No Filler Music Podcast - Bamnan and Slivercork: Midlake's Perfect Blend of Psychedelic and Folk

Episode Date: December 2, 2019

​On this episode we listen to Texas natives Midlake, and their 2004 debut album Bamnan and Slivercork. One of the more successful bands to emerge from the Denton music scene, Midlake's meticulous blending of acoustic guitars and lo-fi electronica create the perfect blend of psychedelic and folk. Vocalist and lead songwriter Tim Smith's whimsical lyricism and Thom Yorke-like falsetto truly sets this album apart from other indie groups of the early aughts, and reminded music lovers everywhere that Austin is not the only city in Texas worth paying attention to. Tracklist Midlake - They Cannot Let It Expand Midlake - Rollerskate (Farewell June) Midlake - I Guess I'll Take Care Midlake - Some Of Them Were Superstitious Mux Mool - Boner Of A Lonely Heart Skinshape - Oracolo Jimmie Spheris - Long Way Down Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Examine. And welcome to No Filler. The music podcast dedicated to sharing the often overlooked hidden gyms that feel the space between the singles on our favorite records. My name is Travis. I got my brother Quentin here with me. And Q, I feel like this is an episode where we're bringing a hidden gem. I mean, I hope so, man. I think if you're, let's put it this way, if you're somewhat knowledgeable of indie music from,

the 2000s, you probably know who Midlake is. And if you're from Texas, like if you're from the Dallas area, especially if you're from the Denton area, I think you know who Midlake is. And that's the band we're talking about today. These guys are from Denton, Texas, which is about, you know, 30 minutes north from me. But it's hard to know how many people know about this band,

because, like you said, we grew up in Dallas. Yeah, and, you know, when these guys were really coming up, we had friends who went to U&T, which is in Denton, you know. I mean, I was playing with a band that was in Denton. Yeah, and we talked about a band. Our bonus episode for Halloween was a band out of Denton, Texas, the undoing of David Wright. Denton is sort of a music hub basically.

It's the closest thing to Austin that Dallas has, right? Yeah. And this is just one of the more sort of well-known bands that came from Denton. But they formed in 1999, Q. Did you know that? I did not know that, but yeah, that's crazy. What else you got on this band? It's primarily Tim Smith, who is the...

vocalist guitar player primary songwriter primary songwriter yeah so we're both reading the Wikipedia page together we're both staring at the Wikipedia

the fact that we both said primary songwriter I know dude so yeah we're kind of yeah we're kind of pulling this this episode out of our ass but I mean here's the thing here's all you got to know

you and T if you don't know it's a it's a college that is known for its music course like its music uh I mean it's basically, it's a music college, right? Like it's, it's famous for its, it's, uh, jazz bands and stuff like that.

So Midlake is a group of jazz students. And so they are, you know, classically trained if, if you want to put it that way. Uh, and that definitely shows through in the compositions that they put together as Midlake, you know, that's the one thing that I think jumped out to me the most about this band when, when I think you, you probably introduced me to, uh, I did. To their album that came out in 2006, the year that we graduated high school, the Trials of Van Acupanthor.

And I was just blown away by how well put together these songs were and how, I mean, it just stood apart from, you know, your run-of-the-mill like indie record that was coming out around that time. So, I mean, like I said, my introduction to them was trials of Van Hacu-Panthor. it's got it's almost like a concept album i feel like you know it's all like the lyrics and the themes and stuff seem like they're kind of based around this like this you know this time that's that's kind of come and gone you know like this old like settlers kind of thing you know like yeah you know right all the all the lyrics are very like set in that time yeah and i don't know how long it's a very

pretty yeah it's very pretty you know they got compared to fleetwood mac a lot some of the songs that they had on there. So I'm not sure how long it was before I went back to and listened to the record that we're talking about today, which is their first full-length album, came out in 2004 called Bamnan and Slivercork. And I can't tell you how many times I've pronounced that bandman and silver cork. But it's Bamnan and Sliver Cork. Who knows what that means?

Yeah. Yeah. So for me, the first song that I heard of Midlakes was Balloon Maker. Okay. Which is track two on Bamnam. Yeah, that was the single. And then the second song I heard of theirs was from Charles Van Acky, Panther, Young Bride, which is such a great song. Yeah. Probably my favorite off of Trials.

But what I wanted to say was, and what we could get into is just how different the two albums are. I mean, they are so different. I mean, like I said, they were obviously making a, you know, they were going for a very particular sound with Trials of Van Acupanther. And I'd say the same thing for Bamnan. You know, it has a very distinct sound. But what you hear on Bamnan, they didn't, they didn't carry almost any of it over into trials of Van Acupanthor, I don't feel like. I mean, really. No. And I think let's just, let's dive right into some tunes. I just listened through to their EP that came out before Bamnan. So before the bulk of what this episode is going to cover, it was an EP called Milk Made Grand Army.

Man, I can tell by the name alone that this is probably going to be similar to the stuff they were putting out on Bamnan. It is. Okay. So this came out in 2001. So four years, I'm sorry, three years before Bamnan and Slivercork. They were a group, you know, making music as Midlake. And I don't know if we need to dive too much into it, but even since the beginning, they were kind of swapping out players. Like, if you look on their, on their Wikipedia page, scroll down and read the headlines.

Departure of Jacobs, a rival of Nicholson and Upshaw. Departure of Upshaw, arrival of Pulido. So these are all just the last names of members of the band. These guys were trading out members all the time, and that's what made their sound change so much. Yeah, I think that speaks to just the talent pool that's available at that university. you know right i'm sure they all i mean they were all running in the the circle of all the musicians that were at u and t going you know participating in jazz band and stuff like that like no wonder they were you know trading them out i wouldn't be surprised if those guys that that left went and

did their own thing you know what i mean like this is just what you do when you go to u and t i feel like it's you form a band you know yeah and um again the the main guy here for midlake main singer songwriter his name is Tim Smith. So let's play a track from that EP from 2001. Again, it's called Milk Made Grand Army. It's a seven-track EP. I'm going to play track six. This is called Roller Skate,

parentheses, farewell June. So that was the first time I've ever heard that. And, I mean, it's obvious that Tom York was an influence, right? Yes. I mean, he's singing very much like Tom York, a radiohead. Totally, dude. I thought the same thing when I heard it. Yeah, right off the rip, too.

Now, there's a great quote here. Are you going to say it or am I going to say it? There's a quote here. No, go for it. I don't know what you're talking about. Okay, so there's a quote that spells us out perfectly right here from Tim Smith, which is the lead singer-songwriter like we mentioned before. He says, we don't want to get called a Radiohead rip-off band.

I think Radiohead is a lot closer to my natural tendend. sees as a songwriter than a band like Jethro Toll. I listen to way more Jethro Toll than I do radiohead these days, but I could write 10 Radiohead songs before I could write one Jethro Toll song. I want to sound more like Jethro Toll, but I just can't. That's a big struggle. Wow. I'm, you know, that song right there sounded exactly like, um, not necessarily the song structure, but the way that he was singing was exactly like Tom York. I don't feel like he carries that on with him to any of the other albums. I mean, really. I don't think so either. Even, you know, three years later with Bamnan. Right. But honestly, that just,

him saying, him mentioning Jethro Toll just makes me want to want to dive into some Jethro Toll, dude, because I, that's a band that I've never really gotten into. And maybe we can cover one of their albums soon. Aqualong is where I begin and end, you know, which probably, what, what song? Aqualong, their big song. Oh, yeah. The one that everybody knows. No, but if you listen to that entire EP, Milk Made Grand Army, I mean, that might as well be a radio head, like a lost tape from Radiohead. Like, every single song is a radiohead song. And I'm not knocking it, dude. Like, it's great. It's a really cool album. And I wanted to share it with, with you all, because I think it's a good segue into Bamnan and what they did just a few

years later. And, you know, like we said, even in that time, they were swapping out members of the band, you know, so they're constantly evolving. But yeah, like we had kind of mentioned, Midlake is a band that was pretty short-lived, and I guess maybe we'll get into this a little bit later after we share some tunes. But... Well, we say short-lived, but they are still listed as being active. And, you know, they've made records all the way up to 2013, which was their last one. Okay, well, I guess we'll talk about this now then. Like, Tim Smith is no longer in Midlake. Yeah, I mean, if we want to say that when he left Midlake as we knew them kind of changed, right?

I mean, it's not the same band. I mean, I don't know if they're even playing the Tim Smith tunes. You know, if you go see Midlake today, are they playing songs that, you know, are they playing Young Bride? Are they playing, you know, balloon maker? Yeah, that's a great. Yeah. So that, yeah, when you, when you lose the main singer-songwriter, are you really the same band, you know? Yeah, that's tough, man. Yeah. Anyways, um, let's play some tunes from, from Bamnan. Yeah, let's do it. So we got a couple songs to play from this album. Um, again, this one came out in, what is it, 2004?

Yeah. This is definitely our favorite album of theirs. We're going to start with track four from the record. this song is called I guess I'll take care Yeah so here's what I do I mean there's so much to go over right Yeah The thing that I love about this record so much Is like it just has this

Feeling of like almost like a Like a I don't know man like a carnival or something I don't know Like a Okay I think I can help you out here Yeah help me out here Yeah help me out

please. I think I can help you because I'm with you. It's the same reason I love this album for one, and I know we use this term a lot, but like, and maybe we should look up the definition, but like this is such a melancholy. I mean, it's a, it's a somber sounding like just dark. Yeah, but that's the thing. It's dark, but also like it's very playful and like whimsical too. But in like a almost like something's kind of off. Like it's almost like a nightmare. Yeah. There's yeah.

Like, well like I said like a carnival, sometimes you think of something that's off kilter a little bit. Here's what it is, dude. Bamnan and Slivercork is music for a David Lynch movie. I was going to say Wes Anderson too. Okay. More like a, you know, those stop motion. those old stop motion movies.

Kind of like Mr. or what is it, fantastic Mr. Fox. You know what I mean? Okay. They kind of playful like, and that's the kind of imagery that at least it conjures up in my mind

when I hear this record. But aside from that, like let's just talk about like how awesome the song itself is, you know? Yeah. I think his vocal, you know,

we were talking about earlier with the song he played that he sounds a lot like Tom York. And I think he stays in the Tom York like range. His vocal range. in Tom York's, the Tom York camp. But he, you know, some of the cadence that he brought to that first song that was spot on Tom York. I don't think he carried it through.

But he still has the same range as Tom York. And I think that's kind of cool. Yeah, no. In that Milk Made Grand Army EP, and a lot of those songs, he kind of gets more in the higher octaves, which is what makes him sound more like Tommy York. Not so much in Bamnan. I mean, yeah, it's high pitch. But yeah, it's a little bit different.

I like the harmonies that he does. I mean, it's, it's him singing with himself and the harmonies. But I think they're really well done. And we have to, we have to mention in this, you know, this same sound pops up in that Milk Made EP. It's like he's choosing, you know, a setting on his synthesizer keyboard that, that almost sounds like it's a little, like a kid's toy. Yeah, it's like a little kid's like organ,

organ sound. Yeah, it's a lo-fi. It's it's lo-fi keys, you know, like the term that I'm seeing here, lo-fi psychedelic electronica, which I think is spot on for this record. Yeah, and it pops up in almost every song on Baminan and Sliber Quark. And that's what makes it stand out so much. Yes, and that's what makes it such a great album to listen to because it's so playful like that and sort of like things kind of come at you like you, like you get surprised by. So let's play the next track on the record, dude, which is our next pick, track five. I think this is, safe to say this is your favorite song on the record? Yeah, I think so.

There's so many different movements to this song. I think the intro is one of the greatest mid-leg intros ever, if not like, it's up there for me. Like the intro has this, this punch moment, this impact that you get that kind of comes out of nowhere. Yeah. It's really well done. It catches your attention for sure. Yeah. And we'll have to break this up into two different parts because there are two very distinct parts in the song.

And I think they execute it really, really well. And it's very, his vocals are very kind of emotional in this song. And it's just, it's a great song. So yeah. This song is called Some of the. them were superstitious. Superstitious. Sitting with her back,

facing the orchard, hands and feet were waved. That intro, right, where it, when it all comes in, you know, it kind of, it's very loud. Yeah.

I love how they bring that back, uh, you know, in the chorus. All the music kind of stops. He's singing, whatever verse he's singing, and then it just,

that swell comes back in, you know? It's just amazing, man. I love it. All right. So, like I said, there are two very distinct parts in the song, so let's play the next clip here. But before we do, let's take a quick break.

And we're back. Okay, so, let's hear that next part on this song. Again, this song is called Some of Them Were Superstitious. I just love that. song, man. It's just so good. Yeah, it's good. It's definitely a good representation of this album and like what Midlake sounded like in 2004. Like we mentioned, Midlake's still around, but Tim Smith isn't the lead singer anymore. So, like, really, I mean, I feel like they died in the courage of others, which I believe.

was Tim Smith's last album of theirs, which came out in 2010. It makes you wonder why they didn't just change the name, you know? Right. Like, where they just trying to ride on the success of their name? It's like, you lost the lead singer, though, because if you're starting, you know, you lose a lead singer, and if he doesn't care, if you keep the band name, you might as well keep it, because otherwise you're basically starting over as a brand new band. I think they may have had more six.

They could possibly have had a better chance of regaining success had they renamed. But maybe not, because that's the thing. They probably wouldn't have sold any records had they changed their name. People probably bought Midlake because, oh, it's a new Midlake record. I've got to check it out. Exactly. That's what I was thinking. Almost like a bait and switch, though, if you think about it.

Anyway, yeah, so one thing I will say about Bamnan compared to, two trials of Anacupanthor. This has probably been a part of Midlake since their origin, but you heard a flute in that song. Some of them were superstitious. That just kind of shows you, like, there's a lot of instruments that they bring to the table. You know, if you look at the listing on the Bamnan page on Wikipedia, you see a flute mentioned 12-string acoustic guitar, a bassoon. a double bass, and like we were seeing sort of those lo-fi keyboard sounds. Like, that's always been a part of Midlake.

And definitely on trials of Van Acupanthor, there's more flutes, you know, there's more sort of stringed instruments and stuff like that, violins and whatnot. Like, that's just kind of what they did. And that's what I've always loved about him is, like we were saying, like these guys are talented, you know, classically trained jazz musicians, you know? It definitely shows. but anyway

I think you're right that Bamnan is probably a favorite of mine but I've always been blown away by trials of an acupunther you know yeah totally different sound I like Bamnan because it's

it's got a little bit more it's more rock oriented I feel like in as much as it can because there's really nothing about the record that's rock and roll like in the traditional sense of that term you know

but I think it's rock oriented in how, you know, we consider the Beatles a rock band, but, you know, from rubber soul on to Abbey Road, you know, they were super whimsical at times throughout their career, but still through and through a rock band. And yeah, Baminan is almost like a magical mystery tour kind of album, you know, where it's much more whimsical. and experimental. But yeah, dude. I think this actually sums it up perfectly.

If you look at the genre that these records are both listed as, Bamnan is listed as psychedelic folk, and Trials of Van Hicepanther is listed as progressive folk. And I think that sums it up perfectly. Because there's a lot, it is very psychedelic.

Yeah. And we keep talking about trials of Van Ackypanther and I'm not playing. on playing any songs from that album. We may have to do it. We have to circle back and do an episode on that record at some point. Okay. Yeah, let's do it.

Yeah, so let's wrap it up, dude. This is just our little sidetrack on Midlake. I know we got some what you hurts to dive into. That's right. Let's start with you today, dude. What should have been heard? All right. So here we go.

this this is pretty typical of the way that that i sort of bounce around from like genre to genre throughout the year as i'm listening to music or whatever like if i spend a lot of time in one particular genre i'm gonna i'm gonna have to bounce and and like go almost 180 you know yeah so october as we know was kind of based around metal for us right we did a metal month so I was listening to a lot of metal music. So I've sort of pivoted from that and gravitated more toward electronic stuff. This guy, he's been on my radar for a while now. He goes by the name Mux Mule, or Mux Mule, depending on how you pronounce it.

But his name is Brian Lindgren. He is an American electronic musician. he is on Ghostly International that's the record label also mood gadget and what's interesting is a lot of his music has been featured on Cartoon Network's adult swim

so you may recognize some of his tunes from like you know those commercial bumpers that they have that they're kind of well known for anyway he just put out another he put out a brand new single just maybe a week ago by the time this episode gets out. Anyway, so let's just listen to that.

It's got a funny name. It's called Boner of a lonely heart. God damn. I mean, come on. You got to love a good pun when you hear one, you know? And this is a play on a yes song, right? Anyway, like I said, brand new song just came out a few days ago.

Boner of a lonely heart. So that song makes me want to jump in the car and just drive towards the horizon, bro. Sunset time. Yeah, man. Just a pretty straightforward electronic track. But this is the first single off of the new album. I'm guessing it's going to come out in 2020 because that would be 10 years later. But he came out with an album called Skull Taste in 2010.

and a boner of a lonely heart is the first single off of Skull Taste 2. So I'm guessing it'll come out in 2020. But anyway, yeah, I mean, what I like about electronic music, but I've always, you know, I've always gravitated toward it because it's just that consistent beat, you know, it's really good for... Yeah, very repetitive. Very focused, like, sometimes I can focus. I feel like it's the same for metal for me,

because a lot of times metal is very like, you know, it just, it's got this driving beat, you know. But it's really good for me, at least, when I'm working, you know, because I code all day. Yeah. It's just the perfect kind of music to concentrate with. Anyway, I feel like we haven't done a lot of electronic music on this podcast, and we need to change that. I would love to do an electronic model. It's shocking that you say that, but you're totally right, dude. Yeah, I mean.

Because we're both huge electronic fans. Right. So I think we need to do an electronic month or something like that. Maybe we'll do that in 2020 sometime. But anyway, because, dude, we could spend months doing electronic music. Totally. Anyway, so that's that. Again, that was, because I just love saying it.

That was Boner of a Lonely Heart by Mux Mule or Mux Mule, one of the two. One of those two has to be the right pronunciation, you know. Yeah. Anyway, what do you got, Q? What have you been heard in lately? So, this is an artist that I heard. I was posted up at this awesome bar called Noble Barton. It's in White Center, which is a tiny little city just outside of Seattle.

I was grabbing some brunch there last week. And dude, Tis Bar always has like the best tunes. I don't know. what playlist they're playing from or, you know, if they're just on Pandora or what. You got your Shazam on the ready is what you're saying. Yes, exactly. And I shazammed, I shazammed this song. Well, I'm not going to play the song that I heard.

But this is an artist that goes by Skin Shape. All one word. Skin Shape. It's a British musician. His name is William Dory. And he's been making music under Skin Shape since 2014. You remember the band Kronbin I shared with you?

It's got like that Afro beat like psychedelic rock kind of vibes. Yep. Super funky stuff. This is what he's all about. I'm going to play a song from an album of his from 2015 called Arakalo. I think that's how you say it.

It's all one word. I'm going to play the self-titled track. It's track two. So it's called Iraq. And it's fucking dope, dude. Here it is. Yeah, that was great, man. Yeah, I'm a sucker for that, like, guitar tone, you know, like that echo-y, like, twangy guitar.

Dude, just fucking... It was all done. All day. Give me that shit all day, dude. I love that kind of music. Here's what I appreciate about the vibe I was getting out for that. So his voice was kind of bluesy, you know? and I find myself getting like probably unnecessarily like put off by by bands sometimes that I feel like they are almost too like purposely going after a sound you know what I mean I don't know like I you've mentioned that to me before yeah I can't I can't yeah I mean what's that band that that's doing that Led Zeppelin shit yeah yeah yeah I fucking hate their guts for something.

I mean, Greta, Greta Van Fleet. That's a different, that's a different, I feel like that's a different example. But I mean, like, yeah, how many bands out there are doing the, God, you hear it, it's so trite at this point and, like, overdone, but, you know, you'll hear it on a dozen different commercials, the type of band that's, that sounds like, I feel like Montfort, or Mumford and Sons started at all. You're talking about, like, yeah, like Monfort and Sons,

and then as Monsters and Men. Yes, where it's like, I, like. Yes, I know. I know, dude. I know you hate it so much and I get it, but yes, I know what you're all doing the same song, the same sound. You're thrown in the, the cliche, like, you know, they have a term for it. I don't want to say it, but I'll say it. The millennial whoop you've heard of this, right?

Yes, dude, you've mentioned it on this podcast. I know, dude, I know. So, a long way of saying, like, obviously they're doing a, his voice is very bluesy, but they're, but he's a 60. He's not... He's not doing it in a way that, to me, is pandering to that to that genre. You know what I mean? Like, he's doing it.

Like, it's very, they put their own spin on it, you know? There's a lot of different things happening in the song. His voice just happens to be like blues-blue in a way, blues-oriented. But it's not a knockoff. And we talk about it, we talk about this a lot on this podcast, but, you know, a thing that I love about music is how it's just it's constantly evolving but it's always

pulling from the past and like you're saying there's a right and wrong way to do that and there's an easy way out as a band to do that and still find success but yeah like you're saying this guy skin shape he's doing his own thing

like putting his own spin on it this whole album is like this dude it's a really great record all the way through. You should press play from track one, dude. You really like it, I promise. Okay. Yeah. No, I like what I heard. So, yeah, it's good. It's good stuff. That's not the song that I heard at the bar. Once we stop recording, I'll play a little bit up before you, brother. All right, let's wrap it up. So that's our take on Midlake's album from 2004, Bamnan and Slivercork. That's going to wrap up our distortion-free in November.

we're going to kind of switch it up in December and we're going to have a very special guest coming up real soon. I'm excited, dude. Yeah, man. I'm real excited. And by saying, he's only special to us, but you know what? Maybe he'll be special to you too after you listen to the episode. I mean, yeah. Let's just put it this way. We've waited until the exact right moment to have him on this podcast, you know, as far as the episode that we got lined up. So, It's going to be great, man. It's going to be fantastic. I can't wait.

I'm excited. It's going to be fun. All right. So as always, check us out on the Pantheon podcast network. You can go to pantheonpodcast.com. You will find us and a ton of other great music podcasts within the network. You can also check us out on no-filler podcast.com. There you can click on.

each episode and dive into our show notes. Check out our sources that we cover from. Occasionally we'll post YouTube videos, you know, concert footage and interview clips, stuff like that. And to wrap us up for today, I've got an artist that Tim Smith mentions as influence on him, a pretty heavy influence. on their sound. This is a guy named Jimmy Sphiris. Never heard of him. Almost guaranteed that you haven't, dude.

Nope. Random-ass singer-songwriter from the 70s. I guess, I mean, I don't know how popular this guy was back in the 70s, but he released four albums in that decade. And we're going to share a tune from his first album that came out in 19, called Isle of View. And you can definitely hear the influence, just kind of in the songwriting

and maybe the instruments used and like the mood of the song. You can definitely hear where Tim Smith pulled from. So yeah, this is a song called Long Way Down from Jimmy Spiris' 1971 album, Isle of View. And thank you so much, as always, for listening. My name is Quentin. My name is Travis.

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