[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: Mar. 4-10

THIS WEEK'S FINDS <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/this_weeks_finds.htm>
week of Mar. 4-10


"Heretics" - Andrew
Bird<http://www.toolshed-media.com/ts/andrew-bird-heretics.mp3>
Andrew Bird has a sleepy, elastic way of singing his elusive, layered songs,
and intermittently odd enunciation too. He uses solid, understandable words
to create incomprehensible treatises on something resembling life, eschewing
standard hooks and catchy melodies for carefully laid out, intertwining
instrumental themes and snippet-like melodic motifs. The effect, once I let
myself sink into it, is mysteriously convincing; not only do I return and
return and get more and more out of it, I begin to believe that Bird is a
unique talent--let the genre-meisters attempt to lay a genre on him, but
there is none for what he is doing. The Chicago-based Bird has a bachelor's
degree in violin performance from Northwestern, and might have
double-majored in whistling if they had offered the right courses: Bird puts
his lips together, blows, and a most eerie, flute-like whistle emerges--but
you won't hear it in this particular song. You will hear the violin,
however. "Heretics" is from his new CD, *Armchair Apocrypha*, to be released
later this month on Fat Possum Records <http:///>. If you really want to
hear the whistling, I suggest buying the CD--it's really quite good, in an
elusive and mysteriously convincing way. The MP3 is available via
Toolshed<http://www.toolshed.biz/>
.

"No More" - Julie Doiron <http://www.scjag.com/mp3/jag/nomore.mp3>
A variation of the often effective one-note song ("Subterranean Homesick
Blues," "Pump It Up," et al) is the repetitive lyric song, where one or two
words will repeat in each lyrical line but in each case matched with
different subsequent words (Leonard Cohen's haunting "Who By Fire" comes to
mind; and there are others, just don't ask me to name them right this
moment). So here's Julie Doiron, from the Maritimes in Canada: "No more
singing in the woods/ No more singing in the car/ No more singing in the
streets/ No more singing in the bar," and so forth. Clearly the risk with
such songs is that they will be, um, repetitive. But in the right hands,
there is also the chance to make a certain kind of incisive and mesmerizing
statement, and I think we have something like that going on here. Musically,
the hypnotic, minor-key insistence underscores the lyrical focus, creating
an uneasy sort of drive. The uneasiness, I think, is furthered by the rhythm
guitar, which strums a relentless chord on the backbeat but somehow seems
almost, each time, to miss the beat (you can hear its sneaky hesitation most
clearly during the instrumental break at 1:20 or so). Whether Doiron is
singing about the end of a relationship or something more threatening, such
as the end of the chance--in this dire, dour day and age--to live a happy,
expressive life, is unclear. Known more often for slower, quieter tunes, she
wisely wraps things up quickly, which allows the repetitiveness to make the
point without driving us crazy--as a matter of fact, even as the song clocks
in at just 2:15, the lyrics--but for some lingering "No more"s, are through
by 1:02. "No More" can be found on the CD *Woke Myself Up*, Doiron's
seventh, which was released by Jagjaguwar
Records<http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/smaller_labels.htm#Jagjaguwar>in
January. The MP3 is available via the Jagjaguwar
site <http://www.jagjaguwar.com/>.

"Machines" - Kiss
Kiss<http://eyeballrecords.com/artists/kisskiss/KissKiss-Machines.mp3>
A full-bodied, melodramatic, squeaky, squawky, feverish, yet winsome waltz.
Back to violin rock we go, but this time the violin's electric and ghostly
and mixed in with a kitchen-sink electronic orchestra featuring a variety of
synthesized sounds and sound effects. "Machines" barrels along like some mad
contraption, the three-quarter time lending a bizarre, 19th-century air to
its careening, semi-apocalyptic ambiance. I'm a big fan of songs that
balance control and chaos like this, and this tumbly juggernaut definitely
seems simultaneously unhinged and tightly directed. Singer Josh Benash all
but roars here and there, while electric violinist Rebecca Schlappich yanks
off-kilter strains and the occasional squeal from her amplified strings, all
to that familiar carousel beat. The whole wild ride is over in two and a
half minutes, leaving the listener a bit breathless and quickly ready to go
back and do it all over again. Kiss Kiss is a quintet from upstate New York
who have named themselves after Roald Dahl's book of (often macabre)
stories, for adults. "Machines" appears on the debut Kiss Kiss full-length,
entitled *Reality vs. the Optimist*, which was released last month on Eyeball
Records <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/smaller_labels.htm#Eyeball>. The MP3
is via the Eyeball site <http://www.eyeballrecords.com/>.




Contribution gifts are still half priced in the Prize Closet
<http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/prizecloset.htm>. Go and browse, why don't
you?


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