Posts tagged music
the song: Compliments from Band of Horses
Jul 27th
Okay. So this will complete my “bearded songs I suggest you listen to” week. Compliments from Band of Horses from their new cd Infinite Arms.
While I have always liked their sound I also have thought their music has been a little uneven in listenability. But they have such a distinct sound if you like one song (and No One is Gonna Love You Better is as good as it gets) you keep on coming back around for more. Compliments has a slightly more upbeat and bigger sound than many of their other songs.
In addition. The video for his song is awesome. Really interesting in its use of morphing ad photography. The technique they use is fascinating and you will be tempted to slow down or pause in sections just to see what they do (although the entire video can give you a headache if you watch it too closely).
Here is the video (I wasn’t smart enough to figure out how to link to it so my friend Brad was kind enough to send it to me):
URL: http://vimeo.com/10566868
To be honest with everyone this isn’t brilliant songwriting. The music certainly doesn’t push the envelope and true musicians will probably suggest it is mainstream mediocrity (that doesn’t make it any less fun to listen to).
And the lyrics can be a little trite.
(chorus): “if there is a god up in the air, someone looking over everyone, at least you’ve got something to fall back on.”
But.
It is feel good nonsense. And really good listening feel good nonsense. And it is good enough to remind you that Band of Horses is a better than average band. And it gives you hope that somewhere in their songwriting future portfolio is something truly iconic.
Oh.
On top if it all. Beyond the well crafted hooks and beautiful jangly rambling melodic chords there is Ben Bridwell. Looking past his healthy beard you will find a vulnerable clear voice that raises above all the music with a pureness that makes band of horses …. Well … band of horses.
I would imagine the cd is a good listen. I know this song certainly is. Enjoy.
addictive song: beg steal or borrow by ray lamontagne
Jul 27th
Ray Lamontagne is an acquired taste. He has a new cd coming out in mid august (that is not it to the left .. . that is an old good cd example). I think this song, Beg Steal or Borrow, is the pre-release for the cd. A lot of his other stuff gets a little too soft for my tastes but this song has a little folksier rambling sound to it.
It kind of has a Pure Prairie League sound to it (which is a good thing because Falling in and out of Love/Amie remain one of my favorite songs of all time).
(had to include that song): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8X_gws1Rck&feature=related
Anyway.
‘Beg Steal or Borrow’ is country but not country. It has a slow non rushed western rolling sound to it. It just kind of moseys along (I don’t get to type that often). It certainly has the sound you can imagine playing this while cruising down an old highway somewhere in the middle of America. It has some nice nuanced key changes in the vocals and beautiful steel guitar.
In general Ray’s music isn’t for those seeking uplifting energetic music (unlike wakey!wakey! who I posted yesterday and also has a beard). Ray’s lyrics tend to be introspective and he writes stark melodies. But. Owning a couple of cds of his, his good stuff is good. This one is good.
Beg Steal or Borrow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6a_1R3w5i4
Enjoy.
new song: Light Outside by WAKEY!WAKEY!
Jul 26th
So. About the only thing I am a sucker for in songwriting, beyond a bass player who writes songs, is a keyboard singer/songwriter. This guy is a dynamic personality at the piano and isn’t afraid to wrap different instruments (violins and strings) to fill out a pretty frenetic writing style. 
Also has a wonderful habit of filling in the harmony with a female voice which is interesting because his voice has a higher quality anyway.
Anyway. Light Outside is a simple but complex song which probably makes it interesting.
Simple in that at its core it is just a piano player singing a minimalistic lyric story.
Complex because it has a parallel frenetic and calm musical style.
Anyway. His singing style isn’t really conducive to a love ballad but his song has a heart wrenching thread to it that kind of tugs at your heart and makes you think. (I include another track at the end of the post too.)
Light Outside youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VD02bI09dOM&feature=related
(i don’t particularly like the official video so I didn’t include it)
The lead singer is really interesting. This comes from their website:
“I was a scrawny, dopey kid—the worst athlete on the face of the planet,” says Wakey!Wakey! frontman Mike Grubbs. “You know tee ball? I got to first base one time.”
Grubbs grew up in a house learning to play a burgundy baby grand in a music room that also housed a French horn, clarinet, violin and autoharp. In his youth his mother—a longtime piano teacher and choir director—would ask the kids to sight read songs before they could even think of eating cereal.
“For every school subject done,” he says, “I could play the piano for an hour. It was almost like video games for me.” The games got a bit more complicated in high school, as Grubbs stumbled upon the songbooks of Billy Joel and Elton John. Not to mention the arena-ready anthems of Led Zeppelin as well as Bach, Beethoven and Brahms (you will note a classical thread in his music).
“One of my main influences now is the fact that I didn’t have someone teach me proper jazz or rock playing,” explains Grubbs. “I had no idea how to put a song together; no one telling me, ‘Hey, you should check out Gershwin,’ but it was all so fascinating to me. So I found my own style by experimenting with what works and what doesn’t.”
It is a different style of music. It is an infectious frenetic pop sound with classical (or maybe jazz) undertones. Pick up the song. Heck. Pick up the cd.
Oh.
A bonus. “Almost Everything.” It is the second song I heard from Wakey!Wakey!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiQo6DoXknY
It sounds really good. It will be interesting to follow these guys.
public radio music surprise
Jul 25th
It’s an 11 hour drive from San Francisco to Portland Oregon. You can listen to a lot of music and check out a boatload of crappy music stations. So when I wandered into the bottom end of the dial and the public radio station was ending a talk segment and moving into music I almost skipped over expecting either some random African metal drum timpani yodeling group or maybe some sung poetry scat thing but when the opening chord to Night Train (Bruce Cockburn) came out of the speakers I stuck around to hear what they had to play. What an awesome three song set. Three great songs and three great deliveries (Cockburn’s and Adams songs are particularly good). Here you go:
- Bruce Cockburn “Night Train” from 2003 Charity of Night album. Great driving song because it uses that train chugging along the tracks beat and has this beautiful sparse guitar picking across the top of the rest of the band chugging along behind the vocal. He will never be an opera singer type voice but he has that rustic sound that fits perfectly with the overall feel of the song and driving and … well … big countryside. And after such a nice simple clean almost forlorn feel it ends with this really messy guitar overlay. It’s a 6 minute + song and it doesn’t feel too long. Oh. And Bruce adds in a nice female voice to fill in under his vocals which smooths a couple of portions of the song and adds in a nice softening element.
‘Night Train’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYxnNG2dxMw
- Carrie Rodriguez “I made a Lover’s Prayer.” I am fairly sure this is a remake (but I am too lazy to check). While it is slightly different than the first and the third in this three song set it fits in the middle perfectly just like the marshmallow middle in a moon pie. It is a simple song. It’s a beautiful song. It’s a heartfelt song. And she has always had a great voice and sang okay songs (I have always wondered if she would ever make it big) but in this song it’s like she found the perfect song to sing.
‘I made a lover’s Prayer’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOk6CpAfXcw (I couldn’t find a studio version to link to and the beginning of the video will give you a headache but she plays a sweet guitar)
- Ryan Adams and the Cardinals “Cold Roses”. Ok. Ryan Adams is maddening. He writes so much stuff and at least half of it is crap you want to give up on it. And then a song like this comes on the radio (and I even had this cd and didn’t realize it was there). Cold Roses is everything great about Ryan Adams. Beautifully crafted song. Multi layered with a variety of different instruments and Ryan’s voice kinda keeping it moving along melodically with those wistful words he writes (the type when they are written well are impeccable). But. What makes this song is this guitar that almost sounds like they asked old Neil Young when he was playing Cortez the Killer and asked him to sit and jam. It is this kind of clean jangly strong sharp sound that weaves in and out (or someone could suggest it has a little Grateful Deady type guitar feel). Awesome song.
‘Cold Roses’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7qMaiFNTPM&feature=related (this is the full song … the last minute of this song will show you synchronized guitar playing at its best)
- This is a bonus ‘cold roses.’ It is only a 1:24 live clip but it captures the guitar sound AND if you want to hear possibly the most amazing live vocal harmonizing this clip is worth listening to – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3swTRypEUEQ
Awesome set.
enlightened conflict update
Jul 11th
So. After about a month of high tech fanoodling I believe we have worked out all the kinks on the site. If anyone runs into any issues as they delve into my unenlightened ramblings please drop me a note and we will address. Thanks for your patience.
Some updates (because some people have asked and I have received some great suggestions):
1. Music. No. We have not posted any music thoughts for awhile. I have over 20 written (some may be outdated by now) but the guy who was awesome at posting all those posts with the links and videos and stuff has been on a sabbatical. When he gets back we will discuss what we are going to do from here on out with the music posts. I have received a bunch of notes asking about them and how much you enjoy laughing at my musical tastes and we will see what we can do. Plus. With lala.com shutting down we lost a great easy source for sound clips so people could actually hear what I was writing about (assuming you had never heard of whatever wackjob band I had found that day to write about).
2. Business or Advertising posts. Well. We should be starting more of those back up soon. My video link skills are not particularly good (but improving) which coincided with the guy who is really good at video linking going on sabbatical as well as then we had some technical site difficulties. But I have improved my skills and the site seems fixed so more of those type posts will appear.
3. Requests. I have received some topic requests and those posts should start appearing soon. While I cannot guarantee I can write to a requested topic I do like to receive request. at minimum they make me think.
4. We are going to be building a new companion site called ProjectGlobalGeneration.
Actually www.projectglobalgeneration.com.
I will post something when we launch it. That site will be solely focused on my wacky global generation children’s education initiative idea. Several people have expressed inters in the idea (and they don’t seem that wacky). I wanted to make it easier to see the idea an all the information as well as a place to house all future writings.
Thanks to everyone. hope you enjoy and keep on enjoying. I am having a blast (if that matters).
Bruce.
Why I Like Mary Louise Parker (excerpt from Esquire)
Apr 27th
If you have been reading things on my site since we started it you know that there has always been a consistent thread of music inspired writing. I love music. Therefore, when I can find a woman who I have always found attractive talking about music … well .. I figured it would be a nice opportunity for me to not have to write something and let someone else talk about some cool (and fun) music.
The woman? Mary Louise Parker. I have always kind of liked Mary Louise Parker. I loved her on West Wing. I love her in Weeds. Anyway. I have not only found her attractive but always felt like she would be cool to know. Now I know she is cool. Here is what she wrote for Esquire:
(Mary Louise Parker): I WANT MY NEXT LOVER TO SPEAK LITTLE, IF ANY, ENGLISH. IT’S REALLY ONLY NECESSARY FOR TWO PEOPLE TO HAVE A FEW THINGS IN COMMON: SEX, FOOD, AND VACATION DESTINATIONS. I can envision getting by with a friendly hola as we pass each other on the veranda in the morning. It might be wonderful to stare blithely at him as he yammered away in Amharic or something; then I would have something concrete to point to when I didn’t understand anything he was saying.
Truthfully, I believe that much communication can happen through music. The right record can be a surrogate for conversation and more potent than a chemical aphrodisiac. “Music is a beautiful opiate,” wrote Henry Miller, and I concur. Some songs make me feel intoxicated from the first five notes, and when you feel light-headed and electric, it’s always better to be lying down, sharing it with someone else. If you are less than articulate, just putting on a song can make you a deputy to greatness. Maybe you couldn’t write “Tupelo Honey,” but you can play it and tell her that you wish you had written it for her. Your ardor will be reified in the form of melody, and she will dissolve if she likes you even a little.
Conversely, if the evening isn’t going well, just bust out the soundtrack from Annie.
If you need inspiration, here are some suggestions for when that special someone is on your couch, or for after you’ve graduated from the couch to the bed, or from said couch to up against the wall beside it, or to her place if you have only a futon. Hopefully, if you do end up at her place, she will put on Sade. Sade means only one thing, honey, so get to it.
1. “GONE, GONE, GONE,” BY CARL PERKINS: If your lady is big-boned, you may want to bury this one in the middle of a playlist, lest the lyric “I know my baby, she’s so round and fat” seem a pointed attack on her metabolism. It makes me want to crawl into the back of a truck and put my heels on the window.
2. THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY’S “I THINK I LOVE YOU” is actually quite dark and laced with a bit of rage. Don’t pretend you don’t know the words.
3. PRINCE’S “ADORE” is the hottest song ever. Maybe right for a little striptease. I’m just speculating.
4. “TO TURN YOU ON,” BY ROXY MUSIC: Just put on the whole record, Avalon, and if by the time you get to this track you ain’t havin’ sex, you ain’t gonna.
5. “GO ALL THE WAY,” BY THE RASPBERRIES: Go there. Finish off with the Rolling Stones’ “BEAST OF BURDEN.” I realize I’m cheating, but Esquire allotted me only 650 words.
6. RYAN ADAMS’S “COME PICK ME UP” makes me want to &%#$ the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker.
7. “AIN’T NOBODY,” BY CHAKA KHAN: In the best possible world, you will end up with a tiny bruise or two.
8. BACH’S CELLO SUITES, BY YO-YO MA: Light bondage and Cool Whip.
9. “REASONS,” BY EARTH, WIND & FIRE: Think Sweatin’ to the Oldies.
10. “GLORY BOX,” BY PORTISHEAD: Drinks spill and glasses break when you knock over the table in the White Horse Tavern as somebody climbs over it to get to somebody else. The establishment will ask you to leave.
11. “SWING GENTLY,” BY LEONA NAESS: If you are cool enough to put on this song, you don’t need to be reading this article.
LA is always good for local music but I think I got lucky. The Runaways weren’t even my favorite female band. The Orchids was the female band I would kill to see in college. (well. now at least we know why I would have never made it in the record business huh?). They were another band with good rockin’ musicians (I wish they had hired a different lead singer).
