[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: Apr. 27-May 3

From: "Jeremy Schlosberg" <fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxx>
To: fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2008 11:37:39 -0400
THIS WEEK'S FINDS <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/this_weeks_finds.htm>
Apr. 27-May 3

** Attention anyone who still buys a CD or two: the Fingertips Record Shop
has been metamorphosed into the Fingertips
Store<http://astore.amazon.com/jeremschlo-20>.
You'll now find there a larger assortment of CDs, both current releases and
back-catalog classics, along with DVDs and books and maybe some other odds
and ends over time. It's still boutiquey; the point is to offer only highly
recommended items--the selection is expanded but not enough to get you lost
in choice overload. To make this change possible, and a much easier thing to
create and maintain at my end, the Store is now an all-Amazon affair. There
is no extra cost to you at all; you'll buy things there at standard Amazon
prices, and still support Fingertips in the process. Check it
out<http://astore.amazon.com/jeremschlo-20>when you have a chance.
*


 "Inside a Boy" - My Brightest
Diamond<http://www.toolshed-media.com/ts/my-brightest-diamond-inside-a-boy.mp3>
     Shara Worden, once
again<http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/TWFjul-aug06.htm#MBD>up and
running as My Brightest Diamond, has the uncanny ability to create
the most expansive musical landscapes within the bounds of what seems merely
to be a three-minute forty-second pop song. "Inside a Boy" shimmers, boils,
drives, plunges, and aches with an idiosyncratic zeal that should thrill
Kate Bush fans, and appeal to anyone with curious ears and an open heart.
After an ethereal opening section, featuring a twinkling electric guitar
line underneath a heavenly wash of sound, the song finds its central
motif--a dark, diving theme that acquires a fierce, orchestral feel as it
recurs throughout the piece. Worden produces and arranges her songs, and one
of her signature talents is integrating inventive string arrangements with
some serious rock'n'roll drumming and, when it seems a good idea, some noisy
electric guitars as well. The end result is curious and satisfying.
     For all of the musical drama unleashed, the song is more lyrically
sparse than it might seem, given the inherent theatricality of Worden's
elastic voice. The words, instead, arrive like poetry, and pack a
metaphysical wallop: "We are clouds, we are vistas/Like fawns and shape
shifters/Our ages can never be found out/No our edges keep moving further
out."
     The song can be found on the CD *A Thousand Shark's Teeth*, an album
with a number of other jewels to be discovered. It's scheduled for a June
release on Asthmatic Kitty
Records<http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/smaller_labels.htm#AK>
.

"Fire" - Alibi Tom <http://www.alibitom.com/dl.php?id=fire.mp3>
     Rapid-fire handclaps play off a crisp guitar lick for a series of quick
measures and then--bang: I feel like I'm smack in the middle of a
full-grown, fully-developed song--as if I opened a hallway door and
discovered a band playing behind it. The verse presents an interesting aural
contradiction: it feels very active, with a jumpy melody and the
continuation of the crisp guitar line, but chord-wise, we're pretty much
standing still--as far as my ear can pick out, the entire verse revolves
around one chord. (And if it's not precisely one chord, the verse feels
harmonically in one basic place all the way through.) The net effect is of
serious anticipation, because whether we're aware of it or not, our ears,
when listening to music (pop music, specifically), continually anticipate
the next chord, as each chord arrived at becomes its own center on the one
hand yet implies its displacement on the other. There's always another one
coming, and we know it.
     This is no doubt a good part of why the chorus, when it arrives (at
0:39) seems so wondrous--it comes after 25 seconds of this paradoxical sort
of itchy-standing-stillness. Also, it's a pretty great chorus, all
effortless melody and breezy harmony. Now that I think about it, the idea of
matching a dynamic melody to a single chord strikes me as the
equal-but-opposite effect of having a one-note melody over a changing chord
pattern, which is a well-established rock tradition (classic examples being
"Subterranean Homesick Blues" and "Pump It Up"). Note, by the way, how,
after the chorus but before the next verse, the song fully incorporates the
introductory section (handclaps and guitar). This speaks to attention to
craft; I always like that.
     From Gothenburg, Sweden, the five-piece band Alibi Tom used to be the
six-piece band Out of Clouds; as Out of Clouds, they were previously
featured here on Fingertips in September
2006<http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/TWFsept-oct06.htm#OOC>.
"Fire" is from *Scrapbook*, the band's debut as Alibi Tom, slated for
release in Europe next month on a new British label called
Leon<http://leonise.co.uk/>.
MP3 via the band's site <http://www.alibitom.com/>.

"Right Away" - Pattern is
Movement<http://teamclermont.com/mp3/patternismovement_rightaway.mp3>
     Songs rarely manage to be simultaneously catchy and unusual, but the
distinctive Philadelphia duo Pattern is Movement has done it with this odd
amalgam of noise, cabaret, and glee. Launched off a fuzz of sound that
sounds like a sustained accordion (but probably isn't), "Right Away" hooks
me, um, right away--as soon as the singing starts, with the lovely,
harmonized melody that becomes the backbone of this sturdy, crazy little
number. The oddities are too numerous to list (don't miss the cartoony
violins that arrive like meddling relatives to punctuate the lyrics), but
topping them all is probably the piano solo at 1:45--just past the midpoint
of the song, right where a more traditional band would put the blazing
guitar solo, we get instead a muddle of notes such as might happen if you
put your hands down anywhere on the keyboard and just sort of let them sit
there while you drummed your fingers in place.
     Speaking of drumming, sort of, pay attention to the percussion here.
Despite an overall rhythm that is nearly mechanical in its
one-two-three-four-iness, Chris Ward's drum work is continually creative,
utilizing all manner of pitch and accent to keep the texture interesting.
Some of this has arisen out of necessity--the band used to have five people
in it; down to just a drummer and a keyboard player (Andrew Thiboldeaux, who
also sings), Ward has found it useful to be more ingenious. If in so doing
he accentuates the duo's overall vibe of purposeful but wacky vigor, all the
better.
     "Right Away" can be found on the band's third CD, *All Together*, which
is due out next week on Hometapes
Records<http://www.home-tapes.com/Hometapes/News/News.html>.
[FS]
<http://astore.amazon.com/jeremschlo-20>
<http://astore.amazon.com/jeremschlo-20>


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[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: Apr. 27-May 3

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