Well, lookseehere, it seems as if last week went off
without a hitch (forgiving the gratuitous typos of
course) and now I’m back, once again armed with a
selection of musical ammo to riddle your soul with.
:The
Dodos - Jodi:
Everyone is crowing about this little duo from San Francisco
and the hype is not unwarranted. A lot of folk are bandying
around the term “psych-folk” but this supremely talented
twosome certainly reaches beyond easy description. Take
this track Jodi, it’s got a little folk twang in the
gee-tar, but the booming bass kick and the almost discordant
“wall of sound” lend themselves more to a metal track than
anything else. And that’s where Meric Long and Logan Kroeber
expose their true skills: combining these polar opposite
sounds in to a truly enjoyable listen. Their album
Visiter dropped two weeks ago on Frenchkiss.
:Bodies
Of Water - I Guess I'll Forget The Sound, I Guess I Guess:
I’ve sort of grown weary of the recent freak-folk
explosion. It just keeps feeling like so many dirty hippies
playing salsa blocks and singing about the trees. Thus,
when I popped on this song the opening strains didn’t
exactly sit well. “Oh shit,” I thought, “I’ll go get my
bong and this song and I can sit in the back seat of a van
and get high.” Luckily, I forgot to switch tracks, and the
entirety of this five-minute opus was allowed to ride out.
And oh what a ride it is. Its big and beautiful and messy,
and if you can’t tell, pretty hard to describe. Bodies of
Water new release comes out sometime during the spring on
Secretly Canadian.
:Cranes
And Crows - So It Goes:
I’ve sort of bombarded you with big, bombastic sound this
week, so I thought I’d slow it down a bit with Cranes &
Crows. This delicate little piece comes from Bon Iver’s
former labelmates on Amble Down, and woe is me if it doesn’t
sound just a little bitsy like pared down Decemberists.
It’s sparse, and beautiful, and if you don’t feel the gentle
tug on your heartstrings, you might want to check your back
for an on/off switch you goddamn dirty robot. This is Paul
Brandt’s second band on Amble Down (the first being Fine)
and the son-of-a-bitch is only a year out of high school.
Their debut album was released on the 18th.
-
My Musical Thought for the Week -
This music blogging shtick isn’t as easy I thought
it to be. I’m literally inundating myself with
music this week, trying to keep up with what’s hot
and what is most certainly not. Blogs, downloads,
free shit in the mail – I’m trying everything to
keep myself afloat in this wavy, shark-infested
musical sea.
What’s problematic, is that once I’ve chosen my
songs, culled from the above sources, I find myself
questioning my selections based on several factors.
Are these “cool” choices? Choices that won’t be
picked apart by the intense scrutiny of the internet
music lover? Am I just jumping on the other blog's
bandwagons? I mean, no ones sending me free shit
yet, so I’m sort of picking the scraps from
elsewhere, and I certainly don’t want my Saturday
posting to become Gorilla vs. Bear Jr. Finally,
there’s my lurking insecurity in terms of my musical
likes. Maybe I’m not cut out for this, maybe my
musical taste is weak and overly influenced by my
much regretted high school years spent as a
sycophantic DMB fan (Don’t judge me, I’ve already
punished myself). And of all of this self-doubt
just floats around inside of me as I stare at this
little screen, begging me to pick something new,
listen to something else, put it all down and walk
away.
But I like what I like, and I give what I give, and
if you don’t like it, go read something else.
Noah Sanders is the blog/news editor at Light
In The Attic. If you'd like to contact Noah in regards to
his writings here at Side One: Track One then please do so
here.
- Noah Sanders -
Unless
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John Laird under a
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