DEMOLITIONS
by Sean
Please note: MP3s are only kept online for a short time, and if this entry is from more than a couple of weeks ago, the music probably won't be available to download any more.


 

Wedding during Chinese earthquake

Hurray for the Riff Raff - "Bricks". This band is from New Orleans. And it must be frustrating for Hurray for the Riff Raff, the hook for every review being about the place they call home. But it matters. This is a sweet song, yes, but it is about doom. Look at some of these lyrics: "Well, we stand tall / together like towers. / Well, together like towers / we fall / we fall / we fall." New Orleans knows something about collapses. It knows something about how love & life are not enough to prevent catastrophe. Alynda Lee and her junkyard folk band play a tragic love-song, a doomed one, but they've learned enough about dawns (about recoveries, resurrections, life-goes-ons'es) to set it in a major key.

[MySpace / they seek Europeans to play for]


Nat Baldwin - "Lake Erie". Redraw the maps! Get out the old maps and get out your charcoal pencils and have at it. Lake Superior - gone! Lake Huron - gone! Lakes Ontario and Michigan - gone! And Lake Erie - oh don't get me started on Lake Erie. Lake Erie's where you left me, baby. I am scribbling over that lake 'til the charcoal's gone, 'til my hands are black. Then I'm grabbing my double bass and scribbling some more, scribbling with sound, filling the air with inky deep notes - whole clouds, thunder-clouds or smoke-clouds. And when you come running out of your home, eyes tearing, cough-coughing, I'll be on your front lawn and I still won't have dried off from the moment I drowned.

At the moment my favourite albums of 2008 are by Adam & the Amethysts, The Low Lows, Shearwater, ((Sounder)), Sun Kil Moon, White Hinterland, Vampire Weekend, and, yes, mister Nat Baldwin. Buy this record. (Jordan, previously on StG.)

---

Mike from Nothing But Green Lights did a terrific MP3 sampler for The Morning News.

Did you guys hear that killer of a Tune-Yards song yesterday? Moly holy.

Kit Malo and I are going to be doing a presentation in Montreal this Wednesday as part of the Greasy Goose Salon. I will be telling truths and lies about moths, Swedes, eels, and particle accelerators, among other things. Kit will be accompanying me with pictures. You should come.

[photo source]

Posted by Sean at July 15, 2008 12:49 AM
Comments

Yeah that Nat Baldwin album is quality alright. Should I persist with Vampire Weekend though? The album hasn't penetrated my musicbrain orifices yet. Maybe i need to see them at a festival to get the full experience..

Posted by adam at July 16, 2008 6:26 AM

less than 3 words into the song, the riff raff had me.

Posted by matthew at July 16, 2008 11:29 PM

thanks for riff raff, saw them in berlin last night, wonderful

Posted by sibsi at July 20, 2008 11:00 AM

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This is a daily sampler of really good songs. All tracks are posted out of love. Please go out and buy the records.

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"And I shall watch the ferry-boats / and they'll get high on a bluer ocean / against tomorrow's sky / and I will never grow so old again."
about the authors
Sean Michaels is the founder of Said the Gramophone. He is a writer, critic and author of the theremin novel Us Conductors. Follow him on Twitter or reach him by email here. Click here to browse his posts.

Emma Healey writes poems and essays in Toronto. She joined Said the Gramophone in 2015. This is her website and email her here.

Jeff Miller is a Montreal-based writer and zinemaker. He is the author of Ghost Pine: All Stories True and a bunch of other stories. He joined Said the Gramophone in 2015. Say hello on Twitter or email.

Mitz Takahashi is originally from Osaka, Japan who now lives and works as a furniture designer/maker in Montreal. English is not his first language so please forgive his glamour grammar mistakes. He is trying. He joined Said the Gramophone in 2015. Reach him by email here.

Site design and header typography by Neale McDavitt-Van Fleet. The header graphic is randomized: this one is by Neale McDavitt-Van Fleet.
PAST AUTHORS
Dan Beirne wrote regularly for Said the Gramophone from August 2004 to December 2014. He is an actor and writer living in Toronto. Any claim he makes about his life on here is probably untrue. Click here to browse his posts. Email him here.

Jordan Himelfarb wrote for Said the Gramophone from November 2004 to March 2012. He lives in Toronto. He is an opinion editor at the Toronto Star. Click here to browse his posts. Email him here.
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