9/3/12

Can't not love this video/song.

Love the instrumentation, the space between the harmonies and the simple, simple parts....hard to beat a stand-up, too. Also, I think I am predisposed to love any song named after my beloved home state or its pinnacle city, as well as those with this certain sentimental feeling.

"I hear the train all night,

Sound of it's wind blowing through our subtle lives.
And I have a job to do walking these cars,
Walking all this sleep to get to you.

But I don't feel you stir beside me,
And you're not in my morning hours.

Some ties are made to break,
Some stalks grow high and green to rot away,
And feel the weight.

And these lines tell a truth,
These city veins answer all we do.
So could you keep me in the pulses?
Could you keep me in the sound?

I got wise and I got old
Not once, not once did I fold
So don't you now

Maybe you bet on me
While we were still young enough to know
What to believe

For every year you took,
For every soft breath or loving look,
Believe me,

And don't keep me like you have me
And don't kiss me like you don't

I got wise and I got old,
Not once, not once did I fold,
So don't you now.

Some land holds a home,
Some of my years only hold me to roam.
But I tell myself it's true
You see a home, you see a man
You see it too.

And I say "Don't you know you have her,
Go on kiss her now you boy."
I got wise and I got old,
Not once, not once did I fall,
So don't you now.

I got wise and I got old,
Not once, not once did I fall,
So don't you now."
~New York
Blind Pilot, We Are the Tide

8/30/12

In my best moments, my heart lives somewhere in the chorus of Tennessee-born Americana tunes. The kind for dusty roads and dreams that never die, full of big eyes and hearts to match. Full of the magic of music and the promise it'll make something worth it.

A fine example:



"Way back on the radio dial,
A fire got lit inside a bright-eyed child.
Every note just wrapped around your soul,
From steel guitar to Memphis, all the way to rock and roll.

Woah, I can hear 'em playing
I can hear the ringing of a beat up old guitar
Woah, I can hear 'em saying
Keep on dreaming even if it breaks your heart

Downtown, where I used to wander,
Old enough to get there, but too young to get inside.
I would stand out on the sidewalk,
Listen to the music playing every Friday night.

Woah, I can hear 'em playing,
I can hear the ringing of a beat up old guitar.
Woah, I can hear 'em saying,
Keep on dreaming even if it breaks your heart.

Some dreams stay with you forever
Drag you around and lead you back to where you were. 
Some dreams keep on getting better,
Got to keep believing if you want to know for sure

Woah I can hear 'em playing,
I can hear the ringing of a beat up old guitar.
Woah I can hear 'em saying,
Keep on dreaming even if it breaks your heart.

Woah I can hear 'em playing,
I can hear the ringing of a beat up old guitar.
Woah I can hear 'em saying,
Keep on dreaming even if it breaks your heart.

Keep on dreaming even if it breaks your heart,
Keep on dreaming,
Don't let it break your heart."

~Even if it Breaks Your Heart
Will Hoge, The Wreckage

Sidenote: You'll also see this song from the Eli Young Band. Just as beautiful, a tad more country, but love that someone so mainstream noticed how beautiful this song is:

8/27/12

Since Thursday until about 7 p.m. today, the only album I played in my car is The Menzingers' "On the Impossible Past."

I try not to write about the same band two posts in a row, but I have barely absorbed anything else.



"Remember the days when I had a conscience? Yeah, me neither./And I'm warning, I'm warning, I'm warning you./And I'm warning, I'm warning, I'm warning you/That I can't seem to tell, I can't seem to tell, I can't seem to tell if it's my head or the earth that's spinning around." ~ I Can't Seem to Tell, The Menzingers, On the Impossible Past

I've concluded that "Gates" (see previous post) is their "please-play-me-on-the-radio" song, and I love it immensely. Beyond "Gates," the album shows to be grittier, grungier. Nothing I would classify as screamo, it's very melodic, but there's definitely some vocal chord tearing going on here and there. Love it. The title track is fascinating, a dirge-like memory of a car crash, that serves as a 1:33-long intro into "Nice Things," which is somewhat of a social commentary on how to not be a tool with a vocalist switch.

There's hints of an overarching narrative, something about American muscle cars and dating waitresses, passing mentions of drinking and drug use. Paints a pretty good picture of where this is coming from. A lot of it is just really sad, really desperate, yet really alive.

"And I'm pretty sure this corner of the world is the loneliest corner in the whole world." ~Sun Hotel, The Menzingers, On the Impossible Past

Many of the guitar parts remind me of songs a friend back home writes, a friend I look up to despite (or maybe because of) the fact he is a total fucking outlaw. I've also concluded this album feeds everything in me that loves punk bands, though. For example: really triumphant guitar solos in the face of falling faithless, really despondent tales of drinking while feeling said feelings, varying levels of begrudging maturity, screaming out a girl's name to the fates that fucked it all up, doubletime.

Take this hook, for example. If that's not what I want to hear on my way to work, I don't know what is.



"We stumbled and stared at the carnival lights that lit up New York City,
From a rooftop in Brooklyn that was covered in bad graffiti.
And then I let a thousand splinters pierce right through my spoiled liver,
Or whatever that was left of it.

'Cause I've cursed my lonely memory with picture-perfect imagery.
Maybe I'm not dying I'm just living in decaying cities.
But I'm still healthy, I'm still fine,
I've been spending all my time reading the obituaries.

But I will fuck this up,
I fucking know it.
I will fuck this up,
I fucking know it.
I will fuck this up,
I fucking know it.
I will fuck this up,
I fucking know it."
~The Obituaries
The Menzingers, On the Impossible Past

8/22/12

Holy fuck, all hail The Menzingers. A great choice on a day like today, when "fuck it all" seems to feel like the mantra no matter what the world tells me. Not winning, not losing, not even really feeling, so pop punk it is.


I love this song, in particular, one of the more uplifting tracks with a really dancey guitar melody. I've been checking out "On the Impossible Past," which the newest LP from the Scranton-bred pop-punk group, and it's incredibly authentic, incredibly defeated. Really powerful chords, dark-hearted lyrics and equally fitting bridges...really into the style of the lead vocalist who has a unique drawl that reminds me a little of something 90s. They manage to sound drunken and thrashy without sacrificing a literary license, a balance I must applaud.

Something about this album makes me miss home, then I remember how badly I wanted to leave home before I wound up here. Fuck it all.

"I am the pain that beats through your temples
Every morning when you wake up.
I am the boy with alcohol poisoning
From all the parties Chris was throwing
That summer they took us in
Like every other American
For getting drunk around back of the Lion's Club
Waiting for the shitty bands to finish up.
And some kids played hacky sack,
while the others just got high.

It's not hard to fall for a waitress
When you both smoke, smoke the same cigarettes
You'll get seated as diners or lovers
You'll get the check as friends for the better
You'll carve your names into the Paupack Cliffs
Just to read them when you get old enough to know
that happiness is just a moment

So I'm marching up to your gates today
To throw my lonely soul away
'Cause I don't need it
You can take it back

So I'm marching up to your gates today
To throw my lonely soul away
'Cause I don't need it
You can take it back

And they will make examples out of us
Like when they caught you in the CVS parking lot
But I fed the liars
Everything I got in my cabinet brain
of canned thoughts
Everything I've got
It was everything I've got
In my cabinet brain

So I'm marching up to your gates today
To throw my lonely soul away
'Cause I don't need it
You can take it back

Yeah I don't need it
You can take it back"

~Gates 

The Menzingers, On the Impossible Past

8/22/12

"I saw that mountain burn, or was it in my head?
I'll track down the words, if you dig up the dead.

Well I have never been free,
but I have always been cheap.
No, I have never been free.

But nothing in my bones can say just where you've been.
Nothing in my bones can let me start again, I'll start again.

My eyelids falling down, 

All my dreams in black and white.
I see so clearly now I won't ever get it right.
But I don't wanna be free. 

I don't wanna be me.
I don't wanna be free.

You want me scream at your ex-girlfriend.
But I wanna be much better than I am.
You want me scream at your ex-boyfriend.
But I wanna be, and I don't think I can.

Nothing in my bones can say just where you've been 

Nothing in my bones can let me start again 

I'll start again, I'll start again, 

I'll start again."

~Dig Up the Dead
Mansions,