Once in a while, I like doing a music entry. Yesterday, I was intrigued by Heather Browne (of Fuel, Fire)'s post about a Pacific Northwest invasion. As a Pacific Northwest aficionado and lover of West Coast bands, I decided to check out the bands. I knew I could trust Heather because we both love Blind Pilot, Band of Annuals, Ryan Adams and Pete Yorn, and boy, was I right to click on those links. 
I was blown away by the song "Bootstraps" by Drew Grow and the Pastors' Wives. But the revelation, if I may call it that, came when I listened to the song "Coeur d'Alene". At first, I thought if was part of "Cats and Dogs" because the two songs blend seamlessly. The final notes of "Cats and Dogs" blend into the first notes of "Coeur d'Alene". That's a genius move. 

The Head and the Heart seems like it incorporates the best of Band of Annuals (from SLC) and Blind Pilot (from Portland), while remaining completely original. The lead singer's voice does to me what Jay Henderson of Band of Annuals does to me: it soothes and moves me at the same time. It's sexy, emotional, and yet detached, and from another time.
Some of my favorite lines in that song are,

"What will become of these gestures that we made
I've given up my Bible, you moved out of state"   *

"Give you three bucks for your sympathy 
and another for a cigarette
The interaction feels so cold"

"So kiss me in the back room where the music plays
I know that it's not over"

My favorite moment, because of the intensity of the singer's voice when he sings that last line, is,  

"Break down the corridors
La-da-da, da-da-da da da
Break down the corridors
La-da-da, da-da-da da da
Messes that I haven't tried to clean up in a while"

If you don't fall in love with the piano part after that line, then you can't possibly love life.

Also, how can one put much resistance when someone sings,

"You're in my soul now
 you've gotta waste away with me
my mind's made up, I'm stayin' here with you,

There's no use knowin'
which way the wind is blowin'
my mind's made up, I'm doin' this, I'm doin' this with you"

There's nothing I like more than a song whose rhythm picks up mid-song. That's the case in Down in the Valley. Add male-female harmonies ** and a piano, and I'm ready to declare my love for the band by jumping on a couch on national television. 

"Bootstraps", the first song I truly loved, is by Drew Grow. It's noisy. It's buoyant. It's joyous noise the way I like it. The lyrics are short and punchy, 

I drank alone for a fortnight
a yellow year by dim light.
"I'm Born again!"
Brand new jeans down to cut-offs,
and cigarettes on rooftops,
Chain it up. Chain it up.
I tell myself I want it,
I tell myself I need it.
Every time I get it this is how I'm wound up.
Play it loud. Play it loud, get it on.
(...pulling on the bootstraps)"

The band's website describes their sound as "soul, alt-gospel, garage rock". Sometimes, it's reminiscent of Grace Potter and the Nocturnals' best moments on This is Somewhere (I'm thinking most specifically of In The Meantime, Oh Mary and Mastermind), but more testosterone-filled -- though Grace Potter's music is pretty ballsy too-- mostly because of the gospel influence. 

It All Comes Right" is another song that immediately struck me as special. The chorus is full of "oh whoa whoa oh whoa whoa" blending together male and female voices, in a heavenly sound.

My favorite lines are, 

"Honey, make me a promise
the kind that holds true.
You carry the ark and I'll carry you" 

The last line is sung in harmony by the lead singer and the background vocalist, a woman. It makes the line especially amazing because it sounds like they're promising each other what he wanted her to promise him.  Throughout the song, the background vocals are to die for. They'll stay with you after the song is over. 

FOOTNOTES:

* I don't know why but the line "you moved out of state" or its variation "you moved out of town" always makes me tear up. It moves me like no-one lyric. Every time a song has that line, you can bet I'm going to stop doing whatever it is I'm doing when I hear it.

** Male-female harmonies are the reason why I love Band of Annuals, Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson and Ryan Adams and Whiskeytown so much. 

Been away

This is what I've been doing while I've been away. 

And even though I've been listening to podcasts about political philosophy and international relations a lot, I've also been listening to music, mostly on CDs. 

These are the songs I've listened to the most these past couple of weeks. 

This is what my mixtape would sound like 

if I had any tapes left and didn't use iTunes or Spotify.  

Heaven Is Whenever...

  I got seven albums in the mail this morning. I didn't expect them to get here on the same day. I ordered the new New Pornographers and The Hold Steady on Sunday night, and Warren Zevon's Original Album Series box set on Saturday. The Warren Zevon collection includes his self-titled album, Excitable Boy, Bad Luck Streak At Dancing School, Stand In The Fire and The Envoy. 

I know he didn't like Wanted Dead Or Alive, but I wish it had been included in the set. It looks like the only affordable version of that album is iTunes'. I've already listened to Carmelita while driving to work. I had been waiting for that for a while. 

So far, my favorite song is Hurricane J because it's one of those "whoa whoa whoa whoa" songs that are classic The Hold Steady. I listened to it about 15 times on NPR's First Listen and since I got the album, I've listened to it a bunch of times.  My favorite lyrics are:

"I know you look at the ground,

I know you probably cry,

you're a beautiful girl,

and you're a pretty good waitress, 

but Jesse, I don't think I'm the guy

I don't want this to stop, 

I want you to know

I don't want you to settle, 

I want you to grow"

They're so simple yet heartbreaking. 

We Can Get Together : the backing vocals, described in Rolling Stone as "angelic" are eerily reminiscent of the backing vocals on Bright Eyes' Make A Plan To Love Me. It was one of the things that struck me immediately. I had to listen to the Bright Eyes song again, and now it's growing on me. Or maybe they sound more like the backing vocals on No One Would Riot For Less. They're equally dreamy. 

Lately, I've been listening to Stay Positive a lot. I fell in love with Joke About Jamaica, One For The Cutters, and Slapped Actress. 

Last week, I finally decided to give Neko Case another chance because she's such an awesome back up singer on Jakob Dylan's new album, and so I listened to the new New Pornographers' album, Together, on NPR's First Listen and I was instantly hooked. I'm a sucker for big sounds. If it sounds like a glorious mess, count me in. If it has men and women trading lead vocal duties, I'm even more in. 

I was captivated by the end of the first song. And then, I heard Your Hands (Together), and the drums and guitar hooks pulled me in even further. I knew I had to get the album. 

My profound love for the album came when I heard Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk. It made me want to dance and crank the volume all the way up and I couldn't concentrate on anything else. I must have listened to it over 30 times on NPR's website. I made a friend of mine listen to it, and we listened to it and tapped on our desks at the same time, across an ocean and a vast land area. That's how you know a song has an infectious quality to it. 

*************

Once in a while, I'll find a photo of mine on a Tumblr. I always wonder if I should take it as a compliment or if I should ask for credit.

April came and went and I didn't even add a word to my script. 

I received my copy of M. Ward's Hold Time this morning. Let me tell you, that LP's a thing of beauty. I love that it's a double fold out sleeve. It's too bad the cover looks nothing like the CD cover. 

The same artwork is featured inside though.

I couldn't decide whether I liked the first 

or second one best so I chose both!

I'm rediscovering the album and enjoying its retro sound. It's one of those albums that's timeless. The best ones always are. The same tracks stand out as on my mp3 version: 

• Rave On (with backing vocals by Zooey Deschanel)
• Never Had Nobody Like You (with backing vocals by Zooey Deschanel)
• To Save Me (which I'm liking even more)

But I also had to admit that the duet with Lucinda Williams is pretty damn moving. And I don't even like Lucinda Williams' voice. 

And this pretty much sums up the last few days for me.

 

A record and an ankle brace. The pain's gone now. 

   Got an new power plug for my record player yesterday afternoon. I was a little worried to turn the thing on because I wasn't sure the turntable was working, but it is. I listened to my new She & Him record all evening. I'm seriously in love with that thing and with the record. I'd listened to the album several times, but on shuffle mode which is so different. It sure made me feel better and helped me cope with having a sprained ankle which hurt like hell all day yesterday. I also listened to the entire Women & Country album streaming on Jakob Dylan's MySpace page. I hate MySpace but I'm glad they made it available. My copy should be there on Tuesday or Wednesday, so I won't have to accept the god-awful quality of their upload. I'll write about the album when I get my copy. 


   Now, on to Volume Two. 

• At first, I wasn't a big fan of I'm Gonna Make It Better, but now I love it. I always sing along to -

"Running away from you is 

just like running a business"

    even though it's a super ridiculous line. No-one could have gotten away with it but Zooey Deschanel. Anyone else would have gotten ripped to shreds by music critics. 

• Sing has fantastic lyrics like - 

"Talking on the phone and watching Cribs, 

he doesn't know what kind of guy he is. 

     He's got a gold-plated ceiling and a tv show

 A broken heart and he doesn't even know"

     and a great chorus that I can't help singing along to.

• I just read the lyrics to Home and if they don't make you smile, you're cold-hearted

"I could be your state and 
I could be your nation

It doesn't get better than home, 
now does it?

I could be your welcome, 
I could be your greater

I could be sweet 
and I could be sweeter

I want to be where 
your heart is home

I want to see you with 
the light in the morning

There's never been such 
a beautiful warning to me"

• But the song that makes the smile the most and makes me want to dance and go back in time to the 1950s and diners and school dances is Ridin' In My Car just because M. Ward's part makes the song 1,000 times lovelier than it already was. I like the aloofness and hurt in his voice. It's like he doesn't just sing it, he acts the part too. Maybe I'm influenced by the In The Sun video where he acts aloof and oblivious to the girl madly in love with him.

For a good while today, I looked for that essay in The White Album where Joan Didion is in the recording studio with The Doors. 

I earned points for my credit card purchases and redeemed them for two €10 iTunes cards that I received this morning in the mail. I bought these songs with my iTunes credit: 

• Big Star - The Ballad of El Goodo
• The Band - The Weight
• Ike & Tina Turner - River Deep Mountain High 
• Jefferson Airplane - Somebody to Love

I really loved A Serious Man. I'm sure 

I had a big stupid smile on my face during 

the whole thing.The opening scene is bound 

to make you love that song even if you don't

particularly like psychedelic rock (and I've never

really liked it). I also don't really like Grace 

Slick's deep, booming voice. So basically, it's one

of those songs that's really catchy, but I still

find myself wondering "but why?"

• NRBQ - Ridin' In My Car

I'm pretty much always the last one to jump

on the bandwagon, any bandwagon for that 

matter. I instantly fell in love with She & Him's 

cover of this song on their new album, so I tracked 

down the original. It's pretty damn great, but I'm

very glad that for their cover, Zooey and Matt 

decided that it would work best as a duet. Matt's 

voice coming on is the most pleasantly surprising 

thing on the album, and I find myself waiting for it 

on the original. 

• Pixies - Allison
• Pixies - No. 13 Baby
• The Replacements - Unsatisfied
• Ryan Adams - Rip Off
• Stevie Nicks - Edge Of Seventeen (*)

I've listened to it so many times 

on Spotify that it was time I bought 

it. It's impossible not to sing along 

or tap your feet to this one. 

• Stevie Nicks & Tom Petty - Stop Draggin' My Heart Around (*)
• Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - American Girl 
• Warren Zevon - Mohammed's Radio (live) 

This pick stems from a mistake I made. I have

the attention span of a goldfish. During the 

Californication season 2 finale, I googled

the lyrics to a Warren Zevon song (Keep Me In 

Your Heart) and then I must have listened to 

Mohammed's Radio and liked it a lot because

I remembered that song to be Mohammed's Radio

for months. I listened to Mohammed's Radio on

Spotify for months, and then today watched the

first few minutes of the finale, only to realize

it was a different song. Since I liked the scene

as much as the song, it's a disappointment to find

I was mistaken all these months. I remedied it by

also purchasing "Keep Me In Your Heart", which is 

a more fitting song for the scene anyway. 

• Warren Zevon - Keep Me In Your Heart

The most poignant thing about this song is

that it was recorded as Zevon was dying from 

cancer. You get so used to songs about loss that

you tend to forget that some are actually written

about death as opposed to, more metaphorically, 

about breaking up. 

Favorite lines: 

"If I leave you it doesn't mean I love you

any less" and "you know I'm tied to you like 

the buttons on your blouse"

• Wilco - How To Fight Loneliness

This song is on the Girl, Interrupted OST, but 

I didn't remember that it was because I didn't pay 

attention to the soundtrack the many times I watched 

the movie. I have it on VHS, so it's not the most 

convenient way to watch it again to see when it's 

played. I found the soundtrack on Spotify

a few weeks ago, and was surprised that they would

put such a "new" band on the soundtrack because

the movie is set in the 70s if I remember

correctly. I find the opening verse is haunting.

"How to fight loneliness, smile all the time, 

shine your teeth to meaningless and sharpen

them with lies"

• Wilco - Sonny Feeling
• Traveling Wilburys - Handle Me With Care

• The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - This Love Is F*****g Right

Last year, before SXSW, I downloaded

NPR's preview shows and then promptly

forgot about some of the stuff I'd listened

to. A few months ago, I don't know how or 

why,I stumbled upon The Pains on the iTunes 

store and listened to the 30 second previews of 

their debut album. Then, I added the album to 

my Spotify playlists. I figured it was time 

I paid to listen to these songs. I'm not usually 

into this kind of noise pop, but I really dig 

"This Love is F*****g Right".

• The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - The Tenure Itch
• Lynyrd Skynyrd - Call Me The Breeze

Just like "Mohammed's Radio" reminds me

of Californication (see corrections above), 

Call Me The Breeze reminds me of Love is a Mixtape 

and a part I could quote if my brother had given 

me the book back. It was about there being 

nothing in the world like riding in a car with 

a Southern girl singing Call Me the Breeze at 

the top of her lungs or playing the piano solo 

to that song with the aforementioned Southern 

girl on a roadtrip. FYI, I'm serious, I want 

the book back!

(*) Damn iTunes for having higher prices for Stevie Nicks songs. 

What I didn't buy: €200 worth of music that's piling up in my iTunes wishlist.