12.06.2005

The Fast Rise of THE KINGSBURY MANX

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I'm literally and figuratively running on a low battery right now, so tonight's post is going to be brief. The three songs (plus one tengential cut) posted here were going to be my last three songs of my November quest to get 60 songs up in 30 days. I made it to 57. I guess there's always next year.

I did have a few readers who ponied up with offers of bandwidth space, but I wound up being too busy this weekend to take them up on their generous offers. I think these guys deserve a shout out at the very least, so go check out Rob's blog and Sean's Liturgy site.

Now, on with the music...

I spend most of my days working in one of Omaha's finer indie record stores, and it's pretty rare that we get good promo CDs from record labels trying to pimp their wares. Usually, you can only hope at most to get a CD you can put in and ignore for 45 minutes. Typically, you're not that lucky and you wind up buried under a pile of half-baked, half-assed records.

Such is not the case with the new album from THE KINGSBURY MANX. I'd largely ignored the band's catalogue until a music blogger out there posted a few months ago a song of theirs called "Pelz Komet". I immediately started tossing the song on every mix I made. What I really like about the song is that it has this homemade charm while still sounding like a lost radio anthem. The vocals and music also reminded me of another fine indie band, VERSUS. That band's "Lose That Dress" was one song that came to mind.

A few weeks ago, we got the new Manx album in the mail and I've been popping it into the store's player every few days. That's more than you can say for a lot of the discs we have behind the counter. I've been doing similar championing of THE STANDARD's new album, along with SUN KIL MOON.

Aside from the Versus comparison, I'm also hearing a good deal of that old KINKS sound on The Kingsbury Manx's "The Fast Rise and Fall of the South" (the name of both this song and the album itself). My current favorit track on the album has to be "I0008". The only things I can't figure out is how these guys sound so goddamned British when they're actually from North Carolina, and how I've managed to sleep on them until this, their 5th proper album.

FOR MORE ON TONIGHT'S POST:
- Get more downloads from their official site.
- Buy super cheap downloads of all their records at Emusic.com.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice new color scheme! Much easier on the eyes.

Thanks for all the nice mp3s... I really enjoy your site!

Anonymous said...

love the music, love the new look, love the gifts you provide the people. it's like xmas all the time around here, even if we act naughty. thanks santa baby.

thevitaminkid said...

Kingsbury Manx -- I certainly hear Kinks in there, and shades of XTC's mellower stuff. The Kinks never did a song in 5/4 time though (Fast Rise and Fall o/t South) -- that I know of. Sounds like a waltz with a gimpy leg.

I may have to sign up with emusic to test drive some more of this band. Thank you for the heads up.