The French Semester 1/25/10 - The Echo, Los Angeles, CA.

( Photo: The French Semester's Myspace )

Last January, The French Semester played the final show of a month-long residency that they held at the The Echo. The French Semester are a band that creates and performs mainly in the shoegaze vein, a genre we are quite fond of. We were also fortunate to catch them a few times in the past - at last year's Eagle Rock Music Festival, and the first couple of Echo residency shows.

Setlist was a mixture of material from their last full-length album Good Friends Only I Could See and recently-released E.P. Forces Afield - with some newer songs such as "Test Pilot" and "Can A Hole Be" (tentative title) played.

Note: The title for the "new song" was taken off a picture of the setlist for the show - it sounds like it is most likely a temporary title.

Recorded by "markp."

1.) Introduction MP3
2.) Deep Tissue MP3
3.) Backwards Rolling MP3
4.) The East Man MP3
5.) Test Pilot MP3
6.) What's In The Bag MP3
7.) Fourteen MP3
8.) Can A Hole Be/"new song" MP3
9.) Remembering Right Now MP3
10.) The Greater Good MP3
11.) The Large Bouquet MP3
MP3

FLAC (lossless) files available by request.

Letting Up Despite Great Faults 1/04/10 - The Echo, Los Angeles, CA.

(Picture courtesy of Letting Up Despite Great Faults Facebook)

(Sorry for the lack of posts lately - holidays were a busy time for me.)

Last week, Letting Up Despite Great Faults played as part of the line-up for the first night of The French Semester's January residency at The Echo. Originally, I went to see latter band (who I had caught at last year's Eagle Rock Music Festival and was quite impressed); however, by the time they took the stage the audience's conversations were overtaking the music - therefore, I gave up a few songs in. (The Spires were also on this night's bill, and went on first, but their set will not be available due to technical issues)

Letting Up Despite Great Faults fall into the self-described "shoegaze" category as the headlining band, so everything worked out to a certain extent. They recently released their self-titled first full-length album, which made up the majority of this night's setlist. A cover of New Order's "Ceremony" rounded out the show. Recording came out pretty well; however, vocals may be a little low in the mix.

1.) Our Younger Noise MP3
2.) The Colors Aren't You Or Me MP3
3.) I Hear You Drowning But I'm Tied MP3
4.) Pause MP3
5.) Folding Under Stories Told MP3
6.) In Steps MP3
7.) Ceremony (New Order cover) MP3
Text File

FLAC (lossless) files available upon request (by e-mail)