[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: Mar. 11-17

THIS WEEK'S FINDS <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/this_weeks_finds.htm>
week of Mar. 11-17


*Don't forget about the new Fingertips Contest--the prize this time is a
Merge Records Promo CD Sixpack: six full-length, promotional versions of
quality Merge Records releases, including the brand new Arcade Fire CD, Neon
Bible. Details on the Contests
page<file://localhost/Users/Jeremy/Documents/Music/contests.htm>
.* Deadline for entry is March 25.


"Tape It" - WinterKids <http://www.winterkidsmusic.com/tapeit.mp3>
Perky British pop with that brilliant blend of polish and DIY-ishness that
so often characterizes, well, music that I think is brilliant. Beyond the
simple but delightful opening guitar line, one of the things that caught my
attention early on here was that 10-second instrumental break from :30 to
:40--not only is that an unusual place to have an instrumental break, listen
to what it sounds like: the sing-songy glockenspiel (or some such
xylophone-like thing) on top, the dissonant rhythm guitar below. Fun. Also,
not a couple weeks after noting how the Los Campesinos! singer uses a heavy
British accent, unusually, in a non-punk lyrical setting, here we have James
Snider doing the same thing at the head of this Surrey-based quintet. A
21st-century trend? This time the song seems basically to be about
remembering (or not remembering?) to tape an episode of a favorite TV show.
Oh, and don't miss that deeply satisfying chord in the chorus on the word
"leave" in the phrase "leave it in"--you can hear it first at 1:02. I've got
nothing to add, just listen. "Tape It" was released by the band as a single
last year and is due out on WinterKids' first full-length CD, entitled *
Memoirs*, scheduled for release in the U.K. this week on Little House
Records. The MP3 is available via the band's
site<http://www.winterkidsmusic.com/>
.

"What Light" - Wilco <http://wilcoworld.net/sbs/wilco_whatlight.mp3>
Relaxed, quirky, comfy, slightly odd, oddly elusive: yup, it's Wilco all
right. It starts off with unusual clarity--upbeat strummy guitar, and is
that a straightforward steel guitar, after all these years?; and these
words: "If you feel like singing a song/ And you want other people to sing
along/ Just sing what you feel/ Don't let anyone say it's wrong." As I think
about it, this is not a bad way to approach music in the internet age, when
there are always plenty of people, fingers ever poised above their oily
keyboards, ready at a moment's notice, 24/7, to say it's wrong, wrong,
wrong. Because of course what counts is not being right or good or authentic
or generous but being *first*. (The first song I heard from this
yet-to-be-released Wilco CD was posted--illegally! boo!--on a blog where one
of the first comments on the post was: "A ghost is bored." Been waiting
three years to use that one? Now what?) Ok, I'm digressing. I pretty much
like anything Jeff Tweedy opens his mouth to sing because his voice is just
so real and likable, and because even when it's not all that obvious, he's
using honest melody to tell his fragmented, quizzical songs. "What Light" is
a song from the band's forthcoming CD *Sky Blue Sky* (and hey is that a
Laurie Anderson reference? I'm thinking yes), which leaked onto the internet
last week, well in advance of its May 15 release date, on Nonesuch Records.
The band, in response, has offered an official stream of the CD for two
short periods of time on its web site, and also, now, this somewhat hidden
but entirely free and legal MP3. Thanks to Alan at
Sixeyes<http://sixeyes.blogspot.com/>for the lead.

"Are You Sleeping" - Sara
Culler<http://brokenface.dk/mp3/files/Sara_Culler_-_Are_You_Sleeping.mp3>
And talk about a likable voice: Sweden's Sara Culler opens her mouth and
some part of me melts a bit. "Are You Sleeping" begins as a placid march,
with a gentle one-two keyboard/drum riff. With the verse come lyrical
blurts, rushed between beats in a clipped but also smile-inducing way (I
think it's that voice of hers, that beguiling tone she gets even singing in
rushed bursts); but notice in and around the singing how the music is
building by way of that swooping, supple bass line. It's setting us up for
something, and that something turns out to be a sweet, expansive chorus--a
great sing-along thing set against a whimsical pastiche of blippy, ringy
sounds, having the effect of being produced by some intricate Rube
Goldberg-like apparatus. Listen to the words, too: as far as I can surmise,
she's trying to wake us up, she is, with that ever-powerful awareness of how
much of our lives we quite literally sleep through. "Are You Sleeping" is a
brand-new song off her brand-new EP, *Miss Takes - Light the Night!*,
self-released this week--just in time for her SXSW debut, as part of a
series of WOXY-sponsored <http://woxy.lala.com/music/loungeacts/> concerts
at the festival. I also feel impelled to point out that Sara is one of the
13 wonderful artists featured on the *Fingertips: Unwebbed* CD, which is
currently available for a $12 donation to this here web site; details
aplenty<file://localhost/Users/Jeremy/Documents/Music/fingertipsunwebbed.htm>are
a click away.

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