[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: April 13-19

From: "Jeremy Schlosberg" <fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxx>
To: fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2008 11:30:17 -0400

THIS WEEK'S FINDS <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/this_weeks_finds.htm>
Apr. 13-19

* Check out a new feature on the Fingertips web site: the *Fingertips
Flashback* <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/fingertips_flashback.htm>, which
takes you back to a free and legal MP3 featured somewhere in the deep dark
recesses of "This Week's Finds" history, and still currently available
online. This time the song receives an aural introduction, courtesy of
Outshouts <http://www.outshouts.com/> technology. The debut song is "The
Wind Blew All Around Me," from Mary Lou Lord. If you missed it four years
ago, give it a listen now. Remember, music is always new if you haven't
heard it before.

"Cat Swallow" - the Royal
Bangs<http://www.piratepirate.com/mp3s/catswallow.mp3>
A potent display of ramshackle rock'n'roll that brings the Replacements
to mind both for the sloppy-tight ensemble playing and for lead singer Ryan
Schaefer's simultaneously offhanded and passionate voice, which is agreeably
Westerbergian. The Bangs aim for a glitchy sort of sound, but only at the
very beginning and at the very end are these glitches electronic in nature;
otherwise, the band achieves its goals via a squeakily insistent, oddly
memorable lead guitar line, cymbals-heavy percussion, the well-timed use of
phased vocals, and, eventually, a clickety-clackety sound that might in fact
be electronic after all but feels organic even if so. All in all there's a
certain wild grandeur at play as the piece shambles and swings along. I like
how a searing instrumental break suddenly finds the band backing off, at
2:44, to offer a wonderfully subdued bit of guitar work that sounds
completely different from what they've been doing but also, somehow,
seamlessly part of the whole.
A quartet from Knoxville that is an outgrowth of Schaefer's previous
band, a trio called the Suburban Urchins, the Royal Bangs have been together
since 2004. "Cat Swallow" is from the band's second CD, *We Breed Champions*,
due out next month on the Akron-based label Audio
Eagle<http://www.audioeaglerecords.com/>,
a high-spirited outfit with the unambiguous message "Buy our fucking
records!" on its home page.

"To Be Gone" - Anna
Ternheim<http://www.toolshed-media.com/ts/anna-ternheim-to-be-gone.mp3>
Sad songs don't always have to be slow, nor do pretty songs. Both sad
and pretty, "To Be Gone" nevertheless moves at a steady, initially slinky,
and ultimately almost finger-tapping pace, while Ternheim's accented but
clear and open-hearted singing style suggests, I think, greater pathos in
this hardy setting than most singers convey who seek a melancholy ambiance
through hushed tones and drowsy pacing. None of that mush for Ternheim here;
"To Be Gone" is a firm-footed beauty, combining a keen if ineffable
nostalgia with crystalline presence in the here and now. While there does
seem to be something *very* late '60s- or early '70s-like going on here, the
effect is peripheral--listen directly and it disappears.
At the heart of this song is a gorgeous, melancholic moment in the
first line of what appears to be the chorus (although the lyrics shift from
one iteration to another): it's when the melody pushes forward but the
chords lag behind, going seemingly in the opposite direction of where your
ear seeks resolution. You can first hear this at 0:36 and then again,
somewhat more clearly, at 1:13. I can't completely describe this but the
effect of the entire line is almost breathtaking.
Ternheim is from Stockholm, and released her first CD in Sweden in 2004
to great acclaim. "To Be Gone" was available on that CD, and is also now on
her first U.S. full-length, *Halfway to Fivepoints*, coming out next week on
Decca Records. The CD features mostly songs from Ternheim's 2006 Swedish
release, *Separation Road*, along with the older single "To Be Gone" and a
few other songs from EPs and/or bonus discs from Sweden.

"Crooked Legs" - the
Acorn<http://www.paperbagrecords.com/singles/the_acorn_crooked_legs.mp3>
Opening with an appealing if unassuming bit of finger-picking, "Crooked
Legs" begins like pretty much any 21st-century indie rock song written by
someone who listened to a lot of old Paul Simon records (him again!; see
last week). Except...listen carefully to the background percussion
underneath the acoustic guitar. It's syncopated, with a distinctly
non-rock'n'roll flavor to it. That's hint number one that this song may not
end up where it appears at first to be going.
Hint number two: the trumpets that glide in at 0:48. There is some
musical force seeking to enter here from beyond the realm of either
standard-issue indie rock or gimmick-driven blog rock. You can hear it come
to full expression at 1:09, when the complex, polyrhythmic percussion kicks
in and we find ourselves in the middle of a genuine musical adventure. Which
is only fitting, given the real-life adventure on which this song (and
album) is based. "Part biographical narrative, part surreal fairy tale," as
the band describes it, the CD *Glory Hope Mountain* was inspired by the
harrowing story of Gloria Esperanza Montoya (her name roughly translates to
the CD's title), mother of the Acorn's singer and songwriter Rolf Klausener.
Barely surviving a childhood of poverty and abuse in her native Honduras,
Montoya eventually found her way to Montreal without any money or contacts
and slowly made a new life for herself.
Writing a concept album about your mother is however not the best way
to win over your bandmates, but the power of the story, and the accompanying
music, got everyone on board. The Ottawa-based Klausener researched the
history and mythology of Honduras, and listened to recordings of the
country's folk music; he became particularly inspired by the rhythms of the
Garifuna music indigenous to the area, which developed from a blending of
native traditions with music that came over with slaves who arrived from
West Africa. The final product was less specifically about Montoya than a
dream-like musing on the individual's struggle to live a meaningful life.
The Acorn began as a solo project but ultimately became a band when
Klausener decided that being a bedroom rocker wasn't all that much fun.
There are now five members. *Glory Hope Mountain* was released on Paper Bag
Records <http://www.paperbagrecords.com/> in Canada this past fall, and saw
its official U.S. release last month. MP3 via Paper Bag.

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[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: April 13-19

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