Music Recommend

The Great Outdoors - Food, Booze, and Entertainment - If I Were a Car

I'd heard this song before, certainly, but as of last night I'm totally smitten with it. Yearning, plaintive harmony, in three, on the edge of country music, it's really obvious that I would love this song. And I do, so there.

Pavement

Here's the deal about Pavement: I first listened to them after the waitress in a wine bar in St. Louis loaned me a Matador compilation cd from the bar sound system after she learned that I knew something about Leonard Cohen (thanks Mom.)

So, until today, I've known one song.  And that song always made me think, "Do these guys just need to practice more? Or tune more? Or do they just sound like this?"

They just sound like this. If you get over that part immediately, you will be quicker to realize that Pavement is doing something awesome. It took me a couple years. But the chorus off the first track off their "Brighten the Corners" album is "Hey, listen to me! I'm on the stereo!"

I've never had a signature band. But maybe this is it.

Marnie Stern - This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and I

OCTOBER 22 IS INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY. THIS ALBUM IS PERFECT.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3oxU9-zeiA

LISTEN TO THAT. THEN LISTEN TO "STEELY", WHICH IS MORE WISTFUL, WHILE STILL SHOUTING. THIS IS THE ALBUM YOU LISTEN TO WHILE HAPPILY BREAKING LAND SPEED RECORDS.

The Monks - Black Monk Time

So, a while back, I and a death-metal guy were lecturing a heavy-metal guy on the origins of punk-rock.  We both started describing the movement as starting from the '60s group The Monks.  A few nights ago, I found myself talking to someone who knew the lead singer, who now lives in Minnesota.   
Allmusic.com says, "To prove that they meant business, the Monks shaved the top of their heads and performed their songs -- crude diatribes about the Vietnam war, dehumanized society, and love/hate affairs with girls -- in actual monks' clothing."

If you wonder what punk music might be like in the 60s, this is it.  It's really pretty great.

Barcelona

Near the beginning of the movie "Vanilla Sky," Tom Cruise's character is offered a few choices for driving-around music.  Barcelona is first. 

"Gonna be a teenage one-hit washed-up messed-up
megalomaniac. Yeah."

"Have you forgotten the bomb?
Everyone around me looks so happy now
Who am I to bring this party down?"

I found out about them 2 years after they disbanded.  Synth-heavy nerd-rock. 

I think this band was responsible for this thought: "If these people have a rock band, then people like me can certainly go to rock shows." There's no telling how many times I've gotten my hand stamped in the last year, and I fully intend on becoming one of those weird old dudes at shows with no obvious connections to the band, but who fully appear to be having the time of their life.

Recommended songs: "Indian Names"; "Have You Forgotten the Bomb?"; "Teenage Pop Star"

The Thermals - The Body, The Blood, The Machine

First, I can't believe that I haven't posted this album already. It's like indie-rock vs. Old-Testament God.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4Iobo18U9w

The first verse from the first song on the album:

God reached his hand down from the sky
He flooded the land then he set it on fire
He said, "Fear me again. Know I'm your father.
Remember that no one can breathe underwater"

Plus I love this band.  And they are related to All-Girl Summer Fun Band.

Mason Jennings - Simple Life

Mason Jennings has released two albums since last I checked.  Simple Life and In The Ever are both solid albums, as far as I'm concerned.  They both have the same thing I liked in Boneclouds.  (Maybe that thing is Mason Jennings.)

Radical Face - Ghost - Glory

"But I was blessed with bad eyes
There's a lot that I missed,
but I don't mind, I'm not that old.
I'll find out what broke me soon enough."

The whole album is great.  But this song breaks my heart every time.

Jayber Crow - Two Short Stories - O My God When I Drop Dead

2 guys with a banjo and guitar.  This is pretty much what I love about folk music reduced to a single song.  I don't even know if it's ultimately happy or sad, but it doesn't matter because I just can't stop listening to it.

http://music.for-robots.com/archives/002385.html

The Dutchess and the Duke - She's the Dutchess, He's the Duke - Strangers

Guy-and-girl folky awesomeness.  I've pretty much been listening to just this song all morning.

Available here:
http://blog.tsururadio.com/2008/07/maybe-were-not-strangers-after-all.html

Amie Miriello - I Came Around - Brand New

So I have a certain predilection for the angry-girl-songwriter genre.   

"You speak, it's like everyone listens
and it's not because they want to
but because you're insane"

Kind of like Ani DiFranco, overproduced a la Liz Phair. In a good way.

Alcest - Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde

Marching Band - Spark Large

Despite a lot of great music happening lately, I've probably listened to this album twice a day for the last week or so.  The instrumentation is quick but the vocals tend to be pretty languid, so the overall effect is this weird kind of happy serenity. (Is this some kind of general Scandinavian-pop style mechanism?)  This is totally music to hold someone's hand to.

First track is here:
http://insomniaradio.net/2008/07/30/marching-band-for-your-love/

And the third track is in 3/3/2. What more could you want?

Doomtree - Doomtree

So, I just got back from the Doomtree show (http://www.doomtree.net/) . Their new album is pretty great, and if you're interested in the Minneapolis hip-hop scene, it's a great way to hear a lot of people all at once. (I've previously recommended P.O.S., who's part of the Doomtree collective, and while I continue to think he's their strongest MC, seeing them all simultaneously is an experience not to be missed.)

(As an aside to my previous post: I attended the show with the aforementioned David Brusie, whose website is now up (http://davidbrusie.com/) and you can download the title track.  Also, you can check out his fly shoes. (I will also recommend that he titles his next album, "The Aforementioned David Brusie".))

David Brusie - Flyover State

I have been fortunate enough to work with some remarkable people, and those of you who are in Minneapolis have likely met David Brusie at some bar or party.

http://cdbaby.com/cd/davidbrusie

I can't stop listening to "Understood" and "Eyes Shut Tight".

He's playing at the 331 Club in NE Minneapolis on 8/14, and on 8/24, at the Dinkytowner.

Cloud Cult - Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes) - Journey of the Featherless

I've only heard this song a couple of times, but I just think it's fun.

Tilly and the Wall - O - Blood Flower

So I've been listening to the same random playlist for almost a month, and finally I was inspired to cull from it a disc's worth of awesomeness so I could hear these sweet tunes in my car etc. See my last.fm/user/atengwall for the whole list, but I figure I need to recommend a few of the songs that snuck up on me, in the good way.

Starting with this song. I think it's sweet. Annoyingly, though, it's mislabeled on yahoo music unlimited, the title switched with a somewhat less-awesome song called "Poor Man's Ice Cream." Excellent use of the tap-dancing-as-percussion in this tune, which I guess is kind of their thing.

Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes

Saw these guys a while ago, opening for Blitzen Trapper, and holy cats were they good. 

http://pitchfork.tv/videos/fleet-foxes-white-winter-hymnal

Bearded folky dudes singing in a style more old-school than you'd expect. This is the kind of music you have going on in the background, and when the cd is over, you immediately start wondering why everything seems bleaker. 

They put on a great show, and they make you believe.

Arcade Fire - Neon Bible - Intervention

That organ! I'm working on absorbing the lyrics. There's something rather dark here.

Mirah - Joyride: Remixes - La Familia

So the central question posed by this song comes to my mind from time to time, of late particularly at roller derby after parties. I bitterly love the question's inevitable answer: no.