Well, as I have just expressed on my twitter account, sometimes I miss music by months or even years but still feel proud of my discovery—if only humbly so. My recent discovery, of which my brother helped spur on, is Passion Pit. Lately, the “indietronica” sound has really struck a chord. I would like to say that the craze started with Ben Gibbard and his Postal Service project. Since, bands such as Blonde Redhead, Yeasayer, The Raveonettes and MGMT keep me plugged in… literally. The fun part of all of this is that it’s only getting better. I missed Passion Pit’s debut ep entitled “Chunk of Change”, which came out under a year ago. Chunk of Change is good… really good. During my research I know that “Sleepyhead” got some airtime, and it should. “Sleepyhead” has one of the best synth leads of any song that I’ve heard. I wish that I had written this song.
As good as Chunk of Change is, their full-length LP, which came out in May, is better. “Manners” is outstanding. It takes a while to get through the whole album because I want to repeat each song that plays. The album starts off on a great note and doesn’t let up. There are no filler songs on the album, but some that out-shine others. The second track, “Little Secrets” is as close as you can get to making a perfect song.
So, in case they almost slipped by you like me, I hope that you get into them now. Here’s their single “Sleepyhead” and “Little Secrets”, respectively.
I do my best to incorporate my spiritual life in my everyday doings. This is difficult for almost anyone and I do not hold an exception. While listening to music, trying to pick out God is sometimes easier than others. There is one song that I cannot help but find God. When I am feeling down or weary, this song will always give me the chills and boost my spirits. I always enjoyed the song but then a good mutual friend of my brother and mine introduced me to his interpretation. From that moment of listening to the song in the dark woods of Camp Tahkodah with the windows up and the speakers at just the right maximum volume, the song was forever branded in my mind as this:
Imagine an old, Moses—Charlton Heston style, but wirier—dancing in a dark room around a spinning glowing orb. In one hand, this God has a staff and with his other hand he shapes and molds this sphere. In fact, this man is like a combination between Charlton Heston and Rafiki from The Lion King. Regardless of how you picture him, there is a build up of how this orb is grown. As he moves about from side to side perfecting the waters and the mountains and the clouds, he draws it all closer and larger. The world grows and catapults into the climax. I find it easy to imagine the climax: God throwing his arms into the air, the waves crashing, and the mountains crunching. I also picture angels singing and making this music themselves to accompany God. Now, this is not to suggest that I think the soundtrack in Heaven will be Sigur Ros, but this song is as close to the creation as I can see.
I would love to discuss my ideas on creationism and evolution with anyone, but not on this blog. I just hope to put into words what is inside my head concerning music. But, even this image is very difficult to convey without experiencing the song with me. This is Glósóli, by Sigur Ros.
Why I sing…
My style of guitar playing has changed over the years. I know that this is common for anyone who plays any instrument and who also writes music as well. When I first started playing the guitar, my influences came from the 1990’s “number bands” as I like to call them. Third Eye Blind, Eve6, Blink-182 and others without numbers like The Smashing Pumpkins, Bush, Incubus, and Weezer also were heavily involved in my influential sound. I played the acoustic for about two years before buying an electric. Once I had an electric, I had to have a pedal for it because all of my favorite bands used copious amounts of effects in each of their songs. Japandroids have found the sound that I searched for hours at a time to create. Their distorted guitars sound like they have layered distortion pedal upon distortion pedal and then cranked their tube amps to make sure that the point has come across clearly. Their album, Post-Nothing, is eight songs of this same sound. Finding just the right effect is hard to do sometimes, and each one is very individualistic. But, it is the same distortion from song to song in an almost unfortunate way. The drums are bashingly wonderful and the vocals have calmed their screams down enough to make a melody evident, but there isn’t much variation amongst the tracks.
With all of this being said, this two-piece band from Vancouver does sound fantastic at their finest. They took the sound of the heaviest distortion I ever mustered on my first electric and actually made it into music. They are an inspiration (especially for my two piece band-by-correspondence, “Bow&Quiver”). I’m posting two of their songs: The Boys Are Leaving Town; and I Quit Girls. The first track is the first song I heard by them and the second is the one step of variation they take during their album.
On an unrelated note, I know prefer to play and write folk inspired songs.
Why I sing…
Today is one of those days when really, nothing I have planned to happen has actually followed through. I view myself as a “planned spontaneous” person, which really means I’m up for anything at any moment as long as it is worked out in someone’s head (preferably mine). But today, every plan that I have made for the next fifteen minutes really hasn’t worked out. This is no one’s fault; and because of that, it seems to make it worse somehow. Fortunately the day is only half way done. There are still hours ahead of me that will turn things around. I’m not in a bad mood… I’m just in a “funk”. Normally the best way to alleviate this funk is through a song that is begging my soul to counter what it is really trying to do. And I have it: the song.
I love NPR’s All Songs Considered and since my house is about thirty minutes away from town, the podcasts are just the right amount of time. You can check out the ASC blog by clicking on the link to the right. One of the editions featured a band named Suckers that is just getting started. They have a four song EP out right now and after listening to it, I’m really curious to hear a full length album. Bob Boilen describe this band as “musical soul-mates of MGMT and Yeasayer”—both of which are excellent. Upon hearing this my ear perked up a bit and I was not disappointed in the result. Suckers song It Gets Your Body Movin’ might not actually move your body in the way that you would expect. With a title such as this, my first impression is something that would possibly be on a Jurassic 5 playlist. But, it does move your soul. The three-four count drives you to grab someone and dance the most wonderful and powerful slow dance that has ever been waltzed with distorted guitars, horns, whistling, and a chorus of vocals approaching their limits while still retaining their rich quality. This song is more for the soul than the body, and on a day like today, that’s exactly what I need.
Why I sing…
I’ve been working a lot recently. So much so that I have been pretty worn out by the time I actually could write or update this thought catalog. During this time though I have not stopped thinking of posts or subjects. But, with that being said, this post is not one of the thoughts that I had during this hiatus.
Bob Dylan will probably live forever. I don’t know if he realizes this, but I’m sure that he does by now. Never has there been an artist that has been covered by so many other artists and musicians. And more importantly, it’s not just a generational fad—it spans every decade. Even if you don’t like Dylan, I bet that one of your favorite bands does and I also bet that at one point they have at least considered covering one of his songs. Therefore, you might like Dylan and not even know it.
Just recently, Paste Magazine did an article where they listed the top 50 Dylan covers, along with “runner-ups” for each of the songs. It was a fun read. I was happy to have such a good resource for finding new music with such an iconic prestige to them. There was one song in particular that caught my attention more than the rest. Coming in at number 13 was Jim James and Calexico covering “Goin’ To Acapulco” from the movie about Bob Dylan, “I’m Not There”. The song is written beautifully. Interpret it as you will, but to me it’s a very sad song that tries to hide behind facade of the singers would-be high spirited emotions. At some point, everyone experiences this same sad mood and tries to fake a smile to make it go away. One of the largest criticisms about Dylan is his lack of emotion in his songs, but here Jim James puts it all out there. No matter what he’s saying, he is broken and he can’t hide it. It took me a long time to finish the rest of the article because I was so hung up on this one song. Eventually, after twenty or thirty minutes, I got back to the read the rest of the top 50. It ended well. Since then though, I can’t stop listening to this song. Here is the clip from the film and the full length track from the soundtrack.
Why I sing…
Ahhhh…. Spring. I love spring time. The trees turn green again, the flowers bloom, lighter weight clothing becomes a must and the weather is perfect for bicycles. Though I do not currently own a bicycle, I still really enjoy a good ride. I have never used one for exercise—only recreation. When I studied in Italy for a semester I rented and rode a cruiser all over Luca. When I was growing up with neighbors around me with similar ages, we would ride bikes through the woods across the road. And someday, I will ride a bike through the French countryside dressed in Gatsby’s finest clothing while listening to this song: Au Cafe de la Paix, by Thomas Fersen.
I’ve been waiting for spring for a while now so that I could show off this tune. It’s classy, chic and cultured. The first time I heard it I couldn’t help but picturing myself riding a bicycle while listening to it. Since that first fantasy, the daydreams just continued to grow. Sadly, I do not own anything else by Fersen, but I have been told that the rest of his catalog is just as good as Au Cafe de la Paix. But, whether or not you like bicycles, perhaps you will still enjoy this song.
Why I sing…
I like Death Cab. In fact, I like them a lot. My junior year of college I went to see them with my brother at the Orpheum in Memphis. The Orpheum is a great venue for almost any band, and that night we saw Ok Go open Death Cab finish out the evening. Death Cab opened with “Marching Bands of Manhattan” and it only got better from there. Tonight, my brother will see them for a second time at the Orpheum along with Ra Ra Riot and Cold War Kids. It should be excellent.
Last week, Death Cab released their Open Door EP containing four songs that didn’t make it to Narrow Stairs and a demo of “Talking Bird”, which did make it on the album. I like EP’s… in fact, I like them just as much (if not more) than Death Cab itself. The EP is such a great sampler of how good a band can actually be without showering everything they have all at once. The Open Door EP is a wonderful example of a well produced EP. There’s no stand alone track and once you get done enjoying one song, they hit you with another that’s just as good.
Most of the itunes comments about this EP are saying this is more traditional Death Cab and not their sound that came with Narrow Stairs. I really enjoyed Narrow Stairs because it’s authentic. Very few people can put a song together like Ben Gibbard and Narrow Stairs is a very solid example of that. I also like to see bands grow and explore different sounds and styles… I don’t really think that Death Cab explored many new things with Narrow Stairs other than a bit more crunch to their guitars and a little more pep to some of their tempos. The Open Door does have more pep than most of their stuff before. Each song is solid and shows Ben Gibbard at his best. I wish that I could put the whole EP on here because picking one song is tough to do. But, alas, no choice will be bad. Here is the opener, “Little Bribes”.
Why I sing…
I have officially begun working. This is working as in “being trained to start working”… but nevertheless, it is work. Soon I’ll be helping people with all sorts of mental and physical disabilities. The majority of these will fall into the personality disorder group. So, in regards to this, I thought about how I could incorporate that into my thought catalog. What I came up with is Wesley Willis. That link is a bio about the man, and this link is a sample of his work. There’s a lot of good advice in his song.
But really, Wesley is as far as I got in my research. I’m sure there’s more, but I grew tired of looking. And really, after finding Wesley, it’s hard to think that there could be any better out there.
Putting aside music by schizophrenics, music therapy is a technique that is commonly used to help with this illness. Music Therapy is a fairly new form of actual therapy, so the research behind it is newer than the practices. But, there is research to show that music therapy has positive effects on those with schizophrenia. At least twice a day I perform music therapy on myself, which I’m sure most people do. How many moods do we all have that just require a certain song, or sound even, to accompany them? Lately, I’ve been finding a lot of comfort from instrumentals such as, The String Quartet Tribute to Radiohead, the track “I Love NYE” from the About A Boy soundtrack, and this song: “Happiness”, by Riceboy Sleeps (which is the track below). This phase may fade soon, but for the time being I’m really enjoying it. Perhaps some of these soothing sounds will come in handy during some rough moments on the job.
Why I sing…
The roadtrip is infamous for the music that it requires. Any mood can be set by just a handful of songs and an open highway. In most cases, I prepare a playlist for such occasions, but there are a few times when I just play whatever I feel like. The performed the latter of those two this past weekend as I took a trip to Philly. The night before I left I received a DVD from my brother that was packed full of new albums that I did not have. I wanted to listen to all of it, but thought that there was no way that I would be able to absorb all of those sounds without a break. So, I took it in stride and carefully chose what I would hear. Because I was listening to new music and because I had not made a mix for myself in advance, the drive seemed less enjoyable to me. There will not be many memorable songs that I will associate with this trip. The trip itself was excellent, and I really enjoyed seeing my friends but it won’t be a trip that I come away with a great song.
So, for a question and answer, what has been a song for you that seemed to define a trip for you musically? Your experiences of your trip may have nothing to do with the lyrics, but you listened to this song enough times that when it comes on your mind jumps straight to that one particular place. An example of my own, the first time I went to Philly was with a group of ten other people. I had recently come across Bon Iver and we played “Skinny Love” about forty times in the van. So, what are some of your roadtrip songs and where were you traveling when you fell in love with them?
Why I sing…
Maybe Mozart’s “A Little Night Music” was the first concept album about space, but as we all know… David Bowie perfected it. Thank you, Mr. Bowie, for coming along and taking the world to space when everyone wanted to go. Now for clarification, I was not alive during Bowie’s debut and his early influence of the musical genre of “space rock”. I actually do not know if there is such a genre as “space rock”, but that is how I would describe good ole’ David. Mozart wore make-up and wigs… Bowie was in the movie Labyrinth—enough said, they’re one in the same. Although, by being in a movie with muppets, I think that David may have trumped our famous classical composer for the limelight of pure “space freakiness”. Flight of the Conchords have realized the greatness of Bowie and paid a pretty swell homage to him with their song “Bowie’s In Space“. Excellent tune.
Another space concept album that has not had so much attention is one by Adem. Adem is one third of the British ambient-trance band Fridge. I do not know their music very well, it’s only my research of Adem that I have learned about Fridge. Adem’s style of song writing incorporates lots of acoustic instruments while still pulling drum loops and effect loops to fill in the gaps. There’s never an imbalance of sound. His voice shines nicely as his musical backdrop layers compliment his scratchy, raw, yet defined vocal quality. For his first solo debut, Adem put together an album full of folk driven songs entitled Homesongs. His freshman album is wonderful and there are plenty of gems that ring out. For his second album, Adem looked to the stars to tell his story. From beginning to end, he tells the story of a love that slipped away. Each song contains some cosmic element to it and no song is quite alike.
It was in the fall of 2007 when this album came out. I cannot listen to it without remembering hours of driving through the turning leaves and inside the cool Arkansas weather while listening to this album. It is one of my favorites. Here is “You and Moon” from this album. The only other song comparable to it is “Launch Yourself”, which might be more popular if you were to search for it. That’s why I’m posting “You and Moon”… sometimes it’s the lesser known ones that are the best.
Why I sing…
