Built on a Weak Spot

So I didn’t expect to go that long without updating, however thanks to the short break there is now nice wooden floors where carpets used to be where I am sitting. Dismantling everything in here and putting it all back up was kind of a pain and took a bit longer than I expected. In the end though, it’s pretty much worth it.

This is something I’ve wanted to write about for a bit now but kind of had to wait until it was officially out there, but thankfully I got the go ahead during this past week. It’s always pretty cool and interesting to see an idea come to life and see it progress from its very beginnings into its final stages. I had this cool opportunity with an album from the Denmark group Shelflife. Before the band was actually even a band I had been talking to one of the members for quite some time before that and he’d always tossed around the idea of putting something together to record. When it eventually came together things went much faster than I’d ever anticipated and before I knew it Shelflife had this album for me to listen to. However, getting to hear early bits and pieces of the album was really quite neat along with being able to give my opinion on them as well.

Anyway, Shelflife made it incredibly easy for me to give my input as everything that was sent my way sounded great. I think everyone can agree that listening to friends’ bands/music can sometimes be a bit of a dicey situation. That was never an issue here though and when I finally got to hear their self-titled debut I was prepared for anything, but once again what they delivered was solid from start to finish.

Shelflife, although being based in Denmark, have a very strong influence and resemblance to the Midwestern rock sound. It’s so much that the band chose Carl Amburn to mix the album who has worked with Midwestern bands like Traindodge and Self-Evident in the past. All throughout when the band was putting this album together it always struck me that they shared a similarity with the great KC act Stella Link, in that they take on a more dream like or drifting sound with the melodies that fill out the songs. But Shelflife probably head further in that direction as they incorporate various elements of shoegaze with warbling guitar tones that surface from time to time throughout the record, but predominately presents itself on the track “The Inevitable Emotional Hangover”.

I urge anyone that enjoys the bass rich and big hooks of Midwestern rock to check this album out. Here is an MP3 for anyone that is iffy on downloading the whole album without hearing something first.

Shelflife – Tape Song [MP3]

Anyone that is interested in hearing or obtaining the full album then head on over here where it’s been made available by the band for free download. Definitely give it a spin if you get a chance.

Related posts:

1. Schooled in Victory – Snapshot of an Era Formed out of the ashes of two other fine KC...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 26th, 2009 at 5:48 am and is filed under indie-rock, midwestern rock, post-rock. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.