Five Songs I'm Loving This Week


Dybdahl, Thomas "A Lovestory"

Starts with a quiet grandness. Like you're in a nearly empty apartment, and you're so high above the city that the only thing you can hear, the only thing tangible is this impressive, insistent piano line. The singer's voice weaves in and out of the song, much like the guitar does--as if the two were playfully chasing each other. Dybdahl sings the notes with underwrought emotion: never exaggerating the sadness inherent in the song, but leaving it slightly on the side of melancholy, thus keeping the sentiment from lapsing into sappiness. The tone fits the lyrics perfectly: don't let the title fool you. This isn't a song about a current lovestory--it's a song about accepting the end of a lovestory and loving it for what it was. It's about putting the past in the past and still being able to love the memories and laugh.

Website
Myspace


Thomas Dybdahl, looking like he gave up his comb for lent

Weeping Tile, "Don't Let It Bring You Down"

Caveat: Since researching the band, I've found out that A) this song is hella old (1995--that's old in music blog years. Oops, oh well) and it's led by a singer-songwriter I love--Sarah Harmer. I didn't know all this before I wrote the following paragraph. I'm tired, though, so I ain't rewriting it. You can rewrite it if it means so much to you.

This is a little more honky-tonkin' than I usually go, but I've shown I like me some country once in awhile, and besides I've got a place in my heart for female singers who own a song as wholly as this woman does. She sings this so well. She sounds like Kristen Hersh (really!) if Kristin Hersh was all "I wanna write a kinda bluegrass song". This is a raucous of a song, and after all the gently gliding folk songs I post it's nice to include a kick of a song that ya can get drunk to. I love how she says "don't let it get you down...it's only castles burning...find someone who's turning, and you will come around". I will come around, miss lady who sings like a banshee on fire.

Website
Wikipedia Entry
(No Myspace)


It's a shame Weeping Tile isn't together anymore. It sounds like they're still friends, though (and the two women are sisters)

Uncle Seth, "Still...You Turn Me On"

I listen a podcast called Coverville alot. In fact, I know a few songs I post/podcast in the next few weeks will be songs I heard through this podcast. It's an awesome podcast; regularly updated, and the music is generally very good (except when he does a special "Worst Covers" podcast.)

This was not on the worst covers list, though. This actually fits in perfectly with the Weeping Tile song: another slightly alt-country song (though this leans more toward folk than bluegrass) with amazing female vocals.
Her voice is stark, pleading, persuasive and pervades the song as if it were a sharp knife and the song were, well, butter. Yes, her voice is that sharp, folks. The original artist for this song is Emerson, Lake and Palmer. I'd honestly never heard the song before I heard it on Coverville, but this version is so good that I almost don't want to hear the original.

Website
Myspace


Nice picture of Uncle Seth. They had a sexy picture available, but I was in a nice mood.

Winter Took His life, "When You Said You Headed Home"

This song is more winsome than the others; the vocals are wispier, but the tone evokes a sense of winter, of isolation--just as you would think a band called Winter Took His Life would. I can't determine exactly what the song is about, but it seems to be a reflection on past memories: She asks to hear someone's stories and for them to remember things they'd done together. Huh...maybe this is an answer to Thomas Dybdal's song? Interesting...The band is actually one woman, Susanna Brandin, from Swedin (I have a Scandinavian thing going on: Thomas Dybdal's from Norway). According to her website, she's friend with a band I posted not long ago: We are Soldiers, We have Guns. Lots of "W" bands, huh?

Website
Myspace


Susanna Brandin from Winter Took His Life

Album Leaf, "Always for you"

Ambient music has a new star with this band. I first heard them a few years ago, and I was highly impressed. This is from their recent (6 months old) album Into The Blue Again. I love ambient music, but too much of it is cheap keyboard drivel. This isn't typical Ambient, though. There isn't anything anonymous about this; it doesn't blend. It stands out--it's unique from other ambient and electronica, while still making me feel like I'm floating in a star system. That's the ambient I love.

Website
Myspace
Music.Download.Com


Guy from Album Leaf looking very, very happy. They had pictures of the whole band, but they were taken from very far away and they looked like dolls.


Bonus:

I just wanted to mention a few songs I'm not officially including.

Scott Walker's song "Darkness (Plague of Locusts)" is just freakin' crazy-ass weird-ass freaky-ass shit. I'm not joking. It's weird-ass stuff. I'm oddly compelled by it. I'm not exactly jamming to it, but I feel drawn to it, as a teenage girl is drawn to a vampire in a horror movie. I feel a little like I'm in an old Hammer Horror movie when I hear the song. It's just weird-ass shit. I feel this weird urge to let people know about it, though. Scott Walker's been making music for several decades, and in fact he's signed to one of my favorite labels, 4AD. I think I found the song here. The song comes from 4AD's compilation Plague Songs. Cool name, huh?

His Label Page
Wiki Entry

That song actually inspired me to make some CDs for two Podcasters I love, Dawn Miceli and Drew Domkus of The Dawn and Drew show. The next bonus song is from their website, and it's a loving tribute to their sugargliders. It's called "Naughty Sugarglider" and it's by Lord Kool. It's hosted on Dawn and Drew's song page along with other great songs Dawn, Drew and D & D admirers have recorded. It's an awesome song and it's on my favorites list every week. I'm not including it in the body of the blog, though, because I'm not sure how Dawn and Drew would appreciate me appropriating the song for my blog. So, I'm just linking to the song (but not hotlinking!). I loves the Dawn and Drew and want to be part of their inkernet for years and years to come. Oh, and I love Sugargliders, too (though I've never owned one)!


A Sugarglider