Wednesday, April 4, 2012

4/4/12

So, this was on as my friend was driving me home from the bar tonight. Felt pretty right. Though popular long before I was born, though related to by millions time after time, I get into it.

You can't talk about love songs without mentioning. And yeah, I'm a cheesy motherfucker, but yeah, try and fuck with this song.



"love, I don't like to see so much pain
so much wasted and this moment keeps slipping away
I get so tired of working so hard for our survival
I look to the time with you to keep me awake and alive

and all my instincts, they return
and the grand facade, so soon will burn

without a noise, without my pride
I reach out from the inside

in your eyes
the light the heat
in your eyes
I am complete
in your eyes
I see the doorway to a thousand churches
in your eyes
the resolution of all the fruitless searches

in your eyes
I see the light and the heat
in your eyes
oh, I want to be that complete
I want to touch the light,
the heat I see in your eyes
"
~In Your Eyes
Peter Gabriel

Timeless. Refreshing. Reassuring. We could make a Say Anything boom-box-above-the-head joke, but, no. Just the song, and the passenger seat, and thinking.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

4/1/12

I love the Internet so much. I can watch a concert I went to more than three years ago. Started searching for a version of "On a Sunday", found one from the Clarity x 10 tour in LA, wanted to see if I could find the NYC version, stumbled on this one with decent enough audio & half of "Crush."

Perfect for today.

Saturday, March 31, 2012

3/31/12

"It's such a shame/I heard the wind say this morning
Be still, my heart/I age by years at the mention of your name"

~Behold the Hurriance
The Horrible Crowes, Elsie

That's a loaded line right there, isn't it? Don't we all know those people, those who snap us back to the moment we met them? When a too-quick second-held glance fills your chest with defeat or regret or love or whatevewr it may be, and you're flooded by perspective.



Like a fool, I read all the buzz about Brian Fallon's side project The Horrible Crowes without actually listening to it for quite some time. Now I've purchased "Elsie," and I'm fawning over it quite a bit.

("Sugar" was my acoustic triumph and tribute, it was quite a fun project.)

The whole album is a dance-hall flirtation, an affair played out in bars and loud cars with patron saints hanging from the rearview mirror.

Fallon's vocal are easily more impressive on this project than on The Gaslight Anthem records, which makes me really fucking stoked for 2012's "Handwritten." His phrasing is pure theater, but his tone is the grittiness you'd except from a sexy, sleeved Jersey rocker, and he plays around with range a lot throughout the album and individual songs, making for wonderful contrasts. Which, come to think of it, is a good word for this album - it's love and it's regret, it's heartfelt and a little trashy.

"Elsie," in true Fallon form, rips out your heart just so you can dance on it yourself. Admittedly, I find myself playing individual tracks from the first half of the album a little more than the latter now that I've listened to the whole thing. But piano-driven "Black Betty and the Moon" and "Crush" feel like Billy Joel at his most pop-poetic, and I dig it. I dig it all.

And then there's "Ladykiller," chill-inducing, lost love testament, when all the reasons for the pain al right htere in your face. Here, let's watch a stripped-down live version, and you shall see what I mean:



"And how about this for a good one
Maybe we don't ever come down
I can leave the wound wide open
And maybe see if I can tough it out
Let it pour over my head
All your shame and your history
And see if I say a thing
As it rolls up inside of me

And you must've met a man
Tall and handsome at that
Who must've put a spell on you, baby
And must've kept on coming back
Cause I can smell him in your skin
I bet I taste him in your blood
Must be all the young boys, baby
Lady killer got the two of us"

~Ladykiller
The Horrible Crowes, Elsie

Friday, March 30, 2012

3/30/12

"I'm just a dreamer/but I'm hanging on/though I am nothing big to offer"



"Sometimes the blues just a passing bird
And why can't that always be?

Tossing aside from your bichers crown
Just enough dark to see
How you're the light over me"

~The Dreamer
The Tallest Man on Earth, Sometimes the Blues Just a Passing Bird

First of all, I just know the guy's name is Kristian Matsson and he is Swedish, so this isn't a well-researched post. I can say The Tallest Man on Earth makes me very happy and less lonely when I am very pensive, and alone.

I can also tell you I got out of bed this morning just so I could listen to this song. Sometimes the blues is just a passing bird, and why can't that always be? Sounds like fucking Robert Frost or something.

I get a half Dylan, half Jeff Buckley vibe, portrait-painting and revealing. The guitar tones in this song make me unbelievably happy, though he picks from a variety of instruments on recordings and in live performances (according to YouTube). A lot of the parts aren't terrifically complicated, though he has a fantastic melodic ear and unbelievable songwriting. You don't need virtuoso playing with those ingredients in a song like this one though. You just let it speak for itself.

It is a simple song, from a simple point of view. Those of you who say the world has too many singer-songwriters, that it's too hard to keep them all straight, (I know you're out there) shut your mouths! Let them write, let them sing, and let me sit here and press replay.

This too:

Monday, March 26, 2012

3/26/12

Acoustic Jim Adkins, on one of my favorite Futures tracks:



Is it wrong that Arizona is on my list of "places I'd like to live" partially because I could catch Jimmy Eat World gigs like this?

"i'll pick up put down the phone/like your favorite Heatmeiser song goes/it's just like being alone"
~Kill
Jimmy Eat World, Futures