The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place--Explosions In the Sky

If you are into instrumental rock bands like Mogwai and Godspeed You! Black Emperor you don't need to read the rest of this, you just need to go get ahold of some Explosions In the Sky albums. I like a lot of bands in the instrumental rock vein (often called "post-rock," which I've always thought a stupid name for a genre of music) but Explosions In the Sky is actually my favorite. Prevas turned me on to Explosions a bunch of years ago after he saw them play at some rug store somewhere near Baltimore. He told me to buy an album and I bought "Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever" (2001) which is an excellent introduction, but warned me that the live show is the best way to experience the band. A few years went by and I continued to listen to the album (and love it) intermittently and then Explosions came to a crappy bar in Michigan when I was there for grad school. I got Cory to go with me, and Prevas was right. This band is amazing live. Don't get me wrong, you should definitely get their albums and I consider the one that Cory recommends to be their best, but if you ever get a chance to see them live you need to do it. It was enough to get this band on an all-time recommends list for CP.

You may have heard Explosions without knowing it. The instrumental element of the band really lends itself to accompany film, and their music by itself is often described as cinematic. They wrote and performed the score for the movie Friday Night Lights with Billy Bob Thorton, and "The Only Moment We Were Alone" from "The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place" is playing in a trailor for the new film "Australia." You can see a pretty comprehensive list of their music being used in film and television in their wikipedia entry. Their songs tend to be long, usually around the 10 minute mark, and often use minimalist composition techniques to allow the music to move and grow slowly. It is great music for a late night drive in the middle of nowhere. Below are two clips, the first being a live performance of "First Breath After Coma" from the album this entry is recommending, and the second the aforementioned trailer for Australia which features the music of Explosions In the Sky (up until the planes start dropping bombs, then it isn't them anymore).