Events
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Music can do a lot of different things for people on a personal level. Sometimes we listen to music to change our mood, and sometimes we listen to music to simply maintain the mood we’re already in. I use music the morning after a night of bar hopping to drown out anything stuck in my head that I may have heard on the their PA system the night before. But let’s face it… how often does a guy like me actually go bar-hopping. More often than not, I use music to focus and get some work done. Of course, not just any music has this ability and some music just works better than others. For some reason I’m very productive when listening to bands like Isis… or on the other side of the spectrum… God is an Astronaut.
My friend Nolan recently introduced me to another great band along the lines of God of an Astronaut that does wonders for my productivity. It does so well that I had a momentary lapse of reason and opened one of my physics projects instead of a text editor to start writing this post… it actually took me about 5 minutes to realize what had happened. What’s worse is that the semester is over. The Mercury Program just puts me right in the zone… or autopilot if you will.
So far I only have two of their albums, A Data Learn the Language (2002) and From the Vapor of Gasoline (2000). The first of these two is entirely instrumental and seems to keep me focused a little better than the second; most likely because it’s entirely instrumental. From the Vapor of Gasoline incorporates sparse vocals on a few tracks and a jazzier feel as opposed to a primarily electronic instrumental one. Both albums are both post-rock I suppose. I’d say it’s fair to compare them to some sort of combination of God is an Astronaut and maybe Mogwai or Del Rey, but you’d never mistake any of these bands for one another… well I wouldn’t anyway.
The Mercury Program has a very solid rhythmic foundation with the drums and bass allowing for the guitar and keyboard player to stick primarily to melodies and counter-melodies. This is actually pretty common for the post-rock genre, but their drummer is better than most. He just has this ability to keep busy without being in your face about it. As I’ve mentioned so many times before, good bands know how to take advantage of the whole EQ spectrum. This drummer and the band as a whole do just that.
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