No Depression & Other New Music | The Source Weekly - Bend, Oregon

No Depression & Other New Music

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Fans of alternative country are rejoicing today. Why you ask? Well, today, the Legacy Edition of Uncle Tupelo's No Depression album— largely credited as being the first alt-country record— was released.

For some (see: your's truly) this is one important album.

Riding on the success of 2004's deluxe re-issue as well as a vinyl offering on National Record Store Day in 2012, this edition of No Depression folds in even more history behind the band that ultimately split apart and became the formidable group Wilco— fronted by Jeff Tweedy— and the perhaps lessor known, but truer to the genre band Son Volt, fronted by Jay Farrar.

This time around, the album has some very welcome editions. Check out the album insert below and then stream the it on Spotify. Whether a long time fan of Tweedy/Farrar or just ready to take the alt-country plunge for the first time, No Depression: Legacy Edition is the number one album to pick up today.

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Another worthy album that was released a couple of weeks ago and was intended for the pages of the Source is Waking Lines by Patterns out on Melodic Records. Our full review of that record is

below as well as a Spotify player for even more listening this Tuesday afternoon.

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With the release of their debut album Waking Lines, Manchester pop-shoegaze rockers Patterns already have one of the best albums of a very young 2014. But it takes a bit of effort to hear why.

Fuzzy lo-fi harmonic vocals and distortion riddled guitar churn like a gently tumbling tropical shoreline, from the album’s first track “The Haze” straight through to the closing track “Climbing Out,” a song that strikes a chord anchored in palpitating young-love.

The result is a fairly homogenous album, but one where melted together sounds, ooze a comforting attractiveness.

Cuts from Waking Lines are a mash of OMD 80’s new-wave and Animal Collective modern alt-pop; set in the land of dream rock; really nothing new. (see bands like Youth Lagoon and Reptar) Translucent guitar sneaks in behind Ableton Live generated electronic samples, laminating the vocals and almost suffocating the ability to understand most lyrics. Which can be a bit annoying. Even still, wistful moments borne out of emotional hunger—like on the album’s second track “Blood” as well as the title track— find enough definition to be comprehended as hopeful stories of failure and reflection.

Much of Waking Lines passes by as semi-unremarkable at first; but like a gooey worm tunneling through layers of earthen crust, the slow nag of Patterns’ starry-eyed music loosens up initial perceptions so that by the end of the record, it’s shocking to find how something so cut and dry has burrowed so far into the psyche.

In fact, as the last charming seconds tick away on “Climbing Out,” silence is so dreaded, that like an insatiable sweet tooth, ears beg for another delightful drubbing of the record’s lifting harmonies and jagged atmospheric rock.

Ethan Maffey

Both a writer and a fan of vinyl records since age 5, it wasn't until nearly three decades later that Oregon Native Ethan Maffey derived a plan to marry the two passions by writing about music. From blogging on MySpace in 2007 and then Blogspot, to launching his own website, 83Music, and eventually freelancing...
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