7/21/13

Several years before it was so fashionable to have multi-member folksy pop bands, Margot and the Nuclear So-and-Sos were doing their thing and doing it oh so well. A vastly underappreciated band on many levels, Richard Edwards is a fantastic songwriter capable of poignant, original metaphors and beautiful melodic layers, accented by lap steel and horns. Love this song, for its dynamics and drama.

"I gotta go, and you're talking in code
Saying I know where you've been and I know where you go

I've been tired from the moment I woke
I stopped listening the moment you spoke
and said I'm long gone
yeah, I'm long gone

And I'm sleeping alone
in a house I don't own
cause if you're touring your mind
you'll get lost every time
you'll sing me sad songs to keep me awake
in that bedroom where we hid away
Baby, I'm long gone.
Yeah, I'm long gone.

And your voice cracks like a piano
you keep moving,
but where are you going?
Baby, we're long gone
Yeah, we're long gone"
~Talking in Code,
Margot and the Nuclear So-and-Sos, The Dust of Retreat

7/12/13

Something about this song just screams summertime. Maybe it's the surfer-toned distortion - are those Telecasters?  Maybe the mention of young love. Maybe it's the drumroll before the four-times-through chorus, which is a great tactic for hitting home a great melody and turning a few short lines into a full-fledged song. 

"I said, 'darlin', why so blue?'
She told me, 'I've been missin' you.'
We's a-leaving
She said, stay
She kissed my lips and quickly ran away

Lost some buttons to my overcoat
Pull your knife away from my throat
She said, 'smoke your cigarette, I hope you choke'
Kissed my lips and quickly ran away

I shake, I shake
I can never see
How good a young love could really be.
I know, I know
It's not that bad
Take a look at what we had

Walked you home from the park
I held your hand, it was after dark
Hold me closer, she'll always stay
She kissed my lips and quickly ran away

Lost some buttons to my overcoat
Pull your knife away from my throat
She said, 'smoke your cigarette, I hope you choke'
Kissed my lips and quickly ran away

You shake, you shake
I could never see
How good young love could really be
I know, I know
It's not that bad
Take a look at what we had"
~Buttons
The Weeks, Comeback Cadillac

7/10/13

"You would write it
Then rewrite it
Then erase it

But I heard you had something to say to me
A stronger spine is all you need
So pick up the guts from on the floor
Experienced advice to help you with the choice of words so poor

Well I call it retaliation by definition
You should've known by now
What this resentments all about
I've posted every kind of clue around this town
And everyone seems to see them but you"~Discretion and Depressing People
Into It. Over It., Proper

I've been on a huge Into It. Over It. kick lately - mostly because I crafted the closest-to-perfect Pandora station I've ever done in their name, with the likes of Look Mexico, The Wonder Years, The Weakerthans, Fireworks and a lot of sweet bands I've never heard of filling out the playlist.

If you've never heard "Proper," it's a fascinating, addicting, rabbit-hole of an album. The band overall is really original and authentic, and I think that makes them hard to classify but endlessly fun to listen to. It's not pop-punk, is it? and it's definitely not hardcore. Post-punk? No. Alt rock? Very Death Cab at times, but also has a lot in common with the progressive indie scene and seems rather well-known among pop-punk crowds.  I think we can just call it music and leave it at that.

I just love the variation, I love the feel. Guitar parts alternative between rich, slow electric parts with dreamy crescendos and more pop-punk chord-jamming, then there's mellow acoustic on a couple ballad tracks. Evan Weiss is an inventive lyricist; I love what he does with timing and his penchant for full sentences, and a noticable lack of rhyming that occasionally resolves itself in some poignant, pointed way. There's sometimes a spoken-word feel, like a journal being read aloud, and then you'll get some really obvious melody. And I love the in-line rhyming he so often uses, it flows really well. In songs like this, "Midnight: Carroll Street" you end the song with a bring-it-home, key-spruced climax powerful enough to sounds good loud but not aggressive enough to lose something heartfelt and warm. A winning album, for its intimacy and its quirks, in my book.



"Somewhere between caffeine and nicotine
You will find me unentertained and worn out
Pressed to the steps beside my house

It's somewhere between upset and sick it seems
To still find me the finest quality of pure anxiety
I'm searching for the solace to call you out,
To call you at all.

So somewhere between midnight and Carroll Street
I will find you a colder shoulder than I'm used to
Bending receivers just to hear the truth
I'm demanding some answers
I'm keeping up with double standards
I am between the words you're telling me
With a fine toothed comb
I'm drawing lines in hindsight
Until the stories start to line up right
These details bent and broke us down
The finest rivalry of our anxiety
Searching for the courage to hear you out
To hear you at all
Somewhere between single life and sympathy
You will find me
You will find me

You will find me

7/713

Beautiful day to listen to some Whiskeytown, hot and rainy and a little lazy. Maybe it's the frequency I've been picking up my guitar, maybe it's nostalgia nipping at my heels, or maybe it's just the warm, hazy promise distinct to American summers. But lately the sound of Carolina-bred folk coated in strings and harmonies makes the perfect soundtrack for winding down the weekend. Clears the head, clears the heart and all too easy to sing to.



"Put the houses in a row 
On the streets we used to know 
And all the things out in the yard 
Beckoning there to and fro
 
And if the money isn't right 
Can I be yours tonight? 
I've an easy heart.
 
And from the windows of your house 
Reflects back on yourself.
And it gets you wonderin'  
If it means anything
 
And if the money isn't right 
Can I be yours tonight?  
I've had a pretty hard life,
I've had a pretty hard life for such an easy heart.
 
You move away when you're young  
They take away where you're from 
And all the things out in the trees 
Fall away into the breeze
 
And if the money isn't right 
Can I be yours tonight? 
I've had a pretty hard life,
I've had a pretty hard life for such an easy heart"

~Easy Heart

Whiskeytown, Pneumonia 

6/23/13

A little Lucinda Williams as I continue a lazy Sunday morning...much to do today, much to accomplish that doesn't involving ruminating, and yet, coffee and YouTube surfing is much more satisfying than checking off any to-do lists.



Lucinda is the real deal - she just sings, there is no style to match, no manufactured pitch-matching going on. She simply sings, natural rasp, vibrato and dynamics coloring the tone instead of post-production effects. She doesn't try to be overtly pretty or sexy or anything other than who she is, she curses and snarls as much as she wistfully narrates. No wonder she's been so successful for so long, her performance and her songwriting are a perfectly match for the listener looking for honest American folk-rock of the modern age. No pretense, all feel, just straight up alt country blues from the heart.

"Are you all right?
All of a sudden you went away
Are you all right?
I hope you come back around someday.
Are you all right?
I haven't seen you in a real long time.
Are you all right?
Could you give me some kind of sign?
 
Are you all right?
I looked around me and you were gone.
Are you all right?
I feel like there must be something wrong.
Are you all right?
Cause it seems like you disappeared.
Are you all right?
Cause I've been feeling a little scared.
Are you all right?
Are you sleeping through the night?
Do you have someone to hold you tight?
Do you have someone to hang out with?
Do you have someone to hug & kiss you?
Hug & kiss you, hug & kiss you
Are you all right?"
~Are You Alright?
Lucinda Williams, West