My brain, sliced and diced, exposing only the most
musical of gray matter.
Hope you like it!
A funny thought about the new Sigur Ros song.
The new Sigur Ros song is brilliant. No doubts about that.
Coupled with the
"naked people running around in the waning days of summer
video," it’s pretty ingenious.
This said, I turned the track on this morning and Girlfriend
(not exactly the most musically minded lady) piped in and
said:
“Is this Dave Matthews?”
And when you think about it like that, she’s kind of right.
Listen to that opening strum, perfect Crash if you
ask me. And maybe that’s why I love this new track so much,
my sub-conscious, deeply-hid, deeply-shameful love of Dave
Matthew’s forcing it’s way to the surface.
Or maybe Sigur Ros is just really, really talented.
:Sigur
Ros - Gobbledigook:
- Record
Label Peak: Amble Down -
This is going to be a longer post, but a long post broken to
pieces by shorter thoughts, thus fitting in to the idea of
Brain Notes. Wouldn’t want to overload any of you
sugar-addled kiddies with lengthy thought processes now
would we?
I’ve been wanting to write a longer piece about Eau du
Claire, Wisconsin label Amble Down for a while now. I was
skulking about the music blogs on the internet, as I’m known
to do, and stumbled upon the song So It Goes by a
group called Cranes and Crowes. This beautiful, sad little
piece of music hit me right in the soft spots and I needed
to know where I could find the whole album.
Which lead me to Amble Down Records. Owned and operated by
one Kyle Frenette, Amble Down is probably best known for
being the original home of recent Jagjaguwar signee Bon Iver.
From what I know you could almost call it a collective, for
the most part, a group of people from the same region who
form, and reform in a variety of different musical set-ups
to create a handful of different bands. Even Frenette, the
aforementioned owner, gets in on the action.
What stems from this sort of musical companionship is a
berth of, for lack of better word, beautiful, comfortable
music. You can almost feel the good-natured friendships
that co-exist amongst these different bands, and this
familiarity (and quite possibility the influence of the
always friendly
Midwest)
creates an emotional resonance that’s pretty shocking in its
quiet intensity.
Kyle (currently managing Bon Iver) sent me a large package
of Amble Down material that I’ve been enjoyably trudging
through over the last few months. I thought I’d highlight my
four favorite albums of the lot for you the readers.
The Gentle Guest - Our Little Ruckus
Before I get in to the actual music I just want to show you
what I mean by the interconnectivity of this label.
Erik Rykal is The Gentle Guest. Erik Rykal is also the
guitarist for the soon to be mentioned Meridene, and members
of both Meridene and Fine (the now departed band that once
contained Paul Brandt who’ll be discussed below) all play on
this album.
And what an EP it is! This is gentle, folksy music done
right. Though Rykal never stretches in to anything
absolutely original, he composes these sad little gems as
well as anyone. Take the single, Longfellow.
Rykal’s everyman-style voice is just the right volume, the
subtle touch of harmony just perfectly hangs in the
background, the guitar/banjo appear and disappear at just
the right moments. It’s quality found in the details.
Everything works near-perfect and because of this The Gentle
Guest transcends its basic qualities and becomes a quietly
heart-stopping piece of work.
:The
Gentle Guest - Longfellow:
Meridene - A Very
Strange Bear
Meridene is a lovely compliment to The Gentle Guest. Where
TGG exists in the quiet spaces of solitude that only a
singer-songwriter can achieve, Meridene is very much a
band-album. It’s funny that I’m giving the song Oh!
Lover because it’s decidedly the slowest track on the
album, as the other cuts, particularly the opener A Test
are indie-folk rock, barreling along at a somewhat
break-neck pace, banjos aflame, percussion banging away.
Both this and The Gentle Guest are inviting albums,
seemingly recorded all at once in tiny basements and
backyard barns. It’s easy to forget the presence of
technicians and producers and just simply imagine yourself,
head resting on a hay bale, as this talented group plucks
away.
:Meridene
- Oh! Lover:
The Wars Of 1812 - Status Quo
Ante Bellum
Honestly, The Wars of 1812 is probably the band I’ve spent
the most time with. I interviewed two of the members for
Light In The Attic and I’ve played the album on repeat for
literally hours at a time. There’s a distinct Wilco sound
to The Wars of 1812, but similarities aside this is one of
my favorite albums of the year. Radios Unsigned, a
track that further led me down the Amble Down path, is a
bouncing bass gem, a road-trip quantified into chords and
drums. Sure, Wilco is obviously a strong influence, but The
Wars shun blatant imitation in favor of razor sharp homage.
I imagine Jeff Tweedy would be quite happy that his mighty
influence is helping to spawn bands like this.
I’m giving you Forget You Madly a fast-paced little
number that’ll get you tapping your foot, eager for the
first rays of summer.
:The
Wars Of 1812 - Forget You Madly:
Cranes And Crows - Blame Winter
As stated above, this was my first, and favorite, experience
with Amble Down. I came upon So It Goes by accident
and seriously sat, silently in front of my computer as
singer/songwriter Paul Brandt (a rotating keyboardist in
seemingly everything else put out by Amble Down) crooned
about a relationship falling apart.
I was floored. Even more so when I realized that Paul
Brandt was only 19 years old.
Blame Winter is, and I keep using this cop-out word,
a beautiful album. Slow and sad and seemingly a product
cold evenings spent alone, this is as impressive a first
album I’ve heard in years. Somehow Brandt’s reedy voice
steps beyond the usual tenor of your normal, run-of-the-mill
singer/songwriter. There’s a deceptive simplicity to the
music, the way it builds, the way it finishes, the way
Brandt’s voice tangles itself in your head, the pained
pictures he paints.
A stellar debut from a stellar record label.
:Cranes
And Crows - Wrecking Ball:
Amble Down is currently working with Bon Iver on his
new blues project The Shouting Matches, which I’ll
talk about one of these days. I can’t say enough
kind words about the music I’ve heard from this
little label, I’ve barely scratched the surface of
their other offerings and I highly recommend heading
over to their site and checking out what else they
have to offer.
Thanks for reading!
Noah Sanders is the blog/news editor at Light
In The Attic and a contributor over at Sound On The Sound. 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
otherwise expressly stated, all text in this blog and any
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