speed of dark

This weekend I've been pretty into posting on the blog, which I guess is obvious, since this is my fourth post in two days. I've been looking around at other music blogs, picking up music and ideas and enjoying what other people are listening to and talking about out there. One of the things I've added is a little button so people can listen to a song posted here without downloading it first. Alt-gramma asked for this a while back and I was finally able to deliver. Thanks del.icio.us!

I came across great body of water music blog as I was clicking around, and the last post features a poster for the Uprising Festival, which happened last weekend, unfortunately. While there are a lot of bands listed on the flyer who I've never heard of, and while many are Christian-themed rock bands, several have made it into the mainstream (or at least I've heard of them). Two, namely Starflyer 59 and Mae, I like and and have some of their tunes.

Starflyer 59 are a band from Riverside, California, who list Depeche Mode, the Smiths, and New Order, among others, as their influences. I first caught wind of them some time ago and I tried to interest alt-gramma in them, with little success. I had heard that they had broken up and didn't hear anything more about them until I noticed this flyer, and according to their website, they have a brand-spanking new disc out called My Island, and there are a few tracks from that disc available on their myspace page, which I linked above. Enjoy a bit of their older material here, then go buy more at itunes. The song compeating (not available here, but on itunes) is highly recommended, in addition to the songs below.

starflyer 59: good sons from talking voice vs. singing voice
starflyer 59: wake up early from i am the portuguese blues

Mae, which is short for "Multisensory Aesthetic Experience" according to their website, share the same record label as Starflyer 59, Tooth and Nail Records. I first heard portions of their albums Destination: Beautiful and Destination: B-Sides, which is exactly what it sounds like. I bought their latest disc, The Everglow and was a little underwhelmed (but the packaging and the interactive website associated with it were cool). So underwhelmed that I haven't even bothered to put any of the tracks from the disc on my iPod. But perhaps I haven't given it the requisite number of repeated listens. Maybe I'll pull it out and try again, and post some good tracks. Enjoy...all tracks available on itunes.

mae: tisbury lane from destination: b-sides
mae: embers and envelopes from destination: beautiful