[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: March 18-24

THIS WEEK'S FINDS <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/this_weeks_finds.htm>
week of Mar. 18-24
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There are still a few days left to enter the Merge Records Promo Sixpack
Contest. Winner receives six full-length, promotional versions of quality
Merge Records releases, including the brand new Arcade Fire CD, Neon Bible.
Details on the Contests page <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/contests.htm>.
Deadline for entry is Friday, March 23.*


"Moth in a Cloud of Smoke" - All
Smiles<http://www.dangerbirdrecords.com/mp3s/allsmiles_06Moth%20In%20A%20Cloud%20Of%20Smoke.mp3>
Some songs take a while to build interest while others capture the ear
effortlessly. One way isn't necessarily better than the other, but "Moth in
a Cloud of Smoke" strikes me as one of the latter--quickly likable and
affecting. First comes ten seconds of a pensive yet propulsive piano line,
and check out the unusual simplicity here: the right and left hands are each
playing just one note at a time, no chords or flourishes. You don't actually
hear that too often in an age when technology all but demands more of
everything--more notes, more layers, more sounds. The piano is then joined
by percussion and acoustic guitar: still simple but now with a crisp,
alluring drive. Ten seconds or so later, Jim Fairchild opens his mouth and
the package is complete. He's got one of those sweet, rich voices, high but
not squeaky or breathy--a great power pop voice, I'd say, only he's not
singing power pop here, but something more introspective and knowingly
hesitant--the melody in the verse is deliberate and contained within a
surprisingly small interval (he's working with just three adjacent notes)
for how open and expansive it sounds. For the chorus we get a fuzzy guitar
and a melody breaking beyond the confines of the original interval; I'm
hearing an echo of Brian Wilson now as Fairchild reaches further up
melodically and by the way gives great chord too. All Smiles is the
performing name Fairchild is using on his first solo CD; and he's the first
ex-Grandaddy member to record on his own after that band broke up, rather
badly, last year. "Moth in a Cloud of Smoke" is a song from the forthcoming
All Smiles CD, entitled *Ten Readings of a Warning*, to be released next
month on Dangerbird Records <http://www.dangerbirdrecords.com/>. The MP3 is
via Filter Magazine <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/siteindex.htm#Filter>.

"Good Girl" - Astrid
Swan<http://www.mintyfresh.com/media/audio/streaming/Astrid%20Swan/Poverina/05%20Good%20Girl.mp3>
I'm coming upon a certain number of breezy, swingy songs these days, and I'm
sure there's some hidden sociological message in it that I'll restrain
myself from commenting on for the moment. What I will instead comment on is
this: mere breezy-swinginess is not enough to make a good song. This can get
confusing, since breezy-swingy songs are cheerful and make us feel good. For
me, however, the song still has to be there, and it turns out I may in fact
be harder on breezy-swingy songs than songs with other basic sounds, since I
listen carefully to be sure I'm not being tricked into automatically
equating feel-good-ness with goodness. Or something like that. Here,
however, I'm convinced we're dealing with goodness. One clue: six seconds
after establishing the breezy-swingy mood, it's abruptly withdrawn. Kind of
a musical tease, which subsequently renders the ultimate sound all the more
persuasive. (Note too how the song's most dramatic section, a bridge that
starts around 2:08, likewise eschews the upbeat swing for something
moodier.) Another clue: Astrid Swan's voice, which has something of Neko
Case's fluid and convincing solidity both lower down and higher up. Finally,
at the height of the breezy-swingy chorus, Swan strays into off-kilter
chords, attractively minor and/or diminished sounding. And, okay, it doesn't
count for anything but I also happen to think Astrid Swan is one of the
coolest names in show business. Swan is a singer/songwriter from Helsinki;
"Good Girl" is from her CD *Poverina*, which was released in 2005 in Europe
and is at long last getting a stateside release on Minty Fresh Records
<http://www.mintyfresh.com/> this spring. MP3 courtesy of Minty Fresh.

"Naturally" - Middle Distance
Runner<http://www.middledistancerunner.com/bloggers/01%20Middle%20Distance%20Runner%20-%20Naturally.mp3>
Middle Distance Runner, a quintet from Washington, D.C., appears to be a
group of guys with a well-developed sense of humor. ("Middle Distance
Runner," says their web site, "is what you would be left with if you took
every nu-metal, frat-rock, and emo band, put them into a poorly insulated
spaceship, and then drove it into the sun.") As with the breezy-swingy
thing, we have to be careful around such bands--easy it is to mistake "funny
guys" for "good music." This one even starts with hand claps. Cheery--one
might even say jokey--hand claps at that. From there, the song acquires a
sly sort of urgency, singer Stephen Kilroy delivering the eyebrow-raising
lyrics with an easy-going slidiness. (The song appears to be about a guy who
messes around romantically and kind of hopes he gets caught out and stopped
already.) I love the chorus, with its abrupt 6/4 time change, as the words
pour out beyond the boundaries of the 4/4 measures that precede it.
"Naturally" is the lead track on the band's self-released debut CD, *Plane
in Flames*, which came out back in June 2006. The MP3 is courtesy of the
band <http://www.middledistancerunner.com/>. Give the guys some hand claps.



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