[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: Oct. 28-Nov. 3

From: "Jeremy Schlosberg" <fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxx>
To: fingertipsmusic@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2007 23:52:10 -0400
 THIS WEEK'S FINDS <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/this_weeks_finds.htm>
Oct. 28-Nov. 3


 * Time's almost up for getting in on the latest Fingertips contest; the
prize is the 3CD *Dylan* greatest hits package. Three runners-up will
receive the single-disc version. Details are
here<http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/contests.htm>.
Deadline for entry is Tuesday October 30; for all of you on the mailing
list, there is a one-day extension, so you may enter through October 31.


"Be Unhappy" - 
Maritime<http://redirect2.iodalliance.com/download_track.php?id=09FB23401948B4018AAC03E8C23D8D914121922C6F1C48B4EC2C1FFFC5095D72076A537DA7B54E9D56788D7BDDD87995>
I like how the basic, wet-blanket lyrical twist here--"Even if you find the
love of your life/You could be unhappy for weeks at a time"--is mirrored in
the music: at the heart of this peppy, summer-sunny tune are recurring
suspended chords that block our sense of simple fulfillment (they're laid
out right in the intro, at :03 and :06), like persistent clouds on a beach
day. And listen to the guitar that plays these chords--a smooth,
old-fashioned-sounding thing that wouldn't seem out of place offering
insouciant licks in a jazz bar, and yet somehow, too, commingles
successfully with the much itchier, vaguely punky second guitar. My ear even
finds singer-guitarist Davey von Bohlen himself embodying the same aesthetic
conflict, his high, graceful voice subtly contradicted by a raspiness just
below the surface. That the music conveys us eventually to a bunch of
"doo-doo-doo-doo"s is the culminating musical oxymoron in a song that so
prettily seems to be assuring us that life isn't always pretty. You'll find
this one on Maritime's new CD, *Heresy and the Hotel Choir*, the third album
from this accomplished Milwaukee quartet, which was released this
month on Flameshovel
Records <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/smaller_labels.htm#Flameshovel>.

 <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/recordshop.htm>"Ex-Guru" - the Fiery
Furnaces <http://www.paperthinwalls.com/file/singlereview/original/1027.mp3>
The Fiery Furnaces are fully a product of the 21st century: a brother-sister
duo from suburban Chicago trafficking in oblique, experimental songwriting
featuring intermittent snatches of backward-looking pop-rock, with lots of
stylistic leaps, sonic mayhem, and lyrical perplexities along the way.
Founded officially in Brooklyn in 2000, the Furnaces tend to elicit extreme
reactions--some claim Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger as Captain
Beefheart-style geniuses, others urge people to throw money out windows
rather than pay for what the Fiery Furnaces have recorded. Me, I'm thinking
that it's a vast knowledge of and appreciation for the music of the past
that fuels their experimentation, which means, if they put their minds to
it, they're fully capable of sounding quote-unquote normal too (as, for
instance, they did on "Benton Harbor Blues," a previous TWF
pick<http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/TWFmay-jun06.htm#FF>).
"Ex-Guru" gives us, this time, a brisk, ironic/nostalgic piece of rock such
as Beck might concoct, delivered with a blasé sort of gusto by Eleanor, who
must here know that the recurring lyric "She means nothing to me now"
accentuates the aural illusion that a man is singing. (The lyrics, rather
plainly about, indeed, an ex-guru, are funny and also I think a little sad.)
Be sure to hang around past the Stevie Wonder keyboards to see where else
this one wants to go: we get, first, a heavy burst of guitar and synthesizer
(1:25) that sounds like the B-52s doing Led Zeppelin, which leads somehow
into a baroque-y flute, horn, and harpsichord-like keyboard trio that helps
finish things off. "Ex-Guru" is from *Widow City*, the band's fifth
full-length, released earlier this month on Thrill Jockey
Records<http://ww.thrilljockey.com/>.
MP3 courtesy of Paper Thin
Walls<http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/siteindex.htm#PTW>
.

"Imaginary Girl" - the Silver
Seas<http://www.cheaplullaby.com/%7Eclient/ssiglkjgjjhjbvdeyk.mp3>
Easy-going, super-likeable neo-mellow rock. Singer/songwriter Daniel Tashian
sounds like a cross between James Taylor and Jackson Browne, with maybe a
dash of young Billy Joel thrown in, and the music he crafts with
producer/keyboardist Jason Lehning is a lovingly updated version of the kind
of thing that was in the air back when JT and JB and BJ were plying their
1974-ish wares--we get something of JT's soulful swing, a bit of JB's
star-crossed ache, and an agreeable interplay between the gentle but lively
piano (a la Joel), with its cascading arpeggios, and some snappy acoustic
guitar work. Tashian and Lehning were until recently doing business, in
Nashville, as the Bees (U.S.); when they signed with Cheap Lullaby
Records<http://www.cheaplullaby.com/>,
they changed their name to rid themselves once and for all of the conflict
with the British band the Bees. Tashian, by the way, is the son of Barry
Tashian, front man for the Remains, the legendary '60s garage rock band from
Boston (best known for the single "Don't Look Back," a highlight off the
landmark *Nuggets* collection). "Imaginary Girl" is from the CD *High
Society*, originally self-released in 2006, when the band was still the
Bees; it's slated for a national re-release on Cheap Lullaby next month. MP3
courtesy of Cheap Lullaby.


 *Enjoy? 
Donate<http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/pay/T2MFZZF59DLWTH/102-0776598-3470526>
*.



** SPONSORED ANNOUNCEMENT **

The International Songwriting Competition (ISC) is now accepting entries for
the 2007 competition. $150,000 in prizes including $25,000 cash. Judges for
2007 include: Tom Waits, Robert Smith (The Cure), Ray Davies (The Kinks),
and seven record label presidents from major and independent record labels.
For entry information and a complete list of judges please visit -
http://www.songwritingcompetition.com.<http://www.songwritingcompetition.com/>


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line <http://www.fingertipsmusic.com/contact.htm>; we'll talk.


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[fingertipsmusic] This Week's Finds: Oct. 28-Nov. 3

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