4/15/14

I'm reading this book about writing short, and there's a chapter about song lyrics. There's another chapter about tweaking the predictable, and others about parallelism and variety. Most of it, almost all of it, reaffirms what I've always thought I've known - that writing is writing is writing. When it's good, it's good, and you know it. 

Nick Torres packs such a punch in this Northstar track off "Pollyanna," performed acoustic here, that all I can do is replay it, dissect it. The original pop punk setting of the song is fun, sure, but here, he is a master of metaphor, unencumbered. This is literary. This is why I can't wait for new Cassino material, and why, in the meantime, I will dissect the rest of it over and over again.

"She will sleep here

In between the cracks
Just a flower with a broken back
Waiting for dirty water
Did you sleep alright, did you sleep...?
She’s giving beat stares from being beat all day
Indian eyes in the American way
Hail Marys and ale
A Hailed Mary that ails."

~Between Horns and Halos 

Northstar, Pollyanna

4/13/14

Speed, slow-downs, syncopation. Delicacy and direct honesty. The movement in this song is captivating, the vulnerability is physical and every time I listen to Elena Tonra I get these troubling little chills, addicting in a way I cannot hope to fight. Her words are like whispered secrets I can hear and hold in mind, a quiet oasis in the noise. The more pretentious listeners among us sometimes tend to lump these female songwriters into a category. Especially when they're British. I have been guilty of this and the criticisms are usually accurate. Their voices are not the strongest, their words are often borderline cliche. They. All. Sound. The Same. But I've found Daughter surpasses these stereotypes, in part because her songs have a pained quality, an expressiveness of metaphor. Musically they show firm grasp on the possibility of structure, building on verses and choruses throughout. Dynamics and space are used masterfully, whether through gently echoed electrics or soft strumming and picking backed by the most subtle of auxiliary sounds and drumrolls, nary a crash in sight. The lack of clutter makes it so easy to hear the spine behind the song, the authenticity of where this came from. I simply love the poetry of it, how bare it is. And I think that's what shakes me so, what makes these little quakes in my musical mind so notable, because I hear these songs and where they come from and I cannot hope to match them but maybe, maybe I could try...

"That boy, take me away, into the night
Out of the hum of the street lights and into a forest
I'll do whatever you say to me in the dark
Scared I'll be torn apart by a wolf in mask of a familiar name on a birthday card

Blow out all the candles, blow out all the candles
"You're too old to be so shy," he says to me, so I stay the night.
Just a young heart confusing my mind, but we're both in silence
Wide-eyed, both in silence
Wide-eyed, like we're in a crime scene

Well I have brittle bones it seems
I bite my tongue and torch my dreams,
Have a little voice to speak with
And a mind of thoughts and secrecy.
Things cannot be reversed, we learn from the times we are cursed
Things cannot be reversed, learn from the ones we fear the worst
And learn from the ones we hate the most how to...

Blow out all the candles, blow out all the candles
"You're too old to be so shy," he says to me, so I stay the night.
Just a young heart confusing my mind, but we're both in silence
Wide-eyed, both in silence
Wide-eyed

Cause we both know I'll never be your lover
I only bring the heat
Company under cover
Filling space in your sheets
Well I'll never be a lover
I only bring the heat
Company under cover
Filling space in your sheets, in your sheets

So, please just blow out all the candles, blow out all the candles
"You're too old to be so shy," he says to me so I stay the night
It's just a young heart confusing my mind, but we're both in silence
Wide-eyed, both in silence
Wide-eyed, like we're in a crime scene."
~Candles, 
Daughter, His Young Heart

4/9/14

Recently I had the fortune to discover the incredible album that is Have Mercy's "The Earth Pushed Back," and it is captivating from start to finish. In a scene where bands get street cred and free streams for fitting a trendy sound and trolling on Twitter, it is gratifying, in a populist listener kind of way, to find a genre-spanning, East Coast indie alt-rock group such as this with emotive lyrics and longing-fused chord progressions. Traces of homage to pop punk/alt-rock of the past decade couple a sound more measured and mature, one that mimics the likes of American Football or early Copeland.

I love how melodic they are while standing on a foundation of accentuated bass lines, high-octave lead guitar thrashing and scratched-throat shouting. The album provides a balance of aggression and softer moments, blending deep, heavy chords with near whispers and occasional harmonies and strings. For a four-piece, this band sounds larger, using fills, timing and distortion to create that trademark suspension. Lyrically, these songs are destined to speak for the heartsick, spinning tales of captive desire, regret and longing with little end in sight through physical references to heads, hearts and arms, phone calls, moments and metaphor. 

I'm looking forward to checking out their newly released split with Daisyhead, as all signs point to this band firming up a reputation for itself. I'm looking forward to attaching this album, now found, to a time and a place, as is the case when I find myself alone with these records to hold onto. 

"I called you up, just where have you been
I'm just waiting for our lives to begin
No one wants you the way that I want you
When no one wants you
Can you say you want me too?

Why won't she go home?
I have you on the other telephone?
Cause no one, no one can do the things you do
Say the three words that I just want you to
I need you

We laughed in the sun, we laid in the grass
I felt your earth pushing back, it pushed back
What you don't know, don't know
Is you're gone and I'm home
But I'm all alone
For every body who knows what comes after

We laughed in the sun, we laid in the grass
I felt your earth pushing back, pushing back
What you don't know, don't know
Is you're gone and I'm home
But I'm all alone
For everybody who sung from the rafters

I want you weak at the knees"

~Weak at the Knees
Have Mercy, The Earth Pushed Back

3/28/14

Here's a serious throwback. Tonight I was browsing through Spotify seeking something familiar and fresh, I remember Mae existed, and I remembered once, I really enjoyed them. "Destination: Beautiful" always held up a little higher to my mind, but today I figured I'd give their second LP,  "The Everglow," a try. I think this album was given to me as a gift on my 16th birthday after my junior prom, and I probably haven't listened to it in full since maybe my first year of college. Upon revisiting, most of it floated by OK, and I found it listenable and charming. I remembered all the words, I remembered the brightness, but nothing struck me in any fresh way until the closer kicked in.



Carrying a song with piano, strings and vocal harmonies is a delicate thing to pull off, mostly because it is delicate. It is easy to make an impression if you are loud. It is easy to make an impression if you are catchy and hook filled. When you are subtle, when there is space, your decisions must be ever more careful. Which is what makes the stellar verses and simple construction of "The Sun and the Moon" shine even brighter. While I am fairly certain those synthy-sounding strings were not recorded live in studio, the movement they provide is the kind of touch that elevated Mae upon other emo counterparts of the age (is Mae emo? I'd put up that argument if I had to but there's probably a better genre to label).

Musically, it's the last four minutes where they really make the impression with a post-rock build of sorts, with a transition to guitars picking up the chords and the spine of the song in a dramatic sweep. The piano shifts to a variation on earlier themes for understated fills before (and  a muted silence on the mix, and you end with something grand and memorable from where you started with very few pieces. Lyrically, I love how little this song uses to say what it needs to say, how the weight and the depth are effortlessly phrased. I love how the words end and let the final movement finish the conversation, and I love how grand that gesture seems. Not a bad track to rediscover, and a proper incentive for listening to their releases from later in the decade that, I am sorry to say, I passed over.

"Wasted time.
I cannot say that I was ready for this.
But when worlds collide,
and all that I have is all that I want.
The words seem to flow
and the thoughts they keep running.
And all that I have is yours.
All that I am is yours.

Painted skies.
I've seen so many that cannot compare
to your ocean eyes.
The pictures you took
that cover your room,
and it was just like the sun
but more like the moon.
A light that can reach it all.
So now I'm branded for taking the fall.

So when you say forever,
can't you see
you've already captured me."

~The Sun and the Moon 

Mae, The Everglow

(Also, while doing a little Wiki research for this, I discovered Charlotte Martin does the opening/closing narratives on this album. Time to go see what she's put out since 2005, or just listen to "On Your Shore" and see what it sounds like this far removed from 16.)

3/25/14

My most anticipated album of the year has easily been The Menzingers, and hearing the latest track advance is only making me flip out for it more.  This might be the most perfect song I've heard all year. 

I remember how hooked I was on this band as soon as I heard "Gates" and then the rest of "On the Impossible Past," how I overplayed that album all summer long feeling sorry for myself, and how much I loved they were from PA (turns out, they once many years ago played alongside my friend's then-band). If the first two tracks are any indication, their next album will hold onto that same intense conviction but with an extra dash of heartfelt wigged-out wisdom, cleaned up layers and a nice bass-oriented mix.

Lyrically, "I Don't Want To Be An Asshole Anymore" is as focused as the title makes it sound, and full of rip-your-heart-out metaphors. The song bleeds realization at its most romantic, and realisitc. I'm more than a little addicted to it already. The way this song is put together is incredibly smart. It moves with you. Layered harmonies and cymbal rolls add subtle depth, and gang vocals with a great line of a hook in the chorus offer a pop friendly format. But it's not soft by any measure, since the whole thing is drenched in heavy bass, crash-fueled fills and not a small amount of cursing. I love how he screams the chorus and the title line, like an anthematic declaration of a new chapter. It's aggressive and reckless and it's everything I want to hear out of this badass band from Scranton who I hope will be soundtracking my spring and summer once more, only maybe with a little less feeling sorry and a little more feeling alive.

"You're the only lover that I ever missed
Ever been hopeless in  love with 
Look at this tangle of thorns 
I don't wanna be an asshole anymore." 
~I Don't Wanna Be an Asshole Anymore
The Menzingers, Rented World