mics two years ago. We thought it sounded best double tracking the vocals and guitar because of the lost quality in the recording setting. Live, we do that song a bit differently, there's fades and a riff on electric, and it explodes at the end. Hopefully we'll re-record everything and our singer will start promoting it out in L.A. (where he lives). It's a far cry, but we'll see.

As for Primm. I recently started listening to more electronic stuff and I've tried to emulate some of those sounds I like in the songs. When we played a gig under that name, people said we sounded like Postal Service, which pissed me off, but now that I think about it, it's fairly poppy stuff. What might have tipped them off to that was the fact that we did an electronic version of the organ song with 3 part harmonies, one of which was sung by a girl.

I've upped some more songs on the Primm site. Hopefully they'll show up soon.

The Decadent West:

I couldn't get Steady Hands Steady Eyes to play, which is annoying... I really liked the Organ song myself, including the falsetto. Though I couldn't understand the lyrics and after about a minute in I kept waiting and wanting it to explode into something rather like "Sleeping Lessons" by the Shins. Red Jacket was also quite decent though it seems a little underdeveloped here... Sounds like that's since been corrected.

As for Primm:

I listened to ET Phone Home, Lab Rats, and Middle Name. ET was excellent though as it developed the actual musical ideas got a little buried in their timbre's distortion. Lab Rats avoided that issue but was more bland in general. Middle Name... is stunning, at the breakdown just over two minutes in when the strings come in... woah. Reminded me of Boards of Canada in the way it so artfully progresses and how even when things don't sound completely natural they're still musical... I was almost going to say after the breakdown I was feeling letdown by the rest, until at about 4:00 the percussion kicks back in and everything just takes off... Excellent piece of work there.

Also what's wrong with Postal Service?

Ride6

I wanted ET to be fuzzed out, you can still make everything out if you listen to it. It's not as hard to hear as that one band pitchfork pimps, Times New Viking.
Middle Name.. you have to have release so you can play up the big-ness of the other part. Maybe it's just noodle-ing around in the middle, but I think it works.
Lab Rats definitely has the least amount of work in it, but it's more about the groove and the feel-good part of it.

Thanks for the comments.

Nothing's wrong with the Postal Service, it's just that's so trite and we don't sound like that at all. And I don't want to be associated with Ben Gibbard, but that's besides the point. Plus, when we did Et Phone Home live, the end was as close to what the apocalypse sounds like as I can imagine. I don't get it.

Edited by penguinBOB, 31 January 2008 - 05:56 PM.

I have always like Decadent West ever since you upped that old EP you guys had. Great stuff.

Primm is great. I love ET Phone Home. Some eery shit, man.

I touched up ET Phone Home, but the majority of it was written by a friend who says he blacked out from midnight to 6am one night and that's what he had the next morning.

Anyways, we have an album now, produced entirely in this month (we put it together for the RPM Challenge that happens every February). It's under Primm And Propeller because there's some gay ass band from TX that has the same name as we used to.

http://www.mediafire...?id=zlnl7zzfvjo

(This is my personal stuff that I'm giving a link for people to download, Kumba, so don't take it upon yourself to take down the link, please. k thanks)

link doesn't work?

http://www.mediafire.com/?umimze1qbix

that one should work.

I really liked what I heard, dude. I realize that this probably isn't the right kind of band for vocals, but I would have liked some. And where's ET?

it was for the rpm challenge which you're only supposed to use songs recorded in february for the album. i could have tweaked the song and said we did it in february, but i don't think i can tweak the song. it's just right.

i think there might be too much going on for vocals to be in the mix. i dunno. maybe sometime in the future.

Why haven't you covered stairway to heaven yet?

FREEBIRD!!!

yeah i'll get on that mkthx

in all honesty decadent didn't do anything, but primm was pretty good. my bloody valentine is the shit, am i right?

I wanted ET to be fuzzed out, you can still make everything out if you listen to it. It's not as hard to hear as that one band pitchfork pimps, Times New Viking.

I love that band. Same state as me.


I watched the video you had up on Primm's page, pretty awesome.

Thanks Dr Dude!

Um...

NEW ALBUM:

http://www.mediafire.com/?3blnzyj22bn

Some of the songs might sound better if you know any of these acts:
Tim Hecker
Fennesz
Oval
Mogwai
Jesu
Aphex Twin
Merzbow

And if you don't know them, Check them out! (except Merzbow. definitely not Merzbow. I have pity on your souls.)

Urbanize is godly, do moar like that. That sounds so pro.

new ep:



1. Camber
2. Modulus
3. Awake
4. Purr
5. Urbanized

Download: http://www.mediafire...php?hty23jhyzgu