[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: Jan. 13-19
- From: "Jeremy Schlosberg" <fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2008 19:39:13 -0500
THIS WEEK'S FINDS <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/this_weeks_finds.htm>
Jan. 13-19
* *Read the latest Fingertips
Commentary<http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/comment_brandnew.htm>,
all about Radiohead's In Rainbows gambit and what it may really mean in the
long run.*
"Cherry Tulips" -
Headlights<http://www.polyvinylrecords.com/media/prc-149-02.mp3>
At once delicate and sturdy, quirky and poppy, summery and somehow
wintery too, "Cherry Tulips" embraces a seemingly endless series of
opposites--in addition to containing the aforementioned dialectics, the song
strikes me likewise as both lo-fi and polished, retro-y and current, crisp
and echoey. And if that's not enough, singer/keyboardist Erin Fein manages
to be at once airy and substantive, both forthright and mysterious.
Or maybe I just can't make up my mind today.
I do know that I'm enjoying this one without reservation, from the
shadowy opening heart-throb pulse through the sped-up Motown rhythm and
maybe most especially the soaring, melodic, call-and-response payoff in the
chorus, which enlarges the song in a way I can only describe as florally.
Headlights is a trio from the Champaign, Illinois area; "Cherry Tulips"
arrives in advance from the band's second CD, *Some Racing, Some Stopping*,
scheduled for release next month on Polyvinyl
Records<http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/smaller_labels.htm#Polyvinyl>.
MP3 via Polyvinyl.
"Gila" - Beach
House<http://downloads.pitchforkmedia.com/Beach%20House%20-%20Gila.mp3>
Sometimes it'll be one melody that does it, one melody that is robust
and agreeable enough to hang a song upon. And "Beach House," a languorous
new song from the Balitmore duo Beach House, gives us that melody as its
opening salvo, the first thing we hear from singer Alex Scally's mouth: a
dreamy, downward-tending progression that's actually two lazily swinging
four-note descents tucked into one another. Drenched in reverb, steamy
organ, and unplaceable atmosphere, the melody hooks me for good the second
time, when the upturn at the end disappears; the simple act of staying on
the same note one extra time changes the chord, the mood, the trajectory of
the song on the spot (compare 0:25-0:26 to 0:32-0:33 and see if you feel
it.)
Now normally I'm not sure I enjoy songs with quite this much blurry
reverb, but I realize in listening that it's not the blurry reverb that
bothers me per se, it's the tendency for songs with a lot of blurry reverb
to be blurry through and through--indistinct melody, hazy structure, vague
instrumentation, vague everything. "Gila" is exactly not that; it's as
precisely crafted as they come, in which case the smeary touch of the reverb
offers an enriching counterpoint, in maybe the same sort of way it works
when a happy-sounding song has sad lyrics, or a song with fast underlying
rhythm has a slow melody. Listen in particular to the guitar, which plays
chord-free accompaniment throughout, offering nicely-etched lines that curl
in and around the vocal melody.
"Gila" comes from the band's forthcoming CD,*Devotion*, which will be
released next month on Carpark Records <http://www.carparkrecords.com/>. MP3
courtesy of Pitchfork<http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/siteindex.htm#Pitchfork>
.
"Henri" - the Heavy
Circles<http://www.toolshed-media.com/ts/the-heavy-circles-henri.mp3>
In one of the more unusual multi-generational (but not really) musical
couplings in recent memory, Edie Brickell has teamed up with her stepson,
Harper Simon, to put out an album as an entity called the Heavy Circles.
Simon is Brickell's husband Paul Simon's son from his first marriage, and I
said multi-generational "but not really" because as it turns out, Brickell
is only six and a half years older than stepson Simon, who's 35.
And here they are, serving up an offbeat, atmospheric homage (it seems)
to French painter Henri Matisse, describing Matisse's imagery via a hypnotic
rhyme scheme over a circular, spy-movie motif, fleshed out with some
cinematic synthesizers and the barest touch of crunchy guitar. I'm not sure
there's any more point to it than there was when the elder Simon sang
rapturously, and surreally, about René Magritte back when Brickell was a
teenager. But it draws me in and then--nicely--lets me go, without fuss.
Songs under three minutes always score extra points with me.
But: combine the son of a '60s and '70s icon with a woman most often
considered an '80s one-hit wonder and the cool factor is way low on this
one; I'll be surprised if the blogosphere pays much positive attention. But
I've always admired the clear-voiced Brickell as a singer; maybe this
collaboration will help her shed her outdated public identity.
The self-titled CD, to be self-released on a label called Dynamite
Child, is, yet again, due out next month.
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