10/31/14

"Sympathy, this is my best disguise. 
My skin stepped out for my bones to dry up
For the rest of the world outside to see.
You see,you see I bleed on the side.
It's a part time thing, a private affair.
I try to keep it out of the light.
I must confess, I didn't recognize you tonight
Dressed up like my love."

When Gaslight gets it right, there is no doubt this is a band worth believing in. Sure, many have lamented "Get Hurt," and its cringe-worthy moments, but the band had the good sense to re-record "Halloween" in studio, and there, they capture the mood that makes this band great.

I am sorry I missed their tour this fall, because they are a truly excellent live band. They sit and settle together, they do not scatter, and through that they weave a dark and solemn sound, a powerful one at that. This track exemplifies this ability. This track is captivating. I love its patience and tension, I love its subtle structural changes and lack of a chorus. I love the way it gets you to listen, through wordplay and repetition. I love the way Brian Fallon, at his most capable, howls just so. I love how the story it tells is not one of perfection, but one marred in confusion and masquerade, persisting in spite. 

 

"And I hate these things but I always attend
A little sip of something to take off the edge.
And I make my way through the ghosts in the room
Trying to crack a smile
And who are you supposed to be?
You look like heaven tonight
Me, I'm a tomb, I'm a corpse in a suit,
Trying to look a little alive.

Are you alright?
Cause I worry sometimes
Are you dressed up to take my life?
Keep it coming, keep it coming.

Well I think I saw you for the flash of a moment
Your broken heart and the body that holds it
I lost your scent in the flash of the party
The big bright lights, baby, constantly haunt me.
I've never been right, have you ever been lied to?
I think I just saw the same scars upon you
Is this a disguise? Or a masquerade for me?
Keep it coming, 

Keep it coming, keep it coming.

Who are you supposed to be?
Yeah, you look just like my love.
Who are you supposed to be?
Are you dressed just like my love? 
Who are you supposed to be?
Yeah, you look just like my love.
Who are you supposed to be?
Are you dressed just like my love for Halloween?"
 ~Halloween
The Gaslight Anthem,Get Hurt

10/22/14

New discovery of the week comes courtesy of a catchy lyrical reference over at absolultepunk.net. Moose Blood is a good band, if you didn't know, a UK-bred emo quartet with high-energy tension, wallowing realities, poppy fills and enough lyrical references to merit footnotes. Their aesthetic is everything I like about the emo revival (and the exact one I've been in the mood for all day), and their 2013 release "Moving Home" is six tracks of guitar-driven goodness in fifteen minutes or less. Easy to take in, easy to hold onto. Nights like this are why I love discovering new music, and why it is so often what I do when I've got time to kill - because you never know what might sound perfectly right.

"Bukowski's growing old,

 this coffee's getting cold
I guess I'll never know
why you closed the window
Start reading Hemingway,
start drinking cups of Earl Grey, 
then I guess maybe one day..
I'll be yours forever
I'm the best book you'll never read
you make me feel like Jimmy Dean
you make me feel like Morrissey
when you undress from your best dress..

To keep warm, I'll bring a sweater
you can have mine, it looks better
and honestly, you can take it home. We'll take blankets to stay safe
I'll do my best to stay out of your way
then I guess maybe one day,
I'll be yours forever.
I'll introduce you to Clarity
teach you the words to 'The Sound Of Settling,'
make you watch High Fidelity
on a Sunday, maybe one day.

To keep warm, I'll bring a sweater
you can have mine, it looks better
and honestly, you can take it home.

To keep warm, I'll bring a sweater
you can have mine, it looks better
and honestly, you can take it home. "

~Bukowski 

Moose Blood, Moving Home

10/19/14

"Hey now, the past is told by those who win
My darling, what matters is what hasn't been.
Hey now, we're wide awake and we're thinking,
My darling, believe your voice can mean something."

~Futures 

Jimmy Eat World, Futures

The first time I heard those opening chords on this title track, from the computer speakers in the basement where I spent so much time alone listening to so many songs, I wonder if I knew I'd be playing it 10 years later. 

The future looked exciting then, if not amorphous. I knew I had one, knew it was inevitable, and I knew what made me feel good: music, friends,writing, creativity. But did I know how those things would coalesce? Did I know the highs and lows to come would rival the  best and worst I'd experienced in 16 years? Did I know how much I'd one day be able to make sense of myself, all the while holding onto the notes and messages and stories of those songs I took in at that very moment? Then, as now, I saw hope in what was to come, even if I didn't know how it would play out. I knew what feelings mattered and I followed them - ten years later, I've learned the importance of that.

I'd loved Jimmy Eat World for several years before this release. I'd already fallen in love with Clarity and already rattled off their name in the list of my favorite bands. This record was an anticipated arrival that did not disappoint, it carried hope and yearning and pensive struggle with some of the best hooks this band has created, while recapturing an alt-rock throne that cemented this band's legacy as royalty among a certain crowd. How many other bands can walk the line so well between assertive punk ("Pain," "Just Tonight") with radio-ready choruses ("Work," "Kill" ) and cinematic melodies ("Polaris," "23")?  Who even has since? 

I remember playing "23" and wondering where I'd be when I was that age. I remember singing it loudly in my car on that birthday, driving around Main Street with a friend who told me it was OK to sing. Hearing it today is funny. What I wouldn't give to be 23 again, to do so much so differently...but I suppose I must be happy it is this way, now, because once more there is a future ahead.

"You'll sit alone forever 
If you wait for the right time
What are you hoping for?
I'm here and now, I'm ready 
Holding on tight, 
Don't give away the end, 
The one thing that stays mine."
~23
Jimmy  Eat World, Futures

On this one, every track is a memory. Every memory is a place, a person, a feeling. Every transition on this record is seamless and I find I can listen to it from start to finish and reflect kindly on the years that have passed. Friends, lovers and internal discord from different chapters of life are interwoven with Futures maybe moreso than most of my others favorite albums, because it has never stopped feeling present, never stopped being relevant. Beyond that, it is incredibly listenable, and interesting. These songs are confident and dressed just-so. This era was before the too-many-instruments, too-much-laptop sound really found a foothold, and Jimmy Eat World, with their smart parts and truly dedicated post-production, exemplified the best that rock music could be in that age. The auxiliary on this album is more than background effect. It is a supporting character, illuminating pop structures with higher depth. Mostly I think this record has beautiful tones, a warm heavy mood from the combination of great songs, great guitar and subtle production - timeless, timeless qualities.

The title track became an instant anthem, full of sentient optimism. It is probably my favorite song from this collection. I believe it is also timeless, because of the reality it captures. I think those opening chords are the  perfect hint at the darker edges and fuller swells to come, I think they are a bold statement that commands attention. Such a Track 1 choice is risky, because you're trusting the rest of your album to match those first grand gestures - this is what separates Jimmy Eat World from other bands who try a big, open sound, is they can deliver it. 

Of course I cannot talk about Futures without talking about the cover art, as iconic as any of the age. Pay phones, imagery that would return on "Damage," and the dim spotlight of loneliness. It is pensive, and perfect. 

In continued tenth anniversary commemoration, here is the only song I know how to play from this album. I didn't do a very good job performing it cleanly, but it comes from a place of respect and admiration, and also, the heart.

"Don't think we're not serious, 

when it's ever not?
The love we make, it's give and it's take, 

I'm game to play along."

~Work, 

Jimmy Eat World, Futures

10/16/14

Lately I've observed how music is as much a physical manisfestation as it is a sonic one. Its presence is so very tangible. 

I spent 20 minutes the other day looking through an old beat-up CD binder and sifting through piles of cracked jewel cases looking for this particular disc (to no avail, yet). I fiddle with the cord on my headphones throughout the day, and try not to sing to myself. I come home and pry open a sleeve to slip out the dense, thin vinyl and smell its decades-old dust or plastic newness. Then I settle in and put my fingers to strings, in hopes they'll come to an understanding with each other this time. And some days, I wake up too early and stretch my spine and extend my toes toward the sky, crack my bones and balance to the tune of the piano, focusing on time and space and little else, for in some moments, this connection is the key to clarity, arriving unexpected where the mind and body meet. 

"Love,
I won't break your heart,
it's a long way down from here,
every time you fall and break apart,
i will pick you up again.

With your head up high,
would you try,
try to place your feet back on the ground,
I found that its easier to hide,
in the cold alone,Unraveled since the day you fell apart,
oh but honey i'm alive.

Love,
I won't break your heart,
cause I've seen this all before,
you're a fire that grows from just a spark,
and then walks right out the door.

With your head up high,
would you try,
try to place your feet back on the ground,
I found that it's easier to hide,
in the cold alone,
Unraveled since the day you fell apart,
oh but honey I'm alive.

Crying on the phone,
when you said you were alone,
I am gonna stay,
though your friends have gone away,
all the secrets that we have,
only keep the worlds alive,
but you've got something left to give,
if you'd only learn to live.

With your head up high,
would you try,
cause your the only one to pull me through,
it's true,
and it seems a waste of time,
to grow old alone,
we've been dyin since the day we fell apart,
oh honey i'm still alive, i'm still alive."
~The Day You Fell Apart

The New Frontiers, Mending

10/8/14

Three in the morning and the sad songs didn't start til 2 a.m. But it was just the right timing, past the point of hoping for sleep while verging on acceptance of the insomnia ahead. Somehow it took several hours of tossing and turning and ruminating before I sought sonic distraction.

Of course, as is often the case, the most suitable finds were perfectly randomized. Old favorites whose notes felt warm and comforting to tired ears, plucked by an algorithm with no knowledge of my state of mind. Listening to these familiar songs, played in past desperate times, reminded me this, all of this, too, shall pass, be it three to five minutes and four to six chords at a time.



This song. This song is meaningful, with glimmering darkness that swallows you whole. Few words, small melody, with cinematic, visceral sound. It reminds me of worse times, and better ones, the safe familiar vision of that light so far in the distance.

"Help, I have done it again
I have been here many times before
Hurt myself again today
And the worst part is there's no one else to blame."

~Breathe Me, 

Sia, Color the Small Ones

What a find. This album is a perennial rediscovery,and well-worth it,because it's solid from start to finish and desperate folk-sad with an alt-rock sound. Haunting vocals, which, I'd say, all three of these tracks have in common. This is a song for rainy nights and whiskey tears. I'm halfway there.

"Anything to make you smile
You are the ever-living ghost of what once was
I never want to hear you say
That you'd be better off
Or you liked it that way

But no one is ever gonna love you more than I do
No one's gonna love you more than I do."

~No One's Gonna Love You More Than I Do 

Band of Horses, Cease to Begin




Early-stage Radiohead. What more is there to say? Truly one of the best albums of all time, a precursor to the genius works to come with a little bit of that grunge rock angst still kicking around the edges.. Think I found the right album for the remainder of this sullen night. One that provokes a little thoughtfulness, a little depth, which are the intellectual ways to describe wallowing, I think.

"Two jumps in a week
I bet you think that's pretty clever don't you boy?
Flying on your motorcycle,
Watching all the ground beneath you drop
You'd kill yourself for recognition,
Kill yourself to never ever stop
You broke another mirror,
You're turning into something you are not

Don't leave me high, don't leave me dry,
Don't leave me high, don't leave me dry.

Drying up in conversation,
You will be the one who cannot talk.
All your insides fall to pieces,
You just sit there wishing you could still make love.
They're the ones who'll hate you,
When you think you've got the world all sussed out,
They're the ones who'll spit at you,
You will be the one screaming out.

Don't leave me high, don't leave me dry
Don't leave me high, don't leave me dry

It's the best thing that you ever had,
The best thing that you ever, ever had
It's the best thing that you ever had,
The best thing you ever had has gone away.

Don't leave me high, don't leave me dry,
Don't leave me high, don't leave me dry,
Don't leave me high, don't leave me dry,
Don't leave me high, don't leave me dry."

~High and Dry 

Radiohead, The Bends