Is there a chance of us getting together?

I'm sure some of you out there remember the band Braid. Some may remember but never listened because they dismissed Braid as just another emo band. That would've been easy, because their fans were typical emo kids for the most part. I had the good fortune of having a former roommate who was a fan, and he sat me down and made me listen to their album "Frame and Canvas." This was interesting. They used different instrumentation like trumpets, they jumped all over the place with time signatures (some songs are completely arhythmic, and the phrasing of vocals was really different). It slowly became obvious that this band was unfortunately pigeonholed as emo. So, I've established that Braid was progressive for it's genre. Hell, they were progressive for any genre. The band broke up a few years ago and mainly split into two different bands: Hey Mercedes and the Firebird Band. Hey Mercedes kept going on in a direction very similar to Braid. However, the Firebird Band was different. If any of you out there have heard "Roses in the Car" from Braid, you'll have a better understanding of the Firebird Band's sound. It's mainly Chris Broach. Lots of drum machine sounds, sequencers, dirty analog synth, and regular band sounds. Broach started up Lucid Records, which is where he releases all of his various projects (and other bands). Most recently, he's heavily involved with the new Firebird Band album. He's also on L'Spaerow, Firebird Suite/Project, and Life at Sea, all available through Lucid Records. It sounds typical from me these days, but I'm at a loss to describe these bands. They're all logical progressions from Braid. Although Braid is reuniting for a tour this year, but I don't think they're recording anything new. The Lucid Records discography is all loosely linked by Chris Broach's music mentality. He's not in all of the bands, but he's involved. What's important is that all of these bands are good, and you'll especially feel that way if you were a fan of the more downbeat, less hyper stuff from Braid. Life at Sea, one of Chris' many bands is playing tonight at Small's in Detroit. Go check it out. Doors are at 8pm.

lips and whiskey kisses