Friends are Friends and Other Logical Truths
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.


 

Wooden Stars - "The Cigarette Girl"

The Wooden Stars are currently on something like a reunion tour. They will be playing in Montreal in March and I will be there, excited and nervous. Excited because the Wooden Stars are one of my favourite bands and I was afraid that they had broken up for good, and nervous because I so want them to be good, would be so disappointed if they didn?t live up to what I expect of them. After all, The Moon, though a good album, was less surprising and original in the songwriting and playing than their earlier work.

On ?The Cigarette Girl? we hear what makes the Wooden Stars such a great band. They move seamlessly from complex but straightforward musical interplay (jangly guitar, fat bass, banjo flourishes, weird bag of glass and springs drums) to restrained spiritual outbursts; notes held back until the last minute, appearing suddenly out of necessity, each a bright revelation. Their voices are strained, pushed to their voluminous and dynamic limits. The songs, though structurally unorthodox, remain entirely coherent and natural.

At 3:58, when the guitars come in slow and heavy behind the ?She?s a good cigarette? refrain, be jealous that, if you didn't, that you didn't grow up in their hometown like I did and that, if you won't be, that you won't be at their Montreal show like I will.

***

Jeff Hanson - "Just Like Me"

If Elliot Smith had been a man who sounded like a woman, he would have sounded like this man. Crisp acoustic guitar and impressive gender-bending vocals are what this song is about.

Posted by Jordan at February 3, 2005 3:09 AM
Comments

oooh, i adore the wooden stars. i remember seeing them play call the office in london.. every weekend, it felt like.

Posted by optimus at February 3, 2005 9:48 AM

the wooden stars mp3 is incomplete

Posted by zyr at February 3, 2005 12:39 PM

yeah, only 1min worth.

Posted by Anonymous at February 3, 2005 1:48 PM

Jeff Hanson is a beautiful singer. Thank you for the post. I'll definitely check out more from him.

Posted by Sean at February 3, 2005 10:17 PM

One of the best posts I've seen (heard, I suppose) on this website. Excellent tunes, both of them.

Posted by Sam at February 4, 2005 1:36 AM

is this the same wooden stars that backed julie doiron?

Posted by robbie at February 4, 2005 3:35 AM

"The Cigarette Girl" is now up in full.

This Wooden Stars is the same as the Julie Doiron Wooden Stars.

Posted by Anonymous at February 4, 2005 5:19 AM

I check your blog regularly, thanks for the effort you put into it. I don't know if you take requests, but if so, how about some Snailhouse? It's geographically impossible for me to get hold of their tunes at the moment, and I'd love to hear them again. Plus, It'd tie in nicely with the Stars entry...
Just a thought/plea, keep up the good work.

Posted by Alan at February 8, 2005 9:42 AM

This is fabulous. I'm in Montreal, and would love to go see them. When and where are they playing. I can't seem to fins an up-to-date web site, and they aren't listed on pollstar.

please do tell!

Posted by aurora at February 14, 2005 6:30 AM

pardon the typos. It is 6 am!

Posted by Aurora at February 14, 2005 6:32 AM

Post a comment







(Please be patient, it can be slow.)
about said the gramophone
This is a daily sampler of really good songs. All tracks are posted out of love. Please go out and buy the records.

To hear a song in your browser, click the and it will begin playing. All songs are also available to download: just right-click the link and choose 'Save as...'

All songs are removed within a few weeks of posting.

Said the Gramophone launched in March 2003, and added songs in November of that year. It was one of the world's first mp3blogs.

If you would like to say hello, find out our mailing addresses or invite us to shows, please get in touch:
Montreal, Canada: Sean
Toronto, Canada: Emma
Montreal, Canada: Jeff
Montreal, Canada: Mitz

Please don't send us emails with tons of huge attachments; if emailing a bunch of mp3s etc, send us a link to download them. We are not interested in streaming widgets like soundcloud: Said the Gramophone posts are always accompanied by MP3s.

If you are the copyright holder of any song posted here, please contact us if you would like the song taken down early. Please do not direct link to any of these tracks. Please love and wonder.

"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.
our patrons
Said the Gramophone does not take advertising. We are supported by the incredible generosity of our readers. These were our donors in 2013.
watch StG's wonderful video contest winners
search


Archives
elsewhere
our favourite blogs
(◊ means they write about music)

Back to the World
La Blogothèque
Weird Canada
Destination: Out
Endless Banquet
A Grammar (Nitsuh Abebe)
Ill Doctrine
A London Salmagundi
Dau.pe
Words and Music
Petites planétes
Gorilla vs Bear
Herohill
Silent Shout
Clouds of Evil
The Dolby Apposition
Awesome Tapes from Africa
Molars
Daytrotter
Matana Roberts
Pitchfork Reviews Reviews
i like you [podcast]
Musicophilia
Anagramatron
Nicola Meighan
Fluxblog
radiolab [podcast]
CKUT Music
plethoric pundrigrions
Wattled Smoky Honeyeater
The Clear-Minded Creative
Torture Garden
LPWTF?
Passion of the Weiss
Juan and Only
Horses Think
White Hotel
Then Play Long (Marcello Carlin)
Uno Moralez
Coming Up For Air (Matt Forsythe)
ftrain
my love for you is a stampede of horses
It's Nice That
Marathonpacks
Song, by Toad
In Focus
AMASS BLOG
Inventory
Waxy
WTF [podcast]
Masalacism
The Rest is Noise (Alex Ross)
Goldkicks
My Daguerreotype Boyfriend
The Hood Internet

things we like in Montreal
eat:
st-viateur bagel
café olimpico
Euro-Deli Batory
le pick up
lawrence
kem coba
le couteau
au pied de cochon
mamie clafoutis
tourtière australienne
chez boris
ripples
alati caserta
vices & versa
+ paltoquet, cocoa locale, idée fixe, patati patata, the sparrow, pho tay ho, qin hua dumplings, caffé italia, hung phat banh mi, caffé san simeon, meu-meu, pho lien, romodos, patisserie guillaume, patisserie rhubarbe, kazu, lallouz, maison du nord, cuisine szechuan &c

shop:
phonopolis
drawn + quarterly
+ bottines &c

shows:
casa + sala + the hotel
blue skies turn black
montreal improv theatre
passovah productions
le cagibi
cinema du parc
pop pmontreal
yoga teacher Thea Metcalfe


(maga)zines
Cult Montreal
The Believer
The Morning News
McSweeney's
State
The Skinny

community
ILX