New Punch Brothers album streams online

[Andrew DeMarco]

I was just playing my girlfriend, who really disliked the singles, the first song off the album, Familiarity. She ended up liking the song, but made some hilarious observations. First, she said that the pulsating sound that happens at about 1:14 and recurs after that sounds identical to the INXS song Never Tear Us Apart. I guess PBs are playing acoustically what the keyboard synthesizer is playing in the INXS song.

[Amanda Gregg]

My Oh My is really great, no question. One of their best.

But I'm surprised no one here has mentioned their killer arrangement of Passepied, which plays with the bluegrass quintet's textures like nothing I've heard before, passing around the melody line effortlessly.

[JeffD]

I think its great, amazing great, that Chris is able to do the kind of music that he wants - commercial templates aside, and that he can get traction doing it that way. No apparent artistic compromises, and likely no actual artistic compromises. And the tighter he cleaves to his own personal vision, the better he seems to do.

There are not many alive who can say that, in any musical genre, heck in any artistic endeavor.

I am in awe.

[Delaware]

My Oh My is really great, no question. One of their best.

But I'm surprised no one here has mentioned their killer arrangement of Passepied, which plays with the bluegrass quintet's textures like nothing I've heard before, passing around the melody line effortlessly.

To me the most amazing arrangement is Between 1st and A. The sinewy way the mandolin and banjo intertwine and play off each other until they sound like one instrument is amazing.

[rubydubyr]

Ok, I tried to like it, I really, really did. I've watch Chris Thile play, I think he's amazing. I didn't actively dislike it though. I think, for me, it falls into the category of background music, not something I would want to sit and actively listen to. Maybe I'll get the cd and put it in the car. If I listen to it enough maybe it will grow more on me. I do very much like the idea of a possible new genre that doesn't actually bore me to death with repitivity (rap) or scream at me (heavy metal).

[Finger Stylish]

What a talent. His stuff is so different it almost takes some getting used to. Its just a whole different kind of music from anything else. Its like he's creating his own new genre.

I suppose.

Creating just to be different can lead to abstract artistry, which can lead some to think,
What was that?
While I do enjoy the talent, much of what I just heard isn't relatable to me, or my musical taste. That doesn't mean it's bad. It's just.
One of those songs sounded like the Beach Boys learned how to play and sing after all these years.
This reminds me a little of the second offering Nickel Creek did, Very different.

Just my totally subjective take.

[Jeff Budz]

I didn't love this album on my first listen but have listened to it at a few times at work this morning and it has really grown on me. I have had similar experiences with their other albums. It's a really interesting direction they are going in...

[JeffD]

What music we listen to for entertainment need not have anything to do with what music we play.

Yea we need to do a good deal of listening to the kind of music we want to play, but that is critical listening, fitting what we hear into our own hands. But that certainly is not the only kind of listening there is.

I am rarely in the mood to listen to the kind of music I like to play. In part because I play it all the time, but also because I mine that particular vein with different listening tools.

My point is that one can listen to Chris Thile's music in both ways, and enjoy it in one way and not in the other. That you too play the mandolin, and so can kind of see his accomplishments "from the inside" need not affect how you enjoy, or don't, the music when you just listen from the outside.

[John Hill]

Interesting. Sounds like T Bone and the band took a smidge of prog rock, a touch of beach boys, a dash of radiohead then added a string band to that boiling cauldron. Art rock is what we have here.

To my ears the Punch albums sound alike and run together with Pikelny's banjo flurrying around the periphery on seemingly every tune, Gabe's violin cutting in like it has since Blind Leading the Blind & Thile's falsettos. I appreciate the creativity but, eh...it's interesting but not compelling or fascinating, doesn't grab me and make me have to listen.

I believe the boys have a great album in them (a "Kind of Blue" album of perfection potential if you will) but this isn't it.

FWIW the first half of Familiarity, Julep and the classical pieces are my favorites. The Debussy is out and out cool. Some other great moments sprinkled throughout.

[Delaware]

Julep and the Debussy live in studio in Germany

http://www.ndr.de/kultur/musik/Punch...others112.html

[lukmanohnz]

Thile, in more and more of his incarnations , ( lost count ) strikes me as a guy noodling with something he hears as atmosphere music for a soundtrack . I feel as though he's bored and throwing everything he dreams up at the wall . I'm sure most of us would agree he's brilliant . But for me , an awful lot of it doesn't stick to the wall . In fact , its almost as if he gets bored after about 4 bars of ANYTHING . Which , I'm reluctant to confess , bores me after about 16 bars . I mean , maybe its just me but ' structure ' isn't a lot to ask for ....is it ?

You are completely within your rights to like what you like - as we all are. And I too confess to having been overwhelmed/bored/confused/disoriented by some PB music. But I own every release and will be buying this one too. Thile certainly seems as though he's driven to push out against the boundaries of existing musical conventions and to strive for something new. It's the striving that intrigues me, compels me to listen. His explorations might not incite me to move my toes the way a Grisman barn-burner does, but they make me think and listen and want to play my mandolin, and they excite my mind. And some of the PB material DOES get my body moving. Can't ask for more. He's a genius in my estimation (and many others'). Can't wait to hear what he and his cohorts have done in this new release. I'll be getting my copy this weekend.

[Tom Coletti]

Punch Brothers' less conventional music is similar to Radiohead's music in three ways:

1. It's best to try a new album two or three nights in a row after 1:00 AM. The full album, front to back, without jumping around. You won't always "get it" on the first listen, nor may you get it after the second or third, but even then, it helps to be somewhat mentally fuzzy.

2. There are many long spans of harsh dissonance, which often tend to make the resolution to consonance that much more cathartic, in a way. You begin to savor the few moments of calm in an otherwise turbulent album.

3. It seems at times disjointed, random, or abstract, but at a certain point halfway through, you'll realize that there's not only a strong underlying structure, but one that is there from the very beginning, which makes subsequent listenings more and more rewarding as you begin to recognize deeper layers of order in what seemed like complete chaos on the surface.

It's not throwing buckets of paint at a wall and hoping that something sticks. It's throwing a series of seemingly arbitrary but secretly calculated buckets of paint at the wall which seem to have no meaning, but then the resulting image is flipped upside down, and it's the answers to the universe or gas prices under $2.00 per gallon or a giraffe or something else that you never thought could exist.

In other instances, it challenges you to confront your conceptions of what constitutes "music" itself. Treefingers is a great example of that: minimalistic, eerie, even unnatural at times, yet peaceful, serving as a bit of "breathing room" to help you digest the first half of the album as it transitions into the latter half.



On that note, I highly recommend Kid A as a full-album listen. Easily one of the best albums that Radiohead has to offer.
--Tom

[Astro]

Sometimes you feel like interpreting music, sometimes you don't.

Sometimes you don't feel a connection to a piece of music, then at another time in life, you get a meaningful connection from that very same piece. Music interacts with where we are in life, and can even influence that state.

One of the many great things about music.