Songs That Might Otherwise Pass You By

KaiserCartel, "Okay"

Courtney Kaiser's voice envelopes you in a richness so deep, so dense that if someone told you you had to break from it to save yourself from mortal danger, you may not be able to--you may not want to. The song is already beautiful, but she raises it to the level of devastatingly gorgeous. If she asks if you're okay, you have no choice but to answer "yes"--while you're listening to that voice, you are, indeed "okay". The song builds from her vocals and a softly strummed guitar to include a full compliment of guitars, keyboards, tamborine and the addition of bandmate Benjamin Cartel's vocals. When the song is over, you may be exhausted (in addition to feeling okay) from the amount of energy and volume of music they pour into this song.

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KaiserCartel are concerned for us. They wave to us and ask us if we are okay.


Jeffrey Simmons, "Half-Dollar" (This song is a few years old, but indie music by nature is spread through word of mouth/blog and sometimes blogs can be slow. Okay, sometimes my blog can be slow.)

I gravitate towards music with unusual arrangements and an eclectic choice of instruments. "Half-Dollar" begins with a beautiful viola serenade* and then finds a groove with a myriad of sounds including guitar and hand-claps. The music's so dense it takes me several listens to identify most of the instruments. On third listen I can hear a banjo almost half-way through the song. A piano takes over the melody briefly, towards the end, as Simmon's vocals wind down. Simmon's voice is fluid and rich. It matches the music so well that neither dominates--the momentum is sustained equally by each contributor, vocal and instrumental, making for a very complex and complete piece of music.

*I'm not particularly great at distinguishing instruments, and a few of the articles on Simmon's press page list this as a mellotron. There's no way for me to really know, though--it's possible that those reviewers are incorrect, also.

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I'm just wondering what Jeffrey Simmons is looking at. Bird? Rocket? Asteroid? Will we ever know?

Wye Oak, "I Don't Feel Young"

The song starts off "I don't feel young, I don't feel scared, I'm in control..." It seems as though the singer isn't considering not feeling young a negative. It's more like she's equating being young with being unwise, and she's at a point where those youthful conditions don't apply to her. Later she says she doesn't feel pride, she doesn't cry and she doesn't feel low--indicators of a person more removed from the rash emotionalism of youth (though I think everyone still feels low sometimes, no matter how much life experience they may have). If you're thinking she must be really stern and serious, she also says she speaks too fast and laughs too loud--a symptom, I think, of an abandonment of self-consciousness. There is definitely something very abandoned and unself-conscious about this song. The instruments fly--the guitar possibly sailing out of the player's hands. The bass churns and rumbles, almost certainly cracking the floor beneath the musicians. The song even incorporates a bit of hand-clapping, and nothing says "enthusiastic abandon" like hand-clapping. The singer's voice is tremulous, but in a way that suggests optimism, not timidity--as if she's hit a plateau years in the making, much as someone closer to fully formed would.

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Half of Wye Oak looks optimistic while the other half looks like she's got something up her sleeve...

Bonus:

I don't think I've ever talked about Mark Kozelek on this blog before because his music, to me, is meant to be listened to as a collective. It doesn't work on an mp3 to mp3 basis. So, if you've never heard the music of Sun Kil Moon (or his previous band Red House Painters), I would suggest listening to this podcast from Music.Download.com featuring a live permormance from him.

I have talked about Adele before--I tried to find a legal mp3 for her song "Chasing Pavements" but couldn't, so I posted the video. She is absolutely fantastic, so I wanted to take a little bit of blog space and post a link to her appearance on AOL Spinner's The Interface. She performs "Chasing Pavements" live in addition to a few other songs. I'm particularly hooked on "Make You Feel My Love" right now. It breaks my heart to hear the emotion in her voice!

***

Songs That Might Otherwise Pass You By

*Shownotes for the podcast follow this song post*

Throw Me The Statue, "About to Walk"

I'm still trying to figure out what this song is about (something broke his toes, and he's lying in a western bed), but that's okay. Lyrics are always subject to interpretation anyhow (he talks into a cannonball?), so even if I thought I knew what the song was about, it would probably be totally different than what the band intended (He's waiting for the road ahead?). The great draw of this song for me is the music. It's gloriously encompassing, washed in feedback and jangled guitars. The band also played a show with one of my favorite bands, Bishop Allen. Could I ask for more? I dare not.

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Some are not like the others in Throw Me The Statue

Hackensaw Boys, "Alabama Shamrock" (Not a direct link)

Bluegrass music, I love you. Bluegrass music about the state in which I spent my first ten years of adulthood (when I reached "adulthood" is really open to interpretation and widely disputed, even amongst myself) is especially dear to me. Hackensaw Boys have crafted an exhilerating bit of bluegrass music. The mandolin adds a beautiful and distinctive touch to a song already featuring traditional bluegrass instruments such as the accordian and banjo (at least I think those are some of the instruments: this song is so alive with music it's hard for me to tell what's what). This song seems to be a tribute to America in general, but the spirit of it brings up really good memories of Birmingham for me: The Crawfish Festival (even though I don't eat things with claws), the great live music (I could see this band playing at Zydeco music venue), real fall weather (sorry, Florida) and the friends I had who always saw the best in me. Alabama is never far from me; it's particularly near when I hear a song like this. This song is a testament to the mystical South. Not the parts of our history that shame me, but the parts I want to keep close to me. The South I see when I'm on a front porch watching the sun sinking into the horizon. Some days I think maybe that's a mythical South as opposed to a mystical South. Other days I know the magic is real.

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Video for "Alabama Shamrock"

Thanks to Gary for telling me about them!


Something about travelling and Hackensaw Boys goes together.


The Nadas, "Goodnight Girl" (Not a direct link)

Got permission from the band to upload the song to my blog

Dear The Nadas,

This song is sad. This song makes me tear up. The lyrics are bittersweet and melancholy and the song is just twangy enough to make me want to pour whiskey over my head and drown my sorrows. I don't even drink whiskey, but this song seems to call for it. He asks the girl "Has it really been this long? Do we really have to end this song"? I'm of the school that no good song should have to end, so of course this upsets my balance. He says later, though, that he won't let go. Hope is restored: they'll "resurrect another day". I'm a sucker for twangy, melancholy love songs, so of course I'm enamored with this song. Here's to not letting go: *Clinks whiskey glass*.

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PODCAST SHOWNOTES

#43, Waiting For My Asteroid To Come In
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Finest Dearest, "Idaho"
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Low Line Caller, "Thief" (The band gave me permission to use the song in my podcast, but not to post the song for download)
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(No website listed)

Sarah Mac Band, "Open Fire" (I got permission from the band to use the song in my podcast, but not to post the mp3)
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South, "Better Things"
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Christopher Dallman, "This is Calm" (I got the song from Podsafe, and I don't think I have permission to post the mp3)
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Great Lakes Myth Society, "Heydays"
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Why?, "Close To Me"
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I'm taking a break from the blog this week, but I'm still listening to music. I just heard this artist for the first time today. The bittersweet part is that this is from his tribute site--he passed away in September.

Sorry about the disparity between the volume on the spoken parts and the volume of the music. I'm going to try adjusting the volume on the sound recorder; hopefully that'll help. I had to stop using the sound recorder within the software program because it would put gaps in the recording, so I've been using the sound recorder that comes with Windows XP. I'll play around with the audio in the next week and a half, before my next podcast.

Songs That Might Otherwise Pass You By

FYI: I'm going to take a break next weekend from writing the blog post. I'm exhausted--I'm worried about finding a job, and it's affected what little mental health I had, so I'm going to rest next weekend. So, the next thing for the blog will be in two weeks--I'll do both the blog post and the podcast then.

Leatherbag, "Tennessee" (I got permission from the band to link to the song, even though I figured it was alright since Hear Ya sponsored a showcase Leatherbag played at, but I figured I'd make sure, anyway).

Okay, so this song is two years old. We're not going to focus on my propensity for being late to the party. We're going to focus on how beautiful this song is. I've only been to Tennessee once, and even then I just went to a big aquarium. Still, when I think of Tennessee, I think of beautiful, broad forests contrasting sharply against a piercing blue sky, rivers that roll effortlessly down ridged embankments. I think of hills and mountains that give you a view for miles. I think of silience broken only by the distant chirp of birds or the rustling of an animal. I think of places like Georgia and Alabama, just a little bit south of Tennessee, but very familiar to me. I always thought Northern Georgia and Northern Alabama would be somewhat similar to Tennessee. This song sounds like Tennessee to me, or my image of it, anyway. It gives me the same feeling of serenity. It reminds me of the ease of a beautiful day in the woods, or hiking along a river, or sitting on a rock that's jutting out of a mountain.

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Leatherbag has a new album out, and he gave me permission to use songs from it, also. I haven't had a chance to listen to it thoroughly, but I expect I'll be using a few songs from it.


Randy Reynolds of Leatherbag dares you to tell him he looks like Buddy Holly. He dares you.


4th of July, "I Don't Want To Lose You" (Not a direct link)

This is the kind of song I would belt out unself-consciously, until I became painfully aware much, much later that not only had I lost the entire audience, but I had perhaps alienated everyone who's ever known me, even if they weren't there. So the irony is there that if I abandoned all sense and sang this song the way I wanted to, I probably would lose a lot. Luckily, this band isn't prone to obnoxiousness like I am. This song has a great sing-a-along character, especially in the way the lyrics change slightly through the song ("I don't want to bore you at all" morphs into "I don't want to ignore you at all" and then changes to "I don't want to lose you at all"), allowing the casual karoake singer to get at least 95 or so percent of the chorus right even if they really have no idea what part of the song they're on. For those actually paying attention to the song and not reading off a karoake cue, though, there's a enough rollicking substance to energize a crowd or a single person listening on headphones in their bedroom.

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I hope 4th of July ordered the wallet sizes, also.


Tender Forever, "Heartbroken Forever"

When I first heard the name "Tender Forever" I kind of brushed it off. The name conjures images of pastel pop princesses touring malls, but I knew I'd only cheat myself if I didn't listen to it--afterall, that sort of discrimination kept me from Buffy The Vampire Slayer for the first three years of its existence, and those are three years of joy I'll never get. So, I listened to it. The first few seconds sound like an electronic nursery rhyme, with a keyboard refrain that sounds kind of like a xylophone. All whispers of a nursery tale are blown away with the vocals, though. Her voice is strong, determined and passionate, demonstrating the resilience that she says she has. I believe her when she says that her "heart is okay and it's strong and it reels and it can take anything and it takes everything ". She sings swiftly, breathlessly, personifying the urgency of the lyrics. Her voice is overlayed in stereo, surrounding you until you can't ignore the tension and the strength of her conviction.

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Melanie Valera of Tender Forever looks very serene. Maybe it's from living in France, or because she makes really cool music.

Bonus:

Hera, Feels So Good (Video)



(I used her song "Don't Play This" a few months ago--this is an equally great song, and the video has puppies.)

*I posted an album review in the previous post*

PODCAST!
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Theme Music! Dust Rhinos, "Victoria"
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Mono Taxi, "The Sound of You" (I got permission from the record label to use the song, but not to post the mp3)
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The Affair,
"Left At the Party" (mp3) from "Yes Yes To You"
(Absolutely Kosher) Buy at eMusic
(Thanks to IODA Promonet)
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The Breeders, "Bang On"
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Jim Noir, "Don't You Worry"
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Kate Tucker & The Sons of Sweden, "Everything Went Down"
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Sia, "Electric Bird "
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Bob Mould, "The Silence Between Us"
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Liam Finn, "Second Chance" (not a direct download)
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A Faulty Chromosome, As An Ex-Anorexic's Six Sicks Exit,... (Album Review)

No, I didn't mistype the name of the album, but I'm not going to attempt to say it out loud because then I will accidentally spit all over my computer, and I don't want that. I will, however, continue to listen to this album. It features my favorite components of "indie rock": loud, thrashing guitars that march through each song, hastily encouraging the other instruments to follow in its wake of confusion, hazy vocals that never quite punch through the gauze of the overlaying instruments and non-formulaic structures and melodies that play with rhythm, such as the continuous staccato call of "...what do you want?" in the chorus of "Want" . "Them pleasures of the flesh", particularly, uses electronic blips and bleeps and a heralding guitar call to ratchet up a frenzied sonic energy reminiscent of the magnificent Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah's debut album.

The lyrics are arranged in unexpected and often clever ways: in "Frozen Lake", the singer tells the person that their words have become nothing more than "phonetics floating in [his] ears". The same lyrical ingenuity can veer a little bit to the precious: in the same song he says that the person's pleas for forgiveness are insincere "regardless of soakings in spurious tears". I'm all for objectification of a complex emotional reaction, but soaking it in tears might've taken it a little too much to the emo side for me. A little bit of lyrical over-stretching is part of the deal, though, when you have a songwriter so clever with wordplay. He immediately impresses me again with the line comparing trust that was once warm to "a frozen lake" and informing the person that his/her attempts to reflame the trust--the "bonfires"-- are a big mistake.

The songs cascade through the album, drenching the listener in a sonic wash of electronics, with vocals that float over the songs, disembodied from the music but complimenting it also, in the way his voice matches the tone of the music so well. This is a solid release with no lackluster moments to drag it down; an album you can either consciously appreciate or listen to while drifting off to a sleep filled with very surreal, very atmospheric dreams.

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Garage Band
Thank you to Fanatic for the CD to review