[fingertipsmusic] December 5: The Cloud Room, Juniore, Stornoway

From: Jeremy Schlosberg <fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxx>
To: fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2013 15:36:38 -0500

*Fingertips <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com>*
*December 5*

*Regular songs return this week, but also, a new playlist. You can read
about it here <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/?p=15748>, and find the
appropriate links. It is the first in the henceforth ongoing Fingertips
Eclectic Playlist Series, created with the specific intent of countering
the internet's over-obsession with genre and subgenres and decades and
songs that sound just like the previous song. Check it out: The Fingertips
Eclectic Playlist Series, Vol. 1 <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/?p=15748>.*

*And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.....*

[image: The Cloud
Room]<http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/cloudroom.jpg>
“MRS. MARQUIS DE SADE” – THE CLOUD
ROOM<http://www.magnetmagazine.com/audio/MrsMarquisDeSade.mp3>

A stimulating combination of breezy and portentous, not to mention melodic
and dark, “Mrs. Marquis de Sade” finds the elusive Brooklyn band The Cloud
Room doing its New York City rock’n'roll thing with renewed vigor, even
after all these years. (Many of you may remember them for their rather
brilliant breakthrough song, “Hey Now Now,” featured here, and lots of
other places, back in 2005 <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/?p=91>.) This is
a band with the enviable ability to have a “sound” without so much as
breaking a sweat, based largely on the fortuitous way front man J Stuart’s
Bowie-esque croon floats so naturally on top of Devon Johnson’s scratchy
guitar rhythms and John Petrow’s athletic bass lines.

The sound is so strong and consistent that it transcends the material:
“Mrs. Marquis de Sade” is not originally a Cloud Room song, but was written
by filmmaker and songwriter Devon Reed as part of a project he conceived to
support the non-profit organization 826 Valencia <http://826valencia.org/>,
about which more in a moment. The band clearly makes this one their own. I
especially like how the chorus is split in two sections, creating an extra
climax via the second, higher-ranging melody, during which Stuart conjures
more than one rock’n'roll ghost (I’m hearing Richard Butler in particular)
before handing center stage to a fabulously tuneful guitar line that I’m
guessing was added by the band and in any case seals the wonderfulness of
this brisk and oddly catchy number.

As for the project itself, Reed wrote a bunch of songs and then managed to
corral an impressive list of top-tier indie artists to record them. The
final product is an album called *You Be My Heart*, which will be released
next week. 826 Valencia is a literacy organization focused on inspiring
children to write, co-founded in San Francisco by the writer Dave Eggers.
Among the other artists who recorded Reed’s songs for the album are
Fingertips veterans Marissa Nadler, Bowerbirds, Saturday Looks Good to Me,
and The Spinto Band. You can listen to a few songs from the albumvia
SoundCloud<https://soundcloud.com/youbemyheart/sets/you-be-my-heart/s-anJwI>.
In the meantime, I should also note that The Cloud Room did end up
releasing a long-anticipated second album in 2012, which was called
*Zither* and
kind of came and went without much fuss. You might want to listen to it at
Bandcamp <http://thecloudroom.bandcamp.com/album/zither>, where it is also
for sale.

MP3 via Magnet Magazine <http://www.magnetmagazine.com/>.

[image: Juniore]<http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/juniore.jpg>
“DANS LE NOIR” –
JUNIORE<https://s3.amazonaws.com/fingertips-free-legal-mp3s/2013/Juniore-Dans_le_noir.mp3>

With the mischievous energy of something vaguely furtive, “Dans Le Noir”
unfolds with an intricate overlay of ’60s-like sounds, from the folk-rock
melodies to the spy-movie guitar accents to the psychedelic synthesizer
flourishes. Before we get to any of that, however, take note of the
introduction, which effects the satisfying trick of introducing without
simply vamping on the main motif—what we get instead is an engaging guitar
duet, with a lower-register, half-time melody backed by busy runs in the
upper register. The song is thereby introduced, but we still don’t know
exactly what it’s going to sound like. I like this.

The song itself is equally likable, driven by front woman Anna Jean’s cool,
shadowy vocals, singing a cycling, minor-key melody that seems to keep
yearning upward before pitching downward, aiming over and over for
something not apparently reachable. The concise chorus, flattened and
reverbed and buoyed by nostalgic harmonies, feels cinematic in a
black-and-white kind of way. Anna Jean floats through its melodic poignancy
with her self-possession unruffled—which actually renders the music all the
more poignant somehow. In a similar (or not?) way, the entire song’s
surface-level simplicity manages to convey a deepening sense of complexity
with repeated listens. Somehow.

Juniore is a new band from Paris about which information remains sketchy,
besides the fact that Anna Jean is in charge. She has previously
collaborated with an assortment of other French musicians, but this appears
to be the first time she is taking center stage. “Dans Le Noir” is one of
two songs on the band’s debut 7-inch, released in November. A full-length
album and a tour is scheduled for 2014.

[image:
Stornoway]<http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/stornoway.jpg>
“TUMBLING BAY” –
STORNOWAY<http://mp3.rollingstone.com/download/04TumblingBay.mp3>

Attentive, gentle rock’n'roll that tells a tender story with an absorbing
series of musical and lyrical details. “Tumbling Bay” is one of those songs
so artfully arranged that you can isolate any slice and find all sorts of
goodness to relish. At any moment, there are wonderful things going on with
the guitar work, the percussion, and the vocals, never mind how these
separate elements are continually weaving in and around each other, and
working to create a whole that transcends its parts.

The song is named for a swimming area that used to exist in the Thames
River in Oxford, the quartet’s hometown, and is a tale of unrequited love,
told, unusually, from the perspective of the unwitting object rather than
the tortured subject. Singer Brian Briggs has a distinctively
innocent-sounding tenor, and he serves up the halting, affecting melodies
with conviction; but don’t miss as well the background vocal efforts of his
bandmates, as Stornoway is not averse to letting the whole band sing at the
same time. (Indeed, the simple vocal coda we get at 3:36 is both haunting
and oddly cathartic, not to be missed.)

“Tumbling Bay” is one of six songs to be found on the group’s
newly-released “mini-album,” *You Don’t Know Anything*, which is a
follow-up to its full-length *Tales From Terra Firma*, released earlier
this year. Thanks to Lauren
Laverne<http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00c000j> at
BBC6 for the head’s up, and thanks to Rolling
Stone<http://www.rollingstone.com/>for
the MP3. Stornoway was last seen here in July
2010<http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/?p=3135>,
for the fabulous song “Zorbing,” which ended up among my top 10 favorite
free and legal MP3s of the year that year.

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[fingertipsmusic] December 5: The Cloud Room, Juniore, Stornoway

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