The Album Leaf
Wow. That’s all I can say.
I went to an awesome concert tonight — I’m talking of course about the Album Leaf — a band that’s been one of my favorites for about 3 years now.
Their music is unique among everything I’ve heard. Some people say that they fit into post-rock (too happy though), or indie (too nontraditional though), or electronica(too much emphasis on analog equipment), or some fusion thereof. None of that fits though. TAL is a circular peg for all the square holes of genre.
The music is hard to describe. It really depends on the listener, I think. For me, it’s happy. You can start to listen to almost any song by them with a blank mind, and your thoughts can drift to some of your happiest memories. I’ve always thought that the best music is music that can take you somewhere; whether it be an emotional horizon, an artist’s perspective, or a more encompassing, objective viewpoint that you can really take something new away from after listening. Jimmy LaValle’s music fits the bill here.
So yeah, I went to the show in Pittsburgh. Confirmed a few predictions (Jimmy uses a Fender Rhodes Mk I, II, or III, a Moog Keyboard, a touch-sensitive synth for drums, and a bunch of pedals that I couldn’t recognize.) Bought the new Green Tour EP — This is really special since these EPs are usually really rare since you can only get them at live shows, and this one got released less than a week ago)(this one’s awesome by the way).
If you haven’t heard them yet, please remedy that. Here’s a few places for starters: