This week's blog post is very alt-country-leaning. It's got some twang to it. I didn't mean for it to be 3/5ths down-home. It's really just what I've been listening to--what I happened to download through other blogs and podcasts. Maybe that means that alt-country is making a major surgence. I can only hope :)
Anyhoo, so yeah, plenty of cowgirls and cowboys in this post. One dark horse (er, bird) in Andrew Bird's "Dark Matter".
Also, Podcast!!! Here's the raw MP3 and this is the RSS feed.
David Mead, "Choosing Teams" (live in Atlanta)
This is a soft meandering piano song. I love these kinds of songs. Especially when it's cold outside and I'm inside a coffeeshop because I'm too cheap to run my own heat (I love the coffee shop, but it is true: I am too cheap to run my heat).
David Mead's vocal style reminds me of Andrew Bird's (someone I'll write about later in the post). It's hushed but kind of detached, yet sing-songy simultaneously. Like an adult nursery rhyme. The piano accompaniment drags a little behind the vocals. He pounds the keys a little too hard, in a slightly exaggerated manner. That may be his way of toughening up what could be considered a very light, almost "twee" song.
I'm not the best at deciphering lyrics (and I was an English major. Leave me alone), but the song seems to be about growing up. He says he's no longer going to school because he's got bills to pay and later he says there's a bun in the oven (I'm assuming not in his oven--to the best of my knowledge guys don't have ovens). My guess is the song is about life after school. I could be wrong, though. It could be about exotic, endangered animals. It could be about the state of nuclear tensions in the Far East. I dunno; I just like the way it sounds.
David Mead is the most polite student at the boy's school.
David Mead's Website, his Myspace and his "Library Thing".
The Last Town Chorus, "Modern Love"
Ah! A David Bowie cover! I love me some D.B.! Y'know, a lot of people don't like his 80's songs, but I hit puberty smack-dab in the middle of those songs, so they stuck to me like glitter did to Ziggy Stardust. They're part of my teenaged-psyche. Since I'm not so far from my teenaged-psyche, I'm never too far from my love of 80's music.
This version is slowed-down; almost alt-country (actually, there ain't no "almost" about it--I do believe that be a steel pedal I hear). This rendition is so different from the original that when I first heard it I honestly couldn't figure out what it was. I heard the "church in time" line and I was all "I know that! What the heck is it?!" I was amazed when it finally hit me what it was (okay, so I looked at the title scrolling across my mp3 player and that's how I got clued in). Her voice kind of reminds me of Liz Frazier from The Cocteau Twins, if the Cocteau Twins were a little bit country (and only slightly ethereal cloud music).
The Last Town Chorus' Myspace and Website
Andrew Bird, "Dark Matter"
I've posted about Andrew Bird before. He's awesome.
How to describe his music?
Inventive
Surprising
Quirky
Unsettling
Plucky
Whistle-y
Camp-songy
Tense
Andrew Bird (photo by Adam Berry)
(Andrew Bird has a Myspace and an Official Site)
The Duhks, "Heaven's My Home"
*Cries*
If you don't feel some sort of emotion during this song, then phooey on you! Her determination and defiance in this song breaks my heart. The emotion in her voice unsteadies me and makes me hang my head in shame over every time I've complained about something silly like my boyfriend forgetting my birthday.
The lyrics tear me apart: she says her dad told her she was "born broken" and she was taught to work the system. She sings "Life's hard, I've always known that; I've never been handed no welcome mat". Amen, lady. Amen. Her voice has real fight in it. She's got the conviction in her voice and the talent of any of the best country has to offer: Loretta Lynn, Reba McIntyre...I don't say that lightly.
'Course like alot of country songs, this could be just a story. Maybe it never happened to her or maybe it did. Doesn't make it any less sad and grueling.
Lola is speechless (in a good way) due to this picture of The Duhks. I have one tattoo, and it does not cover my whole arm. It covers maybe three inches.
The Duhk's Website and Myspace
Jill Sobule, "Texas"
Don't let the twanginess of this song fool ya. This ain't no honky-tonk song about cowboy's losin' their women and their lives to drink. This is about people losing their lives, though. It's about the death penalty and the hypocricy of some of those who preach values and life but often employ the ultimate punishment.
Jill Sobule
Jill Sobule's Website and Myspace ("Lucy At The Gym" makes me think of my LJ friend HunterXTC, only because he goes to the gym alot). She's also a featured columnest at The Huffington Post.
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