Archives : all posts by Dan

Silver Jews - "How Can I Love You (If You Won't Lie Down)"

Songs like this light up my day. It's like finding a park after all you could see was parked cars and garbage cans. The sweetness gets better with every listen, until eventually, it turns into an urgency, the feeling that maybe the greatness of this song will go unnoticed as it gets filed under "joke song" in people's minds. I have the same fear often about Magnetic Fields songs (this could be a MF song, no?). That the beauty and majesty of thought put into the creation of this thing will die under the weight of its own funny chorus. It's so important, I think, that people appreciate how true it is that love has such an undeniable practicality, you can touch love, you can hear it; and how lovely it is that Berman lives so independent of the "independent", he fearlessly [wrong word...try "obviously" -ed.] makes a song (an entire album, in fact) about getting old. But then, I think, you're a snob, Dan, people can take what they want from it. This song is a wrinkled grin, and maybe that's all.

[Tanglewood Numbers will be released in the fall, until then, Buy]

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Viva Voce - "Alive With Pleasure"

My best friend Karin is here to talk with me about this song. This is our talk:

Karin: Doo doo doo doo

Me: Are you trying to predict what's coming next?

Karin: Yeah.

Me: Did you predict that break in the middle?

Karin: No. that's impossible.

Me: I know, it's like two songs grafted together. Like two pieces of soap.

Karin: No, not like that. This song has too many "ingredients" to be merely soap.

Me: Right. Like what? (starts clapping hands, playing theremin, tambourine, and shaker)

Karin: Enough.

Me: Yeah, it gets kind of tiring, right?

Karin: No, you're not understanding me, listening means closed mouth. The best ingredients make the best food so-

Me: -as long as it's there the kid in me will always like it?

Karin: Exactly. Play it again.

The End.
(note: this was not our talk. Karin is much nicer than this.)

[sent to us by PDX Pop Now festival, support Portland music! buy!]

I saw two people, one on the way to work, one on the way home, doing the same crossword. Both with the same wrong answer to "Auld Lang ____". They had put "Sine". I guess they have a point; up with math, down with regret. also, they (a different "they") evacuated the subway today. everyone nerves and smiles.

Spitfires & Mayflowers - "Pirates"

Woah. Party.

I missed seeing this band open for The Barmitzvah Bros, instead I went to Joke Club (holy crap, go, it's good). But I wish I had seen them, if only for this song. I get the sense that they're so unprepared. It's like they can't see the next part of the song around the corner. They're grinning, unsure the whole time, like walking hand in hand through thick fog, you can only see the other hand. Exciting! Fuck the Zipper, S & M to 10!

And there's a great addendum at the end, falling into the intro to a live show (it's the first track on Triumph). I love how one dude is there for the bassist.

[site]

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David Byrne - "In the Future"

Speaking of people who sing songs about Pirates, I know we post David Byrne a lot. But I'm pretty sure this is really rare. From what I can tell, it's only been available in vinyl before, and only in the UK, it's part of the soundtrack to an eight-hour play by Robert Wilson. And it's gorgeous.

It's the perfect combination of hilarity and horrorshow (they are the same). Self-contradictory and already-here, it's inescapable, you have to listen to every word; that's why they're spoken so clearly.

If I could add one, it would be: "In the future, there will be so much music that if you listen closely, you'll always be able to hear a song playing."

[buy on vinyl]

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Also, for Nikos:
The three pieces that I extracted from L'Éclisse 1 2 3
thankyou for being interested. hope you enjoy.

Hangnail Phillips - "Lillian"

I wanted to post Hangnail Phillips' "Post Cold War World" instead, but I couldn't do it. "Lillian" is just better. So you get no party song today. This song: it's so friendly! These are familiar streets, paved with mandolin cobblestones, soprano sax streetlights, and clarinets doing a softshoe down the middle, no traffic. Phillips' big grandfather voice, sounding almost Burl Ives-y, is another clearly worn path, but in a comforting kind of way; the way the houses and shortcuts seem worn when you walk home today. It's the best kind of slow-dance: you can dance with your crush or your babysitter to this song and it would still feel right.

[Buy or Download]

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Tompaulin - "Three In The Morning"

Tompaulin's Into the Black is actually composed entirely of last songs of the night, but this is my favourite. It's not the lyrics - I'm not sure they even really care about those too much - and it's definitely not the bongo drums (too 'dorm room') that make me grin, it's the sheer mood that it forces on me and whatever I'm doing at that moment. I'm like transported to someone's cottage, it's just after midnight, and I'm playing some stupid game (cards, maybe scrabble) that is suddenly the most important thing in the world (more important than the song, too, it merely plays in the background, but is the perfect low background hum to this setting), and I'm immensely glad that something so trivial is so important. Which maybe does tie into the lyrics; something meaningless endowed with meaning. Okay, bye.

[Buy older stuff]

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tomorrow: Jordan Himelfarb posts. Maybe he can answer us all this question (we don't talk): when are we going to get to hear more Cay?

happy american canada day, america.

Balthazar - "Anna Pavlova"

Jon: I heard this song on CBC radio 3.

Me: Play it.

Jon: There.

(snapping, surfing, guitars and cigarillo-smoking, bomber-jacket-in-summer wearing, swaggering frenchmen bring more bareknuckle rhythms and megaphone filters than I'm ready for.)

Me: Woah.

[Site]

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Ghosty - "Clouds Solve It" (featuring Wayne Coyne)

I feel guilty posting only this song by Ghosty. Like having Wayne Coyne is the only thing that makes it good enough. In fact, quite the opposite: he ruins this song. But that's what makes it good (irony? sincerity!). I think he's supposed to be adding back-up vocals (or perhaps they're trying to turn an obvious solo into a duet) but he ends up taking over in a heavy, stumbling manner that just spins quietly out of control (you can feel it turn, right at the sour note). It's as if Ghosty is trying to play their song and Wayne Coyne jumped up on stage and started making fun of their lyrics. But it seems to be all in good fun, so let's all have fun too.

[Label]

Jordan apologises, but can't post today. Sean apologises, but all of our songs have been taken down. We'll probably have to go day by day for now, so get the songs while you can. And we will (at least I will) be playing it safe as well.

The Captains - "Computer"

It's cut off from the recording, but this song was introduced: "We play this song digitally....with our fingers." You ever pass a bar and all you can hear is loud? Yeah, that was my roommate's band, probably. Dressed in full military pilot garb, two or sometimes three captains would shout their orders of "rock" to about 15 or 20 people every so often around Montreal. But this song is not without its merits. It's fun. In the way that it makes me want to chug an entire beer. And I'm a wallflower, so that's saying a lot.

Gregory Cochrane in Toronto

Gregory is unflinchingly witty. His delivery doesn't bat an eyelash, and he's often waiting for you (me) to catch up.

These three songs have been extracted directly from the soundtrack of L'Éclisse. Watching it recently, I found I was able to just close my eyes and listen to the movie. The images were merely the perfect accompaniment to the fully-fleshed-out soundtrack. So away we go:

1. Opening Credits

The credits of the film are two minutes long, and cut into two halves: one minute of Italian go-go (i want a whole album) and one minute of science-fiction orchestral bursts and light, dusting piano. What makes it significant is that nothing in the visuals changes with the music. Any change in mood is intended to be done entirely through the song. And on its own, this song is something quite amazing; like eating a cupcake with a rock in it; not an accident, a sign of danger.

2. The Airport Café

Here's where the music, through the integration of the film's sounds, comes apart from the film and begins to walk around on its own. The sounds of footsteps, background conversations, and a few lines of dialog, combine with this would-be-mundane saxophone number to make a perfectly summery drink-sipping tune. It's better where it is. To explain the words: Vittoria (Monica Vitti) sees an American at a café at the airport. He, like most men in the film, says hello suggestively; she laughs and sits outside. Her friend sees her, says something like "What are you doing?" and she replies with 'È cita così bene qui': "It's so nice here". It even ends with a sigh.

3. Meeting Place

It's not important to know the context of this one (I was trying to make it unimportant for any of them, but it's difficult). Just let it wash over you, let it be a song. The trotting horse and the hoses watering lawns are just as much instruments as the piano, the footsteps.

[Buy] but if not, at least rent, it's so gorgeous.

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Also: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah video for "Over and Over". I listen to this whole album almost daily now. I'm not a huge fan of the video, am I supposed to be tricked into thinking this is one take? I guess not. I do like stark colours and simple ideas, so maybe I have to be a fan of it. Thanks to Audri for this.

Matson Jones - "Welcome Back, Mr. Audio-Technica"

Both songs come to you today courtesy of Roger B.'s recommendations. They are low-fi in the worst way (in digital compression, not in recording quality) but the excitement of what they promise comes through. The first is from Matson Jones, a 4-piece of 2 cellos, a bass, and drums. Their formal make-up, however, is forgotten as soon as the song starts. It struts out the door with a little c'mon wave back at you.

Recorded well, they could really play up that scary edge that they have: those stabbing cellos could be big metal doors that rapidly open and close in a pattern, so that you have to time it just right to get past them. This song could be a fortress if they wanted it to. And I want them to want it to.

[site]

No Dynamics - "Josephine Baker"

If the first song has a strut, this song shows it a thing or two about being so cocksure. The whole band plays their instruments on treadmills facing the audience, so they are literally running at you as they play. No, they don't do this, but they should.

My best adjective for this, both a strength and a fault, is "relentless". So, it's a cool feeling for this song, like being punched in the same place twenty times, but seeing them live it got kind of tiresome. Unlike the Fiery Furnaces, they don't have a record that I can learn (and love) before seeing them play a samey set at a show. So I guess my one criticism of this band is that they have no dynamics.

[site]

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I'm not posting this. I just feel like I can't go a day these days without a sad song. I miss my mother, my sisters, and my best friend.