4/17/16

Discovering Steve Gunn shortly before a cross-country road-trip turned out to be excellent timing, as listening to him now has me longing for wide-open Oklahoma skies and the unending New Mexico horizons. I've been in a solid folk-country mode lately, underscored by classic rock like CSNY and Dylan and unknown tracks by way of random desert radio stations. But Gunn provides a modern update to all this - his guitar playing is intricate, and spacey, and worth a live performance viewing to truly appreciate. His songwriting has a definite flow, with the divisions between verse and chorus more ballad than pop, with the kind of two, two-and-half minute solos that reel in the listener and reflective, observational lyrics that give them something to chew on once they're there.

His newest single "Conditions Wild" showcases his playing and explores a wide, open world with intrigue, albeit understated. It feels purposefully restrained, as if Gunn's voice carrying the melody is holding back all hell from breaking loose. Diving into his back catalog reveals more of this, along with slide guitar and delay and six-minute-plus songs brimming with warm acoustic tones.

I love the space in his music, created through multiple guitar parts with meandering solos on top. Intros and outros twist and turn around every corner of a scale although, for better or worse, it seems like his newer releases are getting shorter. Overall, Gunn's style reminds of that rambling jam-band genre with a little bit more of a literary, subdued element -- he seems to indulge in the depth of a song, opting for a six-track LP on 2013's "Time Off" in favor of six, seven minute jams. It's fantastic road trip music, especially with the windows down and a taste of the desert breeze.

Given that Steve Gunn is as East Coast as they come (Brooklyn via PA), his music is hardly of this place that it references and suits so well, but therein lies the magic of acoustic lead guitars and big, mysterious rock music -- it can be inspired by the promise of something bigger, something greater. Isn't that what the westward journey is all about? There's probably a lot more to be said about music that is from one place and sounds reminiscent of another, but perhaps a task for an academic or another day.

For now, I'm enjoying all the space, the slow-down, the openness. 

"Wind so bad, the woods will move
They’re hanging in the ai

Who am I?
Soon can sayTake into the young old land
It’s how he wants to rock

It’s how he wants to rock

You know it runs
The private river out
Into the night
Its fruit will help you listen
Keep you outta sight


Moon so bad the doors won’t move
They don’t seem to care
Ask so plain, the runners so forward
It’s time to move, the brave the storm
A different stop a day
Move and make your way

You know it runs
The private river out into the night
Its fruit will help you listen

Keep you outta sight."
~Wildwood
Steve Gunn, Way Out Weather

3/31/16

"But I was late for this, late for that, 
Late for the love of my life.
And when I die alone, when I die alone, 
When I die I'll be on time."
~Cleopatra
The Lumineers, Cleopatra

Looking forward to the new album from The Lumineers album despite my very select knowledge of their early music. Mostly excited about this new single, "Cleopatra," a delightfully dark character-driven retrospective. I'm enjoying how this band uses rhythm to move a song along, with a lot of drums and piano and tambourine, they're not guitar-reliant and that's a really powerful thing, as their breakthrough single "Ho Hey" similarly suggests.

A band like The Lumineers is at an interesting point in their career - most likely, any single they release will not have the immense popularity that that first hit did. "Ho Hey" was everywhere - on radio, TV shows, just shepherding hipster folk to the masses through a charming, catchy love song. How can a band top that? Maybe that's why they took their time in coming out with a sophomore effort four years after their Grammy-nominated self-titled debut, maybe because the pressure to be great was weighty and they thought it better to simmer for awhile.

In music, as other efforts, it's a lot easier to make a splash as something new and great rather than sustain that popularity. Easy to get to the top, harder to stay there, as the saying goes. It's freshness and newness an artist brings to the table that makes them so popular in the first place - in the case of The Lumineers, I call it the right sound at the right time. As a creator, how do you live up to that expectation of greatness after you have already achieved it? If you make the same sound, how can it popularized a second time? Are you pressured to recreate out of appeasement, or do you dive into new territory and hope the fanbase comes along for the ride?  From the sound of "Cleopatra" and "Ophelia," they've focused on their melodic and auxiliary strengths,  those qualities that earned them the nomination nod for Best New Artist. As a relatively new fan, I hope to find these same sincere, sad themes, these roosty-bluesy riffs and spine-tingling harmonies.

"I, I got a little paycheck, you got big plans and you gotta move

And I don't feel nothing at all
And you can't feel nothing small

'Honey I love you,' that's all she wrote.

Oh, Ophelia, you've been on my mind girl like a drug
Oh, Ophelia, heaven help a fool who falls in love

Oh, Ophelia, you've been on my mind girl since the flood
Oh, Ophelia, heaven help a fool who falls in love

Oh, Ophelia, you've been on my mind girl like a drug
Oh, Ophelia, heaven help a fool who falls in love."

~Ophelia, 

The Lumineers, Cleopatra

3/29/16

"You are the hole in my head
I am the pain in your neck
You are the lump in my throat
I am the aching in your heart

We are tangled
We are stolen
We are living where things are hidden."

One of the things I truly enjoyed about Judd Apatow's "Love" Netflix series was the closing credit soundtrack - each song was a cynical, desperate kiss-off to match the episode's screwball relationship defeats. I have an extra reason to love it now, because it reminded me that this song exists - probably my favorite thing Eddie Vedder has ever recorded.

I've never been much of a Pearl Jam fan - I just wasn't around at the right time!! And there's only so much retrospective listening one can do!! - but any time I hear Vedder's solo work and folk-acoustic tracks it leaves such a good impression on me. His voice will go down in history as one of the most recognizable of our generation, and one of the most unforgettable, too. This cover of John Doe's (of the formative punk rock band X) "The Golden State" is probably one of my all-time surprise favorites - I rediscover this song every year in some form or fashion, via TV or Pandora or whatever, and fall in love with all over again.

The harmonies are so, so perfect, using this really open, obvious counterpoint that makes the two voices sound like they're in different worlds but still meshing purposely. The result, and the sentiment, is really quite fitting. I ought to stop forgetting to put this on every playlist I ever make, learn to play it, and find out more of John Doe's original work because I would love to hear more of this.

"We are luck
We are fate
We are the feeling you get in the golden state
 
We are love
We are hate
We are the feeling I get when you walk away."~The Golden State
John Doe feat. Kathleen Edwards, The Golden State, as covered by Eddie Vedder and Corin Tucker

3/25/16

"They need a heart. 
I relapse on memory. 
I got numb again. 
I feel the scar, but I need the money.
I think I’m lost again. 

I think my life is disappearing." 
~Punch Drunk,
Young and Heartless, Stay Awake

As much as I've been hooked on the arena-synth emo likes of the new record from  The 1975 (eveyr night) and the alt-country twinges of Brian Fallon's "Painkillers," (every morning) I keep adding ot he list of what I must l isten to that is new and different (during the day). Today that is the Young and Heartless, a Hopeless Records band that I'd heard of but hadn't heard and listening to their new record provides a much more mature, complex sound than I imagined.

And to make it that much better - I checked out their Bandcamp and found out they are from my beloved Harrisburg.

There's a darkness and edginess to their lyrics, about money and drugs and losing grip on one's life. But their ever-so-slightly nu wave guitars elevate their sound to something silky, smooth and cohesive. The vocals are throaty baritone without the screamy-screeching that seems (finally) to be going out of fashion in favor for more technical, on-point melodies and backing harmonies. There are echoes of grungier emo, like Citizen, but also the introspective notions of Into It. Over It., and the shoegaze tint of Title Fight. Every song seems to be about not being able to get it, or keep it, together.

"Stay Awake" Is an incredibly digestible listen, but not necessarily a comfortable one - it's not a happy record, by any means, but it is really beautifully crafted mid-tempo rock and roll. Each song, prior to its final chorus, seems to build a tension that breaks down in a feisty drum part and ever-so-dissonant chord choices. It's a sound that feels absolutely trendy and on-point, but only because it has been fashioned out of years of work. However long they've been around, Young and Heartless are good enough at writing tight, deep groves together, which just so happens to be the sound of the moment. But you don't get to sound this seasoned without a run-up, and something tells me this sound has been brewing in their garages and studios for awhile. 

I'm so happy to have stumbled upon this band on their record release day, as they start what is very likely a successful run and I seek anything new, relevant, present and different to enthrall myself in. As wonderful as it is to have new music from old favorites (and there is so much of that this year, notably new LPS from Aaron West, The Hotelier, and Thrice coming up this spring) having a new band with a new style and a new story provide punctuation to the phases of life, like the bookends in between what's old and new.



"What am I doing? 
Carve me a new love.
Open the blinds.
Your life deserves light."
~Misery on Misery 
Young and Heartless, Stay Awake

3/24/16

"So satisfied I said a lot of things tonight
So long aphasia & the ways it kept me hiding
It's not so much exactly all the words I used
iI's more that i was somehow down to let them loose."
~Aphasia
Pinvegrove, Caridnal

Pinegrove is the indie rock band of the year, it has already been determined by myself and so many other rabid listeners. Theirs is a fresh sound, that rare bird that finds its way into blogs and tastemaking machines. There's emo roots for sure, but a little bit of hipster songwriter, too, and a hell of a lot of introspective heart.

Pinegrove is to 2016 as The Hotelier is to 2014 and Turnover is to 2015, this little-band-that-could that makes its breakthrough. I started listening to them earlier this year after seeing more than a few Twitter mentions, and now I can't stop playing "Cardinal" every night. The record channels pensive loneliness in a subdued and understated way - they are not brash like Modern Baseball, they are not overly wrought like TWIABP, but they can be considered contemporaries in this post-emo revival, rock-for-the-heartfelt times.

While I love the layered guitar sound and their ability to build and bust into noisey little spells, I think it's the melodies that make these songs worth returning to. On tracks like "Aphasia," "Size of the Moon" and ubiquitous opener "Old Friends," the verses seem to be written with as much of an ear for hooks as the choruses, and they find a way to take root in your brain. Something about this is very pop, and very now, but all else about them is rather garage band rock and roll. The combination is altogether hoest. Let this be the year of Pinegrove, let their subtle technique, elegant touch and gritty realism set the bar for what it means to forge a new sound built upon the foundations of rock and roll.

"I don't know what
I'm afraid of
but I’m afraid
one day it all
will fall away 
Maybe I read that

But still, let’s see
 If nothing else it’s an idle curiosity."
~Size of the Moon
Pinegrove, Cardinal