Songs That Might Otherwise Pass You By


Marco Mahler, "Design in Quick Rotation"

I'm just going to listen to this song over and over. Probably twenty times tonight. It's okay--I'm wearing headphones. I understand that though I revel in listening to the same song dozens of times, others don't. I don't want my boyfriend or my cats planning mutiny in this apartment. I will not be exiled. I will be enveloped by Marco Mahler's voice and I will be carried along by the current of this music. When I open my eyes it will be morning. If I have any candles lit, please someone blow them out for me. Thank you.

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Marco Mahler looks humble (or like he's deciding whether to pick something off the floor)

Tulsa, "Shaker"

There's a haziness over this song--a gauziness that's probably the effect of modulation, but makes it sound like it was recorded from a distance. I like that out-of-placeness. Maybe I like it because my hearing is shot (what? what? My speakers are too loud?) and all sounds are filtered for me. Maybe it's because I always feel like there's a thin layer between me and the world. Maybe it's cause I like cool vocal effects. On the band's Myspace they label their music as Jungle and state that they're "Independent as a Hog". That makes me laugh. They're independent and kind of shoe-gazy in a non-whiny, non-pointless way. I love it.

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Tulsa are also deciding whether to pick something.

Rebekah Higgs, "Parables" (Thanks to Fingertips for introducing me to this song)

Be prepared to be thrown off-kilter by this song and this musician. Be prepared to not be able to pinpoint her. If you're not mindful, you could lump her in with a number of whispy-voiced female singers. Yes, her voice skips on the wind, but there is so much more to her and her music. Just her list of influences on Myspace show a confluence of qualities in her personality. She lists Youtube, disgust and old Judy Garland movies, among other things, as her influences. This song is equally layered. A verse will end and suddenly you realize that her voice is almost imperceptably repeating the verse in the background, almost indistinguishable from the gorgeous violin. Many instances of her voice play and intermingle among the instruments. It's a challenge to parse the song.

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Oh my God! Rebekah Higgs is totally a blonde Kate Bush! I'm not kidding! Wow, she's awesome.

Bonus!!!

Video:

Menomena, "Rotten Hell"

Letters to Cleo, "Awake" (Yes, these were the 90s. I miss them.)