THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Apr. 29-May 5
The hamsters are back in their wheels, firing up the Fingertips generators, and here we are, in the saddle again after a daring week-long venture into the offline world. But not only have the three weekly picks returned (below), there is a new contest on the way as well. The prizes this time will be CDs and 7-inch vinyl singles from the band Mason Proper, a recent "This Week's Finds" featured artist. Visit the Contests page tomorrow (Tuesday) and check it out. And now, on with the show (this is it):
"Everybody's Got Their Own Part to Play" - Shannon Wright
There's a distinct early '70s vibe in the air here, from the head-bobbing piano chords to the sing-song-y melody, but most of all, as I listen, what brings me back to that bygone time are the subtle John Lennon references I'm hearing in the music, the lyrics ("Nobody knows what the truth is"), and even in the echoey way her voice is slightly buried in the mix. As Wright is nothing if not a simmering vocalist, it's actually kind of fun to have to listen more closely than usual for the emotion--powerful singers grow more powerful, I believe, when they learn to present with subtlety. This compact song features an unusual structure--there are basically four different paired melodic segments, three of which we hear twice, one of which we hear only once, and that unrepeated segment appears to be the chorus. In any case, the whole thing whips right by us (total time: 2:43) before we've quite gotten our arms around it; I suggest allowing a few listens for its various charms to emerge most clearly. "Everybody's Got Their Own Part to Play" is the closing song on Wright's new CD, Let In The Light, which is scheduled for release next week on Quarterstick Records.
"TV Reality (The New Plague)" - Contramano
If David Byrne had been an Argentinian cellist rather than a geeky Ontario- and Maryland-raised art school dropout, Talking Heads might have sounded something like this. Contramano centers around Pablo Cubarle's spiky cello playing, homely singing, and joyfully unexpected sense of melody. The jagged rhythms of the introductory cello riff lead us into an extended, unsettled opening section--the band has our attention but it's unclear what they're going to do with it, as the chords hover without resolution and Cubarle's accented English renders understanding minimal. Then, as Cubarle sings, "But it's not a special day," something begins to shift, we are suddenly in a bridge to somewhere else, and that somewhere else becomes a crazy-great chorus, a very Talking Heads-like bit of infectious simplicity, enlivened by crystal-clear bass arpeggios and a lively drum kit. Cubarle is particularly difficult to understand right here; to add to your enjoyment, you should know that what he's singing is: "It's the new plague/The new invasion/Click on, screw your life, screw your life." And maybe reality TV presents an easy target but if so, not nearly enough people are taking it on. "TV Reality" is a song from Contramano's second CD, Unsatisfecho, which the band will release themselves next week. The MP3 is via the band's site.
"First Blood" - the Chrysler
An insistent, minor-key lament with engaging atmospherics and a sustained sense of woe. While an acoustic guitar strumming a simple E minor chord remains at the center of the sonic space, nice touches persist around the periphery, most involving a range of electric guitar sounds--shimmering sustained notes, controlled feedback, echoey chords, an occasional twang. I'm getting a feeling of the archetypal American West in this one, which may seem strange in that the Chrysler is a folk-pop quintet from smalltown Sweden; on the other hand, they are considered a "country" act there, so maybe that accounts for the mysterious, tragedy-prone landscape their music evokes. The song unfolds at a leisurely pace, and doesn't travel too far, yet somehow keeps the ear occupied through its five-plus minutes. "First Blood" is from the band's second CD, Cold War Classic, which was released in mid-April in the U.S. on Parasol Records. The MP3 is via the Parasol site.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Apr. 15-21
The Fingertips home office will be closed, on adventure break, from April 20 through April 27. The next weekly update after this one will pixelate onto your screen on Monday April 30. Use the opportunity to visit other, less-trod-upon pages of the site, such as this one, or this one, or maybe even this one.
"Broken Arm" - Winterpills
The beauty of my slow, steady system here is that often it appears to work on its own, as if I'm not even a part of it. Songs that hit me at a level below rational thinking get added to my "top consideration" folder, and each week I spend time listening to all the songs in it, and when I listen long enough and closely enough they kind of just sort themselves out. It's a mystery. And what also sometimes happens--equally mysterious--is a song that I didn't pick that week ends up floating around in my head, singing itself to itself in the days that follow. Usually that means I will pick that song at some point. Thus, "Broken Arm," from the western Massachusetts band Winterpills, which I kept not quite selecting and which has continued to arise unbidden in my head. This one has the minor melancholy folk-rock tension of something from the '60s (Simon & Garfunkel? Mamas & Papas?), and I think the thing that really sticks with me is how the hook is, somehow, the first melodic line of the verse. Normally a pop song has to work up to its hook but this one starts with it: a simple descending melody that curls back up at the bottom, and it may not sound like much the first time you hear it, when singer Philip Price sings on his own; but one of the band's characteristic sounds is the vocal interplay between Price and keyboardist Flora Reed, and when Reed harmonizes that same line when it returns (at around 0:47), well, yikes. Wow. She stays with him for (I think) three notes then they separate into the most wonderful intervals. A parallel highlight is the interplay between the acoustic and electric guitar, the acoustic crisp and precise, the electric slurry and evasive. (Note a very clear "bad word" happens at 2:03 so be careful if children or bosses are nearby.) "Broken Arm" is from the band's second CD, The Light Divides, released on Signature Sounds at the end of February.
"Speak To Me Bones" - Land of Talk
And this one sounds like something sharp and itchy from maybe the early or middle '90s. Right away I like the tension established by a stationary guitar slashing intermittently against the propulsive rhythm section, while otherwise retreating into a vibrating, harmonic fuzz. I can feel the whole enterprise coiled up, restrained, ready to boil over. When the guitar is fully unleashed, at 0:27, we get pretty much the same chord--something with the vague dissonance of a suspended chord, from the sound of it--only now the slashing intensifies, gains a rhythm, is fleshed out by adjunct chords that veer magnetically back to the central cluster, with a beautiful fury that would do Neil Young proud. When singer/guitarist Elizabeth Powell emerges from behind her mighty instrument (54 seconds into it) to sing a discordant melody, with passion, I'm falling for this one big-time. While comparisons have been made to P.J. Harvey because of Powell's vocal turbulence, I hear something ultimately sweeter there in the midst of the storm--to me, in fact, her rich, sandpapery tone brings Kathleen Edwards rather unexpectedly but pleasingly to mind. But try not to let Powell's vocal assurance distract you from her impressive guitar chops, which provide a constant source of grinding grandeur to this explosive little piece. Land of Talk is a trio from Montreal; "Speak To Me Bones" is a song from the band's debut EP, Applause Cheer Boo Hiss, which was released in the U.S. in March on The Rebel Group. The MP3 is via the record company site.
"Loud and Clear" - Pink and Noseworthy
This is another song that engages me before the singing even starts. Here we have the often agreeable acoustic guitar and piano combination, and listen to this piano in particular--how slyly unconcerned with the beat it can be, just floating its gentle notes here and there, in and around the guitar's structured picking. And it's also another song with a very engaging male-female duet going on, in this case via Shanee Pink and Mark Noseworthy (yup, the band is simply named after people; and there was me intially trying to figure out what the name meant). I really like the vibe here: while there's a quiet late-night feeling going on, it's not simply loungey-jazzy; instead we get a nice and yet subtly unusual sense of movement--the unusual part the result of the unexpected 7/4 time signature. I can't remember hearing a song centered around fingerpicking in 7/4 time like this, although of course there may well be some. Another nice touch is how the acoustic instruments each pick up an electric counterpart as the song develops--we get both a dreamy electric guitar and an atmospheric keyboard filling out the original piano-guitar combo, plus some simple percussion (mostly just an egg shaker). And the percussion really disguises the unconventional beat, managing to keep what sounds like a regular pulse even with those odd-beated measures. All in all both a lovely tune and a spiffy accomplishment. "Loud and Clear" is a song from Pink and Noseworthy, the duo's debut CD, which was released in March on North Street Records. The MP3 is available via the North Street site.
week of Apr. 15-21
The Fingertips home office will be closed, on adventure break, from April 20 through April 27. The next weekly update after this one will pixelate onto your screen on Monday April 30. Use the opportunity to visit other, less-trod-upon pages of the site, such as this one, or this one, or maybe even this one.
"Broken Arm" - Winterpills
The beauty of my slow, steady system here is that often it appears to work on its own, as if I'm not even a part of it. Songs that hit me at a level below rational thinking get added to my "top consideration" folder, and each week I spend time listening to all the songs in it, and when I listen long enough and closely enough they kind of just sort themselves out. It's a mystery. And what also sometimes happens--equally mysterious--is a song that I didn't pick that week ends up floating around in my head, singing itself to itself in the days that follow. Usually that means I will pick that song at some point. Thus, "Broken Arm," from the western Massachusetts band Winterpills, which I kept not quite selecting and which has continued to arise unbidden in my head. This one has the minor melancholy folk-rock tension of something from the '60s (Simon & Garfunkel? Mamas & Papas?), and I think the thing that really sticks with me is how the hook is, somehow, the first melodic line of the verse. Normally a pop song has to work up to its hook but this one starts with it: a simple descending melody that curls back up at the bottom, and it may not sound like much the first time you hear it, when singer Philip Price sings on his own; but one of the band's characteristic sounds is the vocal interplay between Price and keyboardist Flora Reed, and when Reed harmonizes that same line when it returns (at around 0:47), well, yikes. Wow. She stays with him for (I think) three notes then they separate into the most wonderful intervals. A parallel highlight is the interplay between the acoustic and electric guitar, the acoustic crisp and precise, the electric slurry and evasive. (Note a very clear "bad word" happens at 2:03 so be careful if children or bosses are nearby.) "Broken Arm" is from the band's second CD, The Light Divides, released on Signature Sounds at the end of February.
"Speak To Me Bones" - Land of Talk
And this one sounds like something sharp and itchy from maybe the early or middle '90s. Right away I like the tension established by a stationary guitar slashing intermittently against the propulsive rhythm section, while otherwise retreating into a vibrating, harmonic fuzz. I can feel the whole enterprise coiled up, restrained, ready to boil over. When the guitar is fully unleashed, at 0:27, we get pretty much the same chord--something with the vague dissonance of a suspended chord, from the sound of it--only now the slashing intensifies, gains a rhythm, is fleshed out by adjunct chords that veer magnetically back to the central cluster, with a beautiful fury that would do Neil Young proud. When singer/guitarist Elizabeth Powell emerges from behind her mighty instrument (54 seconds into it) to sing a discordant melody, with passion, I'm falling for this one big-time. While comparisons have been made to P.J. Harvey because of Powell's vocal turbulence, I hear something ultimately sweeter there in the midst of the storm--to me, in fact, her rich, sandpapery tone brings Kathleen Edwards rather unexpectedly but pleasingly to mind. But try not to let Powell's vocal assurance distract you from her impressive guitar chops, which provide a constant source of grinding grandeur to this explosive little piece. Land of Talk is a trio from Montreal; "Speak To Me Bones" is a song from the band's debut EP, Applause Cheer Boo Hiss, which was released in the U.S. in March on The Rebel Group. The MP3 is via the record company site.
"Loud and Clear" - Pink and Noseworthy
This is another song that engages me before the singing even starts. Here we have the often agreeable acoustic guitar and piano combination, and listen to this piano in particular--how slyly unconcerned with the beat it can be, just floating its gentle notes here and there, in and around the guitar's structured picking. And it's also another song with a very engaging male-female duet going on, in this case via Shanee Pink and Mark Noseworthy (yup, the band is simply named after people; and there was me intially trying to figure out what the name meant). I really like the vibe here: while there's a quiet late-night feeling going on, it's not simply loungey-jazzy; instead we get a nice and yet subtly unusual sense of movement--the unusual part the result of the unexpected 7/4 time signature. I can't remember hearing a song centered around fingerpicking in 7/4 time like this, although of course there may well be some. Another nice touch is how the acoustic instruments each pick up an electric counterpart as the song develops--we get both a dreamy electric guitar and an atmospheric keyboard filling out the original piano-guitar combo, plus some simple percussion (mostly just an egg shaker). And the percussion really disguises the unconventional beat, managing to keep what sounds like a regular pulse even with those odd-beated measures. All in all both a lovely tune and a spiffy accomplishment. "Loud and Clear" is a song from Pink and Noseworthy, the duo's debut CD, which was released in March on North Street Records. The MP3 is available via the North Street site.
Monday, April 09, 2007
THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Apr. 8-14
** As promised, there's a new giveaway on the Contests page: I've got one copy of the brand new Son Volt CD, The Search, to be randomly bestowed upon one fortunate Fingertips visitor. Two other lucky folks will receive a copy of the Fingertips: Unwebbed CD as a consolation prize. Hurry!: deadline for entry is April 13.
"Los Cruzados" - Elk City
Smooth and sinuous and upbeat and heartbroken. Over a pulse-like bass and a beautifully articulated, reverberant guitar, Renée LoBue sings with an ache in her slightly smoky voice that drapes the whole effort in a buoyant sort of sorrow. She's singing "Halleluyah" but it's as if she's trying to convince herself; and when she says, "Let's jump in the river to celebrate/The light that they left in our hearts," the song has gotten so pensive there that she appears more focused on the jumping than the celebrating. Elk City, from New York City, has been around since 1998 and spent most of their time as a trio; the original guitarist left, discordantly, in '04; LoBue and drummer Ray Ketchem eventually brought in guitarist Sean Eden, formerly in Luna, and bassist Barbara Endes, from the Lovelies, and the new band's sound is strong and sure and polished in all the best ways. "Los Cruzados" is a song from the forthcoming CD, New Believers, the band's first as a quartet, scheduled for release next week on Friendly Fire Recordings. The MP3 is available via the Friendly Fire site. Thanks to Bruce at Some Velvet Blog for the lead on this one.
"Miss Marylou Carreau" - Mason Proper
This one is half crazed swampiness, half disciplined pop song. It's an inspired amalgam. I really have no idea what's going on here lyrically but I love the spill of tangible, baffling words we get from singer Jonathan Visgr, such as: "She bought a mug of bubbles from a bauble-hawker at the bazaar,/Supposedly an ex-czar from lands afar," or "Her now ignored automatic attendent M.I.A. on the floor,/Amid discarded decor," and what really nails these words--which, I'll admit, sort of just sit there on the screen--are how they scan in the music, which swoops up and down via intriguing intervals and syncopations, rendering physical the strange jumps and blank spots in this impenetrable narrative. I don't really mind if lyrics don't make sense because I don't really tend to hear them except as part of the sound, and Mason Proper seems a band with a great feel for words-as-sounds. The persistent crunch of the band's variegated guitar arsenal is another ongoing highlight, and there is to be sure no shortage of guitar in this song, from the villainous riff that underpins the verse (heard for instance at 1:06) to the multifaceted, multi-guitar showdown that begins at 1:52 and ends in a high-pitched drone somewhere around 2:40. That's a nutty and juicy snack for all you guitar fans out there. Mason Proper is a quintet based in Michigan; "Miss Marylou Carreau" is a song from the CD There is a Moth in Your Chest, released last month on Dovecote Records. (The CD was originally self-released last January in a limited run; the new version is re-mixed, re-mastered, and partially re-recorded.) The MP3 is via the Dovecote site.
"Going Numb" - Tin Cup Prophette
Perhaps it's just in this odd little corner of the indie rock world in which I find myself wandering, but I'm beginning to wonder if the violin isn't becoming at long last a bonafide rock'n'roll instrument here in the 21st century. Athens, Georgia-based Amanda Kapousouz--doing musical business as Tin Cup Prophette--is, in any case, a talented and energetic fiddler, and she keeps her instrument front and center, from the urgent, appealing pizzicato refrain that opens the song (which, if it repeated unaccompanied for three or four minutes, would not sound out of place in a piece of classical minimalism) to the loops of continuous bowing we hear as a surging and fading swell starting at 1:26. (Apparently Kapousouz has this way of looping her instrument through pedals, and I'm not geek enough to describe that better or to know exactly how it works but it sounds cool.) The other worthy instrument Kapousouz has at her disposal is her voice, a sonorous mezzo at once clear and rich--nicely plain-spoken during the clipped verse, fuller and more passionate during the melodic chorus. "Going Numb" is a track from Tin Cup Prophette's debut CD, Liar and the Thief, which is another one that was self-released initially, now about to be released nationally--it's due out later this month on Subway Grime Records, which does not appear to exist online at this point.
week of Apr. 8-14
** As promised, there's a new giveaway on the Contests page: I've got one copy of the brand new Son Volt CD, The Search, to be randomly bestowed upon one fortunate Fingertips visitor. Two other lucky folks will receive a copy of the Fingertips: Unwebbed CD as a consolation prize. Hurry!: deadline for entry is April 13.
"Los Cruzados" - Elk City
Smooth and sinuous and upbeat and heartbroken. Over a pulse-like bass and a beautifully articulated, reverberant guitar, Renée LoBue sings with an ache in her slightly smoky voice that drapes the whole effort in a buoyant sort of sorrow. She's singing "Halleluyah" but it's as if she's trying to convince herself; and when she says, "Let's jump in the river to celebrate/The light that they left in our hearts," the song has gotten so pensive there that she appears more focused on the jumping than the celebrating. Elk City, from New York City, has been around since 1998 and spent most of their time as a trio; the original guitarist left, discordantly, in '04; LoBue and drummer Ray Ketchem eventually brought in guitarist Sean Eden, formerly in Luna, and bassist Barbara Endes, from the Lovelies, and the new band's sound is strong and sure and polished in all the best ways. "Los Cruzados" is a song from the forthcoming CD, New Believers, the band's first as a quartet, scheduled for release next week on Friendly Fire Recordings. The MP3 is available via the Friendly Fire site. Thanks to Bruce at Some Velvet Blog for the lead on this one.
"Miss Marylou Carreau" - Mason Proper
This one is half crazed swampiness, half disciplined pop song. It's an inspired amalgam. I really have no idea what's going on here lyrically but I love the spill of tangible, baffling words we get from singer Jonathan Visgr, such as: "She bought a mug of bubbles from a bauble-hawker at the bazaar,/Supposedly an ex-czar from lands afar," or "Her now ignored automatic attendent M.I.A. on the floor,/Amid discarded decor," and what really nails these words--which, I'll admit, sort of just sit there on the screen--are how they scan in the music, which swoops up and down via intriguing intervals and syncopations, rendering physical the strange jumps and blank spots in this impenetrable narrative. I don't really mind if lyrics don't make sense because I don't really tend to hear them except as part of the sound, and Mason Proper seems a band with a great feel for words-as-sounds. The persistent crunch of the band's variegated guitar arsenal is another ongoing highlight, and there is to be sure no shortage of guitar in this song, from the villainous riff that underpins the verse (heard for instance at 1:06) to the multifaceted, multi-guitar showdown that begins at 1:52 and ends in a high-pitched drone somewhere around 2:40. That's a nutty and juicy snack for all you guitar fans out there. Mason Proper is a quintet based in Michigan; "Miss Marylou Carreau" is a song from the CD There is a Moth in Your Chest, released last month on Dovecote Records. (The CD was originally self-released last January in a limited run; the new version is re-mixed, re-mastered, and partially re-recorded.) The MP3 is via the Dovecote site.
"Going Numb" - Tin Cup Prophette
Perhaps it's just in this odd little corner of the indie rock world in which I find myself wandering, but I'm beginning to wonder if the violin isn't becoming at long last a bonafide rock'n'roll instrument here in the 21st century. Athens, Georgia-based Amanda Kapousouz--doing musical business as Tin Cup Prophette--is, in any case, a talented and energetic fiddler, and she keeps her instrument front and center, from the urgent, appealing pizzicato refrain that opens the song (which, if it repeated unaccompanied for three or four minutes, would not sound out of place in a piece of classical minimalism) to the loops of continuous bowing we hear as a surging and fading swell starting at 1:26. (Apparently Kapousouz has this way of looping her instrument through pedals, and I'm not geek enough to describe that better or to know exactly how it works but it sounds cool.) The other worthy instrument Kapousouz has at her disposal is her voice, a sonorous mezzo at once clear and rich--nicely plain-spoken during the clipped verse, fuller and more passionate during the melodic chorus. "Going Numb" is a track from Tin Cup Prophette's debut CD, Liar and the Thief, which is another one that was self-released initially, now about to be released nationally--it's due out later this month on Subway Grime Records, which does not appear to exist online at this point.
Monday, March 26, 2007
THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Mar. 25-31
"I Knew" - 22-Pistepirkko
Memorably described once as "nothing you've heard before, from nowhere you've been," 22-Pistepirkko is an odd, enduring trio from Finland that plays an unpredictable sort of surfy garage pop. Founded in the northern village of Utajärvi in the early '80s, the band, named for a common European ladybug, does seem to have a faraway sound; there's something in singer PK Keränen's high-pitched, accented, warbly English that appears to be coming to us from some other dimension of space and time. "I Knew" lopes along with a combination of early-'60s effects--the pre-Beatles beat, the sugary strings, and the surf guitar--that don't actually sound like they've been successfully combined before, and certainly not with a high-pitched, warbly singer. "I Knew" is a song from the band's most recent CD, Drops & Kicks, which came out back in 2005. They've yet to release a CD in the U.S., but are about to record for the first time with an American producer, suggesting the possibility of a Stateside release when the time comes. Another hint: the band visited North America for the first time ever this month, for a short tour which included an appearance at SXSW. The MP3, in fact, is courtesy of the SXSW web site.
"Gimme Shelter" - Patti Smith
Smith--truly one of the most inspired interpreters in rock history--manages here to take a familiar song, not change it very much, and still make it entirely her own. See, for instance, how she replaces the falsetto "oo-oo" vocals at the beginning with a languid slide guitar, and how different it sounds and yet strangely similar too. Growling and snarling and gargling through one of Mick and Keith's best compositions (apparently Keith wrote most of it), Smith gives me the impression she overheard Bob Dylan giving singing lessons to Little Richard and liked the sound of it. And get a load of how she handles the tail end of the song, famously delivered by gospel singer Merry Clayton on the original Stones recording, here performed with extended moans and an almost trancelike roar. She's now in the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame, but she's still alive and kicking. "Gimme Shelter" is one of twelve intriguing covers Smith has assembled for her CD Twelve, due out next month on Sony. She's doing offbeat Dylan ("Changing of the Guards") and Wonder ("Pastime Paradise"), mainstream Cobain ("Smells Like Teen Spirit") and Airplane ("White Rabbit"), and a bunch of "how did Patti Smith decide to sing this?" sorts of things ("Everybody Wants to Rule the World"? "The Boy in the Bubble"?). The MP3 is via Pitchfork.
"Rainbowarriors" - CocoRosie
A dreamy wash of rhythm and atmosphere, "Rainbowarriors" manages to sound simultaneously very current and altogether timeless. Rarely have I heard a song brought so beautifully to life by hip-hop scratches and other electronic goodies as this one--for once they seem not like random accessories but the very stuff and pulse of the music. I also don't think I've heard a piece of resolutely 21st-century pop with such an ancient-sounding refrain at its heart. I mean, check out the chorus, first heard at 1:07: the ghostly harmonies that enrich the melody are positively medieval in timbre and interval, bringing to mind countertenors and Gregorian chants. CocoRosie is the half-Cherokee sister duo of Sierra and Bianca Casady, whose exotic and itinerant background found them separated for almost 10 years before Bianca appeared without notice at Sierra's apartment in Paris in 2003; somehow, they knew they were supposed to start recording music together, and did, and have been inseparable ever since. CocoRosie is one of those groups with its own inscrutable mythos and I'll be honest, I have no idea what to make of stuff like this, from the record label's web site: "Rainbowarriors horse gallop through miles of balmy grass roads all the way to the swingset swamps. They witch water and have witches for fathers; they hear disharmonies of sadness sung by drunken glowworms. They sleep in swollen barns; they sleep through silver nights." O-kay. "Rainbowarriors" is the lead track from CocoRosie's forthcoming CD, The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn. (O-kay.) MP3 courtesy of Toolshed.
* * * *
NEWS from the full Fingertips web site:
** Thanks to all who entered the Merge sixpack contest. Winners will be contacted by the end of the week. Look for a compiled list of "best of the '00s" (so far) CDs on the Contests page also before the end of the week. Also: look for a new contest shortly thereafter.
** The Fingertips Commentary has returned, here
** Note that the Fingertips home office will be shut down for something resembling Spring Break between the approximate dates of April 1 and April 8. The next "This Week's Finds" update will appear, as if by magic, on or about April 9.
week of Mar. 25-31
"I Knew" - 22-Pistepirkko
Memorably described once as "nothing you've heard before, from nowhere you've been," 22-Pistepirkko is an odd, enduring trio from Finland that plays an unpredictable sort of surfy garage pop. Founded in the northern village of Utajärvi in the early '80s, the band, named for a common European ladybug, does seem to have a faraway sound; there's something in singer PK Keränen's high-pitched, accented, warbly English that appears to be coming to us from some other dimension of space and time. "I Knew" lopes along with a combination of early-'60s effects--the pre-Beatles beat, the sugary strings, and the surf guitar--that don't actually sound like they've been successfully combined before, and certainly not with a high-pitched, warbly singer. "I Knew" is a song from the band's most recent CD, Drops & Kicks, which came out back in 2005. They've yet to release a CD in the U.S., but are about to record for the first time with an American producer, suggesting the possibility of a Stateside release when the time comes. Another hint: the band visited North America for the first time ever this month, for a short tour which included an appearance at SXSW. The MP3, in fact, is courtesy of the SXSW web site.
"Gimme Shelter" - Patti Smith
Smith--truly one of the most inspired interpreters in rock history--manages here to take a familiar song, not change it very much, and still make it entirely her own. See, for instance, how she replaces the falsetto "oo-oo" vocals at the beginning with a languid slide guitar, and how different it sounds and yet strangely similar too. Growling and snarling and gargling through one of Mick and Keith's best compositions (apparently Keith wrote most of it), Smith gives me the impression she overheard Bob Dylan giving singing lessons to Little Richard and liked the sound of it. And get a load of how she handles the tail end of the song, famously delivered by gospel singer Merry Clayton on the original Stones recording, here performed with extended moans and an almost trancelike roar. She's now in the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame, but she's still alive and kicking. "Gimme Shelter" is one of twelve intriguing covers Smith has assembled for her CD Twelve, due out next month on Sony. She's doing offbeat Dylan ("Changing of the Guards") and Wonder ("Pastime Paradise"), mainstream Cobain ("Smells Like Teen Spirit") and Airplane ("White Rabbit"), and a bunch of "how did Patti Smith decide to sing this?" sorts of things ("Everybody Wants to Rule the World"? "The Boy in the Bubble"?). The MP3 is via Pitchfork.
"Rainbowarriors" - CocoRosie
A dreamy wash of rhythm and atmosphere, "Rainbowarriors" manages to sound simultaneously very current and altogether timeless. Rarely have I heard a song brought so beautifully to life by hip-hop scratches and other electronic goodies as this one--for once they seem not like random accessories but the very stuff and pulse of the music. I also don't think I've heard a piece of resolutely 21st-century pop with such an ancient-sounding refrain at its heart. I mean, check out the chorus, first heard at 1:07: the ghostly harmonies that enrich the melody are positively medieval in timbre and interval, bringing to mind countertenors and Gregorian chants. CocoRosie is the half-Cherokee sister duo of Sierra and Bianca Casady, whose exotic and itinerant background found them separated for almost 10 years before Bianca appeared without notice at Sierra's apartment in Paris in 2003; somehow, they knew they were supposed to start recording music together, and did, and have been inseparable ever since. CocoRosie is one of those groups with its own inscrutable mythos and I'll be honest, I have no idea what to make of stuff like this, from the record label's web site: "Rainbowarriors horse gallop through miles of balmy grass roads all the way to the swingset swamps. They witch water and have witches for fathers; they hear disharmonies of sadness sung by drunken glowworms. They sleep in swollen barns; they sleep through silver nights." O-kay. "Rainbowarriors" is the lead track from CocoRosie's forthcoming CD, The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn. (O-kay.) MP3 courtesy of Toolshed.
* * * *
NEWS from the full Fingertips web site:
** Thanks to all who entered the Merge sixpack contest. Winners will be contacted by the end of the week. Look for a compiled list of "best of the '00s" (so far) CDs on the Contests page also before the end of the week. Also: look for a new contest shortly thereafter.
** The Fingertips Commentary has returned, here
** Note that the Fingertips home office will be shut down for something resembling Spring Break between the approximate dates of April 1 and April 8. The next "This Week's Finds" update will appear, as if by magic, on or about April 9.
Monday, March 19, 2007
THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Mar. 18-24
There are still a few days left to enter the Merge Records Promo Sixpack Contest. Winner receives six full-length, promotional versions of quality Merge Records releases, including the brand new Arcade Fire CD, Neon Bible. Details on the Contests page at the Fingertips web site. Deadline for entry is Friday, March 23.
"Moth in a Cloud of Smoke" - All Smiles
Some songs take a while to build interest while others capture the ear effortlessly. One way isn't necessarily better than the other, but "Moth in a Cloud of Smoke" strikes me as one of the latter--quickly likable and affecting. First comes ten seconds of a pensive yet propulsive piano line, and check out the unusual simplicity here: the right and left hands are each playing just one note at a time, no chords or flourishes. You don't actually hear that too often in an age when technology all but demands more of everything--more notes, more layers, more sounds. The piano is then joined by percussion and acoustic guitar: still simple but now with a crisp, alluring drive. Ten seconds or so later, Jim Fairchild opens his mouth and the package is complete. He's got one of those sweet, rich voices, high but not squeaky or breathy--a great power pop voice, I'd say, only he's not singing power pop here, but something more introspective and knowingly hesitant--the melody in the verse is deliberate and contained within a surprisingly small interval (he's working with just three adjacent notes) for how open and expansive it sounds. For the chorus we get a fuzzy guitar and a melody breaking beyond the confines of the original interval; I'm hearing an echo of Brian Wilson now as Fairchild reaches further up melodically and by the way gives great chord too. All Smiles is the performing name Fairchild is using on his first solo CD; and he's the first ex-Grandaddy member to record on his own after that band broke up, rather badly, last year. "Moth in a Cloud of Smoke" is a song from the forthcoming All Smiles CD, entitled Ten Readings of a Warning, to be released next month on Dangerbird Records. The MP3 is via Filter Magazine.
"Good Girl" - Astrid Swan
I'm coming upon a certain number of breezy, swingy songs these days, and I'm sure there's some hidden sociological message in it that I'll restrain myself from commenting on for the moment. What I will instead comment on is this: mere breezy-swinginess is not enough to make a good song. This can get confusing, since breezy-swingy songs are cheerful and make us feel good. For me, however, the song still has to be there, and it turns out I may in fact be harder on breezy-swingy songs than songs with other basic sounds, since I listen carefully to be sure I'm not being tricked into automatically equating feel-good-ness with goodness. Or something like that. Here, however, I'm convinced we're dealing with goodness. One clue: six seconds after establishing the breezy-swingy mood, it's abruptly withdrawn. Kind of a musical tease, which subsequently renders the ultimate sound all the more persuasive. (Note too how the song's most dramatic section, a bridge that starts around 2:08, likewise eschews the upbeat swing for something moodier.) Another clue: Astrid Swan's voice, which has something of Neko Case's fluid and convincing solidity both lower down and higher up. Finally, at the height of the breezy-swingy chorus, Swan strays into off-kilter chords, attractively minor and/or diminished sounding. And, okay, it doesn't count for anything but I also happen to think Astrid Swan is one of the coolest names in show business. Swan is a singer/songwriter from Helsinski; "Good Girl" is from her CD Poverina, which was released in 2005 in Europe and is at long last getting a stateside release on Minty Fresh Records this spring. MP3 courtesy of Minty Fresh.
"Naturally" - Middle Distance Runner
Middle Distance Runner, a quintet from Washington, D.C., appears to be a group of guys with a well-developed sense of humor. ("Middle Distance Runner," says their web site, "is what you would be left with if you took every nu-metal, frat-rock, and emo band, put them into a poorly insulated spaceship, and then drove it into the sun.") As with the breezy-swingy thing, we have to be careful around such bands--easy it is to mistake "funny guys" for "good music." This one even starts with hand claps. Cheery--one might even say jokey--hand claps at that. From there, the song acquires a sly sort of urgency, singer Stephen Kilroy delivering the eyebrow-raising lyrics with an easy-going slidiness. (The song appears to be about a guy who messes around romantically and kind of hopes he gets caught out and stopped already.) I love the chorus, with its abrupt 6/4 time change, as the words pour out beyond the boundaries of the 4/4 measures that precede it. "Naturally" is the lead track on the band's self-released debut CD, Plane in Flames, which came out back in June 2006. The MP3 is courtesy of the band. Give the guys some hand claps.
week of Mar. 18-24
There are still a few days left to enter the Merge Records Promo Sixpack Contest. Winner receives six full-length, promotional versions of quality Merge Records releases, including the brand new Arcade Fire CD, Neon Bible. Details on the Contests page at the Fingertips web site. Deadline for entry is Friday, March 23.
"Moth in a Cloud of Smoke" - All Smiles
Some songs take a while to build interest while others capture the ear effortlessly. One way isn't necessarily better than the other, but "Moth in a Cloud of Smoke" strikes me as one of the latter--quickly likable and affecting. First comes ten seconds of a pensive yet propulsive piano line, and check out the unusual simplicity here: the right and left hands are each playing just one note at a time, no chords or flourishes. You don't actually hear that too often in an age when technology all but demands more of everything--more notes, more layers, more sounds. The piano is then joined by percussion and acoustic guitar: still simple but now with a crisp, alluring drive. Ten seconds or so later, Jim Fairchild opens his mouth and the package is complete. He's got one of those sweet, rich voices, high but not squeaky or breathy--a great power pop voice, I'd say, only he's not singing power pop here, but something more introspective and knowingly hesitant--the melody in the verse is deliberate and contained within a surprisingly small interval (he's working with just three adjacent notes) for how open and expansive it sounds. For the chorus we get a fuzzy guitar and a melody breaking beyond the confines of the original interval; I'm hearing an echo of Brian Wilson now as Fairchild reaches further up melodically and by the way gives great chord too. All Smiles is the performing name Fairchild is using on his first solo CD; and he's the first ex-Grandaddy member to record on his own after that band broke up, rather badly, last year. "Moth in a Cloud of Smoke" is a song from the forthcoming All Smiles CD, entitled Ten Readings of a Warning, to be released next month on Dangerbird Records. The MP3 is via Filter Magazine.
"Good Girl" - Astrid Swan
I'm coming upon a certain number of breezy, swingy songs these days, and I'm sure there's some hidden sociological message in it that I'll restrain myself from commenting on for the moment. What I will instead comment on is this: mere breezy-swinginess is not enough to make a good song. This can get confusing, since breezy-swingy songs are cheerful and make us feel good. For me, however, the song still has to be there, and it turns out I may in fact be harder on breezy-swingy songs than songs with other basic sounds, since I listen carefully to be sure I'm not being tricked into automatically equating feel-good-ness with goodness. Or something like that. Here, however, I'm convinced we're dealing with goodness. One clue: six seconds after establishing the breezy-swingy mood, it's abruptly withdrawn. Kind of a musical tease, which subsequently renders the ultimate sound all the more persuasive. (Note too how the song's most dramatic section, a bridge that starts around 2:08, likewise eschews the upbeat swing for something moodier.) Another clue: Astrid Swan's voice, which has something of Neko Case's fluid and convincing solidity both lower down and higher up. Finally, at the height of the breezy-swingy chorus, Swan strays into off-kilter chords, attractively minor and/or diminished sounding. And, okay, it doesn't count for anything but I also happen to think Astrid Swan is one of the coolest names in show business. Swan is a singer/songwriter from Helsinski; "Good Girl" is from her CD Poverina, which was released in 2005 in Europe and is at long last getting a stateside release on Minty Fresh Records this spring. MP3 courtesy of Minty Fresh.
"Naturally" - Middle Distance Runner
Middle Distance Runner, a quintet from Washington, D.C., appears to be a group of guys with a well-developed sense of humor. ("Middle Distance Runner," says their web site, "is what you would be left with if you took every nu-metal, frat-rock, and emo band, put them into a poorly insulated spaceship, and then drove it into the sun.") As with the breezy-swingy thing, we have to be careful around such bands--easy it is to mistake "funny guys" for "good music." This one even starts with hand claps. Cheery--one might even say jokey--hand claps at that. From there, the song acquires a sly sort of urgency, singer Stephen Kilroy delivering the eyebrow-raising lyrics with an easy-going slidiness. (The song appears to be about a guy who messes around romantically and kind of hopes he gets caught out and stopped already.) I love the chorus, with its abrupt 6/4 time change, as the words pour out beyond the boundaries of the 4/4 measures that precede it. "Naturally" is the lead track on the band's self-released debut CD, Plane in Flames, which came out back in June 2006. The MP3 is courtesy of the band. Give the guys some hand claps.
Monday, March 12, 2007
THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Mar. 11-17
There's a new Fingertips Contest up and running--the prize this time is a Merge Records Promo CD Sixpack: six full-length, promotional versions of quality Merge Records releases, including the brand new Arcade Fire CD, Neon Bible. Details on the Contests page.
"Tape It" - WinterKids
Perky British pop with that brilliant blend of polish and DIY-ishness that so often characterizes, well, music that I think is brilliant. Beyond the simple but delightful opening guitar line, one of the things that caught my attention early on here was that 10-second instrumental break from :30 to :40--not only is that an unusual place to have an instrumental break, listen to what it sounds like: the sing-songy glockenspiel (or some such xylophone-like thing) on top, the dissonant rhythm guitar below. Fun. Also, not a couple weeks after noting how the Los Campesinos! singer uses a heavy British accent, unusually, in a non-punk lyrical setting, here we have James Snider doing the same thing at the head of this Surrey-based quintet. A 21st-century trend? This time the song seems basically to be about remembering (or not remembering?) to tape an episode of a favorite TV show. Oh, and don't miss that deeply satisfying chord in the chorus on the word "leave" in the phrase "leave it in"--you can hear it first at 1:02. I've got nothing to add, just listen. "Tape It" was released by the band as a single last year and is due out on WinterKids' first full-length CD, entitled Memoirs, scheduled for release in the U.K. this week on Little House Records. The MP3 is available via the band's site.
"What Light" - Wilco
Relaxed, quirky, comfy, slightly odd, oddly elusive: yup, it's Wilco all right. It starts off with unusual clarity--upbeat strummy guitar, and is that a straightforward steel guitar, after all these years?; and these words: "If you feel like singing a song/ And you want other people to sing along/ Just sing what you feel/ Don't let anyone say it's wrong." As I think about it, this is not a bad way to approach music in the internet age, when there are always plenty of people, fingers ever poised above their oily keyboards, ready at a moment's notice, 24/7, to say it's wrong, wrong, wrong. Because of course what counts is not being right or good or authentic or generous but being first. (The first song I heard from this yet-to-be-released Wilco CD was posted--illegally! boo!--on a blog where one of the first comments on the post was: "A ghost is bored." Been waiting three years to use that one? Now what?) Ok, I'm digressing. I pretty much like anything Jeff Tweedy opens his mouth to sing because his voice is just so real and likable, and because even when it's not all that obvious, he's using honest melody to tell his fragmented, quizzical songs. "What Light" is a song from the band's forthcoming CD Sky Blue Sky (and hey is that a Laurie Anderson reference? I'm thinking yes), which leaked onto the internet last week, well in advance of its May 15 release date, on Nonesuch Records. The band, in response, has offered an official stream of the CD for two short periods of time on its web site, and also, now, this somewhat hidden but entirely free and legal MP3. Thanks to Alan at Sixeyes for the lead.
"Are You Sleeping" - Sara Culler
And talk about a likable voice: Sweden's Sara Culler opens her mouth and some part of me melts a bit. "Are You Sleeping" begins as a placid march, with a gentle one-two keyboard/drum riff. With the verse come lyrical blurts, rushed between beats in a clipped but also smile-inducing way (I think it's that voice of hers, that beguiling tone she gets even singing in rushed bursts); but notice in and around the singing how the music is building by way of that swooping, supple bass line. It's setting us up for something, and that something turns out to be a sweet, expansive chorus--a great sing-along thing set against a whimsical pastiche of blippy, ringy sounds, having the effect of being produced by some intricate Rube Goldberg-like apparatus. Listen to the words, too: as far as I can surmise, she's trying to wake us up, she is, with that ever-powerful awareness of how much of our lives we quite literally sleep through. "Are You Sleeping" is a brand-new song off her brand-new EP, Miss Takes - Light the Night!, self-released this week--just in time for her SXSW debut, as part of a series of WOXY-sponsored concerts at the festival. I also feel impelled to point out that Sara is one of the 13 wonderful artists featured on the Fingertips: Unwebbed CD, which is currently available for a $12 donation to this here web site; details aplenty are a click away.
week of Mar. 11-17
There's a new Fingertips Contest up and running--the prize this time is a Merge Records Promo CD Sixpack: six full-length, promotional versions of quality Merge Records releases, including the brand new Arcade Fire CD, Neon Bible. Details on the Contests page.
"Tape It" - WinterKids
Perky British pop with that brilliant blend of polish and DIY-ishness that so often characterizes, well, music that I think is brilliant. Beyond the simple but delightful opening guitar line, one of the things that caught my attention early on here was that 10-second instrumental break from :30 to :40--not only is that an unusual place to have an instrumental break, listen to what it sounds like: the sing-songy glockenspiel (or some such xylophone-like thing) on top, the dissonant rhythm guitar below. Fun. Also, not a couple weeks after noting how the Los Campesinos! singer uses a heavy British accent, unusually, in a non-punk lyrical setting, here we have James Snider doing the same thing at the head of this Surrey-based quintet. A 21st-century trend? This time the song seems basically to be about remembering (or not remembering?) to tape an episode of a favorite TV show. Oh, and don't miss that deeply satisfying chord in the chorus on the word "leave" in the phrase "leave it in"--you can hear it first at 1:02. I've got nothing to add, just listen. "Tape It" was released by the band as a single last year and is due out on WinterKids' first full-length CD, entitled Memoirs, scheduled for release in the U.K. this week on Little House Records. The MP3 is available via the band's site.
"What Light" - Wilco
Relaxed, quirky, comfy, slightly odd, oddly elusive: yup, it's Wilco all right. It starts off with unusual clarity--upbeat strummy guitar, and is that a straightforward steel guitar, after all these years?; and these words: "If you feel like singing a song/ And you want other people to sing along/ Just sing what you feel/ Don't let anyone say it's wrong." As I think about it, this is not a bad way to approach music in the internet age, when there are always plenty of people, fingers ever poised above their oily keyboards, ready at a moment's notice, 24/7, to say it's wrong, wrong, wrong. Because of course what counts is not being right or good or authentic or generous but being first. (The first song I heard from this yet-to-be-released Wilco CD was posted--illegally! boo!--on a blog where one of the first comments on the post was: "A ghost is bored." Been waiting three years to use that one? Now what?) Ok, I'm digressing. I pretty much like anything Jeff Tweedy opens his mouth to sing because his voice is just so real and likable, and because even when it's not all that obvious, he's using honest melody to tell his fragmented, quizzical songs. "What Light" is a song from the band's forthcoming CD Sky Blue Sky (and hey is that a Laurie Anderson reference? I'm thinking yes), which leaked onto the internet last week, well in advance of its May 15 release date, on Nonesuch Records. The band, in response, has offered an official stream of the CD for two short periods of time on its web site, and also, now, this somewhat hidden but entirely free and legal MP3. Thanks to Alan at Sixeyes for the lead.
"Are You Sleeping" - Sara Culler
And talk about a likable voice: Sweden's Sara Culler opens her mouth and some part of me melts a bit. "Are You Sleeping" begins as a placid march, with a gentle one-two keyboard/drum riff. With the verse come lyrical blurts, rushed between beats in a clipped but also smile-inducing way (I think it's that voice of hers, that beguiling tone she gets even singing in rushed bursts); but notice in and around the singing how the music is building by way of that swooping, supple bass line. It's setting us up for something, and that something turns out to be a sweet, expansive chorus--a great sing-along thing set against a whimsical pastiche of blippy, ringy sounds, having the effect of being produced by some intricate Rube Goldberg-like apparatus. Listen to the words, too: as far as I can surmise, she's trying to wake us up, she is, with that ever-powerful awareness of how much of our lives we quite literally sleep through. "Are You Sleeping" is a brand-new song off her brand-new EP, Miss Takes - Light the Night!, self-released this week--just in time for her SXSW debut, as part of a series of WOXY-sponsored concerts at the festival. I also feel impelled to point out that Sara is one of the 13 wonderful artists featured on the Fingertips: Unwebbed CD, which is currently available for a $12 donation to this here web site; details aplenty are a click away.
Monday, March 05, 2007
THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Mar. 4-10
"Heretics" - Andrew Bird
Andrew Bird has a sleepy, elastic way of singing his elusive, layered songs, and intermittently odd enunciation too. He uses solid, understandable words to create incomprehensible treatises on something resembling life, eschewing standard hooks and catchy melodies for carefully laid out, intertwining instrumental themes and snippet-like melodic motifs. The effect, once I let myself sink into it, is mysteriously convincing; not only do I return and return and get more and more out of it, I begin to believe that Bird is a unique talent--let the genre-meisters attempt to lay a genre on him, but there is none for what he is doing. The Chicago-based Bird has a bachelor's degree in violin performance from Northwestern, and might have double-majored in whistling if they had offered the right courses: Bird puts his lips together, blows, and a most eerie, flute-like whistle emerges--but you won't hear it in this particular song. You will hear the violin, however. "Heretics" is from his new CD, Armchair Apocrypha, to be released later this month on Fat Possum Records. If you really want to hear the whistling, I suggest buying the CD--it's really quite good, in an elusive and mysteriously convincing way. The MP3 is available via Toolshed.
"No More" - Julie Doiron
A variation of the often effective one-note song ("Subterranean Homesick Blues," "Pump It Up," et al) is the repetitive lyric song, where one or two words will repeat in each lyrical line but in each case matched with different subsequent words (Leonard Cohen's haunting "Who By Fire" comes to mind; and there are others, just don't ask me to name them right this moment). So here's Julie Doiron, from the Maritimes in Canada: "No more singing in the woods/ No more singing in the car/ No more singing in the streets/ No more singing in the bar," and so forth. Clearly the risk with such songs is that they will be, um, repetitive. But in the right hands, there is also the chance to make a certain kind of incisive and mesmerizing statement, and I think we have something like that going on here. Musically, the hypnotic, minor-key insistence underscores the lyrical focus, creating an uneasy sort of drive. The uneasiness, I think, is furthered by the rhythm guitar, which strums a relentless chord on the backbeat but somehow seems almost, each time, to miss the beat (you can hear its sneaky hesitation most clearly during the instrumental break at 1:20 or so). Whether Doiron is singing about the end of a relationship or something more threatening, such as the end of the chance--in this dire, dour day and age--to live a happy, expressive life, is unclear. Known more often for slower, quieter tunes, she wisely wraps things up quickly, which allows the repetitiveness to make the point without driving us crazy--as a matter of fact, even as the song clocks in at just 2:15, the lyrics--but for some lingering "No more"s, are through by 1:02. "No More" can be found on the CD Woke Myself Up, Doiron's seventh, which was released by Jagjaguwar Records in January. The MP3 is available via the Jagjaguwar site.
"Machines" - Kiss Kiss
A full-bodied, melodramatic, squeaky, squawky, feverish, yet winsome waltz. Back to violin rock we go, but this time the violin's electric and ghostly and mixed in with a kitchen-sink electronic orchestra featuring a variety of synthesized sounds and sound effects. "Machines" barrels along like some mad contraption, the three-quarter time lending a bizarre, 19th-century air to its careening, semi-apocalyptic ambiance. I'm a big fan of songs that balance control and chaos like this, and this tumbly juggernaut definitely seems simultaneously unhinged and tightly directed. Singer Josh Benash all but roars here and there, while electric violinist Rebecca Schlappich yanks off-kilter strains and the occasional squeal from her amplified strings, all to that familiar carousel beat. The whole wild ride is over in two and a half minutes, leaving the listener a bit breathless and quickly ready to go back and do it all over again. Kiss Kiss is a quintet from upstate New York who have named themselves after Roald Dahl's book of (often macabre) stories, for adults. "Machines" appears on the debut Kiss Kiss full-length, entitled Reality vs. the Optimist, which was released last month on Eyeball Records. The MP3 is via the Eyeball site.
week of Mar. 4-10
"Heretics" - Andrew Bird
Andrew Bird has a sleepy, elastic way of singing his elusive, layered songs, and intermittently odd enunciation too. He uses solid, understandable words to create incomprehensible treatises on something resembling life, eschewing standard hooks and catchy melodies for carefully laid out, intertwining instrumental themes and snippet-like melodic motifs. The effect, once I let myself sink into it, is mysteriously convincing; not only do I return and return and get more and more out of it, I begin to believe that Bird is a unique talent--let the genre-meisters attempt to lay a genre on him, but there is none for what he is doing. The Chicago-based Bird has a bachelor's degree in violin performance from Northwestern, and might have double-majored in whistling if they had offered the right courses: Bird puts his lips together, blows, and a most eerie, flute-like whistle emerges--but you won't hear it in this particular song. You will hear the violin, however. "Heretics" is from his new CD, Armchair Apocrypha, to be released later this month on Fat Possum Records. If you really want to hear the whistling, I suggest buying the CD--it's really quite good, in an elusive and mysteriously convincing way. The MP3 is available via Toolshed.
"No More" - Julie Doiron
A variation of the often effective one-note song ("Subterranean Homesick Blues," "Pump It Up," et al) is the repetitive lyric song, where one or two words will repeat in each lyrical line but in each case matched with different subsequent words (Leonard Cohen's haunting "Who By Fire" comes to mind; and there are others, just don't ask me to name them right this moment). So here's Julie Doiron, from the Maritimes in Canada: "No more singing in the woods/ No more singing in the car/ No more singing in the streets/ No more singing in the bar," and so forth. Clearly the risk with such songs is that they will be, um, repetitive. But in the right hands, there is also the chance to make a certain kind of incisive and mesmerizing statement, and I think we have something like that going on here. Musically, the hypnotic, minor-key insistence underscores the lyrical focus, creating an uneasy sort of drive. The uneasiness, I think, is furthered by the rhythm guitar, which strums a relentless chord on the backbeat but somehow seems almost, each time, to miss the beat (you can hear its sneaky hesitation most clearly during the instrumental break at 1:20 or so). Whether Doiron is singing about the end of a relationship or something more threatening, such as the end of the chance--in this dire, dour day and age--to live a happy, expressive life, is unclear. Known more often for slower, quieter tunes, she wisely wraps things up quickly, which allows the repetitiveness to make the point without driving us crazy--as a matter of fact, even as the song clocks in at just 2:15, the lyrics--but for some lingering "No more"s, are through by 1:02. "No More" can be found on the CD Woke Myself Up, Doiron's seventh, which was released by Jagjaguwar Records in January. The MP3 is available via the Jagjaguwar site.
"Machines" - Kiss Kiss
A full-bodied, melodramatic, squeaky, squawky, feverish, yet winsome waltz. Back to violin rock we go, but this time the violin's electric and ghostly and mixed in with a kitchen-sink electronic orchestra featuring a variety of synthesized sounds and sound effects. "Machines" barrels along like some mad contraption, the three-quarter time lending a bizarre, 19th-century air to its careening, semi-apocalyptic ambiance. I'm a big fan of songs that balance control and chaos like this, and this tumbly juggernaut definitely seems simultaneously unhinged and tightly directed. Singer Josh Benash all but roars here and there, while electric violinist Rebecca Schlappich yanks off-kilter strains and the occasional squeal from her amplified strings, all to that familiar carousel beat. The whole wild ride is over in two and a half minutes, leaving the listener a bit breathless and quickly ready to go back and do it all over again. Kiss Kiss is a quintet from upstate New York who have named themselves after Roald Dahl's book of (often macabre) stories, for adults. "Machines" appears on the debut Kiss Kiss full-length, entitled Reality vs. the Optimist, which was released last month on Eyeball Records. The MP3 is via the Eyeball site.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Feb. 25-Mar. 3
"23" - Blonde Redhead
A ravishing combination of guitar noise and melody. I'm a sucker for the combination of guitar noise and melody, particularly when the melody comes, as here, via a breathy, difficult to decipher soprano. Kazu Makino may as well be singing in Serbo-Croatian for all I can understand her; the only thing I'm picking up is that she's actually saying "two-three" rather than "twenty-three" (so, no, no tie-in to the Jim Carrey movie; just an unexplained coincidence! bwa-ha-ha!). And let me get more specific about the guitar noise, because it's a particular kind, the kind where the chords just seem to melt or bend continually into one another; the guitar is played (via a pedal of some kind?) more like a keyboard, with a sustained tone rather than in discrete strums of any kind. (Ah, note how the song is introduced by a few keyboard chords. Another unexplained coincidence?) I invite you to go back and listen to the entire song and try only to hear the guitar rather than the singer. It's almost mind-blowing. Blonde Redhead is an intriguing, international, NYC-based trio--Makino's from Japan; her bandmates are twin brothers Simone and Amedeo Pace, from Italy. "23" is the title track to Blonde Redhead's forthcoming CD, the band's seventh, scheduled for release in April on 4AD Records. The MP3 is available via Spinner, the AOL Indie Music Blog.
"Hard Line" - Jill Barber
Anything this sharp and snappy is pleasant enough to listen to from the get-go, but for me what renders it memorable is Barber's voice. Just a quarter step away from a twang, Barber may sound somewhat like Nanci Griffith, and maybe also somewhat like one of the McGarrigle sisters, or both of them, but the Halifax, Nova Scotia-based singer/songwriter is truly her own singular self. In a way, the snappy vibe is almost a distraction--I get caught up bobbing my head and tapping my toe and I don't really listen, much the way one gets caught up in daily living and forget, for days on end, simply, to be. And yet, of course, the paradox is one needs the form to give rise to the essence. So I wouldn't trade the snappy vibe here for anything. And I keep listening, keep trying to sink fully into this indescribably rich and playful and sweet and knowing voice, even while bobbing my head and tapping my toe to a song that acquires a deep and meaningful momentum underneath the peppiness as it unfolds. "Hard Line" comes from Barber's second CD For All Time, which was released last year in Canada on Outside Music. The MP3s is available via SXSW, one of the hundreds of new free and legal MP3s recently posted there for the 2007 festival.
"You! Me! Dancing!" - Los Campesinos!
This song's almost excruciatingly slow build is completely worth it when the payoff arrives: the itchy, catchy, joyful guitar riff that announces the true beginning of the song (well over one minute after it actually starts) and propels us giddily through the rest of it. There is, however, way more to "You! Me! Dancing!" than fun guitar work, and exclamation points; Los Campesinos! are a seven-piece band from Cardiff with a no-holds-barred instrumental sensibility--glockenspiel (that's the tinkly xylophone-like sound) and melody horn (a type of melodica) are both prominently featured among the free-spirited mix. And talk about free spirits: all seven members of the band have taken on the last name Campesinos! (with punctuation). Thickly accented lead vocalist Tom Campesinos! upends rock history with his unexpectedly endearing persona. In the past, a thick British accent has been all about punk posturing. Here it's just a guy who's not sure about his dancing ability. "You! Me! Dancing!" is a song from the band's self-released EP Hold On Now Youngster, which came out last year; the MP3 is via the BBC (and hm I have to investigate the BBC music sites more carefully; could be a good source of free and legal music). Signed to the British label Wichita Recordings towards the end of '06, the band's first label release, a seven-inch single called "We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives," came out this week in the U.K. The band, bless their seven hearts, is giving it away for free (as a .zip file) on their website.
week of Feb. 25-Mar. 3
"23" - Blonde Redhead
A ravishing combination of guitar noise and melody. I'm a sucker for the combination of guitar noise and melody, particularly when the melody comes, as here, via a breathy, difficult to decipher soprano. Kazu Makino may as well be singing in Serbo-Croatian for all I can understand her; the only thing I'm picking up is that she's actually saying "two-three" rather than "twenty-three" (so, no, no tie-in to the Jim Carrey movie; just an unexplained coincidence! bwa-ha-ha!). And let me get more specific about the guitar noise, because it's a particular kind, the kind where the chords just seem to melt or bend continually into one another; the guitar is played (via a pedal of some kind?) more like a keyboard, with a sustained tone rather than in discrete strums of any kind. (Ah, note how the song is introduced by a few keyboard chords. Another unexplained coincidence?) I invite you to go back and listen to the entire song and try only to hear the guitar rather than the singer. It's almost mind-blowing. Blonde Redhead is an intriguing, international, NYC-based trio--Makino's from Japan; her bandmates are twin brothers Simone and Amedeo Pace, from Italy. "23" is the title track to Blonde Redhead's forthcoming CD, the band's seventh, scheduled for release in April on 4AD Records. The MP3 is available via Spinner, the AOL Indie Music Blog.
"Hard Line" - Jill Barber
Anything this sharp and snappy is pleasant enough to listen to from the get-go, but for me what renders it memorable is Barber's voice. Just a quarter step away from a twang, Barber may sound somewhat like Nanci Griffith, and maybe also somewhat like one of the McGarrigle sisters, or both of them, but the Halifax, Nova Scotia-based singer/songwriter is truly her own singular self. In a way, the snappy vibe is almost a distraction--I get caught up bobbing my head and tapping my toe and I don't really listen, much the way one gets caught up in daily living and forget, for days on end, simply, to be. And yet, of course, the paradox is one needs the form to give rise to the essence. So I wouldn't trade the snappy vibe here for anything. And I keep listening, keep trying to sink fully into this indescribably rich and playful and sweet and knowing voice, even while bobbing my head and tapping my toe to a song that acquires a deep and meaningful momentum underneath the peppiness as it unfolds. "Hard Line" comes from Barber's second CD For All Time, which was released last year in Canada on Outside Music. The MP3s is available via SXSW, one of the hundreds of new free and legal MP3s recently posted there for the 2007 festival.
"You! Me! Dancing!" - Los Campesinos!
This song's almost excruciatingly slow build is completely worth it when the payoff arrives: the itchy, catchy, joyful guitar riff that announces the true beginning of the song (well over one minute after it actually starts) and propels us giddily through the rest of it. There is, however, way more to "You! Me! Dancing!" than fun guitar work, and exclamation points; Los Campesinos! are a seven-piece band from Cardiff with a no-holds-barred instrumental sensibility--glockenspiel (that's the tinkly xylophone-like sound) and melody horn (a type of melodica) are both prominently featured among the free-spirited mix. And talk about free spirits: all seven members of the band have taken on the last name Campesinos! (with punctuation). Thickly accented lead vocalist Tom Campesinos! upends rock history with his unexpectedly endearing persona. In the past, a thick British accent has been all about punk posturing. Here it's just a guy who's not sure about his dancing ability. "You! Me! Dancing!" is a song from the band's self-released EP Hold On Now Youngster, which came out last year; the MP3 is via the BBC (and hm I have to investigate the BBC music sites more carefully; could be a good source of free and legal music). Signed to the British label Wichita Recordings towards the end of '06, the band's first label release, a seven-inch single called "We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives," came out this week in the U.K. The band, bless their seven hearts, is giving it away for free (as a .zip file) on their website.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Feb. 18-24
"Hardcore Hornography" - Michelle Shocked
Michelle Shocked has the happy ability to sound completely unfettered and at home in a multiplicity of musical styles; you can now add straight-up New Orleans party music to her impressive list of genre performance credentials. And leave it to Shocked, a born activist and good-natured hell-raiser, to serve up this traditional good-time music with an added jigger of social awareness, hot sauce included: "That was one blow job you won't forget/ I ain't talkin' 'bout Katrina yet/ When that brass band starts to play/ Lay back and think of the U.S.A." Mardi Gras spirit infuses both melody and accompaniment; there is so much movement in the roisterous sound that you'd swear this must have been recorded while everyone was marching down St. Charles Avenue. Shocked plays here with the Newbirth Brass Band, trumpeter Troy Andrews, and a trombone player so authentic his name is simply Trombone Shorty. After flirting with mainstream folk-rock success back in the late '80s, Shocked has gone on to record an idiosyncratic string of albums, including an ambitious yet free-spirited trilogy (yes, three separate CDs) released last year on her own Mighty Sound record label. Her next CD is due out this summer; another trilogy appears to be in the works. "Hardcore Hornography" is offered up for Mardi Gras and to bring awareness to the ongoing plight of New Orleans, which remains largely abandoned by the federal government. The song is available for via her web site. Thanks to Bruce at Some Velvet Blog for the head's up.
"If That's the Case, Then I Don't Know" - the Electric Soft Parade
At once squonky and lithe, the latest effort from the British brother duo the Electric Soft Parade features anthemic chords and resounding beats, scuffed up fetchingly with fuzzy guitars and electronic blips and boops. Add Alex White's nicely vulnerable, Brit-poppy vocals and the whole manages to trump the sum of its parts--quite an accomplishment, as the parts themselves are pretty darned keen. A casual know-how informs both the song structure and the production; we get a masterly mix of rhythm and melody, guitar and drum, busy-ness and spaciousness, loud and soft. The loud-soft thing is especially cool, since the White boys (Tom's on drums) aren't offering a standard sort of "here's the soft part, here's the loud part" approach as much as utilizing the dynamic range of sound throughout, much as a first-rate black and white photograph will display the blackest black, the whitest white, and many gradations of grey in between. Another cool thing is the nifty coda: note at 4:02 how the song's drive shifts gears, the beat moving to swinging triplets, before the drums pretty much disintegrate, electronically. Or something like that. The song will be found on the band's next CD, No Need to Be Downhearted, their third full-length, scheduled for an April release on Better Looking Records. The MP3 is via the Better Looking site.
"Limbs" - Emma Pollock
A lovely piano refrain, composed of a careful series of arpeggios, runs through this pensive acoustic ballad. The song builds to it slowly--piano is part of the central sound from the outset, but the anchoring refrain is not heard until 1:12, and from there it accompanies the verse as it proceeds, falling away during the understated chorus. Overall, "Limbs" advances with a beguiling sort of relaxed meticulousness: not a guitar string, not a piano key is used without precision, and yet, perhaps because of Pollock's warm, and warmly recorded, voice, the effort seems easy-flowing, almost impromptu. The song seems to emerge from some mysterious, unflappable inner space; despite the strong melody, the effect is still somewhat trancelike. Emma Pollock, from Glasgow, was one of the founders of the well-regarded '90s band the Delgados, who were also responsible for founding the important independent record label Chemikal Underground. The band split amicably in 2005; Pollock has been signed to 4AD Records since. Her solo debut is forthcoming at some unspecified date. "Limbs" is so far a free-standing song. The MP3 is courtesy of SXSW.com, which has just unleashed its latest storehouse of free and legal MP3s, oriented now towards the 2007 festival happening next month in Austin.
week of Feb. 18-24
"Hardcore Hornography" - Michelle Shocked
Michelle Shocked has the happy ability to sound completely unfettered and at home in a multiplicity of musical styles; you can now add straight-up New Orleans party music to her impressive list of genre performance credentials. And leave it to Shocked, a born activist and good-natured hell-raiser, to serve up this traditional good-time music with an added jigger of social awareness, hot sauce included: "That was one blow job you won't forget/ I ain't talkin' 'bout Katrina yet/ When that brass band starts to play/ Lay back and think of the U.S.A." Mardi Gras spirit infuses both melody and accompaniment; there is so much movement in the roisterous sound that you'd swear this must have been recorded while everyone was marching down St. Charles Avenue. Shocked plays here with the Newbirth Brass Band, trumpeter Troy Andrews, and a trombone player so authentic his name is simply Trombone Shorty. After flirting with mainstream folk-rock success back in the late '80s, Shocked has gone on to record an idiosyncratic string of albums, including an ambitious yet free-spirited trilogy (yes, three separate CDs) released last year on her own Mighty Sound record label. Her next CD is due out this summer; another trilogy appears to be in the works. "Hardcore Hornography" is offered up for Mardi Gras and to bring awareness to the ongoing plight of New Orleans, which remains largely abandoned by the federal government. The song is available for via her web site. Thanks to Bruce at Some Velvet Blog for the head's up.
"If That's the Case, Then I Don't Know" - the Electric Soft Parade
At once squonky and lithe, the latest effort from the British brother duo the Electric Soft Parade features anthemic chords and resounding beats, scuffed up fetchingly with fuzzy guitars and electronic blips and boops. Add Alex White's nicely vulnerable, Brit-poppy vocals and the whole manages to trump the sum of its parts--quite an accomplishment, as the parts themselves are pretty darned keen. A casual know-how informs both the song structure and the production; we get a masterly mix of rhythm and melody, guitar and drum, busy-ness and spaciousness, loud and soft. The loud-soft thing is especially cool, since the White boys (Tom's on drums) aren't offering a standard sort of "here's the soft part, here's the loud part" approach as much as utilizing the dynamic range of sound throughout, much as a first-rate black and white photograph will display the blackest black, the whitest white, and many gradations of grey in between. Another cool thing is the nifty coda: note at 4:02 how the song's drive shifts gears, the beat moving to swinging triplets, before the drums pretty much disintegrate, electronically. Or something like that. The song will be found on the band's next CD, No Need to Be Downhearted, their third full-length, scheduled for an April release on Better Looking Records. The MP3 is via the Better Looking site.
"Limbs" - Emma Pollock
A lovely piano refrain, composed of a careful series of arpeggios, runs through this pensive acoustic ballad. The song builds to it slowly--piano is part of the central sound from the outset, but the anchoring refrain is not heard until 1:12, and from there it accompanies the verse as it proceeds, falling away during the understated chorus. Overall, "Limbs" advances with a beguiling sort of relaxed meticulousness: not a guitar string, not a piano key is used without precision, and yet, perhaps because of Pollock's warm, and warmly recorded, voice, the effort seems easy-flowing, almost impromptu. The song seems to emerge from some mysterious, unflappable inner space; despite the strong melody, the effect is still somewhat trancelike. Emma Pollock, from Glasgow, was one of the founders of the well-regarded '90s band the Delgados, who were also responsible for founding the important independent record label Chemikal Underground. The band split amicably in 2005; Pollock has been signed to 4AD Records since. Her solo debut is forthcoming at some unspecified date. "Limbs" is so far a free-standing song. The MP3 is courtesy of SXSW.com, which has just unleashed its latest storehouse of free and legal MP3s, oriented now towards the 2007 festival happening next month in Austin.
Monday, February 12, 2007
THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Feb. 11-17
"Every One of Us" - Goldrush
We don't seem at a loss here in the still-young year for brilliant, glistening rock songs. Here's another, from the fine British band Goldrush. I love how the guitars add texture and tension to the song's galloping beat, both the wavery synth-y line that arches like a siren above and the waves of skittery feedback-like chords that fade in and out below. But maybe the best thing on display here is Robin Bennett's voice, which I find deeply affecting--a rubbery and slightly trembly tenor that at certain moments bring Ray Davies to mind (as, happily, do the melodies). And please listen to the words, which start out poignant and then turn transcendent, as the song makes that rare, exceptional link between the socio-political and the interpersonal. What begins as a moving statement on 21st-century alienation gains depth and spirit as the perspective angles in on a single human heart: "And if nothing is the way that it was/ Well there's one thing you can be sure of, because/ We are not the way that we were/ She will forget about you/ So forget about her." The title phrase proceeds to assume two competing, plaintive meanings. Nice nice work. "Every One of Us" is a song from the band's new CD, The Heart is the Place, which is set for release next week in the U.K. on Truck Records, an impressively robust label run by Bennett and his brother Joe, who is also in Goldrush. The CD has been out since mid-January on City Slang, the band's German label. No word yet on a U.S. release date. The MP3 is available via City Slang.
"City Morning Song" - Sarah Shannon
With its sunny, late-'60s/early-'70s swing and bright-eyed production, "City Morning Song" has seemingly little to do with the noise pop favored by Shannon as lead singer of the mid-'90s band Velocity Girl. And yet, what, to my ears, made that band's fuzzy, atmospheric music work so well was Shannon's airy voice floating above the busy, churning din. Remove the busy, churning din and here's her airy voice, set free in a vastly different musical landscape, in which we can now hear its attractive, meatier, Laura Nyro-ish-ness, especially in her lower register. Loving reverberations from a bygone era suffuse this snappy little number: the sly time-signature stutter that perks up the piano chord section introducing and anchoring the song; the piano itself, all guileless chords and happy rhythm; and, but of course, the trumpet--emerging in the background at 1:10, and you don't quite hear it, but hear it enough to make the short solo (1:42) smilingly inevitable. (Burt Bacharach, at least, would be smiling.) Shannon clearly feels at home here--City Morning Song is her second solo CD, and her previous effort, a self-titled album in 2002, found her likewise reveling predominantly in a '70s-flavored land of horns, keyboards, and evocative rhythms. City Morning Song was released last week on the Chicago-based Minty Fresh Records; the MP3 is via the Minty Fresh site.
"Advice for Young Mothers to Be" - the Veils
Based charmingly, if unexpectedly, upon classic doo-wop chords and melodies, this song has a mysterious appeal that I'm still trying to figure out. I like, to begin with, when songs are simultaneously accessible and weird. And yes, I have to say that the sound of a young indie band singing anything that sounds remotely like doo-wop is immediately odd--but, also, resoundingly familiar because of the time-honored musical setting. So, there: accessible and weird. And the accessible weirdnesses thereafter pile on, from Finn Andrews' quavery, croon-y baritone to the lilting, semi-reggae-ish shuffle this comes wrapped in to the inscrutable lyrics and indirect Smiths-like vibe--I can't put my finger on that one precisely because Andrews doesn't really sound like Morrissey but there's something in, maybe, his delivery that does the trick: try when he sings "The friends who care still call you on the phone" (1:18) or the words in the chorus "Your advice for young mothers to be/ Will never find the words, darling believe me" and see if you can't hear it. "Advice for Young Mothers to Be" is from the Veils' second CD, Nux Vomica, which was released in the U.K. last fall on Rough Trade Records, and is scheduled for a U.S. release in April on Great Society Records. Andrews, by the way, is son of Barry Andrews, once of XTC and later of Shriekback. Based in New Zealand, the Veils are now a trio; they were a quartet on their first CD, The Runaway Found (2004), and everyone but Andrews from that incarnation is gone.
week of Feb. 11-17
"Every One of Us" - Goldrush
We don't seem at a loss here in the still-young year for brilliant, glistening rock songs. Here's another, from the fine British band Goldrush. I love how the guitars add texture and tension to the song's galloping beat, both the wavery synth-y line that arches like a siren above and the waves of skittery feedback-like chords that fade in and out below. But maybe the best thing on display here is Robin Bennett's voice, which I find deeply affecting--a rubbery and slightly trembly tenor that at certain moments bring Ray Davies to mind (as, happily, do the melodies). And please listen to the words, which start out poignant and then turn transcendent, as the song makes that rare, exceptional link between the socio-political and the interpersonal. What begins as a moving statement on 21st-century alienation gains depth and spirit as the perspective angles in on a single human heart: "And if nothing is the way that it was/ Well there's one thing you can be sure of, because/ We are not the way that we were/ She will forget about you/ So forget about her." The title phrase proceeds to assume two competing, plaintive meanings. Nice nice work. "Every One of Us" is a song from the band's new CD, The Heart is the Place, which is set for release next week in the U.K. on Truck Records, an impressively robust label run by Bennett and his brother Joe, who is also in Goldrush. The CD has been out since mid-January on City Slang, the band's German label. No word yet on a U.S. release date. The MP3 is available via City Slang.
"City Morning Song" - Sarah Shannon
With its sunny, late-'60s/early-'70s swing and bright-eyed production, "City Morning Song" has seemingly little to do with the noise pop favored by Shannon as lead singer of the mid-'90s band Velocity Girl. And yet, what, to my ears, made that band's fuzzy, atmospheric music work so well was Shannon's airy voice floating above the busy, churning din. Remove the busy, churning din and here's her airy voice, set free in a vastly different musical landscape, in which we can now hear its attractive, meatier, Laura Nyro-ish-ness, especially in her lower register. Loving reverberations from a bygone era suffuse this snappy little number: the sly time-signature stutter that perks up the piano chord section introducing and anchoring the song; the piano itself, all guileless chords and happy rhythm; and, but of course, the trumpet--emerging in the background at 1:10, and you don't quite hear it, but hear it enough to make the short solo (1:42) smilingly inevitable. (Burt Bacharach, at least, would be smiling.) Shannon clearly feels at home here--City Morning Song is her second solo CD, and her previous effort, a self-titled album in 2002, found her likewise reveling predominantly in a '70s-flavored land of horns, keyboards, and evocative rhythms. City Morning Song was released last week on the Chicago-based Minty Fresh Records; the MP3 is via the Minty Fresh site.
"Advice for Young Mothers to Be" - the Veils
Based charmingly, if unexpectedly, upon classic doo-wop chords and melodies, this song has a mysterious appeal that I'm still trying to figure out. I like, to begin with, when songs are simultaneously accessible and weird. And yes, I have to say that the sound of a young indie band singing anything that sounds remotely like doo-wop is immediately odd--but, also, resoundingly familiar because of the time-honored musical setting. So, there: accessible and weird. And the accessible weirdnesses thereafter pile on, from Finn Andrews' quavery, croon-y baritone to the lilting, semi-reggae-ish shuffle this comes wrapped in to the inscrutable lyrics and indirect Smiths-like vibe--I can't put my finger on that one precisely because Andrews doesn't really sound like Morrissey but there's something in, maybe, his delivery that does the trick: try when he sings "The friends who care still call you on the phone" (1:18) or the words in the chorus "Your advice for young mothers to be/ Will never find the words, darling believe me" and see if you can't hear it. "Advice for Young Mothers to Be" is from the Veils' second CD, Nux Vomica, which was released in the U.K. last fall on Rough Trade Records, and is scheduled for a U.S. release in April on Great Society Records. Andrews, by the way, is son of Barry Andrews, once of XTC and later of Shriekback. Based in New Zealand, the Veils are now a trio; they were a quartet on their first CD, The Runaway Found (2004), and everyone but Andrews from that incarnation is gone.
Monday, February 05, 2007
The midwinter blowout continues at the Prize Closet, where contribution gifts are now available for $9 and $12. Thanks to the hale and hearty crew who've contributed! See what it's all about here.
THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Feb. 4-10
"Thank God for the Evening News" - Fulton Lights
Satisfyingly moody and intriguingly entitled, "Thank God for the Evening News" unfolds with vivid style over an unhurried beat and minimal chord changes. Now then, I like chord changes and pretty much thought I required a good number of them in a song; and yet here's one with maybe two chords in it and I'm quickly and continually engaged. Well. How can this be? Certainly the beat beguiles, combining an electronica-like ambiance--including the subtlest sort of clanky, scratchy noises and thin, smashy drums--with organic sounds, including in particular a nice assortment of strings, employed with great color as the song progresses. Could it be that Andrew Spencer Goldman, the driving force behind Fulton Lights, uses the texture of the beat in lieu of chord changes, as its own sort of structure and substance? It's a theory. What he also has going for him is a wavery tenor, and a billowy melody for it to sing--moving and rising and sinking enough to distract you from the single-minded chord structure. The lyrics, at once dreamlike and caustic, add to the stylish desolation, like this recurrent series of lines: "I've seen blurry vision/I've seen slow explanations/I've seen false advertising/And wholesale degradation." "Thank God for the Evening News" is a track off the debut Fulton Lights CD, self-titled, which is due out next month as a joint release on Goldman's own Android Eats Records and Catbird Records, a label associated with the estimable blog The Catbirdseat. The MP3 is via the Fulton Lights site.
"Eye for an Eye" - Telograph
Here's a band from Washington, D.C. with a song that sounds like an intriguing cross between, oh, maybe Echo and the Bunnymen and early R.E.M. Singer Andy Boliek definitely has something of Ian McCulloch's deep-throated, romantic baritone, while the glistening guitar lines and soaring refrains bring you back to the early '80s in a number of ineffable ways. Even so, I don't hear this as simply a throwback or retread; there's something crisp and present in the sound. I like the hunger conveyed by Boliek's yearning, repeated return to the E-flat and D notes near the top of his range (for instance, as he sings "border" at 1:02), and love how the bittersweet atmosphere is enhanced by an extended melody that takes us, with a tender sort of briskness, through a lovely series of chords (no shortage of modulation this time!) that to my ears give the song both lift and depth--listen, for instance, from 1:24 to 1:54. "Eye for an Eye" is one of five songs on Telograph's debut EP, Little Bits of Plastic, which the band released on January 1. The MP3 is via the band's site.
"I'm a Broken Heart" - The Bird and the Bee
Awash in an echoey, vaguely '60s-like aural landscape, "I'm a Broken Heart" reveals itself to be brand new at its core, a combination of electro-retro sounds that we've never quite heard before. Inara George sings the coy melodies with a beautiful airy tone, while keyboardist/producer Greg Kurskin surrounds her with a warm but quirky mix of jazzy sounds, the line between electronic and organic completely obscured. On their MySpace page, the duo describes their music as "a futuristic 1960's American film set in Brazil." While this inspired pronouncement doesn't quite nail this particular song's sound, an alternative self-description, "psychedelic Burt Bacharach," is right on target: if you have doubts, check out the extended horn work, from 2:50 to 3:19, particularly the staccato-y melodrama starting at 3:06. That's Burt on some sort of drug, all right. George by the way is daughter of legendary Little Feat leader Lowell George, who died back in 1979 when she was five; Jackson Browne is her godfather, and sang on her first solo CD, All Rise, which came out early in 2005. "I'm a Broken Heart" is from the debut CD for the Bird and the Bee, which was released, interestingly, on Blue Note Records (normally a jazz label). The MP3 is via the fine folks at betterPropaganda.
THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Feb. 4-10
"Thank God for the Evening News" - Fulton Lights
Satisfyingly moody and intriguingly entitled, "Thank God for the Evening News" unfolds with vivid style over an unhurried beat and minimal chord changes. Now then, I like chord changes and pretty much thought I required a good number of them in a song; and yet here's one with maybe two chords in it and I'm quickly and continually engaged. Well. How can this be? Certainly the beat beguiles, combining an electronica-like ambiance--including the subtlest sort of clanky, scratchy noises and thin, smashy drums--with organic sounds, including in particular a nice assortment of strings, employed with great color as the song progresses. Could it be that Andrew Spencer Goldman, the driving force behind Fulton Lights, uses the texture of the beat in lieu of chord changes, as its own sort of structure and substance? It's a theory. What he also has going for him is a wavery tenor, and a billowy melody for it to sing--moving and rising and sinking enough to distract you from the single-minded chord structure. The lyrics, at once dreamlike and caustic, add to the stylish desolation, like this recurrent series of lines: "I've seen blurry vision/I've seen slow explanations/I've seen false advertising/And wholesale degradation." "Thank God for the Evening News" is a track off the debut Fulton Lights CD, self-titled, which is due out next month as a joint release on Goldman's own Android Eats Records and Catbird Records, a label associated with the estimable blog The Catbirdseat. The MP3 is via the Fulton Lights site.
"Eye for an Eye" - Telograph
Here's a band from Washington, D.C. with a song that sounds like an intriguing cross between, oh, maybe Echo and the Bunnymen and early R.E.M. Singer Andy Boliek definitely has something of Ian McCulloch's deep-throated, romantic baritone, while the glistening guitar lines and soaring refrains bring you back to the early '80s in a number of ineffable ways. Even so, I don't hear this as simply a throwback or retread; there's something crisp and present in the sound. I like the hunger conveyed by Boliek's yearning, repeated return to the E-flat and D notes near the top of his range (for instance, as he sings "border" at 1:02), and love how the bittersweet atmosphere is enhanced by an extended melody that takes us, with a tender sort of briskness, through a lovely series of chords (no shortage of modulation this time!) that to my ears give the song both lift and depth--listen, for instance, from 1:24 to 1:54. "Eye for an Eye" is one of five songs on Telograph's debut EP, Little Bits of Plastic, which the band released on January 1. The MP3 is via the band's site.
"I'm a Broken Heart" - The Bird and the Bee
Awash in an echoey, vaguely '60s-like aural landscape, "I'm a Broken Heart" reveals itself to be brand new at its core, a combination of electro-retro sounds that we've never quite heard before. Inara George sings the coy melodies with a beautiful airy tone, while keyboardist/producer Greg Kurskin surrounds her with a warm but quirky mix of jazzy sounds, the line between electronic and organic completely obscured. On their MySpace page, the duo describes their music as "a futuristic 1960's American film set in Brazil." While this inspired pronouncement doesn't quite nail this particular song's sound, an alternative self-description, "psychedelic Burt Bacharach," is right on target: if you have doubts, check out the extended horn work, from 2:50 to 3:19, particularly the staccato-y melodrama starting at 3:06. That's Burt on some sort of drug, all right. George by the way is daughter of legendary Little Feat leader Lowell George, who died back in 1979 when she was five; Jackson Browne is her godfather, and sang on her first solo CD, All Rise, which came out early in 2005. "I'm a Broken Heart" is from the debut CD for the Bird and the Bee, which was released, interestingly, on Blue Note Records (normally a jazz label). The MP3 is via the fine folks at betterPropaganda.
Monday, January 29, 2007
THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Jan. 28-Feb. 3
"In Transit" - Albert Hammond, Jr.
With a name that sounds surely like he must be some rough-and-tumble Delta bluesman, Hammond is, rather, simply the guitarist in the Strokes--oh, and also the son of the guy who co-wrote the '70s hits "It Never Rains in Southern California" and "The Air That I Breathe." Neither of those connections, however, set the stage for this chimey, brightly-paced, instantly likeable song. While the sharp guitar lines are reminiscent of something you'd hear from the Strokes, the vibe is lighter, airier, and poppier. Hammond betrays an unexpected affinity for ELO (there are moments when his voice in fact sounds eerily like Jeff Lynne's), complete with that old band's penchant for sky- and space-oriented sounds and imagery. Listen here how the melody in the verse seems literally to float in space above the double-time background; then in the chorus, the idea of floating in space is accentuated by those Star Trek synthesizers. (Hammond sings about how he "went too far" just as the background implies "where no man has gone before": cute.) "In Transit" is the lead track from Yours To Keep--the first solo album released by any member of the Strokes. The CD was released back in October in the U.K. (where the band have always been huge); the U.S. release is slated for March, on New Line Records. The MP3 comes from the New Line site, via Filter.
"Chemicals for Criminals" - Manic
After a short atmospheric recording studio noodle, this one leaps out of the speakers with remarkable assurance for a new band. We get an incisive melody, a strong, sly beat, and ringing guitars shot through with a hint of dissonance, all held together by singer Paul Gross's full-throttled delivery that, like the song itself, manages to combine indie spunk with the sort of blazing poise one expects from an arena band. This is one of those unusual songs where the hook comes at you in the first line of the verse: that melody is the centerpiece of the song, and as often as it's repeated, it manages to continually engage me. Maybe it's the octave harmonies (gotta love those octave harmonies); maybe it's the fact that it's based on the same notes as "Whistle While You Work." "Chemicals for Criminals" is a song off this L.A. foursome's debut release, Floor Boards, a five-song EP on Suretone Records that came out last week. The MP3 is via Suretone. As a matter of fact, right now Suretone is offering the entire EP for free on its site; follow this link and it's yours, after you unzip it.
"Girl in a Tree" - the Young Republic
Back we go to the Young Republic, and back we go to that resonant two-chord progression I wrote about a few weeks ago. This time it's supported with this marvelous Boston band's vivid and inventive instrumental sensibility: we get a variety of strings, we get a flute, and I think a trumpet, and maybe a tambourine and a mandolin? The eight members of the Young Republic are classically trained and obviously play and think like a true ensemble, but instead of being subsumed by an actual orchestra (in which you don't hear, for example, a single violin as often as "violins"--a different sound), they play in a setting in which each voice can be heard distinctly. The perky way the two central chords are presented in the intro, on a sprightly variety of dueling stringed instruments, is but one example. And let not the sophisticated musicianship allow us to lose sight of another of the band's primary assets, which is singer/songwriter/rhythm guitarist Julian Saporiti, whose textured ache of a voice recalls an earthier version of Belle and Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch. "Girl in a Tree" is a song from the band's most recent release, YR7, which yup is their seventh release; the MP3 is via the band's site. And I would be remiss if I didn't point out that the Young Republic is one of the 13 bands featured on the Fingertips: Unwebbed CD, which is available currently for a $12 donation.
week of Jan. 28-Feb. 3
"In Transit" - Albert Hammond, Jr.
With a name that sounds surely like he must be some rough-and-tumble Delta bluesman, Hammond is, rather, simply the guitarist in the Strokes--oh, and also the son of the guy who co-wrote the '70s hits "It Never Rains in Southern California" and "The Air That I Breathe." Neither of those connections, however, set the stage for this chimey, brightly-paced, instantly likeable song. While the sharp guitar lines are reminiscent of something you'd hear from the Strokes, the vibe is lighter, airier, and poppier. Hammond betrays an unexpected affinity for ELO (there are moments when his voice in fact sounds eerily like Jeff Lynne's), complete with that old band's penchant for sky- and space-oriented sounds and imagery. Listen here how the melody in the verse seems literally to float in space above the double-time background; then in the chorus, the idea of floating in space is accentuated by those Star Trek synthesizers. (Hammond sings about how he "went too far" just as the background implies "where no man has gone before": cute.) "In Transit" is the lead track from Yours To Keep--the first solo album released by any member of the Strokes. The CD was released back in October in the U.K. (where the band have always been huge); the U.S. release is slated for March, on New Line Records. The MP3 comes from the New Line site, via Filter.
"Chemicals for Criminals" - Manic
After a short atmospheric recording studio noodle, this one leaps out of the speakers with remarkable assurance for a new band. We get an incisive melody, a strong, sly beat, and ringing guitars shot through with a hint of dissonance, all held together by singer Paul Gross's full-throttled delivery that, like the song itself, manages to combine indie spunk with the sort of blazing poise one expects from an arena band. This is one of those unusual songs where the hook comes at you in the first line of the verse: that melody is the centerpiece of the song, and as often as it's repeated, it manages to continually engage me. Maybe it's the octave harmonies (gotta love those octave harmonies); maybe it's the fact that it's based on the same notes as "Whistle While You Work." "Chemicals for Criminals" is a song off this L.A. foursome's debut release, Floor Boards, a five-song EP on Suretone Records that came out last week. The MP3 is via Suretone. As a matter of fact, right now Suretone is offering the entire EP for free on its site; follow this link and it's yours, after you unzip it.
"Girl in a Tree" - the Young Republic
Back we go to the Young Republic, and back we go to that resonant two-chord progression I wrote about a few weeks ago. This time it's supported with this marvelous Boston band's vivid and inventive instrumental sensibility: we get a variety of strings, we get a flute, and I think a trumpet, and maybe a tambourine and a mandolin? The eight members of the Young Republic are classically trained and obviously play and think like a true ensemble, but instead of being subsumed by an actual orchestra (in which you don't hear, for example, a single violin as often as "violins"--a different sound), they play in a setting in which each voice can be heard distinctly. The perky way the two central chords are presented in the intro, on a sprightly variety of dueling stringed instruments, is but one example. And let not the sophisticated musicianship allow us to lose sight of another of the band's primary assets, which is singer/songwriter/rhythm guitarist Julian Saporiti, whose textured ache of a voice recalls an earthier version of Belle and Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch. "Girl in a Tree" is a song from the band's most recent release, YR7, which yup is their seventh release; the MP3 is via the band's site. And I would be remiss if I didn't point out that the Young Republic is one of the 13 bands featured on the Fingertips: Unwebbed CD, which is available currently for a $12 donation.
Monday, January 22, 2007
This is the last week you can enter the current Fingertips contest, the prize this time being a 12-inch vinyl copy of Be Your Own Pet's debut album (Be Your Own Pet). Turntable not included. Deadline is January 25; all the details are here. And have you heard about the Prize Closet blowout? Gifts for cheap! Those details are here.
THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Jan. 21-27
"Down in the Valley" - the Broken West
Big Star meets Wilco; irresistibility ensues. With its muscular tom-tom beat, feedbacky guitar, sloppy-tight harmonies, and organ solo, "Down in the Valley" walks that great great line between power pop and garage rock--a line walkable only by bands that really know what they're doing. As a matter of fact, although the year is young, I think I'm going to be hard-pressed to find in 2007 another chorus as infectious as this one. Two things in particular make it work so well. First, the set-up: after the verse (starting at 0:38) we get a two-line lead-in before the chorus, and the chords that finally usher us in are both perfect (a classic series of resolving steps) and imperfect (they're hardly actually there; rather they are largely implied). This is why, I think, we're left in such a delicious state of anticipation at 0:46, waiting for the chorus to give us the resolution we crave. (It does.) Second, the harmonies, and specifically the harmony in the seoncd line of the chorus, where the melody repeats but the vocal harmonies, has shifted. What I'm talking about: compare the sound of the harmonies on the word "sundown" (0:50-51) (the voices are singing the same note) to the harmonies on the words "no one" (0:57-59)--here the backing vocal splits off, going up a whole step while the melody goes down a third and we get that mysterious fourth interval for a note and there, that does it for me. Perhaps for you too, now that I mention it? The Broken West is a young quintet from Los Angeles who sound as broken in and familiar as an old pair of slippers. "Down in the Valley" is from the band's disarmingly titled debut CD, I Can't Go On, I'll Go On, to be released tomorrow on the excellent Merge label.
"Carouselle" - Nicole Atkins
Attentive Fingertips visitors may remember Atkins from the delightful "Skywriters," a song from her self-released debut CD that spent a few months on the Fingertips Top 10 late in '05. Shortly thereafter, she was snapped up by none other than Columbia Records, which will release her next full-length CD this spring. In the meantime, an EP quietly emerged at the tail end of '06 called Bleeding Diamonds, and from it, "Carouselle": a charming amalgam of Kurt Weill and, oh, maybe Jenny Lewis? (Aha: an appropriate confluence, given Weill's obsession with the name Jenny!) Alternating between a minor key, cabaret-ish piano vamp in the verse and a sweet, swinging Brill Building-y chorus, the song offers a bittersweet, idiosyncratic, smartly-crafted tribute to a demolished seaside amusement park ride. Atkins so sneakily blends typically discrete musical styles that you have to pay close attention to realize she's up to something unusual. While you're paying close attention, I urge you to listen as well to the depth of character in her voice; if you don't concentrate, she may sound simply like another breezy-voiced flavor of the month, but no no no, she's a keeper, with that rich, unexpected, and beautifully controlled vibrato and a simmering sense of passion kept just below the surface. I dare you to listen to how she sings the word "fantastic" (1:34) and not find your heart skipping a beat; or maybe you'll just fall in love on the spot, as perhaps I have. The eagerly-awaited Columbia full-length does not yet have a release date.
"To Live and Die in the Airport Lounge" - My Teenage Stride
Buoyed by the same brand of upbeat moodiness that characterized many an old Smiths song, "To Live and Die in the Airport Lounge" is a sparkly bit of catchy but inscrutable guitar pop from the Brooklyn-based one-time one-man-band My Teenage Stride. Jedediah Smith is the singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist who launched the band, by himself, a few years ago; for a good part of the new CD, however, he assembled a stable foursome, and will perform live with them now as well. While I cannot personally vouch for the claim that Smith is "a living compendium of virtually every pop style that has existed from 1956 through the present," as per his PR material, who am I to argue? He's apparently written more than 500 songs in his still-young life, and I've only heard four of them. I will say that Smith's music does exude an easy-going expertise; check out how nicely he blends the two (maybe three?) guitar sounds that drive the piece, and check out too his dexterous vocal layering--I really like how his extensive use of same-note harmony vocals serves to render all the more glowing the harmonies that subsequently differentiate. "To Live and Die in the Airport Lounge" is a song off Ears Like Golden Bats, the new My Teenage Stride CD, slated for a February release on London-based Becalmed Records.
Monday, January 15, 2007
A new Fingertips contest is up and running, this one of particular interest to you vinyl junkies out there. I have one copy of Be Your Own Pet's debut album (Be Your Own Pet) in a spiffy, unopened 12-inch vinyl package. Complete with two sides and everything. Details here.
THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Jan. 14-20
"Sorry" - Youth Group
Crisp, glistening music that breaks no particular ground and yet makes me happy in a bittersweet sort of way and compels me to go back and listen again. This one launches with a crystalline guitar line, seven precise notes twice in a row, and check out the "off" interval on the fourth note in the second set--an ever-so-slightly jarring but actually amenable change that right away suggests a well-crafted song. I like too the subtle contrast between the song's brisk pace and singer Toby Martin's sweet and somewhat languorous delivery. Those who remember the British band James may hear some pleasing resonances here; this song boasts the soaring yet fleet-footed touch of that band's best work. I've said it before and no doubt I'll say it again: "good" is a far more important value than "new" when it comes to judging music; criticism based largely upon something not being "new" or "different" enough is almost always facile and suspect, in my opinion. Youth Group is a quartet from Sydney, Australia; "Sorry" is from the band's new CD, its third, entitled Casino Twilight Dogs, which is scheduled for release in the U.S. next week on Anti Records. The MP3 is via the Anti site.
"Barracuda" - Miho Hatori
Born in Tokyo, transplanted to Manhattan in the '90s, Miho Hatori became known later in the decade as the singer in the experimental duo Cibo Matto, which combined facets of trip-hop, rock, and Latin music in a vibrant multicultural mélange. Now she's got a solo CD, called Ecdysis, on which she emerges as a frisky-quirky eccentrically accented 21st-century musician with maybe even more trans-global chops than the reigning queen of frisky-quirky eccentrically accented 21st-century musicianhood, Björk. While happy enough around beats and programming, Hatori likewise employs on her CD a globetrotting battery of esoteric organic instruments--repique, zabumba, timbau, and Indian ankle bells among them--that lend an earthy sincerity to the sound. "Barracuda" in particular is propelled by an exotic drumbeat, a slinky, Latin-esque keyboard riff, and a stuttery monkey-call-like counter rhythm. Head full of transcultural metaphysics (she counts Joseph Campbell as a major influence), Hatori writes both concretely and obliquely, which is a fetching combination: I sense the real world very much around her, even as I can't make heads or tails of what she's talking about most of the time. The culiminating section in which she sings multilayered Portuguese (I think?) lyrics against that jungly backbeat, plus some sort of accordion, (starting around 2:20) is exuberant fun. Ecdysis was released on Rykodisc in October; the MP3 is via Toolshed, a music promotion company.
"Deadringer Deadringer" - the Book of Daniel
I have something of a soft spot for singers who don't have pretty voices who sing pretty melodies, from Bob Dylan and Tom Waits to Shane McGowan and Peter Garrett and then some. Sounds like Gothenburg's Daniel Gustaffson is a budding member of the group; older brother of Boy Omega's Martin Henrik Gustaffson (who also plays in Book of Daniel), Daniel G., leading his loosey-goosey, eight-person ensemble, doesn't grumble like Waits or go gruffly off-pitch like McGowan but his voice sounds mostly like he thinks he's still talking rather than singing--which makes the melodic charm of this swingy, homespun tune all the more charming, to me. There's something of Moondance-era Van Morrison in the air here, filtered through a rollicking Swedish-pop sensibility. When the band joins in for a bit of call and response (around :43), it's hard not to smile. Later on, the extended trumpet solo (starting at 2:51) is just plain cool. "Deadringer Deadringer" is from the Book of Daniel's debut full-length CD, Songs for the Locust King, which was released late in November on Riptide Recordings in Germany, and then again in late December (I think; the precise date is oddly difficult to discern) on the Malmö-based Black Star Foundation label. The MP3 is available via Riptide.
Another year, another carrot, as Bugs Bunny used to say. Is it time again for your annual, exremely modest contribution? Or time, perhaps, to contribute for the first time? As always, $5 or $10 donations are entirely welcome, while larger donations give you an opportunity to take a gift from the Prize Closet (have you checked out the new arrivals?). Click here to get the transaction underway, courtesy of Amazon.
THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Jan. 14-20
"Sorry" - Youth Group
Crisp, glistening music that breaks no particular ground and yet makes me happy in a bittersweet sort of way and compels me to go back and listen again. This one launches with a crystalline guitar line, seven precise notes twice in a row, and check out the "off" interval on the fourth note in the second set--an ever-so-slightly jarring but actually amenable change that right away suggests a well-crafted song. I like too the subtle contrast between the song's brisk pace and singer Toby Martin's sweet and somewhat languorous delivery. Those who remember the British band James may hear some pleasing resonances here; this song boasts the soaring yet fleet-footed touch of that band's best work. I've said it before and no doubt I'll say it again: "good" is a far more important value than "new" when it comes to judging music; criticism based largely upon something not being "new" or "different" enough is almost always facile and suspect, in my opinion. Youth Group is a quartet from Sydney, Australia; "Sorry" is from the band's new CD, its third, entitled Casino Twilight Dogs, which is scheduled for release in the U.S. next week on Anti Records. The MP3 is via the Anti site.
"Barracuda" - Miho Hatori
Born in Tokyo, transplanted to Manhattan in the '90s, Miho Hatori became known later in the decade as the singer in the experimental duo Cibo Matto, which combined facets of trip-hop, rock, and Latin music in a vibrant multicultural mélange. Now she's got a solo CD, called Ecdysis, on which she emerges as a frisky-quirky eccentrically accented 21st-century musician with maybe even more trans-global chops than the reigning queen of frisky-quirky eccentrically accented 21st-century musicianhood, Björk. While happy enough around beats and programming, Hatori likewise employs on her CD a globetrotting battery of esoteric organic instruments--repique, zabumba, timbau, and Indian ankle bells among them--that lend an earthy sincerity to the sound. "Barracuda" in particular is propelled by an exotic drumbeat, a slinky, Latin-esque keyboard riff, and a stuttery monkey-call-like counter rhythm. Head full of transcultural metaphysics (she counts Joseph Campbell as a major influence), Hatori writes both concretely and obliquely, which is a fetching combination: I sense the real world very much around her, even as I can't make heads or tails of what she's talking about most of the time. The culiminating section in which she sings multilayered Portuguese (I think?) lyrics against that jungly backbeat, plus some sort of accordion, (starting around 2:20) is exuberant fun. Ecdysis was released on Rykodisc in October; the MP3 is via Toolshed, a music promotion company.
"Deadringer Deadringer" - the Book of Daniel
I have something of a soft spot for singers who don't have pretty voices who sing pretty melodies, from Bob Dylan and Tom Waits to Shane McGowan and Peter Garrett and then some. Sounds like Gothenburg's Daniel Gustaffson is a budding member of the group; older brother of Boy Omega's Martin Henrik Gustaffson (who also plays in Book of Daniel), Daniel G., leading his loosey-goosey, eight-person ensemble, doesn't grumble like Waits or go gruffly off-pitch like McGowan but his voice sounds mostly like he thinks he's still talking rather than singing--which makes the melodic charm of this swingy, homespun tune all the more charming, to me. There's something of Moondance-era Van Morrison in the air here, filtered through a rollicking Swedish-pop sensibility. When the band joins in for a bit of call and response (around :43), it's hard not to smile. Later on, the extended trumpet solo (starting at 2:51) is just plain cool. "Deadringer Deadringer" is from the Book of Daniel's debut full-length CD, Songs for the Locust King, which was released late in November on Riptide Recordings in Germany, and then again in late December (I think; the precise date is oddly difficult to discern) on the Malmö-based Black Star Foundation label. The MP3 is available via Riptide.
Another year, another carrot, as Bugs Bunny used to say. Is it time again for your annual, exremely modest contribution? Or time, perhaps, to contribute for the first time? As always, $5 or $10 donations are entirely welcome, while larger donations give you an opportunity to take a gift from the Prize Closet (have you checked out the new arrivals?). Click here to get the transaction underway, courtesy of Amazon.
Monday, January 08, 2007
THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Jan. 7-13
"Black Mirror" - the Arcade Fire
Only a couple of times every half-generation or so are rock fans treated to music from a band so sure and firm and complete that they sound only like themselves even as each song introduces new aspects of their sound. After just one CD--2004's Funeral--the Arcade Fire appeared to be one of these bands. This song, from their much-anticipated second release, Neon Bible, suggests this Montreal septet is the real thing indeed. Over an ominous opening rumble, acoustic guitars strum a couple of insistent, unresolved chords and I'm immediately intrigued. Win Butler then lends his distinctive warble to a solid, descending melody as a vague, indescribable sound roils around him and then, check it out: a piano, somewhat distantly, pounds out four ascending (again unresolved) notes, withdraws, returning to underpin the abbreviated chorus (just the words "black mirror" repeated). See, one of the things this band does so well--and uniquely, I think--is use their instruments orchestrally, employing recurring themes as motifs that are not simply the melody the singer is singing. Another asset on display is how Arcade Fire songs can effortlessly spin out in unanticipated directions. Listen, for instance, to the dramatic turn taken at 1:20--Butler's voice leaps up into that "I may be coming unhinged" range while dynamic chords forge into surprising new territory before linking at 1:37 back to the chorus (1-2-3-4! goes the piano). Don't miss another turn at 2:17, when Butler sings an emphatic French phrase over an increasingly frenetic but still indescribable musical background; and then, ahh!, the offhandedly marvelous theme the strings play from 3:12 (announced by that great dissonant trill at 3:11), leading the song back into the ominous rumble we started with. Neon Bible is due out in early March on Merge Records; the MP3 is available in a hidden sort of way via the band's mysterious site.
"Tickle My Spine" - Looker
Punchy, uncomplicated punk-pop with an undercurrent of something richer and inscrutably appealing. I like how the head-knocking rhythm of the verse alternates with a just slightly swingier feel, almost like a sped-up Supremes song, in the chorus. Singer/guitarist Boshra Alsaadi has a voice at once higher and musically stronger than one usually hears from a woman heading a hard-rocking unit like this one. Having fellow guitarist (and band co-founder) Nicole Greco on backing vocals adds a pleasing richness to the brisk, careening vibe. In fact, three of the band's four members are women (only the drummer is male), which messes up music writers seeking to put them in either the well-worn "girl-band" box (Go-Gos, Donnas, etc.) or the "woman singer/male band" box (Blondie, Garbage, etc.). Haven't seen anyone put them in the Elastica box but there at least was one other band with three women and one man, at least for some of its life, for what it's worth. "Tickle My Spine" is a song dating back to Looker's 2004 EP, On the Pull; after hitting the studio in 2006 to record some demos with none other than Richard Gottehrer (who produced the debut CDs for both Blondie and the Go-Gos), Looker is set to release its first full-length CD, Born Too Late, later this week. The MP3 is available via the band's site. Thanks to the Deli for the lead.
"And Now the Day is Done" - Ron Sexsmith
One of the most talented singer/songwriters of his generation, Ron Sexsmith writes wondrous, lasting songs with apparent ease, but without (yet?) a lot of widespread recognition outside of his native Canada. I've stopped trying to figure out how he can keep writing so many good songs without resorting to studio trickery or drastic stylistic alteration, but ten albums into his recording career he seems endlessly able to amuse himself with a guitar, a cache of sturdy chords, and a direct vocabulary of plain words delivering heartfelt messages. Clearly his singing voice serves him well, to begin with--that achy, rounded tenor of his, as warm and tremulous as Tim Hardin's or Jeff Buckley's but with a touch of someone else entirely, like maybe Jackson Browne or, more obliquely, Elvis Costello. And even as his songs have been produced in various ways, often in a band setting, sometimes with flourishes like horn charts or strings, what remains front and center are his dual core talents as singer and songwriter. The elegiac "And Now the Day is Done" is Sexsmith at his quietest and prettiest, but listen carefully to discern how beautifully produced it is--what sounds like a stark guitar and voice number is given great depth and warmth by subtle embellishments deep down in the mix, not to mention Sexsmith's deft touch as a guitarist (check out that glistening hammer-on at 2:48). "And Now the Day is Done" is the final song on his CD Time Being, which was released back in May in Canada, finally to be coming out in the U.S. tomorrow on Ironworks Music, an independent label co-owned by Kiefer Sutherland (really) and Jude Cole. The new CD was produced by Mitchell Froom, who had his hand on the knobs for Sexsmith's marvelous first three CDs; among the musicians playing on the album are Pete Thomas and Davey Faragher, from Elvis Costello's band the Impostors. The MP3 is available via Salon.
week of Jan. 7-13
"Black Mirror" - the Arcade Fire
Only a couple of times every half-generation or so are rock fans treated to music from a band so sure and firm and complete that they sound only like themselves even as each song introduces new aspects of their sound. After just one CD--2004's Funeral--the Arcade Fire appeared to be one of these bands. This song, from their much-anticipated second release, Neon Bible, suggests this Montreal septet is the real thing indeed. Over an ominous opening rumble, acoustic guitars strum a couple of insistent, unresolved chords and I'm immediately intrigued. Win Butler then lends his distinctive warble to a solid, descending melody as a vague, indescribable sound roils around him and then, check it out: a piano, somewhat distantly, pounds out four ascending (again unresolved) notes, withdraws, returning to underpin the abbreviated chorus (just the words "black mirror" repeated). See, one of the things this band does so well--and uniquely, I think--is use their instruments orchestrally, employing recurring themes as motifs that are not simply the melody the singer is singing. Another asset on display is how Arcade Fire songs can effortlessly spin out in unanticipated directions. Listen, for instance, to the dramatic turn taken at 1:20--Butler's voice leaps up into that "I may be coming unhinged" range while dynamic chords forge into surprising new territory before linking at 1:37 back to the chorus (1-2-3-4! goes the piano). Don't miss another turn at 2:17, when Butler sings an emphatic French phrase over an increasingly frenetic but still indescribable musical background; and then, ahh!, the offhandedly marvelous theme the strings play from 3:12 (announced by that great dissonant trill at 3:11), leading the song back into the ominous rumble we started with. Neon Bible is due out in early March on Merge Records; the MP3 is available in a hidden sort of way via the band's mysterious site.
"Tickle My Spine" - Looker
Punchy, uncomplicated punk-pop with an undercurrent of something richer and inscrutably appealing. I like how the head-knocking rhythm of the verse alternates with a just slightly swingier feel, almost like a sped-up Supremes song, in the chorus. Singer/guitarist Boshra Alsaadi has a voice at once higher and musically stronger than one usually hears from a woman heading a hard-rocking unit like this one. Having fellow guitarist (and band co-founder) Nicole Greco on backing vocals adds a pleasing richness to the brisk, careening vibe. In fact, three of the band's four members are women (only the drummer is male), which messes up music writers seeking to put them in either the well-worn "girl-band" box (Go-Gos, Donnas, etc.) or the "woman singer/male band" box (Blondie, Garbage, etc.). Haven't seen anyone put them in the Elastica box but there at least was one other band with three women and one man, at least for some of its life, for what it's worth. "Tickle My Spine" is a song dating back to Looker's 2004 EP, On the Pull; after hitting the studio in 2006 to record some demos with none other than Richard Gottehrer (who produced the debut CDs for both Blondie and the Go-Gos), Looker is set to release its first full-length CD, Born Too Late, later this week. The MP3 is available via the band's site. Thanks to the Deli for the lead.
"And Now the Day is Done" - Ron Sexsmith
One of the most talented singer/songwriters of his generation, Ron Sexsmith writes wondrous, lasting songs with apparent ease, but without (yet?) a lot of widespread recognition outside of his native Canada. I've stopped trying to figure out how he can keep writing so many good songs without resorting to studio trickery or drastic stylistic alteration, but ten albums into his recording career he seems endlessly able to amuse himself with a guitar, a cache of sturdy chords, and a direct vocabulary of plain words delivering heartfelt messages. Clearly his singing voice serves him well, to begin with--that achy, rounded tenor of his, as warm and tremulous as Tim Hardin's or Jeff Buckley's but with a touch of someone else entirely, like maybe Jackson Browne or, more obliquely, Elvis Costello. And even as his songs have been produced in various ways, often in a band setting, sometimes with flourishes like horn charts or strings, what remains front and center are his dual core talents as singer and songwriter. The elegiac "And Now the Day is Done" is Sexsmith at his quietest and prettiest, but listen carefully to discern how beautifully produced it is--what sounds like a stark guitar and voice number is given great depth and warmth by subtle embellishments deep down in the mix, not to mention Sexsmith's deft touch as a guitarist (check out that glistening hammer-on at 2:48). "And Now the Day is Done" is the final song on his CD Time Being, which was released back in May in Canada, finally to be coming out in the U.S. tomorrow on Ironworks Music, an independent label co-owned by Kiefer Sutherland (really) and Jude Cole. The new CD was produced by Mitchell Froom, who had his hand on the knobs for Sexsmith's marvelous first three CDs; among the musicians playing on the album are Pete Thomas and Davey Faragher, from Elvis Costello's band the Impostors. The MP3 is available via Salon.
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Dec. 31-Jan. 6
"Here's Your Future" - the Thermals
Let's hit the ground running here in '07, shall we? Bracing and uncompromising, "Here's Your Future" is a two-and-a-half-minute blast of literate, crafty 21st-century punk rock from a band that walks the walk. (The Thermals made news early last year for turning down a $50,000 request from Hummer to use a song of theirs in a commercial.) Fueled by a fast five-chord guitar riff, "Here's Your Future" is both bleak and poignant; the song offers only the comfort (if you can call it that) of standing up and facing uncomfortable facts in a world incapable of saving itself, a world that looks again and again for salvation in exactly the wrong place (note opening chord from the church organ). Singer/guitarist Hutch Harris pummels his guitars and sings without quite singing while bassist Kathy Foster plays one-woman rhythm section--the band had lost its original drummer late last year so that's Foster bashing away on the drums as well. (Since recording, they've enlisted a new drummer and are back to being a trio.) From Portland, Oregon, the Thermals have been at it since 2002; "Here's Your Future" is the lead track from The Body, The Blood, The Machine (Sub Pop), the band's third CD. While not necessarily a concept album, this one features songs that apparently envision the U.S. as being governed by Christian fascists. Not sure how much envisioning that took. The MP3 is available via the Sub Pop site.
"Guitar Swing" - the Winks
At the core of this peculiar but compelling song is the primordially affecting two-chord progression that works magic just about wherever it goes: this is the one where a major tonic chord alternates with the minor mediant chord--that's the I and the iii, as they say in music theory land. In "Guitar Swing," the chords underpin a cryptic song with an insistent beat and the unusual if not unique instrumental combination of cello and mandolin. In a wavery tenor that sounds, somehow, both heartbroken and indifferent, singer/mandolinist Todd MacDonald intersperses the largely impenetrable lyrics with Delphic pronouncements--"Sleepers know the facts"; "Tuxedos are only as strong as your heart"--that engage and mystify simultaneously. Meanwhile, bandmate Tyr Jami uses her cello both as rhythmic texture and melodic color, and sings a bit too, with a smiley-er tone than her partner. Don't miss the "wa-wa" duet section, beginning at 2:23, during which MacDonald and Jami explore the I-iii alternation with earnest whimsy. The Winks are a Montreal-based duo that use a rotating cast of 13 musicians to fill in as needed. "Guitar Swing" is a track off the band's Birthday Party CD, which was released on Ache Records in November. Birthday Party is the band's second full-length, widely released CD, but their eighth CD in all (the first five were limited-edition CD-Rs; they've also done a split with their side-project, Tights). The MP3 is via the Ache site.
"Hollywood" - Eastern Conference Champions
Any band combining gorgeous melody with ghostly electronics is going to bring Radiohead to mind at this point, and the suburban Philadelphia band Eastern Conference Champions certainly does that here. I will note--as I have in the past--that it is no sin for one band to remind us of another; I always believe a good song is a good song. "Hollywood" is a very good song indeed, its delicate, soaring melody telling an elusive tale of loss and disappointment, accompanied only by percussion and synths and maybe some samples. I like how the song feels expressive and expansive and even organic without any guitar in the mix. Maybe it has something to do with the sleighbells. Lead singer Josh Ostrander has a thin, high voice, not unlike Thom Yorke's, that sometimes crackles with syllable shifts; he is joined here on backing vocals by Maura Davis of the group Ambulette, a nice touch that accentuates the lullaby-like nature of the song (as do those sleighbells) while creating a little distance from the Radiohead-ish vibe. If you'd like to hear the band in a tenser, more driving mode, check out, additionally, the song "Nice Clean Shirt." Both songs can be found on ECC's debut EP, The Southampton Collection, was released on Retone Records back in March. The band was signed shortly thereafter to Suretone Records, but what a difference two letters make--Suretone is an offshoot of Interscope Records, part of the Geffen family. ECC's next full-length will be out on Suretone this spring.
week of Dec. 31-Jan. 6
"Here's Your Future" - the Thermals
Let's hit the ground running here in '07, shall we? Bracing and uncompromising, "Here's Your Future" is a two-and-a-half-minute blast of literate, crafty 21st-century punk rock from a band that walks the walk. (The Thermals made news early last year for turning down a $50,000 request from Hummer to use a song of theirs in a commercial.) Fueled by a fast five-chord guitar riff, "Here's Your Future" is both bleak and poignant; the song offers only the comfort (if you can call it that) of standing up and facing uncomfortable facts in a world incapable of saving itself, a world that looks again and again for salvation in exactly the wrong place (note opening chord from the church organ). Singer/guitarist Hutch Harris pummels his guitars and sings without quite singing while bassist Kathy Foster plays one-woman rhythm section--the band had lost its original drummer late last year so that's Foster bashing away on the drums as well. (Since recording, they've enlisted a new drummer and are back to being a trio.) From Portland, Oregon, the Thermals have been at it since 2002; "Here's Your Future" is the lead track from The Body, The Blood, The Machine (Sub Pop), the band's third CD. While not necessarily a concept album, this one features songs that apparently envision the U.S. as being governed by Christian fascists. Not sure how much envisioning that took. The MP3 is available via the Sub Pop site.
"Guitar Swing" - the Winks
At the core of this peculiar but compelling song is the primordially affecting two-chord progression that works magic just about wherever it goes: this is the one where a major tonic chord alternates with the minor mediant chord--that's the I and the iii, as they say in music theory land. In "Guitar Swing," the chords underpin a cryptic song with an insistent beat and the unusual if not unique instrumental combination of cello and mandolin. In a wavery tenor that sounds, somehow, both heartbroken and indifferent, singer/mandolinist Todd MacDonald intersperses the largely impenetrable lyrics with Delphic pronouncements--"Sleepers know the facts"; "Tuxedos are only as strong as your heart"--that engage and mystify simultaneously. Meanwhile, bandmate Tyr Jami uses her cello both as rhythmic texture and melodic color, and sings a bit too, with a smiley-er tone than her partner. Don't miss the "wa-wa" duet section, beginning at 2:23, during which MacDonald and Jami explore the I-iii alternation with earnest whimsy. The Winks are a Montreal-based duo that use a rotating cast of 13 musicians to fill in as needed. "Guitar Swing" is a track off the band's Birthday Party CD, which was released on Ache Records in November. Birthday Party is the band's second full-length, widely released CD, but their eighth CD in all (the first five were limited-edition CD-Rs; they've also done a split with their side-project, Tights). The MP3 is via the Ache site.
"Hollywood" - Eastern Conference Champions
Any band combining gorgeous melody with ghostly electronics is going to bring Radiohead to mind at this point, and the suburban Philadelphia band Eastern Conference Champions certainly does that here. I will note--as I have in the past--that it is no sin for one band to remind us of another; I always believe a good song is a good song. "Hollywood" is a very good song indeed, its delicate, soaring melody telling an elusive tale of loss and disappointment, accompanied only by percussion and synths and maybe some samples. I like how the song feels expressive and expansive and even organic without any guitar in the mix. Maybe it has something to do with the sleighbells. Lead singer Josh Ostrander has a thin, high voice, not unlike Thom Yorke's, that sometimes crackles with syllable shifts; he is joined here on backing vocals by Maura Davis of the group Ambulette, a nice touch that accentuates the lullaby-like nature of the song (as do those sleighbells) while creating a little distance from the Radiohead-ish vibe. If you'd like to hear the band in a tenser, more driving mode, check out, additionally, the song "Nice Clean Shirt." Both songs can be found on ECC's debut EP, The Southampton Collection, was released on Retone Records back in March. The band was signed shortly thereafter to Suretone Records, but what a difference two letters make--Suretone is an offshoot of Interscope Records, part of the Geffen family. ECC's next full-length will be out on Suretone this spring.
Monday, December 18, 2006
This is the last week you can put your name in for the Lucinda Williams giveaway in progress right now on the Fingertips Contests page. Once more, with feeling: I've got two copies of the newly re-released, two-disc Car Wheels On A Gravel Road to give away for nothing at all but the time it takes to send an email. Two winners will be selected at random; deadline for entry is December 24. Details here.
Note that the Fingertips home office will shut down (mostly) between December 23 and January 1. (The contest winner, however, will be contacted during that week.) The next edition of "This Week's Finds" will appear on Tuesday January 2. Wishing everyone in the meantime the happiest of holidays (Christmas, Hanukkah, Solstice, New Year's Day, and then some: all holidays are for celebrating); see you in '07....
THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Dec. 17-23
"Grain of Salt" - the Morning Benders
A completely endearing blend of do-it-yourself-ish indie rock and pure pop know-how. Let me start, for a change, at the end: the fact that this thing closes out with a rave-up guitar solo--and if I better knew my guitar sounds I could tell you what kind of guitar it is; it's a distinctive and familiar one, to be sure, with a deep feel of rock history about it--says a lot about the Morning Benders' impressive musical instincts. It's nothing I'd've expected and yet now of course it sounds perfectly inevitable, particularly following the coda-like extension the song takes before the solo kicks in. From beginning to end, in fact, "Grain of Salt" oozes charm and craft in equal measure, from the shuffly bashings of drummer Julian Harmon (I feel as if I just about see his elbows flying as he pounds away on the two and four beats) to the effortlessly merry melody, sung with easygoing grace by Chris Chu, and the happy happy chord progressions that enliven it. With repeated listens, I grow more and more impressed with the ability of this Berkeley, Calif.-based foursome to sound so simultaneously spontaneous and durable--a very friendly combination. "Grain of Salt" comes from the band's debut EP Loose Change, which was self-released earlier this year, sold out, then re-released in September (with one extra song) on Portia Records. The MP3 is via the band's site.
"The Vague Angels of Vagary" - Vague Angels
Even though this came out in March and has nothing whatever to do with Christmas or the holiday season of any kind, I like featuring a song by a band named Vague Angels this week. It seems like all we can hope for these days, and maybe all we actually need. And never mind any of that: this free-flowing, structure-free song is itself extraordinarily cool. Rolling firmly to a strong yet elusive train-like rhythm, "The Vague Angels of Vagary" seems, well, vaguely to be about trains, and journeys, and searches. NYC-based singer/songwriter/novelist Chris Leo (brother of Ted) speak-sings the odd but engaging lyrics like Lou Reed with a higher voice and no leather jacket; he seems more bemused by what he sees that pissed off. What hooks me with this one: the energetic, good-natured, descending guitar riff that keeps the song afloat--relentlessly it climbs back to its apex and spills yet again downward while Leo goes on about train track tundras and the WPA and the MTA. "The Vague Angels of Vagary" is from the CD Let's Duke It Out At Kilkenny Katz' (yes there's that weird floating apostrophe in the title), released earlier in the year by Pretty Activity. The MP3 is via the Pretty Activity site; thanks to the Deli for the head's up.
"All I Ever Get For Christmas Is Blue" - Over the Rhine
This year's directly related holiday tune comes from longtime Fingertips faves Over the Rhine. Karin Bergquist is in fine, bittersweet form while partner Linford Detweiler lays down crystalline piano lines with unearthly deftness. This song comes from Over the Rhine's new Christmas CD, featuring original Christmas songs, entitled Snow Angels. The instantly intimate and enveloping sound here is no accident; Detweiler himself has written, "We hope that Snow Angels is a record that becomes part of the landscape for small gatherings of people who love each other." If justice is served, it will be, but then again the world as we are living in it is not is not known, alas, for great justice at a macro level. We are left to do what we can individually, and in small groups. Do yourself, at least, the favor of checking this song out--and the one other MP3 available from this CD, "Darlin' (Christmas is Comin')"--and then buying the CD if you like the vibe and think maybe an unabashed album of new Christmas songs is its own sort of wonderful thing (and hey I think so and don't even celebrate the holiday myself!). These guys have developed a deep, rich, and very personal sound over the years that is a wonder to behold and deserves a wider audience than they have thus far reached. If you'd like to hear more be sure to check out the Over the Rhine entry in the Select Artist Guide for pointers to other free and legal MP3s of theirs.
Note that the Fingertips home office will shut down (mostly) between December 23 and January 1. (The contest winner, however, will be contacted during that week.) The next edition of "This Week's Finds" will appear on Tuesday January 2. Wishing everyone in the meantime the happiest of holidays (Christmas, Hanukkah, Solstice, New Year's Day, and then some: all holidays are for celebrating); see you in '07....
THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Dec. 17-23
"Grain of Salt" - the Morning Benders
A completely endearing blend of do-it-yourself-ish indie rock and pure pop know-how. Let me start, for a change, at the end: the fact that this thing closes out with a rave-up guitar solo--and if I better knew my guitar sounds I could tell you what kind of guitar it is; it's a distinctive and familiar one, to be sure, with a deep feel of rock history about it--says a lot about the Morning Benders' impressive musical instincts. It's nothing I'd've expected and yet now of course it sounds perfectly inevitable, particularly following the coda-like extension the song takes before the solo kicks in. From beginning to end, in fact, "Grain of Salt" oozes charm and craft in equal measure, from the shuffly bashings of drummer Julian Harmon (I feel as if I just about see his elbows flying as he pounds away on the two and four beats) to the effortlessly merry melody, sung with easygoing grace by Chris Chu, and the happy happy chord progressions that enliven it. With repeated listens, I grow more and more impressed with the ability of this Berkeley, Calif.-based foursome to sound so simultaneously spontaneous and durable--a very friendly combination. "Grain of Salt" comes from the band's debut EP Loose Change, which was self-released earlier this year, sold out, then re-released in September (with one extra song) on Portia Records. The MP3 is via the band's site.
"The Vague Angels of Vagary" - Vague Angels
Even though this came out in March and has nothing whatever to do with Christmas or the holiday season of any kind, I like featuring a song by a band named Vague Angels this week. It seems like all we can hope for these days, and maybe all we actually need. And never mind any of that: this free-flowing, structure-free song is itself extraordinarily cool. Rolling firmly to a strong yet elusive train-like rhythm, "The Vague Angels of Vagary" seems, well, vaguely to be about trains, and journeys, and searches. NYC-based singer/songwriter/novelist Chris Leo (brother of Ted) speak-sings the odd but engaging lyrics like Lou Reed with a higher voice and no leather jacket; he seems more bemused by what he sees that pissed off. What hooks me with this one: the energetic, good-natured, descending guitar riff that keeps the song afloat--relentlessly it climbs back to its apex and spills yet again downward while Leo goes on about train track tundras and the WPA and the MTA. "The Vague Angels of Vagary" is from the CD Let's Duke It Out At Kilkenny Katz' (yes there's that weird floating apostrophe in the title), released earlier in the year by Pretty Activity. The MP3 is via the Pretty Activity site; thanks to the Deli for the head's up.
"All I Ever Get For Christmas Is Blue" - Over the Rhine
This year's directly related holiday tune comes from longtime Fingertips faves Over the Rhine. Karin Bergquist is in fine, bittersweet form while partner Linford Detweiler lays down crystalline piano lines with unearthly deftness. This song comes from Over the Rhine's new Christmas CD, featuring original Christmas songs, entitled Snow Angels. The instantly intimate and enveloping sound here is no accident; Detweiler himself has written, "We hope that Snow Angels is a record that becomes part of the landscape for small gatherings of people who love each other." If justice is served, it will be, but then again the world as we are living in it is not is not known, alas, for great justice at a macro level. We are left to do what we can individually, and in small groups. Do yourself, at least, the favor of checking this song out--and the one other MP3 available from this CD, "Darlin' (Christmas is Comin')"--and then buying the CD if you like the vibe and think maybe an unabashed album of new Christmas songs is its own sort of wonderful thing (and hey I think so and don't even celebrate the holiday myself!). These guys have developed a deep, rich, and very personal sound over the years that is a wonder to behold and deserves a wider audience than they have thus far reached. If you'd like to hear more be sure to check out the Over the Rhine entry in the Select Artist Guide for pointers to other free and legal MP3s of theirs.
Monday, December 11, 2006
Don't miss the Lucinda Williams giveaway in progress right now at the brand new Fingertips Contests page: I've got two copies of the newly re-released, two-disc Car Wheels On A Gravel Road to give away for nothing at all but the time it takes to send an email. Two winners will be selected at random; deadline for entry is December 24. Details here.
And no you didn't imagine it--there was no podcast uploaded for the week of Dec. 3-9. Turned out to be one of those weeks. The Fingertips podcast will return by week's end, featuring the picks for the current week of Dec. 10-16. Thanks for your patience!
THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Dec. 10-16
"Sonic Boom" - Andy Partridge
As buoyant, crisp, and driven as any number of great XTC songs Partridge wrote in his years as that seminal British band's principal singer and songwriter. And why shouldn't it be? This was one of more than 100 songs Partridge had accumulated over a couple of decades that never made it to an XTC album for a variety of reasons. They've come to the light of day, along with many alternate recordings of songs XTC did release, on the eight so-called Fuzzy Warbles CDs Partridge has released over the last three years or so. The series has been gathered this fall into one spiffily-designed boxed set (The Fuzzy Warbles Collector Album) that is a crazy overload of songwriting goodness for XTC devotees. From disc number seven, "Sonic Boom" is an ode to loud music--in particular to the role an electric guitar can play in the redemption of a listless teenager--that is not itself, cleverly, a particularly raucous song. (After all, extolling the virtues of loud music in a really loud song would not speak to the unconverted.) Instead we get cheerful, crunchy pop with a really great guitar sound. For me, the siren-like riffs that ring from the intro are the key to the song's presence and depth. Listen in particular to the second verse, beginning around 0:55, and how the guitar at that point remains in that higher register to puncutate the lyrics with semi-dissonant squawks. And then, wow, the concise guitar solo, from 1:37 to 1:55, is a brilliant bit of controlled chaos that might pass you right by if you don't pay close attention. As with the vast majority of the songs on all the Fuzzy Warbles CD, the irrepressible Partridge does all the singing and playing.
Fingertips Exclusive MP3!: The Fuzzy Warbles collection is packed with cool songs, so in the spirit of artistic overflow represented therein, I'm offering this week a second Andy Partridge song as special bonus MP3--the delightful "I Don't Want To Be Here." Thanks to Toolshed, Steve Young, and Andy Partridge for this exclusive free and legal download. The link will be available for three weeks only. Enjoy!
"Rehab" - Amy Winehouse
I find three things about this song irresistible. First, the glistening retro sound: from the snazzy horn charts and string flourishes to the big drum beats and Winehouse's sharp, spacious, soulful vocal, everything blends to deliver a loving '60s sheen that manages at the same time to sound current and new rather than merely nostalgic. Second, that cockeyed refrain in the chorus--the way she drags her recalcitrant "no, no, no" (alternately: "go, go, go") just a bit off the beat is nutty and beguiling. I don't know why. The third wonderful thing is how Winehouse--who is quite the notorious (and loose-lipped) carouser over there in the U.K.--manages to turn a song about going through an alcohol recovery program (or, rather, not) into an almost gospel-like stomper. There's something poignant in the effort, despite the swagger in Winehouse's voice. "Rehab" is the opening track off Back to Black, the young singer/songwriter's second CD. Her first album, Frank, came out in 2003 when she was just 20. That one was a jazz-inflected effort that she has since been quoted as saying is an album she never liked. Her new one is shot through with Phil Spector-meets-Motown girl-group sounds from the early '60s; if "Rehab" is any indication, Winehouse is a well-suited practitioner of that distinctive musical vocabulary. Released on Island Records in the U.K. in October, Back to Black is scheduled for a March release here in the States, on Universal.
"Reflecting Light" - Sam Phillips
Sam Phillips is a musical hero of mine; few if any singer/songwriters I've encountered can match her ability to capture poetic insights, sometimes bordering on the genuinely mystical, within the everyday, agreeable realm of the three-minute pop song. Her Beatlesque 1994 masterpiece, Martinis & Bikinis, was a triumph of songwriting and production; her two CDs (so far) of the 21st century have found her working in a starker, quieter setting, with acoustic instruments--the songs on both Fan Dance (2001) and A Boot and a Shoe (2004) often sound as if they were laid down in one room, in one take. A sweet, melancholy waltz from the latter CD, "Reflecting Light" shines with sad spirit and forlorn dignity; there's a '20s-like brio to the string arrangement, while hard-earned enlightenment runs through its lyrical veins: "Give up the ground under your feet/Hold onto nothing for good/Turn and run at the mean dogs chasing you/Stand alone and misunderstood." Phillips' association with the TV show Gilmore Girls--she wrote the show's original score and her songs have been prominently featured--has given this song a second life and a slew of fans she would have otherwise never reached. Her next CD, apparently to be called Don't Do Anything, will be released some time in 2007. And not a moment too soon.
And no you didn't imagine it--there was no podcast uploaded for the week of Dec. 3-9. Turned out to be one of those weeks. The Fingertips podcast will return by week's end, featuring the picks for the current week of Dec. 10-16. Thanks for your patience!
THIS WEEK'S FINDS
week of Dec. 10-16
"Sonic Boom" - Andy Partridge
As buoyant, crisp, and driven as any number of great XTC songs Partridge wrote in his years as that seminal British band's principal singer and songwriter. And why shouldn't it be? This was one of more than 100 songs Partridge had accumulated over a couple of decades that never made it to an XTC album for a variety of reasons. They've come to the light of day, along with many alternate recordings of songs XTC did release, on the eight so-called Fuzzy Warbles CDs Partridge has released over the last three years or so. The series has been gathered this fall into one spiffily-designed boxed set (The Fuzzy Warbles Collector Album) that is a crazy overload of songwriting goodness for XTC devotees. From disc number seven, "Sonic Boom" is an ode to loud music--in particular to the role an electric guitar can play in the redemption of a listless teenager--that is not itself, cleverly, a particularly raucous song. (After all, extolling the virtues of loud music in a really loud song would not speak to the unconverted.) Instead we get cheerful, crunchy pop with a really great guitar sound. For me, the siren-like riffs that ring from the intro are the key to the song's presence and depth. Listen in particular to the second verse, beginning around 0:55, and how the guitar at that point remains in that higher register to puncutate the lyrics with semi-dissonant squawks. And then, wow, the concise guitar solo, from 1:37 to 1:55, is a brilliant bit of controlled chaos that might pass you right by if you don't pay close attention. As with the vast majority of the songs on all the Fuzzy Warbles CD, the irrepressible Partridge does all the singing and playing.
Fingertips Exclusive MP3!: The Fuzzy Warbles collection is packed with cool songs, so in the spirit of artistic overflow represented therein, I'm offering this week a second Andy Partridge song as special bonus MP3--the delightful "I Don't Want To Be Here." Thanks to Toolshed, Steve Young, and Andy Partridge for this exclusive free and legal download. The link will be available for three weeks only. Enjoy!
"Rehab" - Amy Winehouse
I find three things about this song irresistible. First, the glistening retro sound: from the snazzy horn charts and string flourishes to the big drum beats and Winehouse's sharp, spacious, soulful vocal, everything blends to deliver a loving '60s sheen that manages at the same time to sound current and new rather than merely nostalgic. Second, that cockeyed refrain in the chorus--the way she drags her recalcitrant "no, no, no" (alternately: "go, go, go") just a bit off the beat is nutty and beguiling. I don't know why. The third wonderful thing is how Winehouse--who is quite the notorious (and loose-lipped) carouser over there in the U.K.--manages to turn a song about going through an alcohol recovery program (or, rather, not) into an almost gospel-like stomper. There's something poignant in the effort, despite the swagger in Winehouse's voice. "Rehab" is the opening track off Back to Black, the young singer/songwriter's second CD. Her first album, Frank, came out in 2003 when she was just 20. That one was a jazz-inflected effort that she has since been quoted as saying is an album she never liked. Her new one is shot through with Phil Spector-meets-Motown girl-group sounds from the early '60s; if "Rehab" is any indication, Winehouse is a well-suited practitioner of that distinctive musical vocabulary. Released on Island Records in the U.K. in October, Back to Black is scheduled for a March release here in the States, on Universal.
"Reflecting Light" - Sam Phillips
Sam Phillips is a musical hero of mine; few if any singer/songwriters I've encountered can match her ability to capture poetic insights, sometimes bordering on the genuinely mystical, within the everyday, agreeable realm of the three-minute pop song. Her Beatlesque 1994 masterpiece, Martinis & Bikinis, was a triumph of songwriting and production; her two CDs (so far) of the 21st century have found her working in a starker, quieter setting, with acoustic instruments--the songs on both Fan Dance (2001) and A Boot and a Shoe (2004) often sound as if they were laid down in one room, in one take. A sweet, melancholy waltz from the latter CD, "Reflecting Light" shines with sad spirit and forlorn dignity; there's a '20s-like brio to the string arrangement, while hard-earned enlightenment runs through its lyrical veins: "Give up the ground under your feet/Hold onto nothing for good/Turn and run at the mean dogs chasing you/Stand alone and misunderstood." Phillips' association with the TV show Gilmore Girls--she wrote the show's original score and her songs have been prominently featured--has given this song a second life and a slew of fans she would have otherwise never reached. Her next CD, apparently to be called Don't Do Anything, will be released some time in 2007. And not a moment too soon.
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