of listening to women when it’s summertime

There is little debate that weather affects mood and mood can influence listening habits. I am not going to win any Pulitzers pointing this out. I don’t even think they have a Pulitzer for blogs thank christ. What I do want to say is that when it’s hot and it’s summertime a female vocal strikes a chord with me.

I am not the biggest fan of pop music. However every summer the sun comes out and apparently lightens my mood enough to somehow open my ear to the easy flow of la las and ba bas of pop music. This is especially the case for female pop. Examples from the past include Amerie’s 1 thing – the summer jam from ’05 and and Beyonce’s Crazy in Love from prior to that.

So let me introduce the front runners from this year:

1) Kinnie Starr – La Le La La

Okay so it might actually be from last year if you want to get technical. I had never really paid much attention to Kinnie Starr who gets a lot of local press in Vancouver and so can therefore be pretty easily over saturated while being completely unknown. I always thought of her as a poor (wo)man’s Ani Difranco. I realize that any time some solo female artist with a guitar and mind of her own comes around she is automatically compared to the Righteous Babe herself but I would take it as a compliment.

Anyways , this song sounds nothing like the female righteousnes of Ms. Difranco. Instead out comes a funky pop gem that is full of, as the title would suggest, la las and le les. With a bright tone and sing a long chorus it works wonders on a warm summer afternoon.

2) I Get Around – Dragonette

Summer Jam you say? Fuck yes. An electropop tune from a formerly Toronto now London based quartet. There is a video on YouTube that looks like American Apparel supplied the wardrobe for. Lots of bad eighties unitard outfits. So I wont link directly to it.

But back to the song. Starts with crunching synths which never really get me going but by the time the chorus kicks in it’s over. Then there is the breakdown at the 2:20 mark which just makes me lose my shit every time. Hopefully nobody is watching me when i listen to this part when I’m driving my dorky minivan.

 

The beard is back.

Everyone’s favourite indie folk rockstar & college cinema instructor is back. The man listed as Sam Bean in the phone book but Iron & Wine in our hearts has a new album for everyone. Later this year, September 25th to be exact, Iron & Wine is releasing his third full length album entitled Shepherd’s Dog.

The internet being what it is these days a copy of the album has been leaked already. (oof!) Not as quiet as Creek that Drank the Cradle, the new album veers into some bulkier production. It’s more than the man and his guitar. ‘Carousel’ even features some slight vocal distortions. Don’t worry it’s not like Peter Frampton. Plus it leads to some nice male/ female harmonies. I’m assuming his sister, Sarah provides the female vocals again.

One of the highlights is the album closer,  Flightless Bird, American Mouth.  Starting out with an almost nursery rhyme cadence it moves into swoon territory as Sam’s whispering voice soars over an accordion, piano and more of the aforementioned harmonies.

Here’s the track listing:

1. Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car
2. White Tooth Man
3. Lovesong of the Buzzard
4. Carousel
5. House by the Sea
6. Innocent Bones
7. Wolves (Song of the Shepherd’s Dog)
8. Resurrection Fern
9. Boy With a Coin
10. The Devil Never Sleeps
11. Peace Beneath the City
12. Flightless Bird, American Mouth

Iron & Wine – Shepherd’s Dog

 

a song that will wash you

Somehow there is music that can hit more that just one sense. Usually it should just hit your ears. You can make a case for music and emotion, fair enough. But what about music that cleans you? Like, physically? The sound rises up and rushes over you like some kind of wave? Yes, sounds corny and played out but just shut the fuck up for a second. Listen to this. It’s only 8 minutes of your life and worth it you lazy slob.

Synthesizers rise up and will shower you with whatever it is that digitized notes would clean you with. Believe it.

Gui Boratto is one guy from Brazil who has put out an album about the fear of colour. Chromophobia sounds like scary shit. This isnt – this is beautiful life:

Gui Boratto – Beautiful Life

 

I would make a terrible surgeon.

I’m a shaky guy. I admit it. Plus, I am probably 1000X better than I was when I was 13 years old. One of my friends in high school would tell me later that when he met me he honestly thought my parents beat me because I was so shaky. I don’t really think that he thought that. He was just a guy that liked to embellish a little bit.

So yes, I have shaky hands. So what?!? Now, I am getting the last laugh. Finally someone is making Shaky Hands cool. They are called The Shaky Hands. They are from Portland, where I am dying to return to if for no other reason than to eat maple donuts with bacon.

Back on topic – The Shaky Hands. Fun, childish, indie pop with all that other stuff bands from Portland seem to throw in their as well. The voice is nothing new to indie land. Slightly off kilter, the guy probably has glasses and some facial hair. The album has songs that implement smiling winning tactics such as whistling, jangly guitar, trumpets, hand claps and songs that barely go over the 3 minute mark. Here’s a couple:

Why & How Come

Another World – Pt. 2

 

A lot can happen in 12 minutes.

Stuff that takes 12 minutes: Make a Bacon & Egg Breakfast, drive home from school in non rush hour traffic, take a shower, play an nba quarter of basketball (game clock not real time) and there is at least one take in 2001: A Space Odyssey that is 12 minutes long.

Musically, 12 minutes can be an eternity. Especially if its only one song. That is pretty much 4 times the average length of a regular hit song on the radio. Nonetheless, everybody’s one man band James Murphy has put out a 12+ minute song that is the freak out track of the summer called Freak Out. See what I just did there?

Sometimes the everything but the kitchen sink method works. Like here, for instance. You’ve got 70s funk rolling into Italian Disco into somekind of incredible Fela Kuti breakdown cowbell and then flipping into some kind Gary Newman synth and then finally ending up with some Starry Eyes…

Here, i’ll break it down for you:

Chant Chorus-> Bongo-> Trumpet – >Chant Chorus ->Funky Bass line ->Slinky Italian Keyboard-> Drum Breakdown->Cowbell->UhsYasAllrights->80s synth-> Female TalkSing Vocals-> Bleep Bleep.

Okay, if I havent totally spoiled the track for you check it out here: LCD Soundsytem – Freak Out

 

No more Kool Aid.

I’m tired, oh so tired. The way the human body goes through waves, peaks and valleys, second and third ‘winds’ throughout a night is too too strange. Why, when i get home at 4:30 in the morning do I feel the need to stay awake until 5:30 when I was totally exhausted at 4:00.

On another note, the Polyphonic Spree have a new album coming out called The Fragile Army. No more lovey dovey white and colour robes. Tim DeLaughter was finally fed up with the Drink the Kool-Aid jokes and pulled a one eighty on your ass and handed out army uniforms.

Click on that image to check it out.

Dude has gone from Jim Jones to S1W

Anyways, if you liked the music before you’ll like it again. If you hated it, there’s nothing new here. I mean how much of a new direction can you take with a 23 member band? A choir is gonna sound like choir. There are ba ba bas and the whole bit.

 

Best Band with the Worst Name.

Names are a tough thing for a band. Anyone who has ever dreamed about being in a band has brainstormed the “best band name ever”. When I was 19 I decided that if I ever had a band they would be called the Kanetoads, and that that was the best band name ever thought up in the relatively short history of rock and roll. I never joined a band and thankfully, the Kanetoads never came to be.

What I’m saying is that names are pretty subjective. The best test I have to see how bad a band’s name is to say it out loud to a friend. If you’re embarrassed, even in the slightest to say the name out loud then that is probably a bad name. The conversation might go like this:

You: So what are listening to lately?

Me: Oh there is this great band that I found recently. They’ve been around for a few albums, but I just found out about them.

You: What is their name?

Me: Uh, Black Moth Super Rainbow…….. (fade out)

Yes, the bands name is Black Moth Super Rainbow and the album looks and sounds like this:

With a name and album cover like that you’re bound to get labelled as psych-something. Forget that. This album is what would happen if Beck gave up his solo career, accidentally somehow managed to become the third member of Air and they all squished Odelay and Moon Safari into one album. Vocoder haters need not apply here.

So ignore the embarrassing name. Maybe we can just shorten in to BMSR but there’s no vowels in there to make it pronounceable and I would get it confused with BRMC or even BTO.