Black Lab, Any other fans here? Options

[J.Sax]

It seems like nobody's heard of the band! They had like two hits back in like 1997 ("Wash It Away" and "Time Ago") and were billed as "the American U2" before there were label troubles and they broke up, later reforming on the independent scene.

Years ago around 2004-05, I found their first album in my dad's mess of a CD collection and fell in love with it. I looked them up and it turned out they had just released their long-awaited second album. I've been following them since.

Definitely my #2 band...and if it weren't for LIVE's older work, they'd be #1. If you haven't heard of them, check them out and let me know what you think. I want to spread the love! Here's a list of their official albums and some of their music videos...

1997 - Your Body Above Me
2005 - See the Sun
2006 - Your Body Above Me: The Director's Cut
2007 - Passion Leaves a Trace
2007 - Technologie

Side Projects:

2004 - Ten Million Years: Songs from the Nineteen Nineties (Paul Durham)
2006 - Cake or Death (Cake or Death)
2008 - Covers, Volume 1 (Mirror Ball Associates) [iTunes only]

Music Videos (YouTube):

"Time Ago"
"See the Sun" (short edit)
"Lonely Boy"
"This Night" (The Shield mashup)
"Ghost In Your Mind" (Black Hawk Down mashup)
"Transformers Theme"

This post has been edited by J.Sax: Nov 9 2008, 7:47 pm

[Badman]

Thanks for all the links! I listened to 2 songs and I don't see anything to shout about.

[J.Sax]

They could have picked some better songs to do videos for, though "Time Ago" is one of my favorite songs ever.

They're really good to the fans. They have an MP3 of the Month Club they started back in 2005. It's like $20 a year, but you're getting 12+ new tracks a year, so it's worth it. Demos, rare live recordings, experimental shit, sneak peaks at the new albums.

I might upload some of the releases if anyone's interested.

They did pretty well on Alternative Addiction's Top 50 of 2007 at #11. There's a stream of "Mine Again."
http://www.alternativeaddiction.com/bestof...sults/top50.asp

There are some streams on MySpace, too.
http://www.myspace.com/blacklabband

This post has been edited by J.Sax: Nov 9 2008, 8:43 pm

[YourFaceSucks]

They could have picked some better songs to do videos for, though "Time Ago" is one of my favorite songs ever.

I can see where the U2 comparisons come from. Song reminds me of With or Without You.

[ShadowStormEK]

They sound decent.

I'll have to start looking into them.

Not bad at all.

[Senghe]

Well, it's okay, but they sound too much like their admitted influences as mentioned on their myspace. I've heard much worse to be fair.

And where the hell did they get that stupid ass name from? Which one of them thought "Yeah, that's an enigmatic but catchy name!" and not one of them realized it was a breed of dog? If one of them actually named the band after one of their pets, full kudos to them.

[J.Sax]

Paul's favorite bands were Black Sabbath and Stereolab. The band was called Stereo Sabbath before, but then he later changed it to Black Lab.

I don't think one can base much of their judgment on the songs on MySpace and YouTube. I think I'll upload a few of my favorites from each album at some point. I guess they maintain a similar sound throughout their three main albums, but they tend to dabble in everything. Technologie is an electronica album with original songs and some remixes.

Their MP3 of the Month Club is my favorite. Each month, Paul uploads a new song (or several). There's been some straight up pop, some rap (hilarious), more folky songs...things that in no way would be included on a proper album, but some of them are gems.

This year's Club is going to be very interesting. The plan is to give us demos of songs he's writing for their next album and he's asking for the members' feedback on each track: what they think of the song overall, what they'd change, what direction they'd like the song to go, etc. The first two months weren't really following this: the first was a demo from the last album and the second was an old demo of a folk song that netted him his first record deal with Geffen. But this month's was specifically written for their next album and was just a basic recording of him and his guitar. I think it's a cool idea.