November 13 — “Tilling the Wind” by Gray Young

Gray Young

If you only listen to one song tonight, make it “Tilling the Wind” by Gray Young (2009, from the album Firmament).

Gray Young is a three-piece atmospheric indie-rock/ post-rock band from Raleigh, North Carolina. I know almost nothing about them other than that they’re from Raleigh and that they have two albums. Tonight’s song is another in the continuing series on North Carolina music.

They’re only sort of a post-rock band. They’re sort of a shoegaze band. They’re sort of a few other things. Because they have a bunch of songs that are instrumental and really guitar-y and sort of anthemic, they get thrown under the umbrella with Texas post-rockers Explosions in The Sky and This Will Destroy You. Some people even throw them in the same mix with Mogwai. However, these guys don’t write epic nine-minute songs. Their songs are of the much easier to digest three- and four- minute variety. For the record, I wish that their songs were a little longer, but that right there is one of the biggest reasons why they’re not really a “post-rock” band. That, and the fact that many of their songs, including tonight’s song, have vocals. In fact, their singer Chas sounds a bit like Benjamin Gibbard from Death Cab.

One of my Music Geek friends discovered Gray Young by chance a couple of years ago when he went to see them play just for something to do. He liked them a lot, and turned me on to them. I immediately got their two records.

Although I think it’s best to listen to Firmament as a whole album, here’s one of my favorites from the record:

“Tilling the Wind” by Gray Young

I really like the bit between 1:15 and 2:18, when it’s just wave after wave of sound colliding and washing over you. The bass takes over for about 30 seconds after that, then a little bit of everything at once, leading up to the quick stop at about 3:05. I don’t like the 45+ seconds of sustain at the end. If there was more of it, more squealing and feedback, I wouldn’t mind, but I kind of wish that the song would just end at 3:09.

So what I’m saying is that i wish the song was longer, but I also wish that it was shorter.

You can get Firmament from the amazon store here.